Again you have nothing to contribute aside from nonsensical babbling meanwhile failing at reading comprehension as usual. I mentioned Ibaka as the only non-lottery pick that Presti has ever done well with. Presti is very overrated by unknowledgeable fans like you and was already exposed by Morey when he fleeced him for Harden. Presti drafted all of his good players with lottery picks. Again it's not hard to draft well with continuous top 5 picks. He already did. He got Parsons in the second round and Capela in the 20's. Wake me up if you can point out when Presti made even the slightest worthwhile draft pick in the last 10 years that wasn't a lottery pick other than Ibaka. Or when he made any sort of competent trade well...ever. Good job not even addressing how you claimed Hammond is a better drafter than Morey.
Yeah. It's very easy to spout nonsensical drivel that is founded by surface level thinking and lacks any sort of context or insight whatsoever. A lot of people have mastered that art though. Morey is a great drafter for not having a loser season in 10 years, as mandated by the owner. Legitimately anyone who thinks otherwise is not worthy of conversation because their thinking capacity is very low, e.g. Malakas, who I'm fairly certain is a troll and makes up most of what he/she says.
Bro...If OKC wasnt gifted Durant(b/c Portland idiotically took Oden), OKC wouldve most likely went the traditional route and selected Greg Oden...Oden wouldve promptly NOT been able to play, and as a result, the Thunder wouldve more than likely had a top 3 pick the following year (lets just say #1 overall...). Derrick Rose wouldve been selected...OKC has had as much luck that altered how and what they needed to draft once their core was assembled. It becomes very easy to build around a core...They were able to pick for depth. Morey was given the task of rebuilding WITHOUT tanking, something he said that almost every other team has to do in order to find that someone. He had to offload the decaying carcass of TMac...AND keep this team respectable (essentially a 41-41 team). If Morey was allowed to tank, the Rockets wouldve been in prime position to draft very high in 2008 and 2009... Morey built around a core of Harden and Howard...and did so shrewdly. Movable pieces/contracts most of which are relatively easy to offload. He assembled a team that on paper was supposed to succeed. A trip the WCF just validated that this team didnt need a major overhaul, but rather a small tweak. Insert Ty Lawson...for nothing...These are things that are supposed to work theoretically, but for some unforseen reason has not... To sit here and bash Morey for it NOT working...well its NOT a talent issue, but rather a lack of cohesiveness issue. They really dont play for each other on the court, and its very evident as we watch from an armchair. The only thing I really think Morey didnt do was hire the right coach when James Harden was brought here. He underestimated Rick Adelman's ability to coach crap and put together a winning product...And he thought that plugging in a more GM friendly option in Mchale was more helpful. He was wrong. Harden being a young player, who essentially felt isolated from a championship level team...went out and balled his 1st year with us. It inflated his ego, and provided him a sense of self-confidence about his game. But what worked for him in year 1...just hasnt worked well in year 4, as James has picked up bad habits and bad tendency's. This all stems from poor coaching...James Harden in year 1 with a good disciplined coach wouldve evolved much more than where he is now. Morey didnt fail this team building around James and Dwight, but he failed at maximizing their talents with the right coach.
I'm too lazy to do it, but it wouldn't be difficult to count every reg season and post season game the Rockets have won/lost, since Morey officially became GM. Then compare his win percentage to other long tenured WC general managers.
Morey's done a good overall job, but the heat is on him right now. He made this mess and he needs to clean it up. I think he deserves a shot to turn it around, but the real question is can he talk Les into letting him rebuild through the lottery which will take at least a couple years? Does Morey even wanna stick around to do that?
