Daryl Morey on the Rockets 2009 Lottery "Bust" Pickups

I would call this a valid approach, but I'm not sure anybody in the NBA is following it. DM clearly is not.

In fact, this is the opposite of what DM does. Scola and KM are almost the last guys that he will trade, because they have the most trade value. We want the All-Stars; we are not going to trade our bottom 10 players for Dwight Howard. Any trade for somebody bigger than Scola or KM will have to include players that are only one level below them.

DM was happy to trade Scola and KM for Gasol. This is the kind of trade he was saving them for. I doubt that DM cares about all the reasonably-talented players the Rox have sitting idle. They're on the roster to add to the total talent, and to move up whenever we might be able to trade somebody ahead of them.

 

high-larious. Stern is in charge of the Hornets, he wanted a better deal then was offered, so he stepped in and nixed it, wanting a better one. He got a better deal for the team he's in charge of. How on Earth we can keep talking about this like it's not something any owner would do if they thought they could and should get a better offer is pathetic. You go and offer $7 for a pizza somewhere, the store manager says "sure, I'll take it" but before it's completed the owner shows up and thinks they could get $8 instead, another guy shows up with $8, deal is made. Crude analogy, but it almost seems warranted with the amount of crying going on over what happened.

Besides, if the best Morey could do after all these "wonderful" assets he's been attaining is Gasol.....i don't know what to tell you.

 

I agree with you assestment on Thabeet. Everything else I question.
For one this is a new system more of a pick & roll sytem RA was more of a motion/cut offense. So all the players are new to it even though the system itself is quite basic & not new at all. So in fairness to T.Will, J.Hill, & Thabeet they all deserve the same slack as Flynn under you rationale.

Playing young players in a shortened season is a double edge sword. Do you give them a lot of in game experience and become irrelevant (Kings, Wizards, G.S. can attest to this model) & take your chances on landing Drummond, Davis, or Leonard (only game changer centers I see)? Or do you allow them to develop at a slow but steady rate preparing them for the playoffs & possibly getting bounced early due to the lack of superior talent across the board? Pick you poison either way its painful.

I'd much rather grow as a squad increase trade value on a winning team than to depreciate trade values of our legit assets to solely develop our youngsters. Where on a general evalutaion really aren't worth the development thus far (I see maybe one consistent game changer P.Pat his kind aren't lacking in any draft though. Possibly Parsons I like how his game has translated)

 

I offer an alternative explanation. First, I don't think Morey cares much about needs; he is more interested in long-term trading strategy. To the extent that he does care, I think he likes having all the assets concentrated in a couple of positions because it hurts the team THIS year, and means we get a little better draft pick than if we distributed our talent better among the positions and won a few more games.

I should add, however, that SF was our second-weakest position for a while now, and that it is probably just due to chance that it is now one of our stronger slots.

Long-term, Morey wants to win, but finishing eighth instead of ninth in a given year isn't where it's at for him; his big goal is to win the championship once every ten years, and improve from there.

 

I dont know how long I have been saying this now - Our whole 2009 class sucks. Why has Morey taken so long to admit this? And no it does not kill trade value because there is no value to begin with.

 

What happend to Jermaine Taylor, when he landed in Houston several weeks ago?

 

I very much agree with this post.

I expected pretty much nothing out of these 2009 guys. Their main value to me is freed up cap room next offseason. I actually think Jordan Hill has had some good games and at least seems to show effort most of the times, although he seems to have some attention span issues or something.

But the biggest disappointment to me this season - by far - is Patrick Patterson. I expected this guy to improve A LOT, but he seems more passive than Jordan Hill to me. His production is minimal. At least with other players, even Jordan Hill, you sometimes see an outburst of production, like 15 rebounds and 5 blocks. Haven't seen anything like that from Patterson. I don't see any fire in him when he plays. It's a shame because I think he could be much further along. I hope he will break out at some point this season.

 

But your goal is to win games, not develop Thabeet. The backup C mins are going to J. Hill, who also needs some PT to develop. With Thabeet, I think Mchale isn't putting him in the rotation not because he sucks, but because he's lazy and doesn't give effort. Otherwise why make Adrien your 12 (or 13th?) guy?

I mean, if he can't even beat the 6'6 D league dude for the last roster spot its its on him.

 

Didn't you know that PPat wasn't 100 percent? Physically and mentally......he has to play himself into shape.... and that takes time..... He had 12 points against Detroit....which helped us win the game

 

I know he was injured, which (together with the glimpses he showed last season) makes me hopeful (in contrast to the 2009ers) that he will eventually improve, but Lowry was also injured. Having been injured doesn't mean that one needs to appear passive on the court when one is back.

 

Morey stated he was very careful with the injured part.... slower than expected. I think he was just being too careful and not going all out there.
Apparently the coaching staff trusted him and gave him enough minutes.

Last game his jumper made a cameo. His mental toughness should come back.

 

LOL what are you talking about? The most we gave for 09ers was a lottery protected draft pick.

Just because the result itself was a fail doesn't mean the decision itself was wrong. Sure, the 99er bets didn't pan out but we paid such a small price to get them it doesn't really matter. Its a low-risk high reward move, the chance of success is low but you won't end up losing sleep over it. Regarding the 99ers, I think both T-Will and J-Hill are worth keeping, I think they have some good potential. Thabeet and Flynn are just roster wastes and should be cut for Greg Smith and a decent 3rd string pg.

 

#assets

 

Thabeet has 2 problems, no talent, and no desire.

The problem with all 4 09ers is the same, right between the ears.

 

i understand he makes his own corn dogs, though. delicious.

 

Love the honesty.

I wonder how this is going to reflect on his next draft picks or trades for that matter...

 

If we make the playoffs we lose our 1st round pick for Twill, so it has an effect.

DD

 

lottery protected?

 

He softens his commentary with qualifiers like "yet," and clearly hopes these guys will step their games up and prove their critics wrong. Here's hoping they'll do so. They've been called out by their boss, and it 's on them to respond.