[Podcast] Morey on 610 today: talking Lin, free agency & expectations for next year

Morey may have answered the question in your mind by saying
"he's was better defensively than people think/give him credit for, very good at securing 50/50 balls"

 

I'm sure if Morey uses public stats like much of the clutchfans here, then he wouldn't have gotten his GM position in the first place.

 

I have learned a lot with your "Houston's game plan" thread and appreciated your time and admire your basket knowledge.

Obviously I am a Lin fan. I have confident that he would improve some of his weaknesses if not all in this summer. Of course, whether he actually could remained to be seen.

I am interested in your "lack of instinct to create an angle" in exactly what it means, whether to create an angle to score, to penetrate or dish for an assist, etc. Appreciate if you have time to explain further or how to create an angle works.

TIA.

 

I dont want Lin on this team, but since it looks like we're stuck with him, the only thing I want Lin to improve, is his mindset. Play with frikkin confidence game in and game out. Too many times prior to the game I found myself saying, "be confident and play like you belong"

Have Pat Bev confidence Lin.

 

If you looked at advanced stats through the year, Morey statements are correct. Lin's defense is better than others think. (82games.) WP can be found on the more advanced stat sites and is more highly regarded as a measure of productivity for a team than PER. Also, 82 games has Lin rated as the best ball handler on the team. ("Hands Rating")

 

Morey probably just had enough of the Lin haters and wanted to shut them up.

 

There's a reason why Morey is a GM.

 

He had the same turnover problems in NY and was careless all season with us. He had all season to adjust but still continued the same terrible bad habits (jumping in the air w/ no clue where to pass it). It got to a point where it was very uncomfortable watchin Lin dribble. The games he played in postseason he was unaggressive and indecisive as he was pretty much all season. The Rockets will probably bring him back, but they really need to look into upgrading pretty soon.

 

i tend to agree with this and see this as a concern as well, though i see this more as a factor of lacking experience with his current teammate than anything else. half of the time he anticipates his teammate's movement real well and gets the ball to them at the perfect spots. the other half, not so much.

i think mchale sees this as well, and hence his comment, even in his exit interview when asked about lin, about jeremy being a "home run hitter". i think i'm beginning to understand what that means. he said that jeremy can be very, very good because he IS a home run hitter, but at times should also settle for bunts and singles if home run is not there. i take this to mean that jeremy wants to make an impact play every time he has the ball. either it's assist at the rim for high percentage shot (home run assist), assist at the 3, or score at the rim with chance for and-1. high risk, high reward plays. but in games where mchale praises him, he points to his simple passes and hockey assists.

i sense a difference in philosophy here in terms of how mchale and jlin sees the ideal way for lin to play pg. jlin sees the need for him to stay aggressive in order to be effective for this team. mchale wants him to not take as many risks. i think his hesitancy throughout the season has more to do with trying to find this balance than anything else like confidence, etc. you can see that when he knows that he needs to be aggressive (i.e. when harden is out), he is much more decisive and effective, instead of going back and forth between attack and facilitate.

hopefully a summer with his teammate and just another year of maturing in this system is what is needed to get him more comfortable in this role.

 

Beverly stated that McHale said "the sky is the limit" and get ready for some heavy minutes next year". The sky is the limit is a platitude. I interpreted get ready for heavy minutes next year as a motivation for him to get in shape. Beverly said he was not in the best of shape when he came to the Rockets this year because it was a sudden move and he couldn't work on his conditioning. He said that the first thing he was going to do was to build his endurance through running after he takes a month off.

 

or acquire a player via trade

Might a TE for up to $14mil not allow Indy great latitude in the opportunity cost issue?!!

 

Sure he does. Howard defines the front court of any he is in. Jeff might be a good fit with Asik but Ryan Anderson is a good fit with DHoHo. Just sayin'.

And, folks, if Howard were to agree to come to TheToyShop might he demand JSmooth be signed to align with him? Ferry might happily accept Asik as a good return. Horford back to the 4 where he belongs etc.

 

In that sense, absolutely. I was just referring to Old Man Rock's translation of Morey saying our eventual starting four is "probably coming from within" meaning Howard is unlikely to come. If anything, it could express confidence that Howard is coming, since Morey seems to believe high-dollar resources may be allocated to another position.

Bottom line is that Howard and Asik aren't playing together for any significant amount of time. That's getting thrown around too much. If Dwight comes here, it's as a center, not to play PF while stretch fours torch us.

 

Lol seriously? What makes you think he WONT improve? He's still pretty young only 24 and it was his first year as a starter. He's been improving throughout the year and has been on an upward trend. And its not like he put out some ludacris numbers . 15-16 and 7 is very reasonable considering he's been at 15 and 6 since the all star break and 17 and 7 the last month of the reg season. Now he gets a whole summer to work on his game and gel with the team and you dont think he'll improve at all?

Maybe you're the one being biased?

 

one thing beverley has to work on is his foul trouble. no starter can foul as much as he does.

 

it's the reason morey stood out among all ppl as a gm. if he used same data source as everyone else can find, it would be hard for him to stay ahead other gms.

 

Something else I noticed upon listening again is that he never said anything about waiting until next free agency. He talked about being patient in waiting for our own players to develop but then he said this off season they would try to acquire that all star...

"Either through trade or free agency more likely free agency we're going to try and acquire a MAJOR PIECE and we're constantly doing that. If we can't we're probably going to look at... look at 1 year type options in free agency and staying patient and letting our young players develop... and stay opportunistic on the trade front."

Which means he may think like me. It's better to spend our dollars this coming season by the trade deadline than to wait till next off season. Not saying that isn't an option. But Morey clearly understands that waiting another off season makes you limited in what you can do because you always have to be concerned about cap space. Not to mention every year you wait you lose out on that MLE option to sign another piece or pieces and remember Morey loves using the MLE to sign players like Parsons, Smith and Beverly to multiple year low salary contracts that are almost totally advantageous to the Rockets. Almost evil the way he does that. Plus waitng postpones the building process. So I would be very surprised if he doesn't use up the cap space on a MAJOR PIECE by the trade deadline. It's 2013/14 or bust.

 

Decided to be a selective reader, so, we are getting LeBron now?