First, thanks FTW! Easy to say 'blow it up' but tough to accomplish. Successfully. IMO -- no one could blow this up and come out ahead on the other side better than DM the GM, in whom I trust.
Guys, don't watch Moneyball. I just did and I started to believe in Morey again. I again don't mind him managing the coaches. I believe in the Moreyball after seeing Moneyball again.
The team isnt built to win a championship at the moment and other teams are not trading much this season. Houston is stuck with this group of misfits
LOL, offense can make the playoffs and win a couple of rounds? who are you trying to fool with, DM? This team is worse than the record shows. The problem is not only defense, offense is not as good as you think, at best an average team in the league. FG% is only 15th..., if you look at all games this season, how many times the FG% is lower than opponent team? this is awful.
Daryl Morey on 790 a few minutes back. Just posting this as I hear it. Again, excuse me for the typos and something I may have missed. ============================================================ ================================ 790: Thanks for coming. I wish we could talk under better circumstances. What happened last night? DM: Yeah defense wasn't very good. Obviously they are a very tough team. Frustrating. Guarding the 3 point line has been a challenge all season and shows up big time against a team like SPurs 790: How do you describe a great win like that on Christmas day and then last night? Why such a discrepancy between two games? DM: Lot of times you look bad because of shot making or missing. Thats what made the difference between Christmas and last night. That being said we have to improve. Missed something..... We have actually been a decent road team over the years I have been here. We work on execution. Having a superstar is important to win in this league and having James and Dwight helps us 790: Take as through as much as you can about the Smith acquisition. Obviously before last night you were 3-0. I am surprised Clips would engage in a serious conversation DM: You know trades - lots of conversations, lots of phone calls. Obviously since Josh joined the Clippers we have been in touch. he is a good fit with us. His defense, his shot making is going to come and go . His leadership has been positive with us, his ball movement and how teams guard James. Having a player with all these skill sets helps us. 790: Was this an insurance policy against DMo not being able to help you out rest of the way? DM: Again it was just constant work and we tried to reacquire him due to his familiarity with our roster and players on our roster. We saw he was struggling in LA and there was a possibility 790: If Josh had a chance to stay here and chose not to stay? DM: He obviously turned down more money. Not sure what went down in terms of him picking LAC and what they told him but he was thrilled to change things up and get back here 790: The SAS, GSW, OKC separating themselves not only from yourselves but rest of the NBA. Is there some conversation that this may be the year that these teams are so elite that one player wont make the difference? DM: We are focused on now with James and Dwight in their prime. Obviously it differs from team to team. We believe we can pull things together and compete with them on a series. Depends on other teams but we are focused in the present. 790: The turn the corner phrase. Lance and I and others who follow the Rockets closely use it often. DO you do that yourself or do you look at the big picture? DM: Yeah we are not looking for that one moment. We are looking for execution on defense and offense. Improved play which we have got. We have made steady strides across the year on what was a poor start. We have ways to go before competing with Spurs and GSW. Bottom line is beating GSW and SAS at home is a challenge, they are something like 80-0. But losing by 30 is obviously very disappointing. We'd like to keep it closer. =========================================================================================== Nothing major but he totally avoided the Dmo question.
Sorry, but that's BS. The difference between the X-Mas game and last night(aside from playing at home vs on the road) was that the Rockets didn't play any defense in the loss. They gave up something like 84 points at home and 130 yesterday. This is what's plagued them all season long. They're a horrible defensive team, so when their 3's aren't falling and they struggle to take care of the basketball and make free throws, they get demolished. A good defensive team will always have a chance to win even when their offense isn't clicking. Unfortunately with the season 48 games in already and JB not up to the challenge as a head coach, this isn't going to change until next season at the earliest.
No, WE the Rockets look bad when we miss shots, good teams still play defense.. Wow..I can only accept this mentality if it means Morey is more realistic with his expectations but I doubt that since only last week he said opponents will fear us come play off time.
Spot on! The offense has been fairly consistent this year. We are not playing that much worse offensively compared to last year. But the defense has been inconsistent, and ranging from average to very bad most of the time.
The offense was, I think 1-10 (or 1-for-something, I don't recall) from 3 point range in the first half. The Rockets will not win any games making 1 3-pointer per half, and digging a huge halftime hole against an ultra elite defensive team = lights out.
In terms of PPG, the Rockets are pretty good. Although a big part of that is that they allow themselves to get into track meets with opponents, so both teams wind up scoring a lot of points. Truthfully, they're an ok offensive team overall. But their defense is so bad and inconsistent, that they almost never have blowout wins(especially when you factor out the Laker games) and struggle even against mediocre ballclubs at Toyota Center. I have to believe Morey knows all of this and is just trying to spin the situation. You're not gonna hear the GM go on the radio and trash his own team in the middle of the season. Like I said in the other thread though, I hope this year has humbled him and taught him that a huge chunk of his basketball philosophy is wrong. If he doesn't now value the importance of coaching and a coherent offensive and defensive gameplan after what we've witnessed this season, then he's too stubborn and ignorant to remain the GM here.
Losing faith in you Morey. You have to know it's more than just missed or made shots. It's about playing well. If those were good shots we were missing then yes, we could agree...but they weren't. We missed bad shots, no surprise there. Like yeah, if you just chuck up shots like you have 5 Jamaal Crawford's out there you will miss shots, obviously.
It's about defense with Houston we have avoided playing championship level defense... we thought the minor improvements last year was enough and it wasn't even close.
I agree with everything you said! There is some silver lining to all of this. The very same things were said about the warriors before they got the right coach and culture established.
Agree. They got rid of McHale because the defense sucked while JBB was running the defense under McHale without Josh Smith to start the season. Then they made JBB the head coach which was almost laughable.
I don't think Morey needs to be fired - he's done a good job getting talent - I think he needs to pass the torch over to a good coach who can get these guys playing, and not be afraid to ship out talent who aren't buying in. Yesterday was an example of a team giving zero ****s on defense after beating them in a defensive battle on Christmas and not realizing that you can't just play half the game when you feel like it and be taken seriously. This roster is immensely talented but you need a veteran coach who has the savvy to piece together rotations that work and get the team to hone in on defense. JBB may end up being a good coach down the line but he's not the right guy.
