Morey is great for content but at the same time his easy access also allows others to read exactly what he wants to do. When is the last time Pat Riley, Pritchard or Ujiri had an AMA? Take Moreyball for example Morey was instrumental in destroying the mid range myth and revolutionizing the NBA offenses but at the same time since everyone copied him the Rox' advantage was gone. Before everyone knew how impt 3 pts were 3nD guys were treated as a dime a dozen and didnt get paid and Rox had their pick of wings, now they are at a premium and the team cant compete cuz they dont got money. Trevor Ariza made 7M in his prime but 15M when he washed up and near retirement, think about that. In the beginning very few teams used analytics in scouting and teams like Boston and SaS rarely talked about it. As a result when Rox started doing it as well they got so much talent even out of the lotto Aaron Brooks, Landry, Scola, Patterson, Lowry all these guys were extremely under valued. But due to Moreyball and Pritchard crowing about their results suddenly everybody copied them and now I cant remember the last time Rox had a steal in the draft. Morey being extremely open and upfront about his methods is good for CF discussion but bad for actually winning a ring imo. There's a reason Popovich and Belichick intentionally keeps media at arms length during interviews.
MJ only won when he had the 2nd best wing and one of the best coaches around him. MJ/Pippen a lot more unfair than Lebron/AD given the severe lack of competition they were up against. There were a lot of great players during MJ era but guess what alll of them had sucky teams there wasnt even a SAS level team back then with 1 superstar, 2 stars and an elite role player. Compare to the Lebron era KG Celts, Kobe Gasol Lakers, TD Spurs, KD GSW etc all these teams would destroy all the non Chicago teams in the MJ era. Even Hakeem was playing with broken Sampson and a cokehead backcourt. Imagine if Lebron and Wade both got drafted in Miami and Riley signed Bosh thats literally what happened to MJ but I guess that doesnt count right? Lebron is lazy for playing 16 yrs straight and making the Finals like 9 yrs straight but MJ isnt lazy for quitting bball 3 times and resting every time he wins 3 rings. You realize Lebron has played more years now than MJ's entire career right? Ok Lebron won 47 games well MJ won 0 games cuz he is retired by that point. Do you know what lazy even means? Reaching Finals for almost a decade straight is soft but retiring 2 times, 1 time to play baseball isnt soft? Its fine you want to criticize Lebron for not being perfect but then you gotta realize MJ is even more soft and lazy than Lebron is, and the facts proved it 15 yr playing career vs 16 yrs and counting. At some point all these stupid criticism has got to stop. Literally makes zero sense now. And before you tell me you never talked about MJ if you barely got Lebron in your top 5 where do you out MJ? If laziness is such a big factor to you then MJ should be a lot lower than Lebron dude played less years and even rested 2 times. Dont tell me Lebron is lazy but MJ isnt just apply the same standards to both players.
Pippen wasn't always the best wing, he was underpaid and grew to be that guy. Things worked out for them. PJax also grew to be the coach. AD was nurtured in Nola. I am strictly against this Goat convo, nothing good comes out of it. I would gladly give then Jordan the recovery chamber of Lebron's and all that money. People forgot that Jordan played for 3 million a year in salary most of his career.
What does salary have to do with playing ability? Pippen was picked 5th in the lotto, same as Dwade. If you gonna argue Pippen grew into that guy Dwade did as well. Jordan and Pippen being underpaid just shows how much more help they got, since they were making less Chicago was able to afford a lot more depth around them which gave them a lot more advantage than Lebron making the max. Case in point Miami was able to afford Bosh and Lebron cuz all 3 took less than the max. Since MJ and Pippen took a bigger discount than Lebron Wade and Bosh then obv those 2 got more help than the Miami Big 3. It actually helps Lebron's case not hinders it. I dont care who people think is the Goat I just want the same standards applied to all players. You cant criticize one guy for X and then conveniently forget the other dude was worse. I dont even have Lebron as my goat it is Kareem who played 20 yrs pretty much as a superstar. If MJ won all his rings by himself then ok but he played with a superstar, AAA cast just like Lebron and even quit earlier than Lebron so you can't criticize Lebron for looking for power teams and being lazy when MJ had as much help and played even less years. Just common sense man.
