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

Hey Clutchsters, GO ROCKETS

I think there is a lot of truth to what you say.....I do believe Morey has the foresight to realize what was happening...........

I also believe that the wheels for that Lebron decision started spinning after the Cavs took Wiggins at #1. Even though I do not believe that Wiggins is in Lebron's level or will ever be or would have ever taken the Cavs to the promised land........I do believe that Lebron would not be able to go back home if someone had given the CAVS that ring and it wasn't him.

Maybe a load but yo never know..........

I totally believe that Morey knew CP was leaving one way or another..........
May 4, 2014
tp://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2014/05/qa-with-rockets-general-manager-daryl-morey/
Q: How do you make a decision on picking up the option on Chandler Parsons’ contract when you don’t know what will happen in free agency two weeks after your deadline to make a decision?

A:”We won’t know everything we need to know when we have to make a decision on Chandler’s (contract) option. We have to make the best decision at the time we have to make it (June 29).”

NOT EXACTLY OPTIMISTIC

I think that he would have talked more openly about keeping him here if that was the plan.

 

Dude, stop it. It's been EIGHT YEARS. He's had EIGHT YEARS and the best we've had is a 2nd round playoff appearance (which should be credited mainly to Adelman's coaching, but we'll include Morey). EIGHT YEARS! The fact we have 2 good players doesn't mean anything until they win a playoff series. Also, looking at our current roster, there's a VERY possible chance we may not even exceed the 1st round next year. Having cap flexibility is one thing. USING IT on quality players is another. Morey has NOT done a good job filling out this roster this offseason. The sad part is you'll be making the same excuses for Morey when we get ran outta the 1st round again next year too. It never ends

 

It never ends because the consensus here on Morey is that he can not be held responsible for their (Rockets) lack of playoff success. Morey has been given a hall pass that never expires. He will never be held accountable for the team's continued lack of playoff success because of the mess he inherited. While that may have been true in 2006 when he took over the wreckage from the CD era, it is now year eight of Morey's tenue and this line of argument is no longer relevant. But when it comes to Morey aka "The Smartest Guy In The Room", he's been given an unlimited grace period to produce a winner. It is now year eight and the saga continues...

 

You've missed the point so badly I don't know where to begin. But I'll give it one last shot.

I. Am not. Making. Excuses. For. Morey. I'm not happy with how this off season has gone. Far from it. I wasn't happy with last years playoff disaster. But we have played zero games since then. If we miss the playoffs or flame out in the first round again I'll be critical of him just like I am of any player that under performs. We've had one year with our two star players. One year to judge if those guys can gel and lead a team deep into the playoffs. Are you judging based on that one year? I highly doubt it, so let's look at the eight.

Eight years. Yep. Eight years tells you he's closer to mediocre than good. How has the done done in eight years? Hmm. Eight winning seasons IIRC. Eight winning seasons while basically rebuilding without tanking. Have we won it all? Nope. Deep playoff runs? Not really. But to say he's closer to average than good... I just don't agree, sorry.

My issue is not with people that are critical of Morey. My issue is with posters like you that NEVER have good things to say. So why is it just Morey lately? Why aren't you all over Howard and Harden? Harden must be mediocre at best because he hasn't lead this team past the first round. Howard must not be very good because he wasn't able to help that goal either last year. How about McHale? Seriously, if there was ONE person we should all be looking at that's not a player, it should be the coach. Lesser talented teams have gone farther. Is that on the GM? Not in my eyes.

Again, I'm no blind Morey lover. I just don't care for constant negativity from people that call themselves "fans".

 

I forgot to add this. You'll give credit to the coach when the team wins, but blame the GM when the team flames out in the playoffs? See why I have an issue with this?

 

But you are indirectly making excuses for him. We are talking about RIGHT NOW. Next season is next season. RIGHT NOW, Daryl Morey's been mediocre in terms of building a playoff ready team. Waiting to be critical of him until next season, means the previous 8 seasons was just a trial period to you. Wait, did you say you hold Mchale more accountable than Daryl Morey??? The GM that hired him??? Unbelievable smh

I'll give you that. He did keep the team competitive with undervalued guys like Lowry, Scola, Landry & AB. He gets a A+ in finding undervalued talent. HOWEVER, he's hasn't been that great in balancing out the roster. We've either had 5 or 6 undersized PF's all about 6'7, or 3 PG's all with the same skillsets fighting for one spot. I don't think Morey knows what it takes to build a all around, complete, championship caliber team. His biggest strength is finding cheap talent and budgeting the cap, best suited for a team like Philly. But for a team trying to become a contender, he's out of his element. In other words, he's just reached his ceiling in Houston.

