Could have been a better interview (the prig segment was cringeworthy), but there were some useful bits of info: - How the team has prepared for defenders bodying up Harden a la Wes Matthews. - Bev's doctors have pretty much nixed his return this season. - I guess it was expected, but it is still interesting that Morey plays tennis with JVG regularly. #soon? - Draft for talent vs need expect in the 2nd rd when a 4yr player is available that can contribute immediately - Had been looking at KJ for awhile and talked about staff working on his offense like he'll stick around. - Wasn't totally dismissive about Capela playing some minutes in the playoffs. - Implied that the team and himself weren't totally aware that they came out ahead when Spurs hacked. He also specifically mentioned that as long as we score 1 pt per possession, we are OK. In other words, they didn't necessarily perceive it as disrupting rhythm or something else.
Loosely Translated - I really don't watch the games and I am just regurgitating what I hear on national radio . .. . . . JS been hitting his Three's at a decent clip for us. Rocket River
made me cringe. Rockets get nothing on the radio. stop listening a long time ago. I know they can't be honest and just flat out say they don't watch games but they act so high and mighty it makes me rage.
They already have a great show with Matt and Adam. Just force them to podcast every day. Their show is great.
Every time I hear the opposing team's broadcast on Smoove, I just shake my head. They always say the same thing when Josh hits a 3. "We like when he makes the first one; he'll be tempted to take more!" Then when he hits more than 1, the cat's got their tongue. The media paints Smoove as some sort of criminal in basketball. Like he's a disgrace to the game.
Morey seems to love the Hatchetman guy. Think they had him call in with Daryl a year ago. Really funny stuff
Morey was on this morning. I can't do a full blow by blow recap, but here were some highlights: -Morey is asked whether we will see more Dwight post ups since he looks so good. Morey responds that they don't really like a whole lot of one on one ball, whether it is on the perimeter or on the inside. They prefer the flow offense, one on one is what causes their offense to bog down. -A caller asks Morey about the whole 3rd star dynamic vs keeping guys we have. Morey says they really want to keep all of their guys, says it can be difficult., but the main focus for offseason will be keeping team intact. Says they will likely only have the MLE this offseason to add a player to the team. -A caller asks about draft picks. Morey jokes that he is focused on last night's win and the next game and callers are all talking about the offseason. -Caller asks Morey if it feels good to say "suck it" to people who thought he didn't care about chemistry, team building, etc. Morey says he won't say that because he can get fined. If he's going to get fined he wants to be like the baseball guy who said 77 f words in five minutes, not something tame like that. -Sings Corey Brewer's praises. Guy brings energy and big plays seemingly every time Rockets need that. Great guy who gave up a secure future to get here. -Praises Tyson Chandler as a great player, great defender, says there is nothing he could to cover up for Dallas last night. -Nick Johnson and Clint Capela will play in the Summer League. (more laughing about offseason talk)
Well, it makes sense to talk about the Rockets from a personnel perspective considering Morey is the GM and not the coach.
Looking at the number it seems as though we'll be able to keep Brew and Smith but not McDaniels. Bird rights for Brewer, hopefully Bi Annual for Smoove, MLE for Llull...let Pat Bev walk.
No bi annual this year, we used it to sign Smith for 1 year already. What you hope for is: Bird Rights on Brewer Smith takes current salary plus the maximum raise he's allowed (125% or something like that?) Same as above for McDaniels or small carve out of MLE Rest or all of MLE for Llull then you have the Papa contract as your salary matcher to try to make a trade for an upgrade to the roster somewhere.
It doesn't make much sense to let Beverley walk. Unless he's offered a ridiculous contract, sign him or trade him. Llull won't be ready for NBA basketball on day one and Bev has proven to be a great fit in the starting lineup already. I imagine the Rockets hope to start the year with: Beverley/Llull Harden/Llull Ariza/Brewer Jones/Smith Dwight/DMo Terry, Capela, McDaniels
What about Terry? What can the Rockets offer him? And what kind of money would he command in free agency? Even in a limited role, I'd want him back.
He's definitely a vet minimum guy at this point in his career. I don't think any team would offer him more than that.
I didn't mean to skip Beverly. I expect him to be re-signed as well unless he gets a major offer (which I doubt.) I don't know what will happen with Terry. There's only so many roster spots and there's no way to know how he'll feel about potentially being a 3rd stringer at best. I'd be all for him coming back. I don't even care what the salary is, as long as it is 1 year or 1 year+non guaranteed.
I don't think that's going to happen. That's something like 10 guys who deserve rotation minutes. Probably some of the guys are going to fall out via free agency. But, if we managed to keep everybody, this offseason would seem like a good one to rationalize the roster a bit with trades.
Beverley/Llull/Prigioni Harden/Terry/Johnson Ariza/Brewer/McDaniels Jones/Smith/KPap Dwight/DMo/Capela/Dorsey + NOP pick (18th) and Knicks pick (32nd) There has to be a roster-consolidating move on the horizon. I honestly don't see us re-signing McDaniels for the little we can offer him (if we bring in Llull for the MLE). KPap is fully non-guaranteed and Prigioni is $440k guaranteed. I think we package these guys for a larger contract (or with the NOP pick for a nice player on a larger contract). Part of me wants to just run with this team + Llull, but that may be overreacting to how we are shi**ing on the Dallas Ponies right now
Barring any significant trades (this is Morey we're talking about), here's what I believe the plan is: Sign Brewer to 1 year deal using early bird-rights (6-7 million) Sign Josh to 1 year deal using non-bird rights (2.5 million) Sign Beverely using bird rights to a 3 year 10 million deal. Anything more and we let him walk. Sign MCDaniels using his qualifying offer. Will match up to 2-3 million. If McDaniels signs for 1 million, sign Llull using the rest of the MLE. Sign Terry to Vet min Beverley / Llull / Prigioni / Johnson Harden / Terry / McDaniels Ariza / Brewer / Papanikolaou DMo / Smith / TJones Howard / Capela / Dorsey I fully expect to see a trade. Maybe TJones and our 1st to move up in the draft.
790 just posted the link to the interview: http://www.sports790.com/onair/the-proper-gentlemen-of-sports-52356/rockets-gm-daryl-morey-on-pgs-13526067/