Exactly, MJ was not good enough to carry a team to the playoffs once he was with the Wizards. He lost something. Before he would've carried any team to the playoffs. In his prime he's on the list. So is LeBron in his prime. LeBron just isn't the type to carry a bad team right now. He used to be. I'm not and I haven't been trying to criticize LeBron for anything. I'm saying he's not one to carry a bad team now. He used to be. Harden and Westbrook would still both carry bad teams to a playoff birth. So would a small handful of others right now, but right now LeBron wouldn't do it because he's not hungry enough for just playoffs... dude wants chips. Nothing wrong with that.
Like I said you are basing your entire argument on 1 year on a new team and that had others injured. Seems really legit. The only data you have is from 1 year, your right its not a theory you go to have more data points than that.
I’m started to hate Morey. He’s doing moves than he’d never do in Houston in the harden era. He’s really building a mix of the Tmac and Yao teams again. The Dwight/Embiid move reminds me of having Yao and Mutumbo
Yes. I am. I am saying what I said because he was not good enough to lead a bad team to the playoffs. It's not a knock on him or something. He's just not that guy that will do whatever it takes to get into the playoffs anymore. He's hungry for championships, not playoffs. That's not a bad thing. It just means he's not the guy you can trade to any team and just about guarantee playoffs. Harden is. Westbrook probably is. Kawhi is most likely. It just so happens that LeBron failed at my test... which is to have a crappy bunch of teammates and carry them to the playoffs. It's not like that was ten years ago. It was 2019. This has nothing to do with quality of the player. LeBron is peak quality. Best in the game most likely. In the recent playoffs he was unreal. Loved what he was doing. I can't figure out why you have a problem with this? I believe if you put him back on that 2018-2019 roster with Ball and all them... he sputters out. You put James Harden on that squad... PLAYOFFS! (it's not a trick, it's about hunger and drive for just getting to the playoffs. ((((((not a championship.. playoffs)))))))
dont worry about him bro ... what Morey knows without a shadow of a doubt is that the team will go as far as the best player can take them. There is no wonder why he's going balls to the wall in trying to get Harden on the Sixers. There is nobody on the Sixers who can carry that team - they will all need to play at high levels to be considered contenders. James and 5 guys from Fonde Community Center could make the playoffs. Im liking what Stone is doing in his short time so lets focus on our guys and forget what ex employees do or say. Morey will be baptized by Philly Fan in due time!!
Morey discussion E-Gaming, Chess, Theater, International Relations???, etc... doesn't matter. I prefer a quiet, ball, focused, GM who's not trying to be witty or build his brand or whatever. I want a winning GM not the coolest GM.
Why should a dude be hungry for the playoffs but not be hungry for the chips? IIRC he also had a torn ballsack that year you are criticisizing so he wasnt healthy enough to carry a team anywhere. Lebron just averaged 25 7 10 thats good enough for any player regardless whether their team makes the playoffs or not. He is the consensus best player in the NBA lmao just stop you make 0 sense.
Never saw MJ rest on defense when he played. Never. MJ also never needed load management either. Love him or hate him, lazy and MJ are not synonymous.
Right. You're right about everything. He's still not a lock for the playoffs if some terrible team suddenly gets him. That's my only point. You're taking this somewhere else and I have no idea why. I'm not like, "hey yo, LBJ sucks". I'm like saying what I'm saying and you're not ACTUALLY reading it. Then I keep replying to someone that doesn't read my points. Slow down. Read. It's all there. I don't hate LeBron.
Danny Green, Dwight Howard and Seth Curry moves the needle that much for you? I see Miami, Milwaukee, Brooklyn and Boston on par with what Philly is doing.
Sorry to jump in. But you really think Harden would have made the playoffs with that team? Here was their top rotation after LeBron: Ingram (missed 30 games) Kuzma Ball (missed 35 games) Rondo (missed 36 games) KCP McGee The only players who could score in double digits were Ingram and Kuzma. I am no LeBron fan. But let's not go overboard in saying Harden is so much better than LeBron. Nobody could have made the playoffs in the West with that trashy team.
Yeah I do. I've seen Harden go out with D-Leaguers, put them on his back and gets W's. There's just more endurance to do that kind of thing when you're younger. There were enough pieces on that team for a playoff birth if you have Harden. ... In my opinion.. the facts can't be discussed obviously.