Since 07 when Morey took over: Regular Season: Spurs - 56-54-50-61-50-58-62-55 = 446 Mavs - 51-50-55-57-36-41-49-50 = 389 Rockets - 55-53-42-43-34-45-54-56 = 382 Lakers - 57-65-57-57-41-45-27-21 = 370 OKC - 20-23-50-55-47-60-59-45 =359 Phoenix - 55-46-54-40-33-25-48-39= 340 Utah - 54-48-53-39-36-43-25-38 = 336 Grizz - 22-24-40-46-41-56-50-55 = 334 GS - 48-29-26-36-23-47-51-67 = 327 Clippers - 23-19-29-32-40-56-57-56-=312 That means as tough as the Western Conference is, during Morey's reign only the Spurs and Mavs have a better regular season record than the Rockets. Post Season: It's too much effort to look up these records. Someone else can do it if they'd like. But, not surprisingly, the only teams to win championships from the western conference are those same Spurs and Mavs. Of course, this is along with those dominant Lakers teams that won a couple and GS last year. Obviously, a lot of credit goes to those teams for winning a championship. Conclusion: Morey is still a top of the line GM in the western conference. Everything he has done was with a winning record every single year (the only other team to do this was the Spurs) as mandated by the owner. He didn't get tons of lottery picks by tanking e.g., OKC, GS, Clippers, et al. Nor was he benefitted by the NBA's bs, such as gifting the Lakers Pau Gasol. Although, I still think the Lakers deserve a lot of credit. They definitely benefit from being...well...the Lakers. Much like the Yankees benefit from being the Yankees. Again, this also supports just how dominate the Spurs have been and how excellent their organization is in pretty much every regard. As much as I hate to say it, Dallas deserves credit as well for being run in a great way and always being relevant. Morey is right up there though. He just needs the post-season success to back it up. Although, to be fair to the critics, it's about time that started coming. Last year should have been the foundation for many years to come. It sucks it has not worked out that way. Bonus that makes malakas look silly as usual: Just for kicks and giggles here's the Milwaukee Bucks record in that same timeframe since that dummy malakas thinks that organization is run well and Hammond is a "great drafter." Bucks - 26-34-46-35-31-38-15-41 = 266 el oh el. What a "great" drafter. Those "great" acquisitions sure have turned that team around in his 8 year tenure.
I think i've posted it before...but everybody knows this is an empty threat from Les, he'll never fire Morey. Can't think of a better available GM. Yes, he is a LARGE part of the cluster **** we are in, but he needs to change that not be on a grilled hot seat.
I think a large part of the cluster **** is Morey extending McHale. I can't really fault any of his other decisions leading up to this season. Lawson actually looks like himself again, but the ****ty start to this season obviously ruined the morale and synchronization of this team. Additionally, no one could have known Harden would regress like this. Or Brewer. Or that our PF rotation would be this much of a disaster due to Jones somehow managing to get even worse. Morey does need to fix it though. That much should be obvious.
Yea Lawson was a no-brainer, anybody would have pulled the trigger on that. Coaching is the one thing, but its also the most important imo. I feel like if we had a coach that had been on Harden a bit more he wouldn't be all over the place like he is now. Oh well, hopefully everybody is in line next season.
Our roster exactly 4 years ago consisted of a heavy rotation of Dragic, Lowry Martin (our best player by default) Parsons (surprise rookie) Scola (aging vet) Dalembert Our bench included Clutch BBS household nicknames and terms such as PPat, hey bud you suck, Da beet, Flynn and Squid. Last year we made the freaking WCF less than 3.5 years later. This year we have the deepest/most talented roster of any Rockets team EVER. Also, the worst in a lot of other things but that shouldn't be on Morey IMO but if you think it should be... Fair enough. Not gonna argue that part because Morey will fix it as long as he gets the chance. If there's one thing he's good at doing its fixing/solving his/the teams problems/issues. To even fathom the idea/thought of Morey being on the "Hot Seat" is crazy to me.
There was probably credence to it. I believe cyber. But it was likely just Les being Les and blowing some hot air. He already got his man when fired McHale.
I'm a Morey fan but one thing that could have probably saved us from a few extra losses is our lack of PF depth. I won't beat the dead horse on Josh Smith, but Morey knew Harrell is a rookie and DMo wasn't healthy and Dwight wasn't ready for back-to-backs. I will never understand how someone that smart managing a team with championship aspirations would allow us to enter the season so short-handed. Again, I would have liked to see us bring Josh back, but even another veteran would have done just fine. I'm no Morey and I knew this would be a problem. If Dwight has to sit out tonight (which he might) then again our big men rotation is Capela, Jones, and Harrell.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Denver Nuggets are releasing forward Kostas Papanikolaou, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.</p>— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/685153913239126018">January 7, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Making these moves seems an act of desperation - dumping Thornton and Lawson for Guodlouck and Beasley feels like a guy who is reaching to try to save his job. DD
What you are feeling is called a confirmation bias. They have two roster spots, so they signed two guys.
