Most people believe that: 1. Les had a hand in all coaching changes. 2. Les forbid Morey to tank. These two are MAJOR "Hands On" things that affect how the team is run and built. And is it really true that he asks the head coach to call him regularly?
Les Alexander did not allow Morey to tank, that isn't really debatable as Morey has made the comment a number of times. Les Alexander was responsible for moving on from Van Gundy, Adelman and McHale. Les Alexander has never asked the coach to call him regularly, I remember reading it was 4-5 times a year. Les Alexander was largely responsible for bringing back Jeremy Lin. Having said all that, I wouldn't really call Les Alexander a meddling owner. He has tinkered less than a vast majority of owners.
And how would you know? There's plenty of signs pointing to quite the contrary..Leslie Alexander as an owner has been a problem ever since he took over. Didn't take him long to fire Calvin, not to extend Maxwell, trading away our future for Drexler, then Barkley etc.
What a terrible article. He's held high profile positions. As GM of Portland he was the one responsible for making the franchise relevant again by acquiring LMA and Roy. He was successful as AD of ASU. His tenure at UT didn't go well, because the complaint was that he ran the program too much like a professional sports team. That's exactly the type of guy we need not a GM who gets on twitter comparing himself to a gynecologist. In the end, no matter what you think of his personality, Patterson has shown he can build a championship team. The results speak for themselves. As far as Le$ rehiring somebody he fired a long time ago, that's a non-issue. Ariza was traded by the Rockets shortly after he signed as a free agent, but he resigned here as a free agent a few years later. These are professionals and this is a business.
Yes, you are right for this one. I can not recall any Les's great decisions except drafting Yao, which is not a pure basketball choice either.
I was wrong on Les, the Tmac trade was great one. Hiring Morey maybe just the accident decision, but it is a great one too, If he is going to fire him this year, then would be a bad decision again. But again Les is not going fire Morey by paying another GM salary since he is refusing to play another coach salary right now even we have a very bad coach.
Don't misjudge his ability to draft no. 1. Rest assured that he will draft the best available 6' 9" player. Morey is that good of a drafter (sarcasm).
The major things are where you'd expect him to be involved. And the coach is essentially the 3rd person on the latter in ranking of the franchise leadership. If the CFO or the CLO of a company didn't have monthly, weekly, etc. meetings scheduled with the CEO/President than I'd be pretty shocked. Its the Owner/Gm's that get in the way when they start letting their nieces & nephews make draft pick decisions, or doing whatever it is Vivek is doing in Sacramento. There is a big difference in what you see from Les. Do you really think that Les was the one that was watching Euroleague games and said we need to spend 2 mil to draft Sergio Llull??? As for the tanking thing? That narrative was all coming from Morey who was giving credit to Les when so many were applauding him for rebuilding without tanking.... that's Morey trying to deflect praise more than anything. Who knows what was really said, but he was making it out to be a positive thing for the fans to say that Les is on your side, and doesn't want you guys to see a losing product. Only the fact is, before the Harden trade, Morey setup his team to do just that. When you amnesty Scola, trade your starting PG for a draft pick, trade your locker room glue guy (Battier) for a pick, and high risk upside youth.... what is the difference in doing that vs. tanking from a front office perspective? That sure looks a hell of alot like tanking to me its just that we were lucky enough to get saved by the Harden trade. Les signed off on all of that pre Harden trade. Trust me... for the most part he's giving major freedom to Morey to build & breakdown the roster. We can debate hands on or hands off for whatever its worth, but the record shows that he's done a great job of letting his people that he hired be empowered to do their jobs the right way.
You dont have to go full vivek to give examples of bad owners. Off the top of my head: jordan. Hands on owner epic fail. The only good is that cho is a good trader. Prokhorov. Conspiracy and a power play to oust the other minority owners or megalomaniac? Sarver. Desperately impatient. The gm is great but the owner has zero patience. Atlantas previous ownership group: drama and wars that forced a sale and ousted a great gm. Torontos current ownership group( think its called mlse?) first priority is selling seats amd bringing canadian players to toronto. Derailed some uijiris plans like halting the tanking. Lakers owners: imbeciles sad clowns Bulls owner reindhorf(sp?) like les forbids tanking and hes very cheap. Unlike les he has let the front office do whatever they want with no accountabillity for decades. Ny: Dolan is one of the worse though now with phil jax perhaps he has learned smth? Dallas. Cuban overrides his scouts multiple times resulting with a team with no youth whatsoever. New orleans: the owner is a senile old man with alzheimer who doesnt know what hes doing and has left one of the worst gms in charge. Clippers: from racist owner to a superfan owner who has left doc still in charge and allows serious infighting. Les is a middle of a pack owner. Not bad but not amazing either. Hes fine. Rockets fans are lucky not to have one of the above as their owner.
Actually another big one is that Les directly made sure we focus a lot more on offense as he wanted an exciting fast paced team that scores a lot. It was a direct requirement of his.
