What does that even mean? The players played their asses off and the GM made major moves to build the roster. I don't even understand what Cuban means by that.
Les Alexander and the rockets are trying to build a team that resembles the 05-08 phoenix suns. Fast paced and fun to watch, but doomed to fail in the end. Championship contenders don't hire guys like Kevin Mchale. They know how valuable the window of opportunity is and how easily it can be wasted. Despite all the disgust I have for Cuban, he is spot on with his statements. His team actually performed better too, despite being the 8th seed and playing the 1st.
McHale is a good man, but not a good coach. I hope Les will have a nirvana experience, get better personnel and better players.
We finished 6 games (?) better than last year and lost in 6 games again in the first round to a lower seed. I think any objective person would agree that this year's roster is better than last year's. And McHale is a good coach. What am I missing? Maybe Morey doesn't know how to evaluate coaching?
Maybe those Suns teams were extremely "efficient". Just can't see McHale ever coaching a championship team.
He's a great coach after the facts. But bad coach in term of making decisions dynamically. That's why it took us 2 freaking losses in the Playoffs at home to wake him up and start changing lineups and adjustments. He is the reason we lost game #1 and #2 because he failed to tell Harden to play aggressive and drive to the hoop. When Harden is not being aggressive driving to the hoop for the entire 1st Half of game one, i blamed on the coach because it is his RESPONSIBILITY to tell him to do so!!! We should not be down 0-2 especially at home. Down by 0-1 is already a big deal but down by 0-2 at home? It's a big screwed up. Look at all the top teams in the league, they're never down 0-2....it's either 2-0 or 1-1 and that's why these teams still get to play game #7 at home. I personally give McFail another shot...but that's it...if the Rockets don't make it pass 1st round next year...he should be fired.
here's just a few examples: settling for maloney instead of getting an eager-to-play-for-the rockets derek harper at the trade deadline never eating the lux tax (with one minor bare exception) and having to surround yao and tmac with assorted crap in the playoffs unwilling to tank for a top pick and instead opting for half a decade of mediocrity so as les' monthly income doesn't take a hit hiring kevin mchale not firing kevin mchale moreyball has been great at keeping les' roster salary costs managable and efficient. it has also (whether by luck or by skill) landed us a few great pieces/assets. but it remains to be seen if it will ever translate to playoff success. so far we've only won 1 series since morey arrived. keeping mchale guarantees that stat to hold further.
The one comment that I don't necessarily agree with Morey on... He made it seem as though we needed to improve our ability to keep leads as a team, and that a game should not come down to the last couple of plays. If you look at the number of game 7's that has occurred throughout the playoffs (and in the playoffs in general), very rarely are series decided by large margins. Execution matters, coaching matters, one play often makes the difference. Training and preparing for your opportunity to seize the moment can make the difference between clutch city and choke city. Even if our talent level is increased (ie. the first-year Miami Heat) we will still be facing games with intense pressure, split-second strategic decisions, and the need to EXECUTE a critical play like we had at the end of game 6. You can't just out-talent everyone in the league that easily. There have been plenty of extremely talented rosters who "underachieved" in the playoffs due to this fact. The regular season is just that, the regular season. Getting our win total up to 57 games is not going to mean anything when our entire regular season strategy needs to be scrapped because of a difference in refereeing that happens as soon as the ball drops on game 1 of the playoffs. I had weird arguments throughout the regular season with posters claiming that playoff physicality is no different from the regular season. I hope this series puts that ridiculous argument to rest. Our regular season success was based on drawing foul calls (another staple of our analytics) and we failed because we didn't account for this variance in the playoffs. The same reason that Durant has struggled against Tony Allen's physicality is the same reason that James Harden has struggled. Players who need the whistle have an adjustment period. Teams like Memphis who play physical all season have no need to adjust to the playoffs. I hope Morey is just using GM-speak, and doesn't actually believe that simply upgrading the roster is going to make for a dramatic difference. The bottom line is execution matters. The spurs are not the "most talented team". They execute better, have a better gameplan, and are disciplined. We need to hone in these items. If we are handcuffed by Les and cannot change coaches, we better damn get an assistant that can cover the glaringly obvious weaknesses in strategy that we have.
Extremely rep worthy post from top to bottom. Also, I too hard arguments with people on the board trying to prove that playoff physicality is the same as the RS using some out of context stats. My advice would be to just ignore them, because they will still parrot even though it seems like beating a dead horse at this point.
This is about going way over the cap, isn't it? Cuba probably believes Les is all talk about paying a stiff luxury tax to try to get a chip, but not having really mean to do it.
excellent post. one thing you reminded me of was rudy T talking about when he decided he wanted mario elie. something to the effect of rudy fell in love with his demeanor and cool nerves while watching him play on GSW and immediately knew he had to get that guy on his team. i don't know if morey's stats account for mental makeup, but he surely has gone after quite a few knuckleheads (royce, dorsey, both terrence's + mchale). meanwhile derek fisher may be a heinous douchebag, but morey did dump him for nothing even though he probably would have won us games the last 2 seasons. i'm not saying i know either way, but i at least hope he's evaluating roster additions for their ability to make big plays under pressure too and not just their stats and contract #'s. right now all we can go by is bickerstaff's impression that our guys are "F'n hyperventilatin" out there..
