Yeah, of course we pine for glory years of championships. But we're talking about a franchise now that has struggled to win one playoff series since 1997. That's crazy bad. That's not trying to recapture glory years..that's trying to just be respectable in a league where more teams make the playoffs than don't. And don't mistake my thoughts here as pessimism for this season...I truly believe this team is going to win at least one playoff series this year!
I'm confused as to how you're trying to correlate "respectability" with the number of teams that makes the playoffs. I'm sure if you only took the top 16 teams in the league, conferences aside, the Rockets would be in the top 16 more often than not. There's two sides to the coin: the Rockets haven't had the same success as they did back in the 80s and 90s but the Western conference is more competitive than ever.
Why does this thread still exist? If any of you truly believe Morey should be fired I have a couple comments for you: 1) You're ****ing stupid. 2) Find another team to cheer for.
You know, I was thinking about this franchise's recent history with injuries and even there, I think the fans are giving the Rockets way too much of a pass. What recent playoff run was truly derailed by major injuries? I can think of only 2. 2008 where Yao was out the entire postseason and 2009 where Yao and Deke were lost to injuries during the Lakers and Portland series respectively. In the former, they probably beat the Jazz if Yao is healthy that year given their bench was much improved over 2007. And in the latter, they would've had a much better shot at knocking off the Lakers, although one would still have had to favor L.A. in that series(Game 7 would've been MUCH closer though). Otherwise, none of the first round defeats since 2004 can be attributed to injuries. 2004 was a young Rockets team overmatched and outexecuted by a veteran Lakers squad. 2005 they were only missing Juwan Howard and they blew that series after going up 2-0 in Dallas. 2007 there were no significant injuries. They just had no bench to speak of and got worn down over 7 games by a deeper, superior Jazz team. 2013 they did have injuries, but nothing on the level of the Thunder losing Westbrook. And 2014 they were healthy(although Bev was banged up) and just failed to execute against a young, inexperienced Blazers squad(encapsulated by the final possession of the series). So don't blame it on injuries. Blame it on bad execution, bad coaching, bad management, and the occasional bad call(Finley's "steal" in Game 5 in 2005).
I read (and agreed) with your earlier post pointing the finger at Uncle Les for these decisions. The reality is that BOTH men are responsible for the situation we have now: Les for the reasons you've given and Morey for still following the Dawson gameplan (only instead of using his gut instincts, Morey uses sabermetric analysis). (God! I HATE those jerseys!!!). Yeah, I am with you here. I just don't see anything resembling an organized plan of attack from the court to talent evaluation & acquisition to the front office operations. Les has become the "teflon man" because of those two titles he got from teams that Steve Patterson built but it's been two decades now and this team seems to be adrift and clueless.
Just to put it into perspective, since 2003-2004 (the start of the JVG era): 03/04: 45-37, 7th in the West, 11th overall in the NBA 04/05: 51-31, 5th in the West, 8th overall in the NBA 05/06: 34-48, 12th in the West, 22nd overall in the NBA 06/07: 52-30, 5th in the West, 6th overall in the NBA 07/08: 55-27, 5th in the West, 8th overall in the NBA 08/09: 53-29, 5th in the West, 9th overall in the NBA 09/10: 42-40, 9th in the West, 16th overall in the NBA 10/11: 43-39, 9th in the West, 14th overall in the NBA 11/12: 34-32, 9th in the West, 17th overall in the NBA 12/13: 45-37, 8th in the West, 13th overall in the NBA 13/14: 54-28, 4th in the West, tied for 5th overall in the NBA
And I agree with you on both of those years but think of it this way: If we actually had Yao those two playoff seasons we could have at least made the WCF (2008) and maybe the Finals (2009). If that were to happen, we wouldn't be discussing anything close to firing Morey at this point. Of course there are other issues at play here: the questionable coaching, the bench, the lack of experience on some of the playoff teams, the bad matchups (e.g. Okur/Boozer vs Yao), etc. But, just like you had pointed out, the years where we truly could have made noise and gone further in the playoffs were stopped by injuries. The 2014 team was just....I don't know what it was but it was a culmination of EVERYTHING: injuries, bad coaching, bad play, mediocre bench, etc.
As such I think these knee-jerk threads about wanting to fire Morey needs to reevaluating because there's a guy sitting court side who should shoulder much of the blame for the team's run at mediocrity. Of course you can't fire the owner but we can also curb the blame on the GM around here.
Morey needs to man up and take accountability. It seems like he always has some scapegoat or the other. I am giving him time until the end of this season. if the Rockets do not make significant progress compared to last season and that is WCF, he needs to go.
No, and that's what's so disheartening as a Rockets fan. I do think Les is a big reason for the franchise being mired in mediocrity for nearly 2 decades and that's not likely to change anytime soon since I imagine he'll own the team until his body is room temperature. I'm starting to understand what Knicks fans have been going through for a long time. And Dallas fans pre-Cuban. And probably Lakers fans now that Jeanie Buss is in charge.
You don't fire Morey - come on - he just needs to get some better role player in here, and get better health from Tjones and Howard. Morey has not hit on everything, but his batting average is pretty danged good overall. DD
Les is smart in that he's not extroverted like the Dolans, Cubans, etc. so no one can really say that he should be partially blame for the road of mediocrity this team was on as no one outside of Houston knows who the owner is.
totally disagree. Now if the rockets can't get out of the first or maybe even second round and he refuses to fire Mcfail then i agree.
Well it was Dean Cooper last season who faced the axe I'm hoping it will be McHale this season and I'll be fine with that. However, if Morey is married to McHale and it takes letting go of Morey to let go of McHale, I'm all for it.
As much defending of Morey as I'm doing in this thread, if he brings back Dorsey and/or McHale next year he needs to pack his bags ASAP.
From the The Les Alexander NBA Owner's Manual: Step 1: Fire the Head Coach. Step 2: After firing the Head Coach, fire the General Manager. Step 3: Repeat Step 1...
Lol. I understand you're upset. And you're completely right about McHale. Even you have to realize, though, that your last paragraph sounded so ridiculous. "I'm giving him until the end of this season...he needs to go." That made me lol for real. Why would you say that as if you have any power over the situation?
