A Sign of Success for the Houston Rockets Front Office

A sign of success and the ultimate compliment from the league is when the other organizations begin hiring away the Rockets front office personnel and making them front office leaders in their own organizations. It’s also a sign that other teams around the league are starting to acknowledge what Daryl Morey has accomplished. In a two year span after the Rockets finally gave up on the Yao Ming era (Yao’s career with the Rockets officially ended on June 30th, 2011) and began in earnest to try and turn the team into a championship caliber team that did not include Yao, they transformed a club that had zero all-stars and was just good enough to challenge for the play-offs but never good enough to make it and drafted no higher than 14 each year into one of the top teams in the league that features two of the top ten players in the league.

Daryl Morey used every possible tool at his disposal (or at least the ones I know of) to build the Rockets starting rotation going into the 2013 season:

First
Up and coming star Chandler parsons was acquired via the draft in the second round but clearly plays like someone who clearly should have been a lottery pick. The Rockets have consistently found players in the 2nd round that were easily 1st round talents which is a credit to Daryl Morey and their scouting department. The Rockets have been identifying 2nd round gems for years. Mark Cuban essentially called his 2nd round pick useless this past summer when he said, “Why not use a 2nd round pick on Brittney Grinner? It’s just a 2nd round pick.” I paraphrased his comment but it shows how some GM’s view 2nd round picks while Daryl Morey values them.

Second
Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin were acquired via restricted free agency by exploiting the CBA in ways that had not previously been used and taking advantage of the Bulls and Knicks front offices. Typically teams are not able to steal a highly valued restricted free agent away from another team and the Rockets were able to get two in one off season thanks to Daryl Morey’s knowledge of the CBA.

Third
Many people believed Daryl Morey could not pull of the true Block Buster Trade. Yes he has a history of making a lot of trades and some have been really big trades such as the Rafer Alston deal for Kyle Lowry or the Carl Landry for Kevin Martin and even the Ron Artest trade, but even those trades left people doubting Daryl had the ability to pull off a true block buster trade. But then he acquired James Harden via a block buster trade with OKC. What was amazing was how Daryl Morey acquired the pieces to make the trade since the Rockets started with no building block pieces and no draft picks higher than 14. In attempt to trade for Dwight Howard the Rockets traded away every player of value with the exception of Kevin Martin including getting a guaranteed lottery pick for Kyle Lowry and moving up in the draft to acquire Jeremy Lamb. The Rockets were unable to land Dwight in a trade but they now had all the pieces in place when the next opportunity game up. The Rockets could now offer a group of items that no other team in the league could offer in a trade, a guaranteed lottery pick, a building block piece in Jeremy Lamb and an established high value veteran that is a proven scorer in Kevin Martin. Preparation finally met opportunity, but make no mistake while some people continue to say this trade was nothing more than luck, the rest of the league has realized that Daryl Morey made his own luck.

Fourth
If Daryl Morey had his doubters about pulling off the big trade, he had even more doubters about his ability to sign a mega star in free agency. The media and a lot of people on this board got a real kick out of Daryl showing up at Chris Bosh’s door step with an IPad in hand to try and unsuccessfully to lure Chris to the Houston Rockets. Unfortunately Daryl was not even given the opportunity at a second meeting with Chris. Fast forward to the summer of 2013 and Daryl Morey probably landed the biggest fish in free agency the Houston Rockets have ever landed. Welcome to Houston, Dwight Howard in a mega block buster free agent signing!

The rest of the league noticed.

Daryl Morey officially took over the Houston Rockets in 2007 after Carol Dawson retired. During that time The Rockets have gone from having Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady as the cornerstones of the organization and well over the salary cap and had zero cap flexibility to an organization that has Dwight Howard and James Harden as the cornerstones. What is amazing is not only that the transformation was made in such a short amount of time but that the Rockets have never had a sub .500 winning percentage during Daryl Morey’s time with the organization. To the victor goes the spoils and in this case that means James, Dwight, Chandler, Omer and Jeremy along with one of the youngest title contending teams in the league and still loaded with the ability to improve the roster.

The rest of the league definitely noticed.

Along with front office success comes the other teams wanting to emulate your team’s success. What’s the best way to do that? By hiring your team’s front office personnel. I don’t remember a time when the rest of the NBA lined up at the Rockets front door to bid on the assets of the organizations front office. I have mentioned the name Daryl Morey a lot but what this is really about is an organization that, while led by Daryl, included a trio of basketball savants that are now reaping the rewards of successfully rebuilding the Houston Rockets.

Gersson Rosas – Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Houston Rockets to GM of the Dallas Mavericks 2013

http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/0...s-new-general-manager.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Sam Hinkie – Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Houston Rockets to GM of the Philadelphia 76ers 2013

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/20...brett-brown-ive-hitched-my-car-to-sam-hinkie/

Artūras Karnišovas – Director of Player Personnel of the Houston Rockets to Assistant GM of the Denver Nuggets

http://www.nba.com/nuggets/news/denver-nuggets-name-arturas-karnisovas-assistant-gm

As excited as we all are about where the Rockets are and the teams ability to now compete for a championship for the foreseeable future, the league has taken notice of the excellence of the Houston Rockets front office and the tremendous role played in achieving that excellence by Gersson Rosas, Sam Hinkie and Artūras Karnišovas.

 

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I agree with the reverse lottery protected pick being key. It had never been done before and I could be argued that with out that pick, OKC would not have pulled the trigger on that trade. How often does a team trade away a player and get back a guaranteed lottery pick?

Like you say, I think identifying James as a superstar was key. He had never started or even been the number 2 guy on a team much less the number 1 guy. Big kudos to DM and crew for doing that.

 

You are right about the actual pick but the Rockets were actual at 14 and had to trade up to get to 12. I know it's splitting hairs.

 

Some poeple claim that Daryl Morey got lucky. IMO what the Heat did required a lot more luck than what the Rockets did.

There has only been one time in History where 3 players of the caliber of LeBron, DWade and Bosh entered free agency at the same time and made it clear that they were going to play together even if it meant taking les money. Give Miami credit for being in the right place at the right time and taking advantage of it but make no mistake there was ton of luck involved. That scenario may or may not ever happen again.

What Daryl Morey did required a ton of preperation IMO, maninpulation of the CBA in a way that had never been done, great player scouting etc...

No knock on Miami but maybe there was nothing unconventional about the way Miami assembled there core. Once again, nothing wrong with how Miami got there because at the end of the day the only thing that counts are the championship trophies in the case.

But maybe other teams see the Rockets way of acquiring talent as more attainable and a more viable option to building a team while staying competitive than simply hoping 3 superstars hit free agency at the same time and are all wanting to play together for your team at a reduced price.