Morey has only made one major mistake in his career, and that's hiring McHale. He couldn't fire McHale before the season because he had overachieved every season prior. JB has been pretty bad, but at that point in the season it was a choice between hiring a big name who MAY not be an asset in recruiting players this summer (Thibs comes to mind), OR promoting JB and keeping the flexibility to offer KD or Horford a coach who they would like to play for. That's not a major mistake until we see what happens this summer. It's a calculated decision, and if Durant was definitely NOT joining the Rockets then I'm sure Morey would have hired someone better than JB right away. There are virtually no GM's in the league who would take this organization from where it was when he joined to where it is today. This season was a flop and we just need to prepare for the next. That's why it's frustrating to me that JB is trying to get as many wins as possible by relying on veterans. It's over JB, you have to go back to being an assistant at least for a while and this team needs to give some serious burn to the few youngsters we have, which will in turn likely result in us keeping our pick rather than sending it to Denver. We'll turn this thing around I'm sure, what sucks is that it will again take another year for the new team to gel and bla bla bla before we can be contenders. The Warriors might have 3 rings by then and it will be hard to challenge that kind of team.
This! Leslie is the biggest problem. Remember that he wanted this 3pt heavy offense, run and gun style and Morey is the right person to endorse and follow that line of thinking.
The Cincinnati Reds used to have a clown named Jim Bowden who was their GM and ran them just like Morey runs the Rockets. It was all about him and his young analytical eccentric genius. Ended up he alienated the players and other GMs with his tactics and was eventually replced with a more respectible, solid GM who took the team to the playoffs shortly thereafter. Minus the fluke (and it was a fluke being down 19 at LA in the 4th with no Harden) last year Morey's playoff results have been dismal and that is all that should matter for Rockets fans.
The Ty Lawson trade was an obvious move that was 99% approved by everyone here. It also made a ridiculous amount of sense to retain a team that just went to the WCF. You can't blame Morey for this team's collapse, and I think Les is smart enough to know that. No worries though, you can guarantee that Morey will go back to his asset management style in the offseason. The roster will implode and it will be healthy for the franchise's future.
One mistake?? Um lets see. Letting go of Adelman was one. Bringing in Jeremy Lin was another one. Drafting and bringing back Joey Dorsey. Letting go of Shaun Livingston when he played during preseason. Giving Mchale an extension a year after he was atrocious in Portland playoff series etc....Daryl Morey has a long list of horrible gambles he lost.
This year may as well cost him his job. It's been a dismal year since the confernce finals: Struck out on 1st round pick (Dekker) Struck out on all relative free agents Over paid for Brewer, Patrick, and KJ McDaniels Lost J.Smith while he was still busy structuring McDaniels deal Signing McDaniels in general (not that he's no good, it's just why sign him to a 3 year deal if you have 3 other SG on the roster in Harden / Brew / Thortan?) Failed to hire a replacement for McHale (there were plenty of good coaches available in RA / Thibs / Brooks etc) Failed to get help at the trade deadline (the Pistons trade was offseason help, not in season) Failed to trade Howard (not a necessity, but if he walks we get not a damn thing) If Morey got an A for every other year for the Rockets in collecting assets and getting us Harden / Howard, he really should get an F for this year. Our roster has a lot of dead weight contracts (Brew / Bev / McDaniels), and our FAs to be will likely all walk. We really don't have any true assets besides Harden, Ariza, and maybe Capela. We have cap space, but so does basically every other team. In hindsight, even though firing McHale was a good move at the time, not replacing him was a much worse decision.
Season is a disaster and I wouldn't give Morey an A by any stretch, but your criticisms seem to be faulty. Either hindsight flip flopping or blaming him for things beyond his control. I WOULD offer strong criticism for Morey's plan going into this season, but it would nothing like that. The valid criticism to me was buying into the idea that this team was really as good as it looked last year and sticking with the guys that got you there. I get why he did it, lord knows the same people killing him for the way the team is playing now are some of the same ones who killed him when he didn't keep guys, but I just think this was a team that needed the role players upgraded badly. I'd give him a C for this season personally.
I am no fan of Leslie but Les is the new scapegoat. Who knew? Minus being out in the media like Jerry himself, Jerry Jones, Jr. is apparently running the Rockets. Les took/demanded Daryl take draft busts like Royce White & Sam Dekker Les was the one who put up "Carmelo is key to a championship" poster Les hired/fired McHale; Daryl didn't want to hire OR fire Kevin. Les demanded they let Goran Dragic walk so they could sign Jeremy Lin Les implemented this 3/FT/L philosophy, not Daryl. so on and so forth. None of this is Daryl's fault. Or maybe I should say, like the Texans, with Rick Smith/Leslie Alexander, it's their fault when it goes bad. When it goes right, credit to the Texans coaches/Daryl Morey.
