With all the draft trade talks regarding the Rockets I started thinking about how exciting our off seasons in Houston sports have become. My question is who do you think is the more exciting Houston GM? Not the smartest or the best just which GM makes the off season most exciting for you. Morey and Rick Smith both seem to find diamonds in the rough and one off season with Ed Wade brought more trades then we could keep up with.
I'd put Ed Wade at the bottom because I REALLY like Morey and Smith. I can't say between those two. Not saying Wade isn't good.
I went with Morey. He did his job this offseason. Plugged all of our holes and put a well balanced team on the court. Then when some of those moves didn't work out, he didn't hesitate in trying to fix them asap. If Yao doesn't go down, I think we'd be playing the smelltics right now. Smith is good too, but the Texans are a little bit more conservative (except for the Mario pick which happened before Smith got here). Smith seems to be slowly building a team that can contend for a long time, instead of trying to do it overnight. Still too early to tell on Wade IMO.
i'll go with the brotha from another motha, seriously, I love what morey did during the off season. smith had a good draft last season, and wade's trades have worked out fine, but I was more "excited" by what morey did
posting on a Rockets board with a GM that's as hyped as Morey is right now...you'd be hard-pressed to see this poll go in any other direction
In terms of excitement, you always want a GM who thinks differently or has a different background then most of his peers. In Daryl Morey we have perhaps the basketball equivalent of a Billy Beane or Theo Epstein, which isn't to say he has the track record of those two, but that statistical analyses form a much larger portion of his scouting repertoire than it does for other GM's. Rick Smith has his youth going for him--in general younger is better, but it's a much less significant factor as young GM's that are unsuccessful are just as likely to get the boot (see Paul Depodesta or Jim Bowden). Smith like Morey has only had one real season and two drafts when you consider the Mario Williams draft wasn't his, and "his" players (Okoye, Jacoby Jones, Fred Bennett) haven't had time to prove that they were really diamonds in the rough yet. Morey has only had one season and one draft, but Scola and Landry have been HUGE boons to the team, considering PF was our weakest position before last year's draft and no one is talking about it at all anymore. Wade is a distant third because he is old, he is Old Skool, and his moves have really had no bearing on the team's longterm success. He does seem to be different than Purpura in that he is competent, and he doesn't wet his pants at the negotiating table. And he can run half a mile (and much more) without dying. Nevertheless, these Astros weren't making the playoffs this year with or without his wheeling and dealing. We need a farm system, and we need it ASAP.
Morey turned Spanoulis into Scola. Morey turned Juwan Howard's contract into a flyer on Mike James which eventually became a huge asset as Jackson's expiring contract. Wade and Smith are good, but Morey gets me more excited.
Oliver Luck is the best Houston GM. Back-to-Back MLS titles! And the Dynamo are in first place and looking for a three-peat.
I really like Morey, but Rick Smith is my favorite because he finds free agents and plugs them in extremely well. Will Demps and Andre Davis last season Gets Roosevelt Colvin and Chris Brown. I think both will make a huge impact, if they both stay healthy Smith can also draft like Morey
