[Andrew Sharp] Shooting for the moon: Why Rockets, 76ers have failed to launch

GSW have leaders, chemistry, heart, high IQ players etc etc - all the intangibles

Morey has built a roster purely on spreadsheet based number crunching without paying attention to the intangibles mentioned above.

Look analytics are very much part of the game but when you use it as the be all, end all, you will inevitably fall short of contending. Spurs, GSW others use analytics quite a bit but they mix it in with other intangibles that cannot be measured by Mauri number crunching spreadsheets.

I can't believe this is so hard to understand.

 

Big humongous assumption. You are creating evidence to strengthen your case.

 

Nothing Sharp said is wrong. It's fairly amusing that this forum is stuffed to the gills with "Blow it up, this team is pathetic. **** Morey, **** Harden and Howard," and then any time a column criticizing the Rockets is linked, there are immediate cries of how it's all biased garbage that's totally wrong.

Sharp's observations about the Rockets and Sixers are pretty accurate. And, for those who saw the two names in the headline and immediately stopped reading in order to rev their outrage machine, Sharp isn't remotely suggesting that the Rockets and Sixers are similar quality. He's saying that both Morey's and Hinkie's projects are failing for similar reasons: valuing abstract ideas of what is more efficient for roster-building as the only thing worth pursuing (as opposed to considering things like roster fit and player personality) and inability to continue adapting and innovating as the rest of the league also adopted scoring efficiency principles.

The Rockets are one of the big disappointments of this season for a reason. The Sixers are one of the NBA's most historically inept franchises for a reason. The Rockets are far better than the Sixers, but that doesn't mean there aren't parallels that can be drawn.

 

Evidence is there. 28-29 speaks for itself

Do you watch any games? Dumb low IQ play one after the other is evidence. Lack of leadership is evident. Lack of chemistry is evident.

I'd suggest you get Root Sports and watch a few more games.

 

The evidence also supported the contrary with last year's 50+ win team.

 

imo I think Morey went about it the wrong way on two different fronts:

1. Acquiring "specialists" (e.g. chucker, defender, rebounder, etc) and not players that can contribute at least something to either side of the court...our two superstars included.

2. That said, if he fully committed (by all accounts we can say he is/did) he didn't acquire the type of player he needed in order for his avoid-midrange-rain-3s-all-day system to succeed which are pure shooters. Troy Daniels didn't work out particularly well because we went on a frozen tundra shooting spell but he's still a pure shooter. I'd rather have him miss his first 20 3s and give him another 20 attempts than to see Brewer attempt 40 3s of his own.

 

Right, so that is evidence that the only metric Morey uses in decision making is analytics. Do you not understand what the word evidence means? Do you need an adult?

There are teams that use gut feelings and draft/sign players with low IQs all the time. Look at the Lakers and Swaggy P. Look at the Kings and basically anyone they pick up. Having low IQ players, teams without leadership, and dysfunction is present in all NBA teams.

To suggest it is more glaring in teams that use analytics is a weak argument because the data doesn't support your assertion. Furthermore, you still have zero evidence that analytics is the only measure this team uses. Look through interviews with Morey, look at how he describes analytics, he says in a lot of cases it enhances our ability to make decisions. It's a way of bringing more data to the table. It doesn't negate what scouts bring in, it doesn't negate leadership, bbIQ and such, it enhances them.

Your outrageous statement that I don't watch the games (ad hominem) is further evidence that you don't have any evidence to support this claim. BTW, I haven't missed a game this season. I have League Pass and cable.

 

All these are forking bullshlt excuses.

GSW is currently on pace of having the greatest season all time in NBA because they are having the best duo of 3 points shooter all time.

They do not need to forking kiss each others before the game nor they need to play like Willis Reed and Stephen Curry did not even get his forking degree when he left forking Davidson?!

The GSW is better because they have the best players.

 

You can argue Morey is not a very good GM on evaluating the players basketball talent, but saying that his analytics are missing out all these other bullcrap factors, is just dumb.

Like Charles.

 

I saw who the writer (Andrew Sharp) was and the title and didn't even read it.

 

Wow - must have been hard for Andrew Sharp to turn a 140 character statement into a full article like that. Needles to say, I'm not a fan of Sharp or any of the other writers discovered by Bill Simmons with the notable exception of Zach Lowe.


An many have noted - it's hard to buy his argument given the entire roster went to the WCF last year with the same "bad chemistry". My personal take is once we got 11 games into the season, Houston was getting blown out game after game after game(worst start for any team in league history!), and they decided to just blow it up - that they had already waltzed their way out of a top 3 slot at that point(with the Spurs and Warriors moping up teams), and they were already looking like a bottom seed anyway so they flushed the season down the drains, fired McHale, kept JB at coach and are hoping that they fall out of the playoffs to salvage something of value from the Lawson pick.

 

Leo has light brown hair that darkened as he aged. I should know, we look alike. We even have the same hair.

 

they are not better simply because they have the best players. it's definitely not that. You seem to like to neglect all the stuff you can't see in front of you that is just as important to winning as being able to just shoot 3s

 

A very good post but you are wasting your time with this bunch who would prefer to bury their collective heads in the sand rather than to dare to question Morey's (aka Dork Elvis) methods. Sharp's observations on Morey's methods are totally on point especially when he writes:

This describes why the pairing of Harden and Howard isn't working as well as first thought because little to no thought was given to the system in which they would wind up playing. This is the story of this season as the Rockets as a team is underperforming at a level that's far below the collective talent level of the individual players on said team.

 

The lack of synergy between those two is a key factor to why the Rockets didn't win in general, not just this passed year. Last season those two had little to no synergy either. What's troubling is this year Harden has almost no synergy with the rest of the team entirely. This is why Brewer, Terry, basically everyone has fallen off so dramatically. I totally agree that this bunch has both chemistry and synergy issues. Harden doesn't make his teammates better, he can go out get a triple double and still lose. That's troubling.

To say that is an artifact of construction, or to say that it is proof that Morey's only metric is analytics is where I take issue. You're extrapolating too far at that point. The Lakers didn't see that Howard and Bryant would have personality issues. Then, they saw those issues and still blasted LA with "Stay" banners. Chemistry be damned, we can make this team work! There are pairings in the NBA all the time that don't end up working, but to assume that they didn't work because they were sloppily constructed is a stretch.

 

So damn true that it hurts to think about it! This is the first time for me to say anything about Morey but maybe it is time to change him out. Don't know who with though?

 

Ugh, he said international soon-to-be rookie Porzingus walking away from the 76ers to join the Knicks during pre-draft meetings WAS JUST LIKE HOW 30 year old 12 year veteran in decline Bosh walked away from the Rockets to re-sign a 5 year supermax deal with his current multi-championship winning team in Miami where he's laid down his family's roots, owns a $15 million dollar beach paradise mansion, and where his wife has become a local socialite and reality tv celebrity on Basketball Houswives.

Sure nothing wrong with that at all. I mean,
A) both basketball players
B) both guys are tall
C) both guys chose 1 team over another
D) HINKIE - MOREY!!!! GET IT?!!?

 

But is that Morey's organizational system? Or more a "coaching issue" in not coaching up the players and devising a better offensive and defensive philosophy?

 

that depends if the comparison is to early 2000s dicaprio or bloated di caprio (now).

 

Yeah, I don't believe that either, but I do think they might talk themselves into some poor decisions based upon numbers, when style of play is more important.

Which STYLES fit together.

DD