<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mike D'Antoni and <a href="https://twitter.com/patbev21">@patbev21</a> are already on the same page. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rockets?src=hash">#Rockets</a> <a href="https://t.co/yknqjP2Asu">pic.twitter.com/yknqjP2Asu</a></p>— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/738165429412073472">June 2, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I don't know, that presser seemed really uncomfortable to me. Morey looked off for sure. Was it just me or did D'Antoni have a weird look on his face when Morey was speaking? Almost as though he knew that Morey wasn't a fan of the hire. Morey typically is all smiles during a presser with some genuine excitement behind it. This does not give me a good feeling at all. D'Antoni said nothing that makes me believe he's the guy for this job. Les is really losing me. He seems to be getting more and more delusional. Kind of almost has a Bud Adams feel in the sense that he just started going off the deep end the older he got. I'm hoping Morey will pull some free agent magic out of his backside to make all that don't like this hire feel a little better.
Clutch tweeted him <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">D'Antoni on <a href="https://twitter.com/patbev21">@patbev21</a>: "I love him." No hesitation. Raved about his improved 3pt shooting and energy.</p>— ClutchFans (@clutchfans) <a href="https://twitter.com/clutchfans/status/738087356847165440">June 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Just a quick note about my feelings... I don't like the hire on paper and from a probability standpoint think it is a high-risk move, but I think there is still a possibility it will turn out very well for the Rockets. I also think it could turn out very mediocre for them as well. A couple things about what Alexander said: 1) He said there were 3 coaches + D'Antoni to win 60 games twice in NBA history? I believe he cited Pop, Kerr, and Doc. It took me about 10 seconds to find 4 more than he mentioned (Auerbach, Sloan, Jackson, and Adelman), so I'm guessing there are about 20 more out there. 2) He said the top 3 teams in the West play "that way" referring to Warriors, Spurs, and Thunder... doesn't seem like those exactly fitting his template.
I read this thread with particular amusement. There were sure better choices than D'Antoni, but as a tactician of the game, he is light years better than McHale or Bickerstaff. Besides that, there are new assistant coaches who may do a whole a lot better job communicating to the players the importance of good defense, something the players seemed oblivious to it last year. Whatever, the new coaches and current and upcoming players better hit it hard during pre-season. Other teams are getting better and a hot start cannot be overstated.
Did they mention a stat on how many Head Coaches have won a title at their 4th stop, while not appearing in a Finals matchup in the first 3 HC gigs? I dont think MDA will win us a title and it seems like we're in for 2 years of 5th or 6th seed first round exits. Theyll do enough to keep us interested and watching/hoping, but not enough to actually win. The first couple minutes of the presser showed me Les wants to buy a title and not build to one.
You should have heard Morey on 790 right after. Dude gave zero ****s. It's like he already has one foot out the door.
would love to hear that interview if anyone has a link on edit: I actually found the link, haven't listened to it yet. http://sports790.iheart.com/onair/the-bottom-line-w-jones-clanton-57128/rockets-gm-daryl-morey-on-the-14771646/
I know this is way behind- but I've just now had a chance to watch that press conference. Wow. That was painful. D'Antoni seemed to be fairly charismatic actually but he also said absolutely nothing that would change my mind that I thought this was a horrible hire. Horrible. Terrible. And also.. wow. Leslie Alexander came across as misinformed, angry, and almost bitter. He seemed like the old man that kept yelling at kids to stay off his lawn and leaves him alone. I'm still hoping for the best for the Rockets but dang, I think I feel even worse about D'Antoni now than I did before.
well, I just listened to that interview with Morey, and I have to say I disagree 100% with your take. He was funny, alert, thoughtful, and articulate as usual. I think he did a great job of explaining the process of interviewing nearly a dozen candidates, and how they narrowed their focus and ended up with D'Antoni. He also explained a bit about the dynamic between owners and GMs, and it sounds like his working relationship with Les is just fine. He also mentioned in an offhand way how he hopes to stay for many more years. So I'd recommend to folks to just go ahead and listen to the interview for yourselves.
When I heard it live, I felt like his tone was an idgaf tone, at least in the beginning. He dropped some nice tidbits towards the end with the picking of a HC, but coupled with how he was in the PC, it felt like he was tired of it.
No, I get that, but I was pleasantly surprised by the radio interview. In the presser he looked like he was annoyed with Les asking him to speak, but here I thought he was closer to being back to his old self. Either way, I think this past season aged him an extra fifteen years . . . I think he's just exhausted from the stress of it all and the pressure to have to fix things quickly.
Regular season and postseason success are obviously not mutually exclusive. The last 4 times the Rockets have had the 2nd best record in the West, they made the WCF twice, the NBA Finals twice, and won the title in one of those trips. My point is that Les is obsessed with maintaining the illusion of competitiveness even when it's detrimental to the future of the team. For example, in the season following the 2009 playoffs when Yao's foot injury kept him out the entire year, the Rockets finished with a 42-40 record. But why? The 8th seed that season was OKC with 50 wins. There was no way we were making the playoffs and even if we did, we were an easy out sans Yao(not to mention Artest who'd bolted for the Lakers). Why not lose more games and try to get as many ping pong balls as possible? Instead we go out of our way to eek out a record of .500 or better which Les is fixated on and wind up with the 14th pick in the draft(which wound up being Patrick Patterson). Imagine if we had tanked that year, even just a little. You know who was taken before Patterson in that draft? DeMarcus Cousins(#5), Greg Monroe(#7), Al-Farouq Aminu(#8), Gordon Hayward(#9), and Paul George(#10). Regular season and postseason success are not mutually exclusive. But neither are losing seasons and building a contender. And Les did the same thing again the following year when Yao played a handful of games before reinjuring his foot and basically being done in the NBA. We go 43-39, miss the playoffs, and wind up with another 14th pick(this time it's Marcus Morris). Again, had we lost a few more games instead of trying to eek out another record of slightly above .500 we might've wound up with a far better pick. Klay Thompson was taken only 3 spots ahead of Morris. And it's still going on to this day. The Rockets could've kept their first rounder(which wound up being the 12th pick) had they simply lost one more game in the final week of the season. Instead, they go out of their way to sneak in as the 8th seed, predictably fall to the Warriors(even without Curry most of the series) in embarrassing fashion I might add, and now have no first round pick. This mentality of valuing meaningless regular season wins over a long-term plan to rebuild this team to contend for a title is why we're stuck in mediocrity for most of the past 2 decades. And nothing Les said today at the press conference has me believing things will ever change until the day comes when he finally sells the team to a new owner.
