And you see that the products of your philosophy is mediocre and not producing the results you expected, do you eventually give up this moneyball/stat approach? Or do you continue to compile statistical evidence to guide management decision?
If morey ever had a healthy team, the same team that he has assembled, the rockets would be a top 4 seed every year.
If, all these damn if's. if Morey actually planned it out with injury proned players. if Morey didnt know that Yao was injury prone if if if
One thing you cannot deny is the fact that the Rockets in Yao and TMac's "prime" were a heck of a team. We never made a hard run in the playoffs but that isnt the point. We were a fun team to watch and we won 50+ games/year. You cant blame Morey for not having a backup plan in place for Yao or TMac... Do you really think the Lakers have a "plan" for when Kobe goes down along with Odom or Fisher at the same time? How about KG and Pierce going down at same time for a long period of time? You know who really has it together? The Heat! If Lebron and Wade go down, they are still a championship team! Im sure you all caught my sarcasm there... You know, we are a bit cynical as a fan base. You cant lose super stars and just move on. They have to be replaced and what do you replace superstars with that will make everyone in the fan base happy... Yeah, superstars. They just arent that easy to get or find or every team would have them.
I dont buy it. For all the credit Morey is given? We all know our 7'6" Chinese icon is injury prone. But having a plan of just being built around him and no back up plan? I don't buy it. And if it is so, then maybe Morey shouldn't get all the credit he gets. You guys act as if Morey didn't know Yao was injury prone.
Lets see? Had rebounding problems against taller team last night tat was never fixed for years. Even with a injury prone talll center? Check Went over our backs for putbacks for the bilionth win where people rebound and do putbacks to beat us because we have been small for years? check No defense layup drill because we are small? check Chuck Hayes plays great OUT OF POSITON so nobody notices once agiun but its part of why we lose. Check Battier misses wide open three in play designed for him to end game? Nothing from Battier except good guy attititude and defense so great we are one of the worst defenses in the league? Lets Carmelo score 50 points on him...check Guys getting too much time at same position others should because we are stacked at a few positions where nobody gets playing time. check All of this soft defense, weakness, shortness, unathletic, nonrebounding, out of position playing, stacked at onespot, one dimensionalness for years under Morey who wont fix it. Just keeps adding little by little more role players in the same position year after year without fixing these other problems. check
Statistical evidence is used to inform management decisions, and virtually every good team does it. Not that we shouldn't find fault with some decisions Morey has made, but making use of statistics is not the issue.
My very simple point is, when the Bulls lost Jordan, they didnt have Jordan #2 waiting in the wings... The Rockets did not have Hakeem #2 waiting in the wings... The Lakers dont have Kobe #2... The Cavs obviously dont have Lebron #2... and so on and on... It just isnt as easy easy as "go get that guy or this guy". You dont think Morey or anyone else wouldnt do "that" if they could?
how would we know if the "Yao & Tmac" teams were good as they could never get on the court at the same time because they were hurt all the time. The Rockets banked their future on Yao's surgery fixing his foot problem, and this experiment has obviously failed. Yao is done and it's time to move on. As for Morey. I think he's made some nice moves to acquire some "good" assets. The way most of the people on here speak of DM you'd think he's responsible for building a team that's won a championship. DM has shown (thus far) that he can't even put together a team that can go deep in the playoffs, or given the past two seasons (even make the playoffs). Morey's entire philosophy is about production/value, and if he was to rate himself he'd have to give himself a C to C+. Which means he's average, and avg in ANY sport means you not only don't win titles but you don't even make the playoffs. Everyone talks about how he fleeced the Knicks. Really? Jordan Hill could turn into a good player (this is still to be determined). A lot of people on here have made a big deal about them stealing these picks from the Knicks. We'll the Knicks are now just a good enough team that they'll finish in the middle of the pack, which means chances are that pick won't amount to nothing. Sure they may find a gem, and the picks could turn into something. However the odds are against it. Somebody on here hit it right on the nose awhile back. The "money ball" philosophy is a good way of putting together an avg to an above avg team, HOWEVER, it's not a good philosophy to build a team that wins championships!!!!!! Not saying that it's easy to make moves given that there's just not a whole lot out there to trade for. That said, it's been done by Morey's counterparts in the past. Now that Yao is done, Morey needs to show that he's capable of just acquiring some nice pieces of the puzzle. Can he put together a team that can compete for it all? That's the million dollar question, and the proof will obviously play out. Trading assets for Carmelo, who NO WAY IN HELL would ever resign here, would show just how good of a GM Morey really is. If that's his BIG time move, than it's time to kick DM to the curb and bring in somebody else. Just my opinion!
And do what? Come on now. Give us an alternative, not just throw your hands in the air & say "I QUIT"! Besides the overall philosophy isn't flawed. It's still a very good way to evaluate players. In our case what was flawed was the health of our 2 stars.
I started highlighting false facts you're trying to use to support your argument, but then I realized when I highlighted half of your response it would just look stupid. First, you say that we don't know just how good the Yao T-Mac teams could have been, but then you contradict yourself by saying that Morey has never build a championship contending team. Secondly, If your average in basketball, you still make the playoffs. Just saying. 16/30 teams make the playoffs. Third, money ball only works IN THEORY when you have the most cost efficient players. When you have 35+ Million sitting on the bench, thats not very cost efficient. fourth, is this million dollar question of yours going to be answered literally before the trade deadline of the first season of what is essentially rebuilding? fifth, you want to rebuild the team, but you don't want to take risk to do it? Given the position we're in, trading for Melo with no extension seems brilliant to me. If he decides to stay with us, we have our star. If he doesn't, we are no longer stuck in mediocrity because we traded some of the players helping us win games. There is no gain without risk. Basic concept of human life. The bigger the risk, the bigger the gain.
If the Lakers trade for Carmelo, they will have Kobe #2. If that falls through, they will get a free agent (Howard, Paul) superstar to sign there. Players like to play in LA.
The OP raises an excellent point. I mean, it's not like Morey took over this team with two injured superstars already in place and clogging up the salary cap. It's not like he has been trying to "rebuild" this team on the fly with one arm tied behind his back with Yao taking up nearly $18 million of the salary cap. It's not like he's in position to have some modicum of cap flexibility for the first time in his tenure this summer. Oh, wait. It's EXACTLY like that. But I'm sure the OP realizes this and just wants Morey to change his strategy right when he's finally in a position to do something to seriously reshape this team.
Morey had to build a team based on having a dominating 7'6 center. I'm sure Morey would approach things differently if he had to build a team from scratch. He's always had to deal around the suit wearing giant named Yao Ming.
If you really pay attention to the way that Morey has essembled this roster (and know anything about Statistics) you will know that stats really dont have much to do with the players he has brought to this team as much as Value in their contracts. Morey's philosophy is simple- Rebuild the team while winning enough games to compete for a playoff spot while having financial flexibility with the players contracts. -lots of value contracts that can be moved easily or bundled together. -Not a contending team necessarily, but one that should be able to compete. In retrospect, he has been successful in theory because he has a team with great contracts, and this team SHOULD BE and has the talent to compete for a playoff spot and surprise people. -However Morey has not been able to bundle these value contracts together for a star player or top prospect just yet. -Even in the case of utter failure of not attaining that star player and having an underperforming basketball team, which seems to be the case this season, Morey still has the ability to move those value contracts very easy, has expiring contracts, and draft picks to rebuild this franchise with complete flexibility. -He is a good GM and doesn't base every decisiou on Statistics, he uses them in scouting players yes, and it shows that he can get good bargains in the draft. But even Morey knows that talent overrides anything and that has always been his goal as a GM. Give the guys some credit.
