In trying to understand Morey's method to madness, I thought I'd put up a "Morey's rationale" thread. <The trade that must not be named> My theory is that Daryl saw Memphis' success last playoffs and decided to build on a similar model. The Grizz recipe: 1) Skilled post player who can be focal point of offense Gasol > Zbo 2) Complementary post player that is efficient, a good defender and a physical presence in the paint Nene = Gasol 3) Good and dependable PG play Lowry > Conley 4) Solid perimeter defenders. Tony Allen = Courtney Lee (Allen is slightly better defender but Lee has 3 point range) 5) Deep bench Hayes, Patterson, TWil, Parsons, Morris, Chase We know that size kills in the playoffs. Just look at LA and MEM's success in recent years. Even Dallas put out their three 7 footers in the title run last year. I think that this was the thought process in trying to trade for Gasol earlier this year. I think Morey was aiming for a top 4 regular season record with the aims of just physically abusing teams in the playoffs. This is just one theory. Any other thoughts about other previous deals or upcoming trade deadline ruminations?
lol There is no way Morey is following the Memphis model, which is a bunch of overpaid players and no real shot at a championship.
No Western conference team will want to face a heathly Grizz team in the first round. No one. The 'potential team' that Morey was aiming for would've been a little better than that Memphis team. Nene/Hayes Gasol/Patterson/Hill Chase/Parsons/Morris Lee/Twil Lowry/Flynn vs Gasol/Hadd Zbo/Arthur Battier/Young Allen/Mayo Conley/Vaz tell me who you would pick in a 7 game series
No real shot? #3 seed without randolph. Game 7 last year in semis without gay. They are a real threat in the west. Once they get randolph back,no team wants to play them at all. I'm not saying they can beat miami, but they've proven they can beat teams in the playoffs. Good defensive team,low post scoring,they turn teams over also.
Memphis is what I want the Rockets to be meaning big, low post presences, good defensively, great SG / SF and a hard working PG.
There are probably several deals on the table for the Rockets to do, but Morey is holding out for the Howard / Dwil situation to clear before he makes any moves. A package of: Lowry, Martin, Patterson or DMo, Parsons or Morris, Dalembert, and NYK 1st + 2nd rounders, mixed with 09 fillers is definitely possible for a Howard rental + Hedo dump. The best deals usually come at the last minute. We do fairly well in those scenarios because we are generally well prepared.
You're thinking too hard... First, a lot of the pieces you've mentioned were acquired before the Grizzlies' run, so how could Morey plan for it before it happened? Second, Morey isn't going to throw his stats, history, and everything else out the window to copy a team that hasn't even made the conference finals. Now that, would be something worth firing him over. Third, a team needs defense and a double team magnet to win it all, that's been known for a long time. Big men are more efficient. Not a lot of good ones around = Higher chance of the good ones being efficient and better. Morey was thinking not one, but two quality bigs who could play both ends (one a double team magnet) would take this team over the hump. Plain and simple.
San Antonio I think if healthy could beat a healthy Memphis team in a series of 7. I don't think that memphis will have that mental toughness that san antonio has. And this is coming from someone that hates the spurs
what you dont understand is morey wants to rebuild and les(a.k.a. droopy the dog) wants to be competitive so les (a.k.a. elmer fudd)still has the final say in any deal
That would be interesting. The Heat would have a lotta trouble against the raw physicality of a healthy Memphis team. I would like to point out (as far as I've seen) there hasn't been A SINGLE TRADE this entire season.
Pau Gasol is overpaid at this point (and it would get even worse with the trade kicker) and Nene would have been severely overpaid by Morey at the $15M+ he was going to get. Why does it matter what players are getting paid when it's not coming out of your pocket and your team is fighting for home court in the playoffs? As for the OP, yeah, that’s basically what Morey was trying to do. Maybe not "copying" Memphis per se, but seeing their playoff success probably reaffirmed things for him. Morey finally learned that lack of size was killing us, and since we’ll never trade for a superstar, a twin tower setup like Memphis would be a nightmare matchup for a lot of teams that lack size. I don’t think we’d be as good as Memphis is, but we’d surely be a hell of a lot better than we are now.
I think you could say that Memphis' success is as much based on their physicality as their size. Marc Gasol and Randolph are both big men who aggressively use their bodies to gain the advantage. While Pau is more skilled than either of them, his aggressiveness waxes and wanes depending on how he responds to his defenders tactics, which is why you see his up and down production (granted, his intensity is higher in the playoffs which lessens the valleys of his aggression). Memphis was able to control the paint and the boards with a Gasol/Randolph and was able to somewhat control the perimeter with the physicality of Tony Allen. I don't think you could say the same thing for the hypothetical Pau/Nene/C Lee combo you were posturing. The point being, even if Morey were to acquire two bigs, I highly doubt they would be in the mold of Memphis, and most assuredly that is not the way we would utilize them.
Lol, Grizz fans, win a playoff series and think everyone wants to be like you. The idea of a great post presence and good two-way wings isn't original it's been around for a long time. (How about the Lakers a couple years back?)
If Morey wants to find himself the next Zach Randolph, he needs to get Big Al. Randolph was always looked at as a black hole stat padder that didn’t help his team win, kind of like Big Al is viewed as right now. But Z-Bo turned things around last season by becoming a team player and leading them to wins. We really need a big, physical post player to fit McHale’s coaching philosophy, and Big Al seems to be turning the corner and becoming more team oriented: Remember, Z-Bo and Big Al were the two players that Chuck Hayes said he had the hardest time guarding...
Low post scoring is making a comeback except for kobes team. Zach was never used properly, specially in NY. Posting and driving to the basket are lost arts in today's NBA. Shoot that three boy 3>2. If you can drive consistently today, you are an all star minimum.
