Why Morey is still a genius - or how Houston's free agency unravelled

Idiots? No. Arrogant and smug? Yes.

That's EXACTLY what happened. Cuban & Nelson immediately targeted Parsons after he was made a RFA.

The Rox believed as did most everyone else that Parsons' value was in the $8M-$12M range. Cuban & Nelson's strategy all along was to make him an offer that would be very difficult for Houston to match. Which they did. Unless Rosas was sitting in on those meetings with Cuban, there is no way he knew what was going down as did Morey.

It's known as a mistake in judgement.

Well, I'm glad that you can see this "plan" but even so, most of us are plenty skeptical about whether or not Morey's continued star chasing will ever bear fruit. And I'd hold off on that "genius" tag for Morey at least until he manages to put together a team that can get out of the first round of the playoffs.

 

And as far as Ariza being Plan A, yea he was Plan A in the event that Parsons COULD NOT (not WILL NOT) be retained after letting him go into free agency.

Part of being a strategist is to have contingency plans in case your desired outcome does not come into fruition and that was what Ariza was for Morey, a contingency plan.

 

[rquoter]Here is how it would work;

The Asik - Ariza trade would still go down as per usual, so we would have Ariza + the NOP lottery pick.

We would sign and trade Parsons to Dallas for a $15m trade exception.

The Rockets would then have a lottery pick AND a $15m trade exception to go after their third star. [/rquoter]

So Morey's master plan requires Cuban doing the Rockets a solid?

 

I make a "Morey's going about this wrong" thread and get privelages revoked. But these idiots keep making these "Morey's the greatest GM ever" threads with no consequence? Moreyfans.net?

 

You don't see the difference between attacking or belittling someone and praising or defending them? Yes, they're both opinions but I distinctly remember your post containing not so subtle jabs and basically inferred that our front office is incompetent.

I read both threads as objectively as I could. I honestly tend to agree more with the "Morey made a mistake" side regarding Parsons, but even so I would say this OP made a more convincing argument than you did. It's not always about the content of an argument, it's how it's presented that can make all the difference. (LOL, U r dumb, Morey suks, OMG Daryl is smrtr than U!) et al.

OP makes some interesting points though. It was like looking back at those comments made by players all year long that we assumed were bad mojo aimed at Harden. With the Parsons stuff coming to life, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Sometimes you don't know what you don't know until after the fact.

 

It's a waste of time trying to determine what the machinations behind the scene were, we know the final result. Our starting five is pretty much the same, our bench got markedly worse (or at least until we find out what we have in Dorsey, Canaan and Johnson). Dallas wasted a max slot on a guy that might never see an all star game, hell he's not even the best forward on his team. We maintained our flexibility going forward.

There's no need to whitewash it, there are good aspects to the decision making but there were definitely negatives too. Muarie's only saving grace at this point is doing something with his coveted flexibility. I think he's certainly capable of doing that, but it sucks to know that even with two star players but we're still kinda stuck in limbo again in the Western Conference.

 

Why is it haphazard when:

1. No one would have anticipated Parsons getting $14+ million a year offer by looking at what he's done in the NBA up until now. NO ONE.

2. Matching him meant that you just committed elite-player money to a non-elite player when you could find a better-than-average replacement at about half the cost?

3. The Rockets probably had a dollar amount in mind for Parsons IF they could have secured Melo or Bosh.

If Bosh signed with Houston then retaining Parsons at $14 million would have been a luxury Morey could justify. Since Bosh didn't sign, retaining Parsons at $14 million is, logically, unjustifiable.

If you're going to a top shelf steak house you're going to fork over $12-$14 bucks for that side of mashed potatoes. If you're going to outback steakhouse I highly doubt you're going to be able to justify paying that much for ANYTHING not steak.

 

These are some reasons why I lean towards Morey just miscalculated and undervalued the market (Dallas) for Parsons. When something completely unexpected like the Heyward signing happens, it throws a massive wrench into the works. Previous plans gets blown right out of the water. It's not a matter of being incompetent or savvy.

Now whether or not there were backup plans in place, or the intent was "A" or "B" all along can be debated till the cows come home. It's not quite football season yet!

 

Why isn't it glaringly obvious that declining Parsons' option a year early was part of an agreement made when Dwight signed? Everyone knows they share an agent, and everyone knows how shrewd Fegan is. Even Zach Lowe reported that people were pretty sure that this was the case.

Would you rather have Dwight and Ariza, or Parsons and Asik? Parsons was out of his contract the minute Dwight signed, to believe otherwise is naive.

 

Morey might have miscalculated Parsons' value but that wasn't entirely his fault. Who in the NBA world could have seen Charlotte throwing the kitchen sink at Hayward? Exactly.

What happened with Hayward started the domino effect for everything else that pertained to Parsons.

Morey followed the expected trend and value system but got burned by the outlier. Should we fault him for that?

Look at it this way:

Lance Stephenson turned down a bigger total deal from the Pacers and ended up with a smaller deal with Charlotte

Greg Monroe wanted max money and turned down $12 million a year from Detroit and will end up signing just a qualifying offer

Eric Bledsoe wanted max money and is still waiting on a contract

These are things that happen every offseason and Morey went with those trends and probably came to the conclusion that he could have brought Parsons back at a reasonable ($10-12 million a year) contract. Of course it took a ridiculous offer from Charlotte to change all that.

 

You and me are in the same page for this. Lowry is my no1.option at the beginning. Getting Lowry and keeping Parson would make this team to be very good. No having Bosh may be a good thing for the rockets, some clutchfans do not like Melo either, likely having Bosh or Melo on the team just make the team to be looking good, but you do not have any deep, and Parson will be gone too even if the rockets could have Bosh although the rockets keep saying they would keep Parsons if they had Bosh, but I just do not think so.

 

You're speaking in terms of hindsight.

Back in May did you think Gordon Hayward would have even sniffed close to $14 million a year given the lackluster season he had? If you say yes then I really want to know why you're not the Rockets GM already.