I'd like to understand Moreyball's philosophy on defense. Because nobody in his right mind would refute that it was defense that lost us games. With regards to blame, you might as well say that your parenting ability is measured by how successful your children are. You can send them to the best schools, spend every single minute with them, provide them with a great environment to succeed but that will never guarantee their success. It will ultimately boil down to them taking advantage of those opportunities.
I've been critical of plenty with this team over the years, and especially during the Morey years. The recent ones are easy to name- -Letting Parsons out of his contract a year early -prematurely trading Lin when it turned out to not be necessary -Not taking the safe signing and beating out Toronto to sign Lowry -Signing Jeremy Lin -Hiring Kevin McHale -etc. etc. However... Where I differ from guys like you and FTW is that I can view a situation, and a transaction from a holistic point of view and realize that even when a mistake is made, its often fixed, or often the situation is improved upon. Such as- -Letting Parsons out of his contract a year early (I Understand that without this agreement, Dwight might be in Dallas, and Ariza turned out to be a better fit anyways) -prematurely trading Lin when it turned out to not be necessary (moving his contract allowed Morey to make more moves in season to take on salary. Losing the pick stinks, but now that they are in the playoffs for sure, its more palatable knowing the pick wont be good) -Not taking the safe signing and beating out Toronto to sign Lowry (TBD. We will have to see what Morey does with options this Summer, and cap space in 2016) -Signing Jeremy Lin (Never really rebounded from that move, but Lin was actually a good player at times, and I understand where we were as a rebuilding franchise at that time, and the business decision behind the move) -Hiring Kevin McHale (Rebounded by hiring a top notch assistant coach unit. They have some of the best assistants in the league and they make a difference IE Bickerstaff's overhaul of the Rockets defense this year. Kevin's staff also has proven that they are pumping out historically good 50+ win seasons with an uneven roster, and multiple injuries. Its pretty impressive what they have done the past two years with their rosters). So my stance is that if you are going to be a constant complainer that's fine, but you need to be objective in viewing the entire picture to see that yeah... mistakes were made, but the Rockets are still in a very very good place for now and the future to compete not just this year but to continue to build around Harden and Howard. If you get chastised for being optimistic about that then I don't know what to tell you. You are being negative for the sake of being negative which really just makes me feel sorry for people like that. Must be a blast to be around those type of fans. but these type of fans are not uncommon of course. We've seen fans like this before such as... Spoiler So if you enjoy being that guy go for it. Just know that it makes you look pretty damn sad in the process.
Question about moving Lin. If Morey doesn't move Lin are we able to outbid others for the services of Josh Smith AND are we able to trade for Corey Brewer?
The bottom-line is that Morey traded for the current top 1-3 players in the league for what ended up being peanuts. The premise of this thread is destroyed by that alone.
Yea but if you have multiple kids who have failed and never reached their potential, something CLEARLY went wrong with your parenting. Look I hope we get out the 1st round this year, like really REALLY hope. I think we have enough talent. I'm just iffy on the moreyball philosphy & jacking 3's up at historic levels. I don't see how we win a 7 game series depending soley on 3pters. Moreyball comes across as gimmicky. But it is MOREYBALL, which means it derives from Daryl "Morey" the GM of this team. He should (and will be) held accountable for this team's success in the playoffs. Theres really nothing else to talk about
Did you see how many 3s were jacked in the finals last year? Specially by the current champs the Spurms?
Morey gets way too much credit/blame for our style of play. Especially when you consider that Pop has been preaching it longer than Morey has. Morey just believes in taking it to a more extreme level. It's not a gimmick. It's an effective and efficient strategy. We didn't lose last year because of "moreyball" we lost because of having the worst defense in the playoffs.
Lol, don't feel bad or sorry. I'm not sure who you think I am, but I base everything on objective analysis. You can perceive it as being "negative" but I don't care. You are obviously selectively interpreting what you want, which is okay, because bias is common. Here's just one recent example of Kwame being "negative": http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=9496245&postcount=65 and here's a typical response: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=9496409&postcount=67 I don't have to tell you what the result was and how my "negative" prediction was correct. That's what my analysis led me to believe. Am I supposed to be intellectually dishonest and claim otherwise? Do you want me to sit here and say that Maury has put together a championship caliber team and the Rockets are going to win it all when based on their record against their likely opponents in the 1st rd they have a strong chance of being eliminated and haven't had a deep playoff run in forever? Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether analysis leads to "positive" or "negative" conclusions as long as it's objective. And I stand by my analysis. It's interesting though that you say nothing about the rampant homerism on this website. It seems that's okay with you, but people not sharing your views really bothers you to the point that you have to go on these unnecessarily long rants were you ramble on. You know what the phrase "In Maury We Trust" means, right? It's all about having blind faith in the general manager. You don't seem to have a problem with that. But you characterize others who don't think like you as being "sad", "pathetic", and "miserable" That's an intellectually lazy way of personalizing a discussion and engaging in name-calling in order to avoid the topic and deflect attention away from the issue. It's a propaganda tactic. And, in the end, you're doing exactly what you accuse others of: whining and complaining. Go look at how the Rockets have fared against teams they're like to play in the post-season. They're .500 against them. And no, I'm not excited about "building" a team around Dwight Howard who seems to be breaking down and takes up over $20 mill of cap space. In sum, you can live in your fantasy world where everything is a utopia and the future is so bright that you need shades, but some of us like to inject a dose of reality into a discussion every once in a while.
So, help me out with this wise one. Do you consider the moniker "McFail" in your signature as "objective analysis". I don't. Objective analysis would deal with the game...labeling a HOF, top 50 all time player as "McFail" does not qualify as objective analysis by any measure.
Lol, c'mon man, you can't be that dense. It's a signature and I like to have a little fun with it. But the quote is 100% accurate. You can also claim that J-Smoove isn't an objective portrayal of Josh Smith if you wanted to. I was referring to the content of my posts.
So you now label me "dense" because I pointed out that the use of "McFail" does not represent objective analysis by any measure. For someone who cries about labels, you sure do use a lot of them....and in this case absolutely without any "objective" information on which to base that label. By the way, I totally ignore any poster who uses "McFail" or other disparaging monikers...so carry on with your "objective" analysis, I won't be reading it.
LOL, so a little cover your tracks editing, huh? Did you see the context from which that quote came? I did...and it was absolutely not a defining moment nor is it "objective" to use it in the manner you do. Taking out of context is probably the least objective form of discredit. It reminds me of the cheap, disgusting political antics that are all too common today...take something out of context and then trumpet "objective analysis"...sorry I don't buy it. His name is Coach McHale. He is a member of the basketball HOF. He was chosen as a top 50 all time NBA player. He has earned my respect...and you certainly have not.
What's funny about the pessimistic view somehow being the correct or realist view is that when I talk to some friends who are fans of completely different teams, whether it be Mavs or Spurs or Pistons or either LA team, they all don't have many bad things to say about the Rockets. They have every reason to be a hater, but when they give me their honest opinions on the state of the Rockets as they see it its wildly different than the negative view some around here hold. They all think Morey is one of the best in the business. Some have mentioned he puts himself out there a little more than is necessary, but it doesn't really reflect on how he has handled his job. They like the roster. They think McHale is average, but not woefully dreadful. They like our chances as much as anyone outside of GS.