Buford was the one who was gung ho about Kawhi, Pop loved Hill. Pop was convinced to go after Kawhi after hearing from Buford.
Donald Trump must be a ClutchFan: "We don't win any more... We lose at everything... We lose to Golden State, we lose to the Spurs, we lose to Portland, for crying out loud we lose to Sacramento, and why? Because our leadership sucks. We are led by very stupid, incompetent people. When I'm in charge, we are going to win, we are going to win, we are going to win like never before, and, trust me, people, it is going to be beautiful."
The only change would be to stop kicking the can down road. Only by picking it up and eating whatever is inside can we win a championship.
He was on 790 about 1 hr back. It was the usual. Nothing revealing. From what I remember. Basically said that Dmo and MT are professionals and know that this is a business. While he didn't want to lose DMo, he had to look at the future and it was a good pick to have. Rockets doctors cleared DMo to play and they presented DET with all the papers and evidence. DET doctors looked at it from a long term perspective since they will want to resign him and decided there was too much risk involved. Again reemphasized that Doctors had cleared him to play but DET was looking at the future prognosis. Said that the timing of the trade did not allow other trades that were possibly lined up to have a chance. Most trades happen on deadline day and the fact that this happened at the very last minute did not allow any room for other trades that were there. Now Rockets will do their due diligence and sit with the team doctors, DMo and his agent to go through everything that transpired. Thornton should be ready to suit up against the Blazers. With DMo, they will have to sit down and look at everything that happened in the past few days. The stretch of games this week is crucial as far as the bottom seeds in the WC playoffs go.
Looks like both teams were looking at future prognosis. Rockets doctors probably told DM the same thing DET doctors told SVG ... that is, the future is in the pick.
<iframe id="cbsembed" width="560" height="315" src="http://cbsloc.al/1WGlP38" frameborder="0" /></iframe> Reaction when you found out the trade was being voided? Disappointed. Something that can always happen. Happened to me a couple of times. The big trade post lockout and now this one. If you know something would be voided, you'd do different things at the deadline. This was the top option on our board and unfortunately didn't go through. Any concern that Motiejunas might react humanly? Talked to him yesterday. Him & Marcus will be very professional. D-Mo understood, as the trade was being made, this was not something where we were looking to move him. It was where the first round pick was something we couldn't pass up to help set up future goals. How do you keep this team from spinning out of control? We haven't played well this season, compared to expectations. This is still the group that made the WCF. We're not playing that way. Donatas hasn't been available to us all year and wasn't last year in the playoffs. In terms of I don't know, spinning out of control or anything like that, we still have a group we know we can win with. Our team got stronger. We expect D-Mo to be back. We have to go out and execute. We have to go out and play closer to what we did last year. If we do, we can still get to the 5th seed. Has this season changed your core beliefs about talent still trump everything? I don't know if talent trumps everything is a fair characterization. You have to have talent to win in this league. In terms of talent trumping everything, I wouldn't necessarily characterize our situation that way. I would say we think talent is important but all 30 teams would say that. Rick Smith has been criticized a lot for 2 playoff wins. Is Morey getting a pass because they have 3 playoff wins. Reaction? That's something for you guys to worry about. Rick Smith is a great guy. I don't compare the Rockets to the Texans. In terms of the criticism you felt. I don't mind the question. I don't think about comparing myself to other GMs. I compare our performance to what we focus on: how do we improve our championship odds? This group made the WCF. Dwight & James together have won 2/3 of their games. Last 10 years, 3rd best record in the NBA since I came over. We haven't had the success we want, in terms of championships, but there has been a lot of success. Hopefully we keep plugging at it and up our championship odds. Across our owners tenure, the 5th best record in the league. There's been a lot of winning, in the regular season & playoffs but not as much as we want, which is championships. Fairest criticism & most unfair criticism of Harden? Unfair, I think the focus on his defense is unfair. Compare him to other similar great players and you're making a youtube video of his worst moments. The narrative has been built up about his defense being terrible. Fairest, the same one we all face: we haven't got to the Finals stage. Everyone is judged by are you able to make that final step and become a championship team? Same question for Dwight Howard. Unfair is how much he enjoys the game, even when others might perceive he should be angry or tense. He loves basketball. He loves playing. He always has a positive demeanor and because that's different from other great players, people want to see a certain look. Look at our playoff performances since he's been here, if you look at those series, he's arguably been our best player. Fair, he also hasn't taken that final step we hope to take. What will it take to make that run? Defense is nowhere near where it needs to be. It's bottom ten. Not acceptable. Coaches, myself & the players have been working on it but been unsuccessful. If we had a multi-step plan and knew what was wrong, we'd fix it before. Coaches continue to make changes and focus on it but that's what needs to change. We generate a lot of offense off defense. It's gotta change or won't advance in the playoffs. Rather be a squirrel or a rat? Terrible question.
