The problem with his lack of basketball experience is more than compensated by his analytics and his meticulous work ethics. The problem of his lack of basketball experience, imo, is that he has no intuition in evaluating talent. Analytics only works when the data is sufficiently large and accurate. It cannot adequately evaluate whether a player will or will not improve, and how a guy's attitude would affect this. Another problem is the lack of understanding in how chemistry works. He just keeps shuffling players and hope some of them can gel.
Warriors are greater unfortunately. Hakeem is better than Harden and that team was better than the one we had last year. Hakeem is an all time great 2 way player, and that’s very special.
Why can't people realize that he probably takes more risk and achieves a higher result than any other GM in this league from a talent perspective. A byproduct of taking a high risk talent strategy is that most players will not work out, but the ones that do will more than make up for that. Humans in general tend to focus on the negative, particularly when that is the current state. However, you listen to other individuals (Woj podcast, Zach Lowe, Bill Simmons, etc.) cover him - they consistently rank him among the top GMs in the league and in sports - hence why he has had such a long tenure compared to his contemporaries. Nobody complains about how much crap Danny Ainge has blotched over his tenure, yet he ultimately got a few things right and delivered a championship and currently has a very promising roster along with a potential HOF spot. Stop ****ing focusing on the negative and enjoy the fact we have a world class GM and organization that stars will want to play. Our time will come and Morey will make sure of it.
I mean first we need a superstar(s), which explained the roster shuffling pre Harden. After we got Harden it was about filling out the roster with guys that could push us over the top. Building a team when you are capped out is tough and will require a lot of shuffling which is why Morey wants House long term. This board will complain whether Morey tries to think long term or goes all in. Obviously our core of Harden, CP3, Gordon, Tucker, and Capela will have players shuffled around. I've never understood the "Morey doesn't understand chemistry" when ultimately talent is what wins and it's very hard to acquire and keep talent. I mean wasn't Faried a great chemistry signing?
I won't disagree that these guys have had better offseason, but that's all based on circumstance. Ujiri is the one that maxed out DeMar DeRozan which was an obvious over pay at the time and was able to make a great low risk, high reward deal. Maybe Leonard ends up going to a LA team, but it was a great trade. The Raptors have been the Rockets East, with the inability to overcome the top team in the conference. I would have much rather preferred PG13 over CP3, but our fate was sealed as soon as we traded for an aging, all time great, point guard who WANTED to play here. Our depth is weak this season due to us resigning Capela and CP3 but let's not act like injury hasn't exacerbated the issue. He also drafted us Capela who is our second best player on the team. Lets not act like Gordon is having a bad/injury season when we needed him to step up. If we stayed healthy this season it would be a different story at this point. Harden/CP3 CP3/Gordon/Rivers House/Ennis/Clark Tucker/House/Ennis Capela/Fariad/Nene ^^^ That's a good team if healthy at the mid way point.
Let's look at Morey's last off-season. Signed CP for 40 mil a year, signed Ennis, Melo, and MCW. Those are some f*cking terrible moves. Jesus.
Injuries have hurt us no doubt, but Ennis has been a big disappointment even though, he is good enough for his contract. I just don't know how Morey decides whether a player will be good for the team or not. Pure basketball skills seem to take a back seat in my opinion. That is not the case in every situation, and everyone makes mistakes too. Last season our overall talent was not as good as GS, but they gelled brilliantly, because they knew how to play according to their roles.
I'm not sure what you mean by "pure basketball skills". I think well rounded basketball players that have good overall skills and NBA size/strength/length are generally locked up and probably need to be overpaid for. I think Morey decides whether a player is good or not (I think "worth it" better describes it) based on the contract and skill. We know Morey will pass on skill if he has to overpay for it, but not always (Ryno). Going back to Easy's chemistry comment, I think it is hard to plug and play players. I don't think Morey undervalues that aspect, but its just a necessary thing with how the NBA cap/contract structure is setup.
I think we would have made it the finals at least if the Warriors weren't historically good. Circumstance, chance, luck, whatever, plays such a large part. Remember it took many other GMs passing on Curry, Thompson, and Green to get to this spot.
He’s not perfect but he’s not overrated. Sure, he’s made some mistakes here and there but you all need to realize something. Only 1 team wins a championship. That means every team that doesn’t win it is scrutinized in one way or another. Morey is a great GM that 9 out of 10 teams would love to hire...
I don't disagree with most of what you said here. I am not a Morey basher. I have been on record more than a few times that Morey is a very good GM. (I hope he retires a Rocket. ) But I don't see the need for defending him on everything he does. He is not perfect and I think has his blindspots. The "talent wins" cliche is overused imo. Of course you can't win without talent. But talent does not automatically wins. Character, attitude, personality, and yes, chemistry, are all important factors. Dwight Howard was a great talent. Carmelo Anthony was a great talent. Ty Lawson was a very good talent. These guys all have flaws that are non-talent related. I never wanted Melo, even the first time when he was still in his prime. I was skeptical about Dwight even though I knew it was reasonable in getting him when it was available. I was actually excited about Lawson and he turned out to be worse than nothing. TBH, I am still holding my breath about Chris Paul. Nobody would deny that CP3 is a great talent. But his injury history poses a huge risk. If there was tacit agreement that he would be signed to a max after last season, then Morey basically gambled five seasons for a window of about two seasons. A lot of people say that it was worth it because we could have won if he wasn't hurt. But his getting injured was actually not that surprising. And his supposed leadership quality and ability to recruit other stars might just be overrated if you look at his histories with the Pelicans and the Clippers. The point is, you can't win without talent. But having talent does not guarantee success. You have to look deeper into what kind of talent you get. And Morey does not seem to have an intuition in this area.
I hope all you Morey haters are prepared for him to **** slap you with an amazing deal this deadline. Don't doubt the Wizard.
It's pretty hard. But that is exactly why I do not rate him. I give him the benefit of the doubt until the end of his career. There is too much mediocrity and some really great deals. By criticizing him I do not mean to get him fired.....it's a method to egg him on, to undo his mistakes.
You could say Boston is a midtier market but their championship legacy of 10+ ships is what attracts the FAs. Houston is a big city but marketwise it's okay-ish.
Boston is one of the largest media markers because it accounts for more than just Boston. The New England market. Houston is not a great basketball market at all
