"Getting Mike to play more than 7 players is a challenge. I think we have him up to 10-11 now.... He literally likes 11-12 of our guys now, so we managed to make things tough on him." - Drell Maray
"James Harden and Chris Paul think that we can beat the Warriors..." "What about Capela? He thinks you can beat any team in the history of basketball." "Capela, he's still 24, we can chalk that up to the naivety of youth." LOL
What is your record, 45-14? I honestly don't know. I interviewed you during the NBA Finals. I called you & (you) responding to this juggernaut that appeared unbeatable. You said we have something up our sleeve. This was like June 14? When did you know the thing in your sleeve was possible? (Laughing) We felt good we had a chance to... Some things in the sleeves? There was many quality players potentially available in late June, early July. We estimated the probability of all of them & felt we had a good chance. I like that you estimated the probability of all of them. You have up on the whiteboard... We did. We do. We have that with some potential players available coming up again. A lot of our decision making is really based on our estimate of our chances of certain things. Did James Harden really just get tired in game five, game six of the Spurs series? You mean end of game five. Now the idea it all hit him in this one moment. Only James Harden knows. I would say my best understanding, which is literally only my understanding, is we put too much on him. It was too much a burden. We didn't have enough for him to go 7 games against a quality team. At that time of year. Two weeks ago, you started bringing Anderson off the bench. For a team in 1st, you made a starting lineup change. I like it. How involved are you in something like that? Are you suggesting it? Reacting to Mike suggesting it? Not involved at all? Mike is a very good communicator. I'm reacting to him. "Hey, this is what I'm planning to do." Answer almost universally is "Sounds great!" He really does push all the right buttons. He likes how the rotations work. He's working hard to think through how we're gonna play with a lot of players that he thinks are good. I agree obviously. Getting Mike to play more than 7 guys is a challenge. We've gone to 10 or 11. This is why you keep signing players. Joe Johnson will be unhappy if he doesn't play so he has to play. That is not why we signed him. He had his pick of the litter. Mike being his former coach was a huge factor. Mike was upfront. "I don't know how much time we have for you. I know you can help us, especially if we take an injury but even if not, I'm gonna try & work you in." Joe knew that & said "I'm in. I love your team, I love you." He played real well yesterday. We're optimistic. I'm very curious how Mike is gonna do it. It's very out of character for him to play a lot of guys. Most of the time, it's easy. 8 guys to play? I'll play 8 but he now likes 11-12 of our guys so it's tough for him. One reason I like the lineup change is because you're starting 3 wings. One has to guard the other PF. Sometimes, it's James Harden. I wonder, years ago, D'Antoni famously said the post up is an inefficient play. When Taj Gibson or someone starts backing down Harden, are you smiling somewhere? The #1 guy I smile when they try to back him down is Chuck Hayes because he was literally like the best post up defender ever. #2 is James Harden. You watch a lot of basketball. Most fans don't get to see or pay attention to that. Not an elite post defender but extremely good. Great instincts, great strength, low center of gravity, all the things that make you a good post defender, he has. He enjoys it actually. You can argue in a singular action, his best skill is guarding bigger guys on switches. My theory has been a large reason you guys do it is because it helps your offense, not defense. The Wolves or whoever don't want Taj Gibson guarding James Harden. In that chaos, you get a mismatch or all sorts of opportunities. Most teams aren't that disorganized. You're trying to put as much offense on the floor while also putting an extremely good defense. Harden's ability to defend multiple positions allows us to put more skilled offensive positions on the floor. Ahead of where you thought you'd be? Definitely. Definitely for me, I don't know about Mike. We have some confident guys, James & Chris. If you're in the job I'm in for as long as I've been, you put plans together & sign multiple guys. Tucker, LMaM, brought Nene back, trades & expect...a good hit rate is 60%. We've had years where it's been bad. We had a .500 year a couple years ago. This year, we've been fortunate. The plans we went in with have generally worked. I wish our hit rate was 100 but it just isn't. It's not an inevitability you'll face the Warriors. All we have to do is look at last year. Has your team convinced you that if that series happens, they have a real chance (and not just a Curry or Durant injury to happen) to beat them? James Harden & Chris Paul think we'll beat the Warriors. Clint Capela thinks you can beat every team in the history of basketball. There you can chalk it up to naivety & overconfidence of youth. James & Chris have been in the league a long time. As a player, you have to go in confident. We have a confident group right now. We have to prove it. When