That's what so many people seem to miss. Every other GM had exactly the same film Morey did on Lin. The only additional time the Rockets had was ~ a week of practices, which most likely had the starters getting most of the reps considering we have a new coaching staff and no training camp. Every GM in the league made the same mistake as Morey in not recognizing Lin was capable of this, including the Knicks. Does any one really think it would have taken injuries forcing Lin into the starting line up for him to get the job on a team with horrible PG play if the Knicks knew he was capable of anything close to this level of play? He would have been starting or at the very least playing heavy back up minutes from day one. I wish he was doing it for the Rockets too, but unless you get a GM who doesn't have a job in the NBA right now, then every possible replacement who is currently a GM in the league made the same mistake of not realizing someone who shot 38% last year would be shooting 49.9% this season and scoring more than any superstar has in their first 6 NBA starts. Some people also seem to forget that Lin is 23, only 2 years younger than Lowry, being a 4 year college player in his second season in the NBA. Not the same as Kyrie Irving who is 19.
But on this board Morey beyond god of all GM's. You can't have it both ways, he can't be a GM god one minute & he missed like every other GM missed the next. Which is it?
That may be true, but it doesn't make me feel any better. We had him, he was ours. We had a potential NBA superstar on our roster and McHale and Morey had no idea. A big part of being a coach or GM is being able to evaluate players, and they both failed miserably. I remember seeing Lin play in our second pre-season game against San Antonio, he looked good in about 5 minutes of play. We had him for a week of practices, which was more than the other teams had. I guess Golden State feels even worse than we do, they had him for a lot longer than we did.
Personally I never have called Morey a "god" GM. I think he is a good GM who has done about as well as anyone can expect giving the circumstances of losing 2 superstars to career ending injuries. That doesn't mean he is incapable of making mistakes, or that I agree with every move he makes. If you want Morey gone, who do you want as his replacement? If you want him replaced with some other team's GM for missing on Lin, then you need to realise that every other GM in the league did the same thing. It wasn't a draft pick, any GM could have signed him off waivers, and if they recognized he would play THIS good, even the teams with super star PG's would have done so. I think there are a handful of GM's who could do equal or perhaps even better than Morey. I don't think those GM's are particularly likely to leave their current jobs to come here, given that our owner will not let us go the lottery route to improve. I also think there are significantly more GM's out there who would do a worse job than Morey, some of them being much worse. I don't see any way that changing GM's increases our chance of getting a superstar in the near future, but if you do I would love to hear why.
Dallas had him for an entire summer league. Every team in the league got to watch his 6 minutes of preseason play primarily against other players who were destined to hit the waiver wire or the end of their teams bench. I wish we would have kept him too, but logically speaking rewarding him with a contract based on that 6 minutes of one preseason game against non-rotation players makes less sense than when Dawson gave Kelvin Cato a huge contract after a monster preseason game. He didn't show anything in his actual on the court play for Golden State to hint that he might be capable of this. He still has to maintain this level of play for the long term. Flip Murray scored 20+ in 10 of his first 11 NBA starts for Seattle back in 03, and hasn't been a consistent force since. I don't think Lin is going to drop off to the point that he isn't a quality player, but I still have serious doubts that he is going to continue to play like a superstar. Is it realistic to expect the Rockets to recognize Lin might be capable of this in a weeks worth of practices as the 4th string back up, when the Knicks didn't recognize it for the first 24 games?
I've been down this road before. I'll just say Morey has been REALLY,REALLY, unlucky as a GM. Perhaps the unluckiest in the NBA ever.
Yes, and I haven't heard any convincing arguements as to why a different GM would be more "lucky" in his shoes.
Oh, so you saw the talent in Lin already when he was wearing a Rocket's uniform? What is your day time job? A scout in pro basketball? Why didn't you tell us at that time? Don't keep lieing to yourself. The consensus at that time is Lin would be a decent backup PG and slightly better than Johnny Flynn. As the GM, out of two comparable players, you always pick the one who has a guaranteed contract. Period. You would do the same under the situation. Period. No, you did not see the talent back then. Don't lie.
you wont get any convincing arguments from ol TEX there, he is so butthurt from Morey killing his dog that all he can do is post how much he hates him in EVERY.SINGLE.POST he makes. Dont beieve me? check his post history.
Woj talking Lin(notes I took/came away with): Went undrafted out of Harvard. He was from the Bay Area. They signed him. Didnt play a lot but got some opportunities. A lot of finger pointing going on there of who is to blame for cutting him. They released him, they said, to put an offer sheet out to DeAndre Jordan. I talked to Daryl Morey, the Houston GM. They brought him in after, into training camp for a very short time, really. They have Kyle Lowry, who has become a borderline All-Star, and Goran Dragic, who they think is a starter, and a 3rd PG in Jonny Flynn who is on a guaranteed deal and didn't really get much of an opportunity. Kevin McHale kept saying, they watched him practice, and said 'This kid is pretty good. He got some stuff.' But they just didn't....Daryl is honest about it. He said, "If I knew he was this good, we wouldn't have cut him." He said "Listen, this is what would've happened, if we had kept him in Houston, he wouldn't have played much this year. We would've never seen this and we probably would not have re-signed him at the end of the year. He would've been a FA or we would have released him." ----------------- Circumstances and timing for him are perfect and for Mike D'Antoni, he has probably saved his tenure in New York. ----------------- Look what he has done for Steve Novak. I have not seen Steve NOvak make shots like this since he was playing for Tom Crean at Marquette, and all the sudden, he has a home in the NBA because of Jeremy Lin. ----------------- I would imagine there are players who resent his attention. Don't think they'll be in the Knicks locker room. In terms of race, I think the biggest factor is that he is so unique, so different. It's Harvard. He's doing this for NY. NY stories become national, international. This is a perfect storm. For the league and Stern, to capitalize on this boom in China because of Yao, and when he left, that was a huge void, and Lin changes that, at least this week he did. It makes it a global story. The league is global. The ripples of what he is doing, I dont think another player could have. http://www.yahoosportsradio.com/nba/dan-wetzel-podcast-2-14-17218/
Are you serious? If a poster is critical of him, there are two other posters quickly responding in Morey's defense. Often that poster is insulted and asked if he could do better or who could do better. The Rox have a superstar, his name is Morey. At least on this board. Just sayin'
Did anyone call Morey "God" as you claimed? There is a difference between thinking that he did a good job under the circumstances and thinking he is God and never makes mistakes. Nobody made the latter claim, least of all Morey, who has said multiple times that player evaluation is an art and not a precise science despite their best efforts. Stop making up straw man BS arguments.
We literally have a meme here of "in Morey we trust." whose name replaces Morey's on our currency? :grin: honestly, i have the same perception about Morey from many on Clutchfans...I literally have had discussions where people have told me that Morey is so smart that other GM's won't deal with him, and that excuses him from making deals. It's ridiculous. I'm fine with Morey. I think Les has kept him from doing what he thinks is best to rebuild quickly. But there is absolutely a fair amount of Morey worship around here.
In Morey we trust was a half joking reference, as was the Morey in MSG pic. He has made many good moves, more than one can expect the average GM to make in his position, but nobody actually thinks he can do no wrong.
I just wish my team's superstar was on the roster. You do realize you just defended him by quoting words out of his mouth......Oh forget it.
i'm telling you right now, in morey we trust is not a joke for everyone here. i've seen it as a legit, serious post in these discussions. you can disagree with me all you like, but i've seen it consistently.
