Kevin Martin: "Treating players like assests will get you NO WHERE!"

Everybody involved in the NBA knows "it's a business" and that trades are "just business."

But no GM treats players less like people than Morey. You can't just romance these guys when you're courting them. You have to allow them to feel valued once they're on the team as well. They shouldn't constantly feel like they're being dangled. Continuing the romance analogy, since Morey does romance players in his attempts in free agency, how would you feel if your wife was always looking around to see if she could find a better husband? Your wife might be looking for a better husband but she's going to make life a lot more difficult if she's open with you about that.

What does it do to team spirit when a trade, any trade, breaks down? Remember the first time we tried to trade Horry? He sulked like a MF'er. No player likes it. So it's probably best not to rub it in their faces.

Somebody said above it was like treating them like trading cards and it is. It's like treating them like stocks or bonds. Yes, the word "asset" literally has a positive connotation, but players like being treated like people; not things.

Other teams aren't quite so loudmouthed about aggressively shopping the majority of their starting lineup. Of course, neither do other GM's make decisions about players and trades based almost exclusively on math.

Get riddy of Morey.

 

also its "asset" not assest or assests.

I agree, treating players like basketball passes will get you NO WHERE!

lulz were had.

 

Ariza, Artest and Budinger did not leave on bad terms. Sheesh. Thanks for just making **** up and polluting the forum with unsubstantiated lies.

 

Hmm. Pretty much.

 

All GMs do it. Cuban, Presti etc...

 

I'm not talking about trading players. I'm talking about how it's handled. And I don't think any GM in the history of the NBA has said the word "asset" more often than Daryl Morey.

 

Well according to Morey, he's never used that term

 

Absolutely right, this leads to anxiety in the players and lowers team spirit.

 

Asik doesn't seem to mind. He isn't unrestriced obviously, but if he didn't want to be here he wouldn't have signed the deal knowing there is at least a decent chance he will actually end up here. And he is precisely the type of player who is a potential "asset" down the road to trading for a star. Besides if no one wanted to play for the Rockets, why would any of them be mad about getting traded away? Shouldn't they be happy to be leaving a team they don't want to play for?

So what UFA's are not coming here because of the whole "assets" thing? Superstars aren't going to be traded away like assets any way, so it doesn't effect them, and we have still had success aquiring role players under Morey.

Changing the topic slightly, can any of you even find a quote of Morey referring to his players as assets that isn't over a year old?

 

No, more like no other GM has been quoted for his use of the word asset at one point or another in the past than Morey. The local media and people here bring it up every day here so it makes it seem like he says it all the time, but I suspect you will have a hard time finding a quote directly from Morey about assets that isn't over a year old.

 

Kevin Martin is a fool, if he really said this.

 

Daryl Morey purged that word from his vocabulary a couple of years ago after it was rediculously overblown. The perception that he uses the word all the time stems from posts like yours that throw out the word like a punch line everytime he makes a trade or everytime there is a rumor that he is going to make a trade.

 

What are you implying? Morey has made himself the GM known for "stockpiling assets". This is his reputation, even on clutchfans. He's been on 610 radio numerous times talking about flipping assets. This is known fact not speculation

 

What I am sayin is people say he needs to "stop refferring to his players as assets" and the evidence says that he has done that for over a year now. Maybe you can find a more recent quote where he has said it, I couldn't.

 

But even if you're point is valid. Around the time Martin made this comment, which was about a year & a half ago, Morey was going around using the term assets very very loosely. I'm sure you'll agree he's used to term before.

 

And perhaps I am wrong, literally. But the reason the perception persists is because Morey has a singular way of looking at players; it is his way. And he has been clear about that. It is called Moneyball and its basic function is to use mathematical formulas to decide what to do with people, how to comprise a team. The problem is that players aren't numbers. And when you treat them like they are, when your strategy is to look at them as if they belonged more on a balance sheet than in a cohesive unit on a court, you wind up with a lot of people thinking, "Morey treats his players like assets and that is a rather cold way to assemble a cohesive team." And it also seems to have the distinction of not working very well.

But that's not all you wind up with apparently. You apparently also wind up with four 9th place finishes and four number 14 draft picks in a row. I don't care if I was wrong about how often he literally uses the word "assets." Let us simply look at the results and agree upon one thing:

Moneyball sucks.

 

Essentially what you are saying is you just don't like Morey and could care less about the facts. That's ok at least now we know where you are coming from.

 

Any evidence to support this? You know, things like ex-Miami Heat players who were brought in by Pat Riley for the specific purpose of getting rid of them, later saying glowing reviews on how kind and gentle Riley was? Or Knicks players who were happy that they get talked about gazillion times in Melo trade discussions for months on end? Or how Rondo feels about being openly shopped for Gasol and other players right after they extended him to a big deal?

 

Why you gotta go and be a dick about it? I thought we were having a conversation about the Rockets and our GM.

And the only "fact" I potentially got wrong was preceded by the words "I don't think..." I wasn't asserting a fact in that instance and in the post that followed I conceded your point that the thing that I didn't think (that anyone had used that word more) was probably wrong. So why you gotta go and be a dick about it?

I made a number of other points but apparently a bumblebee flew up your butt and just started stinging you or something and you ignored all that and fixated on a "fact" that I never claimed to be a fact and then said I didn't care about facts.

You're a crappy debater.

I also never said I didn't "like Morey." I said I don't like his approach to general management, I said I don't like moneyball, I said it wasn't working, I said I was sick of being mediocre under his tenure, and I supported those opinions (not facts) with a lot of words that you ignored because you got sand in your panties.

Don't act like I'm the one playing the fool here. You're projecting, brother.

 

LOL WTF... are these players professionals making millions,or the junior high girls volleyball team.