QFT. Hindsight is 20/20. If we had a different GM - assuming they were able to build a WCF team without tanking - who's to say the team wouldn't collapse the following season? Ultimately Morey is responsible, but that doesn't mean someone else would have done better. He's done a good job playing the cards that have been dealt.
Exactly, I am actually surprised to see there are still sane people in here. Most championships were won by great players, and then supported by good to great coaches and management. Instead of Timmy, you give Pop with players like Michael Redd, Mitch Richmond, Brandon Roy ect, you won't see much different results than what the Trailblazers, the Kings and the Bucks went through those years. The last championship that the Pistons won is the closest one to a true team, but still that team had some great individual talents. And once they won one, they never going to be able to get close to win it again.
Every GM, coach and player in the league that hasn't won a title while Morey has been GM should be fired. DD wants Morey replaced with Billy King. He likes GMs that buddy up to players and overpay for mediocrity.
To be fair, I respect fans that desire and expect the best. That's what we all want. Yeah, it could be worse... but it could be better. So, TRULY, I have no problem with DD being upset and pointing the finger at DM. He has had 7 years and they haven't won a ring. But, to pretend like DM's strategy has been flawed because DD thinks so, is moronic. DaDakota has been consistently wrong on various personnel moves, and continues to spout crap that isn't even remotely true - like all of the Rockets promising young players being let go only to see them shine elsewhere. Which is a load of crap. 90% of the time those guys go on to be worse, or overpaid, elsewhere. DM missed on Kawhi. Huge miss. Sucks. He's had other minor misses here or there. But the biggest problem after that Kawhi miss has been going after Howard in the first place. Dwight is Dwight, and value his game, don't value his game, whatever, Dwight is Dwight...
I agree. I'm not thrilled right now with the state of the team, but I think going over the deep end with trashing DM is just ridiculous. It could DEFINITELY be worse than it has been. We could have a GM still who gave big dollars to mediocre or washed up players and kept us locked up in mediocrity like most NBA teams. Could it be better? I'm sorry, I'm not actually convinced of that. I mean there is obviously the theoretical better of winning a ring, but I am not convinced that a different GM could have actually achieved that in the same situation the Rockets were in when Morey got here. Building a team in sports isn't done in a vacuum and it isn't a video game where as long as you make the right moves you end up winning. You only get to pick from the players available and you only get to control your roster in so many ways. You're right. You know who else did? 13 other teams. There's also no telling what would have happened after our pick. Guess what? In the same draft, 29 names were called before Jimmy Butler. The Spurs drafted and passed on him right before he went.
Zero championships, get a little better, take a step back, a little better, take a step back. Not good enough 8 years - and not appreciably better. DD
It is not about shining ELSEWHERE it is about them being a perfect FIT here, and paying your role player appropriately. The good organizations do not trade people away because they are afraid of paying them, they find a way to pay them and move forward. DD
Look, I am not a fan of Daryl Morey he is not playing the game, but he is the director that is ****ing up by hiring the wrong actors, and more importantly not realizing how important the bit players, or role players are to a team's success. We flip GREAT fitting players like Parsons for OK fitting ones in Ariza - we flip PFs like Patterson and DMo that are great fits as complimentary players because they are not stars. WE NEED role players, we need our Battiers, we need our Mario Elie type of players but Morey is too busy flipping for future mid round picks that never pan out to be stars anyway that we tread water. DD
I thought we were like 4th in win percentage since he took over. At the same time, I'm surprised he's not gone yet. I say this as a Morey fan. I've agreed with his moves, so I can't really say I would've done things differently. We just suck because we didn't value fit/personality/chemistry.
So should all GMs who don't win a championship in 6-7 years get fired? Lot of bloodletting. DM has made a lot of mistakes but all in all he's a pretty good GM. That would be a lot of bloodletting. Don't forget he inherited two broken down and a mandate to not tank. It took 3-4 years to get out from under that. This year has been miserable, but let's not forget that in 2 years that Dwight and Harden have been together, they did manage to get to the WCF. Even if we crap out this year, we would have made the WCF during their 3-year partnership, which is actually very good (although not great). I agree with some of the criticism (eg, - Morris over Leonard, chasing Anthony and Bosh instead of giving a $12m/year offer to Lowry, etc.) but your strategy of paying existing players for continuity is too simple and leads to overpay and leaving teams stuck for years at a time with bad contracts if you overpay the wrong one. If we had been faithful to Scola, Kev Martin, Brooks, etc., we wouldn't have gotten Harden (or Dwight). In fact, the one year when he finally went for continuity (Brewer, Beverley, same group from the year before), we fell off the cliff. Fortunately, we are still flexible enough so we can retool this summer to varying degrees of success. I will miss DMO a lot too. I love his potential and I loved his fit (and he seemed a great guy). I was very upset about the trade. But I think two possibilities - 1. the Rockets have serious reservations that his back will fully recover (or at least in their ability to help him recover) and 2. they think someone is going to throw a godfather offer to him based solely on potential which they will NOT be able to match or that would tie their ability to add talent this summer (because of RFA timing). He might be worth $20M/year at true value, but could the Rockets afford to pay him $20M/year when they're concerned about his back recovering? He had surgery almost a year ago and has not recovered. So getting a first round pick when (a) he might have serious injury problems or (b) he was going to be paid way too much in the new increased cap market may have been the best choice. Put it this way, if DMO performs really well the next 3 months, and someone offers him $25M a year because they were turned down by everyone else and are below the floor, do you think Detroit matches? Most sites I've seen has given Houston a favorable grade for the DMO trade, as much as it hurts me to say.
Please show me your organization example that has locked themselves into salary cap gridlock by paying their role players without stars that you consider a better one than the Rockets. I really want to know what this "good organization" is that has won titles since Morey has been here by signing their role players when they came up for free agency without having their stars in place.
We did not flip Parsons. He got a max contract. He is not worth that much. We did not flip Patterson. We traded him to ultimately create cap space to sign Howard in free agency. See my other response below re DMO - either he is seriously hurt or is very likely to have re-injury, or he will cost A LOT. Because of his RFA status, it would probably mess up their free agency options just to wait.
Golden State and San Antonio come to mind, they may flip players but it is rarely for a draft pick it is generally for PLAYERS that fit better. And they develop their talent. DD
