Morey on PTI: Many people looked at this & said Harden played great at point. How do you envision this pairing working? I've been asked that a bunch. It's pretty simple: when you can add a USA basketball member & HOF, it's easy to make it work. The guys who can play with Harden are players who can defend, shoot & handle the ball. Ususally we have to pick one of the three. With Chris, we get one of the best all time at all three. Mike D'Antoni is already meeting with Chris tonight to talk through how it's gonna work. He thinks it's gonna be great. He's also worked with both in USA Basketball. When Team USA is up 40, it seems to work fine. Mike obviously is a brilliant offensive mind. He remade Harden in one year. Are we talking about getting in a lab & starting from scratch? We had a top 10 offense ever last year. We'll work to be better than that. I told Mike no pressure. Just gotta maybe be the best offense ever. We'll think it'll work great. The players that'll work with them...Clint Capela is already planning out his 450 lob dunks he'll have this year. So do you blowup last year's offense that was a top 10 offense ever? Will it look totally different from anything we've expected from Harden & Paul particularly? It's gonna be different but again, both have gone through this working with Mike in USA Basketball. When you have very good, very smart, very multi-skilled guards, it's a guard's league. This is today's NBA. Gotta have multiple ball handlers , multiple shooters & Chris is a tremendous defender. You've used the phrase weapons race. I imagine everything you do has an eye on Golden State. How much closer does this get you? Does this make you competitive with them? We feel like it really closes the gap. They're the standard. One of the best teams of all times. Normally as we're planning this out, we're trying to get in the 60 win range which gives you a very high probability of the one holding the trophy in the end. Unfortunately in today's NBA, you win 60, your odds are longer than you want to admit. We got Harden & Chris in their prime. We have to go all in at this point. That's why we gave up what we did to get Chris & will keep making moves to give Golden State a tough as hell 7-game series. Do you plan to sign him to a max extension or is this a one year deal? Truly is just one more year. We're hoping to get with him when we're allowed & talk about bringing him back. We've never lost a superstar in Houston. Players fight over playing here with our ownership, our history, 2nd best team record wise in the last 10 years. Two championships. Not many franchises can say they have two championships. We're not worried about in a year convincing him to come back. We feel very good about that. That's why we have multiple HOF banners of our players up in the rafters. Let me go backwards. You got Chris & Harden. Cleveland has 3. Golden State has four. 2 enough or do you have to go out and get a third? Let's not minimize who we have. We have Eric Gordon, who was the best 3pt shooter in the league last year based on attempts, Trevor Ariza one of the best wing defenders, Ryan Anderson the best shooting bigs, Clint Capela who could move into that near all-star category, we're hoping to bring back Nene. We have some tremendous players. I can never rest on my job but we feel good about the group we're bringing back. We have a lot of tremendous young players we think can come along as well.
The thing about players is that "a better situation" is different for them than what others may think. For example, the Clippers could have offered Chris Paul a financial deal that at the time no other team could offer due to the CBA, but Paul isn't financially motivated at this point in his career. He views his best chance to contend as being in Houston. For Blake, maybe it might just be to find a new beginning rather than money or even contending for a title...who knows what Blake puts preference over. At this point, we are all just waiting to find out, and OKC is a possibility since it has the appeal of bringing him back to his hometown.
probably leverage. Show West that he got a max deal on the table and other suitors to up their offer. The fact that there hasn't been any other meetings leaked is the weird one. Like for example where's Boston?
Let me go backwards. You got Chris & Harden. Cleveland has 3. Golden State has four. 2 enough or do you have to go out and get a third? "Let's not minimize who we have. We have Eric Gordon, who was the best 3pt shooter in the league last year based on attempts, Trevor Ariza one of the best wing defenders, Ryan Anderson the best shooting bigs, Clint Capela who could move into that near all-star category, we're hoping to bring back Nene. We have some tremendous players. I can never rest on my job but we feel good about the group we're bringing back. We have a lot of tremendous young players we think can come along as well." Boy, I hope he's right about Capela. That's a pretty bold statement to make there. With CP3 and Harden, who knows!
Good question. The two teams really attract a different type of fan. For example, the Lakers have been in Los Angeles longer, so they definitely built a larger fan base. Part of what aided that fan base to grow was their success during the Kobe-Shaq and Kobe-Gasol championship eras. However, the Lakers are viewed by many sports fans as the New York Yankees of the NBA...a successful team with traditional deep pockets that gobbled everyone up. That sort of thing can be off putting for some fans. When i decided to watch basketball the Lakers were the biggest craze, and it just didn't feel right to root for a team just because they were winning. I, like many other Clippers fans, decided to root for the underdog. We tend to be birds of a different feather i suppose.
As a longtime LA resident, I can tell you that the only people who root for the Clips are the ones who can't afford Lakers tix.
To hedge my statement, I've been in the Seattle area for the last five years. And I was a Clips fan during the Danny Manning era, but I learned my lesson. It's a cursed franchise (sorry, pageC4) and may remain so for years to come.
lulz. Everyone in LA is going to have trouble spelling Beverley's name correctly, because y'all are so used to spelling Beverly Hills without the third 'e'
Jesus, Boston would be legendary. That's a fit for him. I think he wants to stay in LA, but like I've said over and over, that team is down trending hard. West might flip them in the right direction, but I don't know.
