which IMO pales in comparison to the posters that think every move DM makes is stupid. The same posters that whined about wanting to tank but now are whinning that he gave away the entire roster and we will suck next year which just means another year of mediocrity. The Morey haters play both ends against the middle just so they always have a reason to bash Morey.
I would pay money to have Clutch and Bima interview Mori... If he likes, appreciates and invites smart questions then he should be open to doing a podcast with them! Gawd the trade scenarios, angles and viewpoints that would be brought up in that conversation...
Sorry, I do not know, but I think you should be able to find it in the sport610.com, or whatever website if you are interested. One question that Josh was asking is something like "Can you still have a job if the rockets can not win the NBA champ?" Morey said it was up to Les, Morey also said 29 other teams were not going to win the NBA champ. It was a very bad blood interview.
Lin and Asik were not his first choices. It's arguable that he's overpaying both of them. We'll know when they produce results on the court. The draft picks haven't done squat for the team yet. He traded away two players (Chase and SamD) who already contributed for the team for two of those picks. They might end up being worth it or not but we all know he was doing that to get Dwight Howard. Swing-and-a-miss on that. According to him, his goal was to get a superstar here and he's been unable to do that. Will the players we have now develop into superstars? Time will tell...when they produce results. I'm not saying he's a huge failure but let's not act like he's the smartest GM in the league when his team is missing the playoffs year after year.
always difficult to judge w/o a poll. Moray haters have only recently become more vocal, his blind faith followers have been pretty loud from day one.
Well, I agree that we will have to see whether these moves prosper or not but I am tired of people here talking as if they can do what Morey. I would rather trade CBud and Sammy for potential young talent and a potential block buster trade than live in limbo which is where we would be if we stayed the course. Read Bima’s blog about our salary situation, no one thought we would be in this position when the season ended, we have Lin, Asik, young talent and the cap room to trade for top talent and get a decent 2nd tier star next summer. Let’s give credit where credit is due. I remember not even wanting to watch the draft 2 weeks before it came because of our team’s situation when the season ended. I also remember being perplexed when we got Sammy because I thought we brought in McHale to tank… Morey and the Rockets FO have done a great job getting us to this point, but you’re right, time will tell if we can get to contending status again. But hey, the summer’s not over yet! I’m sure we will all have a better picture of the team’s goal when preseason starts.
I don't know why people b**** about the rookies and new signings not having done anything for the Rockets yet. It is the summer. It is literally impossible for any player to do anything for the Rockets save for summer league play. Does this mean that teams should avoid all public appearances during the offseason?
But we shouldn't schedule the parade quite yet either. We should just wait; wait for results. I like the rookies and think they have bright futures but this doesn't all of a sudden make Morey a genius. Like you said, they haven't done anything yet. Maybe we should have a thread listing Morey's transactions (and attempts) and categorize them as good or bad deals.
You're saying Morey isn't doing a good job because the Rox have missed the playoffs year after year? By that logic, the fact that LA is routinely a contender is because they always have better GMs than Houston. You're right, it obviously doesn't have anything to do with the fact that they have way more revenue than Houston and that free agents see LA as an attractive place to live. To be successful as a GM, you've got to get lucky through the draft or have some major advantages (like LA or NY teams) to build through free agency. People give Presti a lot of credit with OKC, which he deserves, but if he had the number 1 pick instead of Portland and picked Oden instead of Durant as many thought was right, I think the Thunder are just a decent team. But if you happen to get a top pick and use it to land a Durant, you have a chance to build a contender, even if you're not LA. Luck is important, but given the hand Morey was dealt, he's been pretty good at identifying undervalued talent, exploiting loopholes in the CBA, and getting creative with trades.
Do you see anyone scheduling a parade? People simply judge the preliminary early returns on the young players to be positive and that their acquisition appear to be smart moves. The Rockets made aggressive deals all offseason, drafted a few young guys whose early returns appear positive. They also utilized the "Gilbert Arenas" provision to take advantage of the salary situation of NY and CHI and obtained a couple of young restricted FA that they targeted. There is not a guarantee that these moves will pan out, but what they've done is good: cleared salary cap, obtained young talent and draft picks, readied the team for either a major trade or rebuilding around younger players. These are smart moves, much smarter than the kind of moves made by, say, Milwaukee Bucks, in locking up a middling team to lucrative long term deals.
I don't know why Amik and Lin would get more money if they were unrestricted FA when Rockets offer sheet weren't even matched by their own teams.
Because of the "poison pill" effect of the Gilbert Arenas povision. If they were not under the Gilbert Arenas provision as 2nd year free agents, NYK and CHI would be able to (a) offer more than the "early Bird" contract (at around 4 years, $25M) to Lin/Asik themselves rather than be basically required to wait for an outside offer (with poison pill built in) and only be allowed to decide whether to match and (b) structure a contract offer in a fashion more favorable to themselves (i.e. without the $14.9M third season that really kills them tax-wise). For example, NYK may very well be willing to pay Lin a flat $9M per year for 3 or 4 years if he was just a plain old unrestricted non-Gilbert Arenas free agent. The cost of that contract, accounting for tax, would be much better for NYK than the $5M, $5.225M, $14.9M "Poison Pill" deal presented to them.