Look he should be on the hot seat, this is the team he built, the coach he hired, and when you are in charge, you are held accountable. I just hope that Les takes a step back and let's Morey clean it up...and yes. HIRE A REAL coach.... I would be in favor of lessening Morey's power and bringing in a basketball guy as a collaborator like Battier. DD
Your issue is you think you know more than you actually do and you routinely look foolish because of it. It is unlikely that will change. Danny Ferry has been the definition of a mediocre GM for a long time. He ruined LeBron's prime in Cleveland by being unable to make any productive move to push Cleveland close to a championship. He made bozo transactions like getting Mo Williams to be the #2 to LeBron. Cleveland basically didn't even have draft picks from 05-10 because of his bizarre trades for washed up players. When they did, he made terrible picks like Shannon Brown and JJ Hickson. Speaking of his bizarre trades for washed up players, this included: Shaq, Wally Sczerbiak, Joe Smith, and Ben Wallace. He also acquired certified head case Delonte West, who not only was terrible, but directly caused a major issue for the franchise's star player. His sweet free agent signings included awesome players such as Jamario Moon and Leon Powe. He had arguably the greatest player in basketball history and was unable to surround him with a competent team. That really takes a lot. To be fair, he did better in Atlanta. Trading Joe Johnson was the right call. As was picking Schroeder in the draft. Letting Josh Smith/Marvin Williams walk and signing Millsap/Korver were also the right moves. His biggest decision likely was hiring coach Bud, probably possible because of his Spurs connections. I place most of Atlanta's success in recent past on him, rather than Ferry. He didn't draft any other remarkable player aside from Schroder in that timeframe, while having about 8 picks in those 4 years. Nor was Ferry capable of signing any marquee free agent, as guys like Morey beat him out for players like Dwight. As for the second part of your nonsense. This is a list of players and at what position the Rockets have picked since Morey's tenure: 2007- Aaron Brooks and Carl Landry (26, 31) 2008- Donte Greene and Joey Dorsey (28, 33) 2009- Jermaine Taylor, Sergio Llull, and Chase Buddinger (32, 34, 44) 2010- Patrick Patterson (14) 2011- Marcus Morris, Donatas Motiejunas, and Chandler Parsons (14, 20, 38) 2012- Jeremy Lamb, Royce White, and Terrence Jones (12, 16, 18) 2013- Isaiah Canaan (32) 2014- Clint Capela Nick Johnson (24, late 30's) I wont include 2015, because jury is still out. Every single one of those players save for Joey Dorsey and Jermaine Taylor (who were second rounders) has been a starter in this league/significant rotation contributor/overseas star. If they weren't (and even some that are), they were traded for an all-star caliber player, i.e. Greene for Artest; Lamb for Harden; Johnson for Lawson. The only true blemish has been Royce White, who for all accounts was a McHale pick, just as Aaron Brooks was an Adelman pick. Morey is an excellent drafter. Compare that with Presti who needed top 5 picks to get Durant, Westbrook, and Harden (then made the worst trade of the modern era as Morey took his lunch). Wasted a draft pick on Jeff Green. Did a good job getting Ibaka in the 20's. He has not drafted one other player of value even though he's been a GM for about 10 years. It's easy to draft with top 5 picks. Not that easy when the best pick you ever have is 12-14 because your owner has mandated your team cannot have a losing season. Hammond isn't "great" as you'd say either. He drafted Jennings over better players like Lawson, Teague, and Holiday. Used a lottery pick on Larry Sanders who ended up being a bust and isn't even in the league anymore. Who the hell has he even drafted that's made him "great" other than Giannis? That's legitimately the only good pick he's ever made. I guess Henson was a good pick. Having the #2 pick to get Jabbari Parker doesn't mean much. A monkey would have drafted him as well. If anyone thinks that Morey is "mediocre" at drafting, they are just dumb and I don't really know what to tell them.
Lol at forgetting to mention Adams and Payne or simply overlooking Ibaka. Presti is a much better drafter than Morrey. When morrey is able to hit with a 20s pick someone of the caliber of Ibaka wake me up.
Morey is a mediocre first round drafter and a good 2nd round drafter. Anything more is over-rating his drafting abilities.
Exactly. Morreys strong point which I admire him for is trades. Someone is named a great drafter when he manages to hit on a star with a non lottery pick. Hes not a bad drafter but nothing exceptional. And as for ferry also wake me up when morrey manages in spite of the ownership to demand and lure such a great caliber coach.
Morey isn't great at trading he just banks on other teams downfalls. -Not enough $$$ to re-sign Harden, traded from OKC -Minnesota parting ways with the trash that is Corey Brewer, gets sent to HOU for cheap -Traded for KJ McDaniels who has been a bust / never gets any PT.. while Canaan shows improvement and looks solid -Traded Troy Daniels who is still better than Corey Brewer
