It pains to me to say this but this completely Morey's mess. He didn't value coaching and we're all paying for it.
No it won't he is not the greatest GM of all time, someone else can step in - and maybe they are better. DD
Got an ideas on who might be an improvement upon Morey? This is by far the riskiest of all "solutions" to our current problems. Look around the NBA, there are much more poorly run and constantly mediocre basketball operations than there are well-run ones. Way more likely that we end up significantly worse off as a result.
There is risk in keeping him too, while I like Morey, he has not assembled a consistent championship team, undervalues chemistry and coaching. So, I am cool with him staying - but what I think doesn't matter, only Les matters. DD
Absolute great post. Daryl isn't perfect but the Rockets have been rebuilt and were rebuilt in an extremely short amount of time with zero high draft picks and zero all stars to build around. The Rockets have never had a losing season with Daryl Morey as the GM which is pretty freaking amazing considering those years include his transition years from TMac / Yao to Harden / Howard. Most teams go through seasons of futility prior to getting their next set of superstars. Just look at the Lakers floundering around right now.
Someone please enlighten me on Morey's accomplishments, yes he's signed Dwight and Harden, however, his lack of putting together a coaching staff that can get the max of the players has yet to be seen. Morey has been given more than enough time to put together a great coaching staff and players and has failed to deliver on the coaching staff. His time is up, it happens to everyone in this profession.
I think considering where he has drafted each season he has done a damn good job drafting. He has hit on quality players in all but one in the 1st round and he has regularly hit on his 2nd round picks. Daryl has never had a high 1st round draft pick. Never. The highest Daryl has ever drafted is 12 and that is a mid 1st round pick. The draft doesn't offer many superstars in the 1st round that are not drafted in the first 10 picks. It happens but its rare.
since its hard finding good gm's and coaches, and morey has done a good but not great job. we give him a chance at getting a real coaching staff (that understands the importance of shooting more mid range jumpers when you're going 5-20 from three). give him till next jan. if the coaching does jack shti then he has to go. thats what i'd do. of course he has to do soome trades too. i dont think there's anyone better than morey. he has some glarifing flaws but his pros outweight his cons. its worth a try only by default. i dunno if i typed this clearly but w/e
Picking Morris over Leonard will always be something Morey's critics point out. Picking White too. So is trading a first round pick for Terrence Williams. All these do not make him a bad drafter or talent evaluator. All GMs make those kinds of mistakes. It just shows that he's not genius, just average or above average at best when it comes to first round draft picks. His second round picks were great. No one can deny that.
You can't really judge an NBA GM in a vacuum. The NBA is such a star driven league. I think you have to look at the past few NBA champions and ask, "what are they doing that Morey isn't or won't do"? You have to look at how those teams were built.
How does he undervalue chemistry though? Sure he's a trade machine when we were a projected 8th or worse seed team but he finally had a team that was successful last season and maneuvered to keep them together. It sucks that it's not playing out well. The one mistake this offseason was not trading Jones to give Smoove all the PT at PF. Just curious about your take on the chemistry part.
All he had to do was hire a legitimate coach. But nope he doesn't believe coaching matters. This is his mess and now he has to swim in it.
I'm certain that there are lessons that he will learn from this whole situation, and how he looks at coaching is going to be one of them. He will be under big pressure to make his next coaching hire be a great one. I don't agree that he doesn't value chemistry. Chemistry only adds value when you have the talent to compete at the championship level. After last year's WCF visit, you saw him focusing on keeping the core of our rotation, with the assumption that we would come back with more chemistry. We take this for granted, but Morey has put us into a position where (after just a few years) making the playoffs but not getting HCA is unacceptable to our fanbase. Walking away from that is way riskier than playing the field. Its way way way more likely that we end up in worse shape from a basketball organization standpoint than become a "consistent championship team." Since Morey has been GM, there are only two teams with more than one finals appearance who are still currently championship contenders.
We really have no idea what he thinks about coaching. I wouldn't make absolute statements about morey's philosophy off of sound bites. I doubt morey would turn away a top 5 coach. I do agree that morey stuck with mchale for too long but there's so much that goes behind the scenes.
Show me another GM that has drafted with in Daryl Morey's spot and come away with quality players year in and year out. San Antonio is about the only other organization that does it consistently and they just happen to be the same team that grabbed Kahwi Leonard. Leonard is one of the very rare players that turn into stars that are not drafted at the top of the draft. But SA is probably the best organization at doing that. Without actually checking myself, I'm guessing you will not find another GM (with the exception of RC Buford) that gets quality talent in the back 2/3rds of the 1st round.
Morey has drafted above average. The Kawhi Leonard argument is meaningless. 14 GM's "missed out" on him. Additionally, the Spurs have the best organization and team culture in the NBA. There's less reason to believe Leonard would be the same player elsewhere, compared to what he is now given the nurturing he received by 4 hof in SA. Though admittedly, that sort of thinking has flaws in itself, I think it's foolish to discredit the impact that being in the Spurs' system has. The only major blemish I've seen has been Royce White. Every other one of Morey's first round picks has been a starter or significant rotation level player in the NBA.
If I had the time, I'd check. But I don't. Not an excuse. Just to busy at work and home. To actually scrutinize a GM's draft work is very tedious. You have to 1. list out all his picks and judge how good they are. 2. list out the misses. (It's not just who you picked but who you didn't pick.) 3. Draft day trades should also be considered. Trading a pick that could have picked a great player for a mediocre veteran counts as a bad pick, and vice versa. 4. bench mark with other GM's performaces. To say that 14 other GMs also missed a great player is just the point. He was among those who missed it. So in that situation, he was not better than at least 14 other GMs. Again, I am not saying that Morey is a bad drafter. I just think he is not specially great by my "eye test." If someone does a full draft performance review as I outlined above, I will appreciate very much.
