People who trash Morey don't know how godawful the vast majority of NBA GMs are.

I can't tell you how happy I am with a GM who stays active and is always in the mix for a blockbuster deal. That's what fans like to see above all else: activity. Many other GMs are fine with mediocrity, and are fine with doing the bare minimum it takes to just keep their jobs. Not Daryl Morey.

 

I like Morey as much as the next guy and think he's doing a great job...

But how many threads do we need that talk up Morey and tear down the people who are more Anti-Morey, and don't expand on anything beyond that?

 

Never enough. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

 

LelWestbrick is Morey. Gotcha

 

^oops wrong pic.

 

I never trashed Morey, but I don't blame those who were skeptical of him during that period before getting Lin and Harden. The team kinda looked like it was going nowhere with a roster full of PFs.

 

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoy_en_la_revolucion/7484244472/" title="dareeell by *The last son of krypton*, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7121/7484244472_2650025935.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="dareeell"></a>

 

Change this picture to 14 :grin:

 

People should shut up because Morey is doing better than the GMs of Wizards/Bobcats/Cavs/Kings/Raptors........?

not convincing at all.

 

consider the hand he was dealt

 

I agree.

That 2008 team that took the Lakers to the brink in the playoffs gave me hope that if Morey could just get some stars he could effectively build around them. I'm excited to see who he puts with Harden and maybe Lin if he is still here. Plus let's remember Les didn't want to go the traditional route (tank) to building a championship team.

 

I have no problem with Morey. He saved Lin from the lowly Knicks

I even forgave him for cutting Lin on Christmas day.

 

The best thing I can say about Morey is that IF he wants to take a certain path, he can always accomplish it, obtaining a star notwithstanding. In that sense he's the perfect GM because he can always carry out what needs to be done. And he has a staff capable of executing his strategies.

That said, I feel Morey's biggest failing was that he deeply overvalued his hand on the superstar market. Both in terms of his own players as trade chips, and Houston as a destination. And the result was the 2 years of mediocrity.

Also, the hindsight evaluation of the Gasol trade should also factor into judging Morey. Regardless of Stern's meddling, Morey did have the intention of putting together a lineup resulted in Gasol/Nene/Parsons/Lee/Lowry. Backed up by Patterson/Morris/DMo/Greg Smith/CBud/Lin and perhaps a FA acquisition.

 

He's (and his team) done a much better job than most of the FOs out there in recent memory.

Obviously better than Morey:

1) Spurs
2) Lakers

At the level of Morey:
1) Portland
2) Nuggets FO
3) Bobcats (early but shows promise)
4) OKC

Worse than Morey:
Everybody Else

I personally can't really separate Porland/Nuggs/OKC/Bobcats with DM because it all depends on luck and the team situation when you came in. OKC for example started out in the best possible position, they managed to clear out all their bad contracts and got KD in the draft. If Portland drafted KD first then obviously OKC's history would be extremely different today, KD's like half of the their talent pool right there. OTH, we started out in the worst possible position, Tmac degraded so much we couldn't get a Melo/KG-like package for a guy many people once considered to be the among the best, and Yao Ming was always injured and had to retire extremely early, leaving us with an old team, no cap space, and an owner that didn't want to tank. What he's done in just a few years is nothing short of amazing, our rebuilding time is comparable to OKC (they took 5 years to become contenders, we're on year 3 so two more years to go), and unlike them we didn't start out with full capspace and Kevin Durant.

 

Sorry, what? The Lakers? That's the easiest gig in the world. What exactly has the Lakers GM done that's brilliant?

OKC (Presti) is as good or better than Morey, and miles ahead of any GM the Lakers have had. They just dealt Harden yet are posting the same winning % with the pieces they received, plus they netted a potential star in Lamb and another first round pick.

I say the only competition is OKC and SAS, but Morey inherited a worse situation than those guys.

To be the youngest team by experience, and the 3rd or 4th youngest team by age while competing for the playoffs after landing an All-Star and holding major cap flexibility... is simply a masterclass in how to be a GM. This is without going into how awesome it is to have hunted hugely underrated players like Asik, G Smith and Chandler Parsons.

Give the man his due. Don't compare him to a GM who has star players fall into his lap just because he manages the Lakers.

 

Technically, it was Sam Hinkie who waived him. Sam told some of us at a Rockets event that he literally called the league office to officially waive Lin from the steps of his church on Christmas Eve! Said it was one of the hardest things he's had to do as a front office guy.

(Obviously, the only reason Lin was cut that day--the deadline to finalize regular season rosters--was that the Rockets so badly wanted to keep him and were trying like hell to find a trade to create roster spots for both Lin and Samuel Dalembert. But, alas, Lin's non-guaranteed salary made him the last cut of the preseason.)

 

I think Sam Presti is overrated.

Granted, he is easily one of the better GMs out there, but he has been extremely lucky.

They only had 9% of getting the 2nd pick in 2007, and that player they landed was Durant. In 2009, they only had 13% chance of getting the 3rd pick (roughly 38% of landing the top 3 picks), and they landed James Harden at 3rd. On both of these occasions, a draft bust was drafted right before their pick (Oden and Thabeet).

I think Sam Presti has done a very good job as a GM, but I feel like the staple of his success is luck. Had they gotten the 5th or 6th pick instead (which they had over 50% chance of getting) instead of the 2nd pick, things would look very very different for OKC.