Check my posts bro lol. Nobody has been safe. IMO Harden is NOT a superstar and has had 2 years of bad playoff performances. Not only has his defense been bad, but at times he doesn't even try. Mchale is incompetent, and should've been fired after the Portland series. Howard? No complaints. But the criticism starts at the top, and that's Daryl Morey. The fact you hold Mchale more accountable than Morey basically sums up your perspective, ridiculous

 

No, I'm not. I'm disagreeing with you that he's closer to average than good. It's that simple. So you are judging him based on what he's done up until now, but ignoring that he's done good things up until now. And you're judging based on playoff success only. Your standard for a GM is obviously championship or bust. Nothing wrong with that, I just don't think it's fair. Lots of good coaches, players and GMs never win it all. That doesn't mean they were mediocre, at least to me.

Morey hired McHale. So every mistake McHale makes is really Morey's fault? If you use that logic, every single thing is Les's fault, yes?

Finally something we can agree on, at least partially. I think DM is a victim of his own success. When we couldn't land a star, a "go to" guy, he was criticized. After we land two in a row he's criticized for not being able to flesh out the roster. Again, I think that's marginally unfair. However I do have a beef with him flipping players so fast. Chemistry and time to gel are real things. Roster turnover at the speed we do it is dangerous as hell. But for me, I judge based on what he's done since he was able to land Harden. That was the new "era" for me. Up until then I feel it was mostly damage control from the Yao T-mac experiment. If you want to blame him for that failure as well that's fine. Someone has to be accountable.

*Sigh*, more insults. Yes, I know your post history. Negative. Criticism across the board. You admit as much. Nothing is good enough for you. At Morey isn't the top. Les is. No hate for the owner?

And I addressed my stance on McHale earlier. Clearly you hold every McHale mistake against Morey, not McHale. Out of curiosity, do you hold every Harden mistake against McHale or Morey? There is merit in being accountable for your subordinate but it's not that linear.

 

As an aside to the T-Mac/Yao thing, had those two guys been able to stay healthy I think that team had a legitimate shot at winning it all. Injury was the determining factor there. I think the overall plan was valid.

 

Not true. I gave him kudos for finding undervalued talent while rebuilding the team. Thats that. But he also has many flaws. His constant roster turnover. His incompetence in how important coaching is. His Moreyball philosphy has exposed itself 2 years in a row. Those criticisms are all fair & constructive

Absolutely not. But you said you hold Mchale MORE accountable than Morey. Which I have yet to get a reasonable explanation on Mchale has always been a lousy coach. Morey hired him and handpicked his assistants. Morey implemented HIS philosphy w/ Moreyball on the team. How Mchale became more accountable for him is a headscratcher

Victim of his own sucess?? Lol. There lies the problem. You've essentially labeled Morey "successful" for something that hasn't even manifested. Simply getting two "go to guys" and building a NBA contender are 2 seperate things. Getting Harden & Howard doesn't mean anything until they actually accomplish something together. Where is the success you speak of? Wake me up when you find it

Until then I'll be re-living in the Coach Adelman era with AB, Lowry, Artest, Scola & Chuck Wagon

A bit sensitive? I haven't called you ANY names or insulted you as a poster, yet you've already claimed the victim role lol. Does Les deserve criticism? Absolutely. He's given Morey a free pass and the results have been nothing short of medicore. As far as team goes, Parsons is gone for NOTHING. Mchale is BACK as coach, and JOEY DORSEY is currently our back up center. If we fall victim to another 1st round exit next year, Morey should be fired. Do you agree?

 

Mayday mayday jet down.

 

I agree with those criticisms. Heck I've always been sour on the roster turnover. And yes, you did give backhanded credit for finding talent. I'll expand on that in a minute.

We just don't agree on this. I hold the coach more accountable than the GM for team performance because a coach should (and normally does) have the most impact on a teams performance. Performance, not roster make up. McHale isn't a great coach. I wanted him gone last year before the playoffs. IMO a better coach corrects some of the glaring issues that plagued us. If you're saying Morey is the de facto coach (e.g. Jerry Jones) then I understand why you blame everything on him. I just don't agree. I think McHale's ineptitude is more to blame.