I was in Houston in January, you were not there & interviewed you over the phone. I asked you a question: Is there a single thing we don't know yet about the James Harden trade? Were you in the bathroom? Were there any fun details? Do you remember what you said? I don't remember. You said "I tried to alter the terms of the Harden trade at the last minute." That's the really negative way to frame it. Frame it the way it was. There's a well established deal making theory & what it is, after you come to a full agreement, done deal, it's gonna happen no matter what, you then meet with the other party and say the deal is done. Under that assumption, sometimes there are things you can't reveal during the deal making process. I said I didn't really like this player but that was because I hoped you would include him but I actually like this other player better. You basically try to come to an even better agreement while each side lets their hair down & reveals all they know. There is no downside because the deal is done, as long as there's trust, which generally there is but not always. I've been unsuccessful multiple times in getting teams to pursue this concept because of things like the cancelled Chris Paul trade that the trust level, not just between teams, there's so many things that can happen in the final trade call that people feel like you're trying to re-do the deal or take advantage when you're trying to make a slightly better deal for both sides. I did try that with the OKC trade & probably fumbled how I did it. You said this somewhere, you wanted to get Chris Paul in 2011 when he was traded. Yes, that was our original target. So how do you get from there to Pau Gasol? No shot at Chris? We didn't have the ability to get him. Ever get anywhere? No. It was early & brief, then shifted to Gasol. I texted some of your colleagues, asked them to give me some goofy things to ask Daryl. Please describe for the audience, you take great pride in your table tennis ability. There's a famous tournament in LA. Please tell the audience about playing Hakeem in table tennis this summer. Clyde as well, with the U.S. #1 player Jimmy Butler(not Chicago Jimmy Butler). So you beat Drexler? Drexler was not good. He's now trained the last few months & wants a rematch. Olajuwon is great. I was told Olajuwon beat you? Define beat. Won a table tennis game against you. He did beat me in a game. I don't remember how the match went. I think he is better than me. So he plays then? He plays a lot. It's part of his training. Yeah, he routinely plays the top players in Houston. He's that good? He's not like elite level like the U.S. #1 player. There are 4 or 5 players in Houston in the top of their bracket or whatever. Elite soccer player, best center of all time & table tennis. I'm sure he's good at curling too. Short track speed skating is the craziest sport I've ever seen. It's like roller derby... I don't understand how they don't fall over. More sports should introduce ass bumping as the shove offs. ... Someone told me without elaborating, ask Daryl about his rental car return protocol. This is pre-Uber. I use Uber now. There have been times I was late for a flight & so I just brought the car to where you get off for the gate & just left it. They do charge you later. I told them & they're like "You can't do that!" I was like "Well, I did." I'm a bad human, that's what that shows. Is it true the Celtics nicknamed you Dwight Schrute & then filled your office with Dwight Schrute bobbleheads? I now know all your sources by the way. That was just Danny Ainge. His nickname for me was Slippery Eel, nicknamed after Moray Eel. I was nicknamed the Slippery Eel, which was one of Kevin McHale's post moves. I liked that nickname. It was such a good post move. Dwight Schrute true? True. Still have the bobblehead. What's going on with the musical? April 6th. I'm super biased. Extremely happy. Show is done. Rehearsals start two days from now. What did you contribute to the show? Very little. I give very owner level, high level annoying feedback to the people who are talented. Like what? It's a farce. Very funny. We needed to allow the jokes to linger a little more. We were going from joke to joke that was hurting the humor of it. Morey character in it of any kind? Some inspirations. Nervous when the reviews come out? I will be nervous, yes. How media works, it's a snowball effect. Whoever gets the first review will create a snowball running downhill or the opposite.
I'm curious to see what terms he tried to alter about the Harden trade/what player he's referring to. I also want a 30 for 30 about the canceled CP3 trade
Finally, top to bottom, the roster looks deep, hungry and formidable. They have extra gears in reserve for when games are close, they flick the nitro switch on, rain points, clamp down on D and leave teams in the dust. Credit the front office and ownership for being very bold, persistent, patient with a sprinkling of luck. Now, go get the ring team. #Nocomplacency.
not necessarily... I think it just proves he has common sense regarding player rotations in today's NBA.... lol
Morey's nickname in Boston was Slippery Eel? That's crazy! Ainge is nuts. The talk about the new play in April at Batman's theatre was groovy. Just a great interview. Tons of stuff in there from Daryl!