Can't agree that we couldn't have hired a coach 11 games in. Coaches say all the time they want time off, in fact almost everyone does. If we had presented Thibs a good contract, I bet he would've come here. And if I had to pick between firing McHale just to replace him with JB or just keeping McHale, as much as I disliked McHale, I would've voted on keeping him. Firing him had to be followed by hiring a reputable coach. Also can't agree that Morey gets a C right now. We're 2 games under .500 with pretty much no major injuries. That's an F, or at the least a D. I want to see if he can clean up this mess as it's really his first. But if he did get fired, I wouldn't be surprised.
Morey has said he's confident we'll land Durant this off-season. Numbers never lie so it looks like Durant will be in a Rockets uniform in a couple months.
I don't really think morey deserves to be fired. I think we all thought this team would be good. heck the first round pick he gave up for lawson is lottery protected so we're still gonna keep it it looks like lol
Since 2006-07 (Morey's first year), the following teams have made at least one conference finals - with many of them making more than one appearance or advancing even further: - Pistons - Cavs - Suns - Thunder - Jazz - Spurs - Bulls - Celtics - Lakers - Heat - Mavs - Magic - Nuggets - Pacers - Grizzlies - Hawks - Warriors - Rockets That is 18 teams by my count. Par is doing something that everyone else is doing/has done. The Morey fanboy section of the GARM has also attributed the entire WCF run to the out of shape number puncher and has somehow convinced themselves that the coach of the team actually held them back (which is asinine considering we went literally as far as our talent vs. the league would take us). I know it's hard for you fanboys, but Morey has not done anything exceptional with his decade. Time to move on.
Every team wanted Howard to opt in the last year of his contract, which he refused to do. How is that Morey's fault?
You know, I am surprised that Morey let it be known that Les won't let him build through the draft, it is almost as if he knows it won't work, but by laying that tidbit out there gives himself an out...hey I wanted to do XYZ, but Les wouldn't let me. I do believe Les is a major problem with this team, the biggest one, but I don't for one second believe in Morey's flip flip flip philosophy. DD
I'm not an advocate of getting rid of Howard. I'm one of the few that think he can contribute, but not in the current scheme or system. I was just stating that if he walks away, it's a dark mark on the offseason and Morey. That's all. Look, I'm not a Morey or Howard basher. I like both, and want them both back next year. But I'd still give Morey an F this year for not being able to make the right changes to get this ship headed in the right direction. That being said, I'd be curious as to the moves Morey makes to correct this. If we stick with Howard + decent FA, then we have to get a coach that can integrate Howard better (and I mean defensively; Howard can't run back on transition so jacking up a million 3s in that half court hurts both Dwight and us; new coach has to tweak offense that leads to better defensive sets). If we move away from Howard and keep the current system, then we need athletic big men and shooters so they can all run back on D (pre Howard injury last year).
Pretty sure that's a Les cut lol. I mean, trade deadline is over. Ty's deal is NON-GUARANTEED next year (yes, ty Morey, he made a big play and made it as low risk as it gets), so really the biggest reason to do a buyout with Ty now is to save Les money...
I hear you on the "flip flip flip" philosophy. My biggest knocks against Morey are that he doesn't seem to recognize good/bad chemistry comps, and is just enough of a smartass to make a lot of agents/GMs dislike or be wary of him (same for players who he treats as assets). So he's not perfect. But for finding talent from players that are otherwise discarded? He is very good at that. His drafting abilities with the picks he has? For the most part, relative to other GMs, not bad at all. And his ability to create SOMETHING out of NOTHING through his trades? Gotta be best at that (like he plays chess while others play checkers). I just want to point out that every time we go through a funk, people question Morey's moves, then half a season later, they turn into a huge move. And then everyone's back on the bandwagon. Come on... Dude is a top GM. Not like better GMs are just sitting on the sidelines, hoping to get a job with us. Pro sports is hard in that the window and chance on winning depends on so many factors, and there are so few opportunities. The worst GM in the world can just get lucky once and BAM, results. I recall that Hinkie quote about how outside of the lottery, most draft picks are really hard to guess and mostly luck, so since he can't always guess them right, might as well have the most guesses (hence hoarding picks) haha. I liked that mindset, I think it is correct. Too many people think they can control for factors that really are not controllable...player's mental strength, his agent's influence, his maturity, his healthy (aside from past history), team's health, team's chemistry, etc. As OP said, this is a results business, I get that, but to really properly judge, it is more about the reasoning at that moment in time and looking forward, rather than the actual result...
Kind of understating it there. He acquired a toxic brew of players that, as a team, have collapsed in spectacular fashion. He fired a coach that he'd just given a three year extension the year prior. It's all on him.
