Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey blames other teams for negativity - ESPN

http://espn.go.com/blog/houston-rockets/post/_/id/2552/rockets-gm-daryl-morey-defends-team-blames-other-teams-for-negativity

Rockets GM Daryl Morey defends team, blames others for negativity


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HOUSTON -- The Houston Rockets' season was disappointing on so many levels. Late Friday afternoon, standing on the team’s practice court, general manager Daryl Morey put the season on him but vowed things will improve.

But when it came to the dysfunction of the season that hampered this group, something several players confirmed following their knockout by the Golden State Warriors in five games with Stephen Curry playing just 38 minutes, Morey pointed at others.

He blamed other NBA teams for putting out negative stories about the Rockets.

“It’s smart for other teams to paint us in a very negative light,” Morey said. “It’s a very competitive free-agent situation -- all the articles you see out there are all the other teams trying to, smartly, paint our situation as negative. But I think any free agent that looks at us, they’re going to see a history of winning. We have the third-best winning percentage in the league the last 10 years, almost no losing seasons. We win at a very high level. There are very few teams that can put their track record of winning against ours.”


Rockets GM Daryl Morey says other teams have embellished the issues between James Harden and Dwight Howard in a effort to sway free agents away from Houston. AP Photo/John Raoux
The reality is the Rockets underachieved so badly that the owner, Leslie Alexander, fired coach Kevin McHale 11 games into the season, something the GM doesn’t regret. He said interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff did a solid job, but the team, less than 24 hours after its season ended, asked for permission to speak with Golden State assistant coach Luke Walton about the job.

Morey said no interviews have occurred yet, but that if things are to improve, the chemistry must. James Harden is at the forefront of this. He can no longer ride to road games by himself; he needs to be on the team bus like everybody else, unless, of course, he’s back in his native Los Angeles, visiting family.

NBA players have homes in cities where they grew up or played in previously and sometimes won’t stay at the team hotel on the road, and that’s fine for Harden and others. Outside of that, everybody needs to ride together on the team bus and team plane, stand together for the national anthem and huddle up together after player introductions.

Harden typically bolts to stretch his legs at the scorer’s table following player intros instead of huddling one last time with his teammates. It’s a small thing, a nitpicky deal, but when people on your team talk about dysfunction and chemistry, the little things -- like not huddling with your team after being introduced -- say something. It’s something Harden did at times last season, too.

A togetherness was missing.

Morey said nobody talked about chemistry last season when the Rockets were winning 56 games and reaching the West finals. He’s right. Everybody was happy; the Rockets had issues -- big and small -- yet won games.

It didn’t happen this season.

Many point to the relationship between Harden and Dwight Howard as the cause of the problems. It wasn’t good, but they didn’t hate each other -- it just didn’t work on the court. Harden seemingly lost trust in Howard’s game, and took more of the offensive load while others struggled.

It has led to reports from commentators saying nobody wants to play with Harden.

“I think that’s very smart, strategic positioning,” Morey said. “I had to address some of that last year when a certain owner [Mark Cuban] was painting our team in a bad light. This year is no different. I think it’s very smart that other teams are trying to paint our players in a bad light. It’s going to be a very competitive free-agency situation. James Harden, I don’t know who wouldn’t want to play with him -- a top-five player in the league, unbelievable passer, unbelievable scorer, a guy you can build around. Everything we hear is everyone wants to play with him.”

Houston will have the cap space to sign two major free agents this summer if Howard declines his player option, which he likely will.

Kevin Durant, Ryan Anderson and Al Horford are the leading candidates for the Rockets in free agency.

Will they get any of them?

It’s uncertain, and in reality, we won’t know until the first week of July. Harden is a fantastic player who plays well with others and produced with Howard last season in reaching the West finals.

Morey is fighting for his franchise because he knows nobody outside of his organization will defend it. He knows the Rockets can’t rebuild around only Harden, that they need to add another star player.

“It’s smart, it’s a very competitive free-agent situation coming up and being kicked while you’re down is a smart strategy by teams leaking things or trying to put things out there to make us look bad,” Morey said.

Morey is stating his case, doing his job, understanding the season was bad. That’s why they’re watching the rest of the postseason in the first month of the baseball season.

 

Why can't Morey learn to STFU? Get off Twatter, zip it, and get to work. There is enough for him to do - provided he's not fired soon - that there is little time for him to be mouthing off.

 

Whether what Morey said was true or not, a part of me thinks he brought this on himself and the Rockets organization.

Morey just loves showing off to the world how clever and special he is, at every opportunity he can get, whether be on Twatter or to the media; he simply doesn't know when to STFU.

The rest of the league must be feeling a sense of schadenfreude, and it I were in the same position, I'd gang up on Morey too.

 

Morey is like the Charlie Weis of basketball. Whereas Weis has his 'decided schematic advantage', Morey has his 'Moreyball'. Weis couldn't STFU even if his life depended on it, and Morey too suffers from persistent verbal diarrhea.

Both Weis and Morey just can't resist showing off how clever they are vis-a-vis their colleagues. Both are morons.