Ha, yes. I wasn't listening so I don't know either but Nick said "our listeners would know what I'm talking about." _______________________________ <iframe allowfullscreen width="600" height="150" scrolling="no" src="https://media.iheart.com/player/embed.html?autoStart=false&useFullScreen=true&mid=26753323&siteid=589&share=http://www.sports790.com/media/play/daryl-26753323/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" ></iframe> Moving forward, how weird is it? Both guys are professionals. Part of the NBA to be traded. The day after the deadline as I said on 790, we weren't looking to move Donatas but the first round pick was something that was important for what we're setting up for the future but skilled player and will be good for us down the stretch. What did Detroit see that put the flag up for them? Tough one to go into details. We provided all the info required and they viewed it and as Coach Van Gundy said, the risk was too high and that ended the trade. Since D-Mo said he's 100%, are we to expect him on the court quickly? Yes. For diligence sake, we'll review Detroit's findings. We'll take a look with his agent. He was back and playing prior to the deadline. He was cleared to play by multiple doctors on our side. This was a multi-year trade for them. They wanted Donatas and match him in RFA. This was not a last 25 games of the season thing. When looking long term prognosis, that's when medical opinions can diverge. If he's cleared and helps you, doesn't Detroit look goofy? They're a professional organization. They're looking a multi-year forecast. That's where things can diverge. To my understanding, I don't think Detroit doctors felt it wasn't a situation where he could play now. ... They were giving up a lot and went off the best advice they had from their team doctors. Mutually exclusive in that now that you know this got rescinded, would it have altered your aggressiveness for other deals? That's one of the issues when something happens at the deadline, there's no chance to modify what you did on deadline day. You can't even modify the terms of this trade. It does create some issues, for Philly(waived a guy they wouldn't have waived). It does create secondary outcomes. So make a deal a few days ahead of the deadline? There's a reason you see most deals on deadline day. They don't make their best & final offers until then. Marcus ready Thursday? We brought both back. For diligence sake, doing evaluations and have them back on the court ASAP. Ever had to bring someone back or where a deal didn't go through? Does each player react differently? Yeah. We've been part of a famous rescinded trade. We had the trade after the lockout. Interesting week ahead. Very important set of games. Road games, that if we win, will set us up well against teams we're fighting against in the bottom seeds of the western conference. We'll know a lot more about where we're at. It's been a season of not meeting expectations. We're working hard to turn that around.
Last question is often those nonsense questions they ask players to replay at games It should have been Rather be DaDakota or a boy kicking a CAN down the road
It will be interesting to see if DMo can't play the entire season and Houston's docs cleared him to play and said he was 100% we can see the continued incompetence of Houston's medical staff. I have zero confidence in Houston's medical team, disregarding all the shady stuff that happened during Tmac and Yao Ming's time (Tmac complaining of pain when docs cleared him, Yao always getting cleared at start of year and then getting injured by playoffs etc), there have been multiple instances that Bev, Dmo and Dwight get cleared to play and then end up missing games shortly afterward. Most likely DMo has some structural damage in his back which is why Detroit became scared of getting him, on the other hand Houston's doctors just look at the short term (~2 months) and gave him ok to play now, not caring if he destroys his back by the offseason.
Morey's comments seem to refute your portrayal of what the DET doctors found. I read DM's comments saying the DET doctors were not disagreeing with his ability to play now, rather opinions diverged on future prognosis. And actually, it doesn't even seem like they diverged on future prognosis, since Morey traded him for a pick, choosing the pick over future DMo.
Our defensive strategies are horrible and you can't switch everything. Double teams, going over and under screens also work. James must step up his defensive intensity for our D to work effectively in the 4th Qtr...
James defense is not a problem (or is "unfairly" portrayed) Rockets don't know how to fix the defense. Not the defensive coordinator turned interim coach John Blair Bickerstaff, not the players and not the General Manager. Well gee, no one currently in the building knows what is wrong or how to fix it! That's nice you continue to throw **** at the wall to try and fix it, :grin:, but that's not a viable solution. Sounds like you may need to call one, if not both, of these guys: Your interim coach sucks. Your former head coach sucks. Answers? Solutions? Rockets coaching staff: Well, uhh, yeah, well uhh....yeah, we got nothin'! Daryl, what would you say you and your coaching staff does here?
