He should win easily. We had one of those off-seasons I saw other teams have all the time where it’s like how can they retain their guys and then still sign all these other coveted FAs
I think Stone has done a great job, but this is an unfair comparison. Les Alexander never let Morey rebuild. Before six weeks ago, he had never drafted higher than 12th. It would have been interesting to see what Morey could’ve done in a rebuild with a clean cap sheet.
As much as I loved Morey when he was here, he never factored in the actual human relationships into any of his models - every move was strictly focused on analytics and salary cap maneuvering (was masterful at that). He still doesn't have a good grasp of the human relationships and chemistry building elements in Philly either, and honestly it's a big shortcoming of his. Still early, but the past year or two (post KPJ/Silas) it does seem like Stone has a bit more EQ and connection/relationship with the players.
Let's be honest, the only player I've ever seen Morey have anything seemingly resembling a "good relationship" with a player was with Beard, the person whose talent he rode to credibility and apparently another factor in our team being viewed as dysfunctional an environment to work in amongst the other players in the league. Stone and Ime seem to be building a significantly stronger culture all round, and a huge part of that appears to be being done on that human level more than on the "metrics" that Morey's so obsessed with and have still never given him any real successes, especially now he doesn't have prime Beard propping him up. Our players are all fully bought in, I'd rather that than one player who's bought in and a few random people stood waiting for open 3's whilst he does what he does.
This notion feels like one of those things that gets more and more exaggerated over the years. Never and strictly are strong words, I would go out on a limb and say they aren’t a completely accurate description of how he worked as a GM. My opinion, him being the first big numbers guy rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He was a very smart GM who influenced the league A LOT with his ideas, even if he never won it all himself.
"Never" and "strictly" are indeed strong words. And Morey is clearly a very smart GM. But the general point is true IMO. Morey does underestimate the human factors in basketball. It's not just about relationships and chemistry. It's also about character, work ethics, mental toughness, etc. Players are human beings, not just machines that churn out numbers. Their performances are affected by a lot of things besides talent and skills. Morey seems to believe that if you can assemble enough talent, you will win by virtue of percentage. I think that's also why he does not value draft picks for team building. Picks are just trade assets for him. It takes a lot of assessment on human factors to evaluate potential. We all know that talent alone does not guarantee success in the NBA.
Idk how true is it that he underestimates it or that it even matters. Jordan bulls, kd warriors, kobe lakers, tons of teams had horrific chemistry and won titles because they had the best players.
I think Morey was a transformative GM for the league during his peak, but he had his time with the Rockets. Feels like some combination of the league has caught up and he just doesn't have the same drive. Stone certainly has the drive right now as Morey's protégé and seems to have built a good infrastructure. His contract and cap work has been A+ which seems to be his specialty but his team has been great at evaluating. I think 2nd in the West is still very much on the table and I think doing it a second time will get Stone his accolades.
The Harden-Dwight debacle is a good example of how top talents don't win. Morey's obsession of chasing big ego guys like Melo proved to be a bad idea. Getting talented but questionable characters like Terrence Williams and Royce White are also example of collecting talents ignoring the human factors can make you look bad. BTW, the KD Warriors is not a good example. The original team was already a dominant team with a championship core. KD wasn't going to ruin that.
I mean they made the WCF and dwight was a shell of what he was pre injury. Stone has done the same with the questionable guys like kpj, except he also gave him a ludicrous extension.
Morey went into an even better situation in Philly. He even had the option to rebuild in Philly he did none of that.
He looks unhealthy and more out of shape than ever. He looked like he was ready to take some time off until Philly threw $50M at him. He just does not have the edge he had when he was in Houston those first 5-10 years. I think a lot of it has to do with that he has his hands tied w Embiid being injured, there really is not a lot of pressure. He has likely made over $130M in the NBA and decided to get fat and give up. That is why he and Harden probably got along so well.
