Daryl Morey on 790

~13:00 minute mark

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Building a championship team--sports standpoint--do you go with a guy who is a double, a sure thing or swing for the fences?

Depends on the sport. I can address our sport. Basketball, you need elite players to win. There is no exception to that. That comes one of three ways: top five of the draft, free agency, and trade. For example, whoever gets the top pick this year, they might have trade options they may consider. In basketball, because of the importance of having one for sure elite player, you almost have to swing for the fences and go for the guy with that ability. In baseball, football, you can use your depth a little more. Football, I don't know enough. I know you need a number one QB, which creates a unique situation where you almost have to swing for the fences, even though they have a high fail rate.

Any concern about James Harden having to carry the load that he is right now with Howard out and to a much lesser degree, Beverley?

I'm worried about us winning a game. It's been frustrating. I agree. James missed a bunch of games early in the year and has been going hard since then. Dwight didn't miss any games until this recent stretch so hopefully he'll get healthy and be a little fresher but the reality is, we gotta win a good chunk of these games to finish off home court. We were in position, we still are if we can right ourselves here. It's been frustrating. Second three-game losing streak for the year and this wasn't against any good teams. We've had guys out but we were playing teams with guys out. It's been disappointing.

Timetable for Howard?

Not worried at all. If it was a playoff game, he's a tough guy, he'd be out there but it makes no sense to be out there. We need him to feel great going into the playoffs. In the regular season, we'd always be holding him out but if it was game seven, he'd be out there. We're not worried about that. Pat, we got the good news on him. I want to see him ramp things up, which should be happening here. Those two guys are obviously important. Our two best defenders on the team are Pat and Dwight and that has hurt us on that end and to your point shifted a heavy load on James and some other guys who haven't done it before and unfortunately haven't gotten it done.

Jordan Hamilton really struggling shooting the ball. What are you seeing?

He did well for awhile there. Our entire set of backup wings have not stepped up. Maybe that's on us not getting them in the best spots but our backup two-three spot has really struggled for the past couple weeks and over the whole year. It's been frustrating. When James was out early in the year, Jones stepped up and had a big tear. Unfortunately he hasn't had a good run. He was really sick. We had James playing well and Chandler and Omer the last couple games and Jeremy had some good moments, other guys with good moments but we didn't have enough. These teams we were playing weren't full strength either so you caught me at a frustrated time.

Kelvin Sampson to UH.

Big loss for us. Some level, actually, later in the year it's a little better. A guy like Kelvin was putting in the philosophy and culture of defense early. We've put together our game plan for every team in the league. Offseason is the best time but him leaving now, we're able to build on what he was able to do for us. He did an unbelievable job for us. Great hire for Houston. He's a Head Coach. Very successful everywhere he's been. He'll do a fabulous job for Houston. Maybe the best coach there since Guy Lewis. Great run for him. He was always having to hold back because he's a Head Coach and being an assistant wasn't a natural coat for him to put on because he's such a good Head Coach. I would say too, the guys with NBA and college experience are having a lot of success in college. Helps with recruiting. I'd point to Fred Hoiberg. Kelvin can have that kind of success.

Your bracket?

I don't remember. I didn't pick anything right.

...

Friday is huge. What better way to right the ship than beat those guys? They've had our number for awhile. Dwight and Pat are probably still out but Oklahoma City won a lot of games with Westbrook out. It can be done.

 

First, Portland is actually nothing special at home... they are like 27-9, which is behind the Rockets.

Second, the Blazers still have to play PHX, NO, LAC and GS.

The Rockets are two up in the important LOSS column and have the tie breaker I believe.

 

Thanks JR, appreciated it!

 

Thanks JR. I don't understand why he is frustrated, this is the team he created and it's a good team not a championship caliber team. He knows that we will not make a push this year, probably the next.Everything is ok for me ... They need to be healthy and they need more time.

 

The only thing I remember is that Morey said Les was pissed during Linsanity because the Rockets cut him.

 

Regarding the backup wing spot, it seems to me that Garcia has played better of late. Made a couple good plays during the big comeback from 20 point down last night and just looking more spry. Maybe the rest did him some good and I hope he can do some things in the playoffs.

 

Lol, 7th best home record in the league is nothing special. They win 75% of their games at home.

 

Well I'm sure Morey would be pissed at himself too. He could have had Lin dirt cheap if he didn't cut Lin and kept Toney Douglas.

 

Surprised no one has mentioned this...Yep, its extremely concerning..Its like Yao Ming and his "Freak" injuries..

Fool Me Once, Shame On me, Fool Me Twice,Shame on Me

Fool me the third time....??????

I'm starting to think his body can't handle the wear and tear of a full NBA season.

 

I think there's multiple players where this is a legitimate concern as well.

Beverley's style is so physical that he takes a beating. He's already been injured multiple times this season (abdominal x 2, hand, and now meniscus).

And then there's Dwight and concerns about how he recovers from his back issues and repeated shoulder injuries. One thing that concerns me about Dwight is he's so big and strong, and he gets pounded so much that it has to take a toll. And big guys tend to be more prone to injury just from lugging close to 300 pounds around on the floor.

On the bright side, while Lin and Beverley are critical players in the picture this season, neither are irreplaceable in the longer run. Dwight... not so much.

 

To be fair, Lin wasn't needed with Lowry and Dragic in the team, plus his contract was non-guaranteed at the time.

 

I like how Morey basically implied that Bev and Dwight have been covering up for Harden's (lack) of defense. Without his crutch (beverley and dwight) and even with Asik, he has been exposed.

Kind of disappointing to hear that our superstar only plays on one end of the court though. IMO, this is one reason (coaching being the other) holding us back from being a top 3 defensive team, which we should easily be with both Dwight and Asik. I don't know who the "other guys" are, but I would probably guess Dmo, Parsons and Lin, but because Morey mentions those guys second, I would say they are still probably doing a better job than Harden.

 

False alarm. Torocan mistakenly referred to an interview from March 4th, the day we played the Heat in Houston.

 

Yup. My bad. Read 3/4 as 4/3 (today). I'm getting too old.

 

Not sure if Lin's injury risk is greater than that of most other guys. Much of it is likely a result of the style of play-- a lot of penetration and getting fouled-- that this team prefers in its players. It exposes guys to injuries of various kinds. Both Parsons and Harden, for example, have had stretches where they were less than 100% physically and not very effective. And the same goes with two guys who missed the game last night-- Dwight Howard and Kyle Lowry. Unless we know that there is a specifically diagnosed serious physical defect-- like Brandon Roy having no meniscus left-- most guys are probably similarly at risk for getting hurt during a season.

One way to reduce injury risk is to tell guys to stop getting into the paint, but that's not a good way to win games.

 

Some parts of the world do go with the dd/mm/yy date format.

Not sure where Lin is physically, it seems that the issue with him and injuries is that he is very reliant on having athleticism to finish in the paint through contact. When he is not 100%, he can often still get into the paint, but tends to get his shots blocked/altered by the help defender, or create situations where he doesn't have a shooting angle and tried to make a pass in a crowd.

Many of his "jump into the air to pass" issues come from the latter situation.

 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh. Whew!

 

That's true, and I've had to use both formats but I'm usually pretty good with reading them correctly for the appropriate countries. Though I admit I've gotten them backward more than a few times in my life.

Really annoying when you're traveling from country to country and you're a full month off in your scheduler.

 

Let me go delete my doomsday tweets lolol.

 

Sorry, as a Brit I gotta fix that.