Sometimes I like to imagine morey on Maury and all the clutchfans in the audience with their microphones polling with their angry questions. I have a same proto-reality for Lin fans and McHale.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I never did get why posters here were up at arms over "5 years of mediocrity". It took OKC 5 years to become winners, and they started out with Kevin Durant, a top 6 pick and capspace on year 1.
I still have the same evaluation of Morey that I always have. There has to be a good reason to think a different GM would be doing a better job. In the past people said it's all about results, but that's only partially true. It's about results relative to what you think someone else's results would be. Morey not being able to get a star was only a reason to get rid of him if you had good reason to think a different GM would have been successful in his place. So while not being able to get a star was disappointing, none of the stars Morey missed on were making their decisions based on who the GM was for the team they ultimately picked. Lebron, Wade and Bosh had Miami set in their minds so they could play together. Carmello was set on NY. Dwight wanted to play for a team that was already a contender. Pick any GM in the league and put him on the Rockets and this was not going to change. Morey has made good moves overall. Not flawless, no GM is. Pick any GM and look at their picks over 5 years and you will find drafts where they missed on someone or mistakes in hindsight. You also have to figure in where they were drafting. Is the GM blowing top 5 picks, or missing on late first rounders and second rounders which have a low rate of success for most teams? Part of being a good GM is also the deals you don't make. How is the team's cap space? How many bad contracts do you have? Morey has been solid in these areas. In the end, getting Harden was the key to getting Dwight, not agents not wanting to sign here because Morey lowballs players, or treats them like assets, or Houston not being a desireable city or anything else. In fact we see players like Brooks coming back here to play for cheap despite having literally been traded off as an asset in the past. A contending team and suddenly Houston is a hot spot for other players again. Morey's moves allowed that to happen, but Dwight didn't choose Houston because of Morey, nor did he decline Houston in the past because of Morey.
How did I get lumped in with the Morey haters? My post even begins with "I'm a huge Murry fan..." Back when I posted that, I thought he was the best GM in the league -- I just wanted to see him pull off that huge deal. Like I said, I (like everyone else around here) was waiting for him to hit a home run after a bunch of long flies to the warning track. I'd call both Parsons and Asik solid triples and Lin a double. Then he snags Harden, a grand slam. Then Beverley, at least a double. Then Howard, another grand slam.
Yeah, people who criticized Morey were just as dumb then. The argument was always that his job performance ought be judged solely on results. Anyone with a modicum of sense could see that his PROCESS was smart, he just needed to wait for the right opportunity. Lo and behold, it happened. The criticism was just as idiotic then as it seems now, trust me.
Is it even 5 years? Yao Ming didn't come off the books till 2010-2011, and Les definitely wasn't interested in trading him. Les also wanted to stay competitive so Morey's hands were tied. Pretty incredible what Morey has done in such a short period of time. He completely revamped the roster in one season without sacrificing any competitiveness. In fact, he made the Rockets more competitive than before ever with the James Harden trade.
What separates Merry from other GM's is his ability to stay away from players that eat up cap space for nothing. Almost every roster in the NBA has at least one terrible contract that hampers the team going forward.
My criticism wasn't against Morey, but his refusal to rebuild, which I mostly blamed on Les. I didn't think Harden would leap into the top ten. I thought he'd be just good enough to keep us in the middle of the draft, but not good enough to build around. I was wrong. In my defense, so was the rest of the league. I imagine dozens of general managers got chewed out by owners who demanded to know how Harden slipped through their fingers.
It is ALWAYS best to admit a mistake and move on. People will forget about your mistake quickly then. If you sit parroting a discredited viewpoint then people will remember for a long time.
Actually IMHO Morey always delivered results. Winning records year in and year out, all the while collecting assets. And once a single trade fell his way (Harden) Morey capitalized on it to secure Howard. Cap management practiced as high art. Now decent role players are signing for the vet minimum. All of the young players fit very well together and are extremely happy and content. Morey exceeded every expectation. In every way possible. There are a couple of other Necro threads that should be bumped in the future. But please people do not hurry to do it. Revenge is a dish best served cold.
