There's more ground to the OP's idea to can him, than to claim he's a top 3 gm. If Martin is still here and we don't have a top 8 draft pick (whether it be by sucking or trading up) on draft night this summer, Morey needs to go. So far the OP is 100% correct... We won't be bad, but we won't be good, forever at this pace. You can blame Adelman, Les, Stern, Tmac, and Yao's foot for why we are where we are right now. But with the McHale hire, moving forward it's on Daryl. With this team right now, we're on a fast track to drafting in the early to mid-teens.
Um. If your boss tells you jump after tying 50 pounds weights to your ankles, you still have to try to jump because he is your boss.
True. But smart observers don't take those results to be indicative of your ability as a jumper, either.
I totally call BS on if the Rockets had torn down the team after Yao got hurt in 2009 this team would be done with tanking. I'll give you any of the lottery picks in 2010 and 2011, and I'll still guarantee that if the roster doesn't have Lowry/KevMart/Scola (since I'm assuming you don't resign/trade for them and still get a top 5 pick), the Rockets would be picking in the top 5 for at least 2 more years. Outside of the 2003 Draft, how many teams take less than 4 years to completely rebuild after bottoming out? And there certainly isn't a LeBron/Duncan/Howard coming out next year.
But a bad GM screws up a team way, way worse than a bad coach. A bad coach can be replaced relatively painlessly, and in fact can actually benefit from doing things opposite to the previous regime. A bad GM can sabotage a team for years; it seems way more prudent for a team which is not an immediate contender to keep the front office intact and gamble on the job that will have less risk. All the coaching in the world can't help you if you don't have talent on the team.
It's incredibly sad that most people probably won't read this since it's already buried in a terrible 1-star thread, but this is a very concise and thought out reply.
You don't give up lottery picks for guys like Battier who are a dime a dozen and readily available through minor transactions, especially when arguably the most talented player in the draft falls into your lap. This is when you readjust what ever your plans are, take him, and don't look back.
I just don't know what any other GM could do better than Morey has under the circumstances. He drafts well, makes good trades (better ones if they didn't get vetoed), and manages the cap very well. He could probably stand to have better relationships with players and handle coaching changes a little more gracefully but those are things he can work on. His main problem is that Alexander wants to win every season and refuses to tank. That's on Alexander, not Morey. If I were in charge I'd see this Morey conrolling the coach experiment through for a year or two and then give More permission to tank if we aren't getting better. Only after that proves unsuccessful would I fire Morey.
A great coach can fill a lot of holes that the gm created. Battier and hayes are both coming off the bench and brooks is in china. Those 3 guys were starting on the rockets team. The rockets have been blessed by good/great coaching since jvg got here. Yao Ming missed a lot of games and the team had alston starting and won 50 games. Pick a solid coach like doc rivers or stan van gundy and they wouldn't win 50+ games with the 06,07,or 08 roster with the injuries they had. Give them the roster the rockets had the last 2 yrs and I don't think they go .500 either. That was great coaching despite how short term thinking it was. I think petrie is a pretty good gm, but when was the last time the kings have been relevant? Yep, adelman was the coach. What adelman has done in this league speaks way louder than what morey has done or is doing. I think adelman has his faults in game and I haven't been shy to say it, but the guy knows how to maximize talent. Yes he should've found time for wallace, petro, and even robinson, but look at the guys who had their best years under him. Webber wasn't seen as the player he became until he got to sacramento. At that point, he was a underacheiver and had off the court issues. Christie was much like terrence williams. Taleted swing guy without a shot. Christie goes to the kings and he's a vital piece in the playoff runs they make. Bibby was a good player, putting um numbers on a bad grizzlies team. He gets traded for williams and now he's considered a great player. I could go on and on. Now the pundits will say it was petrie who traded for these players and I do think he deserved some credit for it, but adelman was the chef. Adelman was the chef of the gumbo that made it work. He knew how much file',crab meat, rue, shrimps, and flour to mix together and make it work. My gumbo don't taste like my moms gumbo despite watching her make it my entire life and despite buying the same ingredients. Adelman didn't want to leave and it sounded like a power struggle of sorts. Les has the last word and he settled for morey and adelman walked out. Adelman never cared for morey and the way he operated as a gm. This isn't a rumor, this is a known fact. He could tolerate a lot of it, but the constant trade rumors and the log jamming of alike players was too much. Adelman should've been kept and morey should've been shown the door and rossas could've moved in as gm. Just my opinion.
You realize the same stability that Adelman wanted, and left because he could not get it, means keeping vets like Martin/Scola that you prefer to pawn off for scraps. Adelman is also the same guy who scoffed at trading our vets for Rubio, fearing he would get fired. It is a damn irony that after Rubio turns the Wolves around now, Adelman will be the one getting credit. I find that hilariously tragic, for the Rockets.
Who cares if Adelman didn’t want to trade three starters for the dazzling Spanish point guard? It’s not like that was what kept Morey from doing it, Minny just didn’t want to. And Adelman understandably didn’t want to get fired from the tanking that would have ensued from losing three key players and not having Rubio come over for another two seasons. It’s a pretty legit fear when the tyrannical ******* Les tried to fire him just a few games into last season. As for Minny, it’s true that Rubio is helping them turn things around, but you can’t deny Adelman’s impact there as well. I’m sure Rubio would be coming in and playing well if Kurt Rambis was still there, but the Wolves still wouldn’t look like the improved team they do under Adelman. They’re putting up a fight against all the elite teams, playing defense, and the players admit their whole team culture has changed for the better. I’m not saying what leeb is; I think Morey is a great GM, and a great GM is far more needed for the Rockets right now than a great coach. But let’s give credit where credit is due regarding Adelman as well.