So getting two all star players isn't success in your mind? It's not part of building a contender? It means nothing? It seems to me you judge Morey as a coach but not as a GM. Getting players is part of the job too. And if you don't think the Rockets have had any success at all under Morey (performance wise or roster wise) we might as well stop debating. Again, clearly anything less than wining a title equals mediocre to you.

Come on, dude. You can't be ignorant of the tone of your posts, can you? It's the same tone that got you flamed before. I only pointed it out in hopes that you'll see why I'm not the only person who's disagreed with you in the past.

Again with the mediocre results. I truly believe therein lies the problem. You see winning in the regular season as meaningless. You see first or second round exits as failure. Looking at the big picture, either for eight seasons or one, you see mediocrity. I don't. Morey has made huge errors (Parsons, Lin) and huge wins (Harden, Howard). Going back to the McHale argument, you see him as a Morey puppet, so basically team performance accountability should all be on Morey as well.

If that's true, and Morey is 100% responsible for not only team composition, but in game performance, yes he should be fired if we miss or no show in the playoffs again.

However, if we end up with a new coach, and start making deep playoff runs, does that mean Morey's no longer mediocre? Or is it the new coach that deserves the credit?

 

Forgive me for not boarding the "Morey sucks and you're all idiots if you don't agree" train.

 

Can you stop legitimizing GoRox by responding to him. Just put him on ignore like everyone else and let this nonsense die.

 

I missed a few thoughts on this. So, if the GM is more responsible for team performance than a coach is, why do you credit Adelman for those Rockets teams more than Morey? Better coach, right? I agree. I'm guessing you're going to reply that Adelman ran the team his way (which got him fired), while McHale just does what Morey says. That's plausible.

I just think the impact of having a poor coach can trump a mediocre GM. You can get the best players on the planet. If you can't figure out how to play them correctly the team will never reach it's full potential. This is especially true with younger players. And an awful GM can trump a great coach, if the players are that bad.

But mistakes on the court like missed defensive assignments, poor rotations and players looking lost, I have a hard time pinning that directly on the GM. Is that so wrong?

 

I can't win. I give the man credit but you call it "backhanded" lol. It's no winning with you guys

So the GM hires you as a "face", picks your assistants, implements his own offense, but somehow the coach is held more accountable? This is why I think you guys are out of touch with reality. "Moreyball" is not a philosphy Kevin Mchale created. Mchale was primarily hired because his personality, NOT because he's a good coach. All he does is implement what Morey tells him. You are CLEARLY scapegoating at this point

Getting 2 allstars is only good for fans that think like you do. WINNING with 2 allstars is good for the organization, fans like me & also players of the team. I guess that's the difference between us. I'm a little more invested in my favorite team winning and actually contending for a ring. You seem more invested in the fact we finally have 2 allstars and that's pretty much it. The bar is significantly lowered. For the record, I would CARE LESS if we had zero allstars but were atleast making the WCF. Having Howard & Harden is no consolation prize for getting our azzes handed to us in the 1st round of the playoffs ever year. As GM, it's Morey's job to fill in the gaps and get us closer to a championship every offseason. Re-hiring Mchale makes me question whether Morey understands this. Passing up on quality vets just so he can be the 1st to sign scrubs like Joey Dorsey also baffles me

Don't care. I understand alot of ppl here are pro-Morey and will follow him regardless if he's with the Rockets or not. I am a ROCKETS FAN. I call it like I see it

LOL. You are something else. First off, there were more mistakes besides Lin, Parsons. Second, stop lowering the damn. In what league does regular season wins alone equate to success. In what league does 1st round exits mean you're doing a good job. You have completely lost touch with reality bro. There are GM's that have had more success than Morey and have got FIRED for it. Everybody is responsible if our team loses. But the majority of the blame has to go to the man who single handedly put the team together, and it's NOT Kevin Mchale

 

I have yet to read anything "legitimate" coming from you thus far. The irony

 

I'm done, sorry. I've given your PoV it's run and even threw you a bone or two to see if you'd be open minded. My mistake. Carry on with the negative posts.

My apologies to everyone else for not letting this thread die.

You're right. Morey is the reason for every failure in the Rockets franchise. I'll even start blaming him for that average QB Warren Moon and the mediocre 90s Oilers that accomplished nothing.

 

This should be stickied.

 

Can you guys please stop quoting GoRox2013? The guy is about as dumb as a doorknob, plus it makes the ignore function useless.