Moreyball is a gimmick. Teams have adjusted and we haven't. If pushing GS 2-3 years ago is your only defining moment, then you've failed. Rockets are a regular season team that likes to be known for its offensive numbers. At this point, Morey isn't even TRYING to win a championship. He's just happy with good regular seasons with Harden getting MVP considerations every year
you think we were going to keep dragic for the last 8 years just for this flukish age 34 playoff run he's having? we were going to skip out on chris paul? dragic was on the bench all year until the starting rookie pg got covid right before the bubble. i think we have almost no one on the team from like 3 years ago, much less 8. player option or not, he wouldn't still be a rocket now. this would be something like dragic's 11th year in houston. the 2nd longest tenured player in the entire league is curry on golden state for 11 years. role players don't hang around long on any team.
This takes the cake for ridiculous arguments. Lots of regular season wins = "a regular season team". In effect by that warped logic all teams but the champ are failures and if they happened to win a lot of regular season games they are regular season teams. Talk like that is just meaningless forum dribble. The truth is DM takes substantial highly calculated risks. Just like 29 other GM's do. Only one wins the finals and that is a combination of skill, planning and luck. His methods have clearly been successful.
Like trading you're starting bigman to start a 6'4 center? That's not highly calculated thats DUMB. Rebounding is essential to winning, hence Kevon Looney killing us in a elimination game. That move alone gave the Lakers a playoff series. The Rockets didn't sign Morey to flame out in the postseason every year. If Doc Rivers can be fired, so can Daryl Morey
This post should be required reading for all the morons on this site. Hakeemthegreat gets it!!! Morey is and has been the problem. Trading away your center to start short people in a gimmick offense which failed miserably is absolute grounds for dismissal. Taking CC off the court, so that Looney could dominate is grounds for dismissal.
@SuperKev is on point. DM is definitely calculated and a risk taker. Perhaps DM's weakness is having to overpay to get players to Houston for whatever reason and after overpaying, having to give up more in trade to get rid of players. (I.E. Ryan Anderson contract and trade, CP3 Clip trade, contract, OKC trade) Not some of his finest work. BBall Reference shows all the DM deals but doesn't really spell things out for you. https://www.basketball-reference.com/executives/moreyda99x.html This team is so enigmatic!: TILDO - Abrasive/abrupt/opinionated owner. Could be a turnoff to both players and coaches. James - Having a start like James and the style he plays likely deters some players (stars) from wanting to come here. Russ - His Helter Skelter Jekyll & Hyde game is hit or miss in our current small ball system. With D'Antoni out, this team is lost, lacks identity and the appealing assets to make any major changes without straight blowing it up! Hard to believe we were on the door step twice in the past four years!
Ahh, the strength of your Monday morning quarterbacking skills are a sight to see! Investing in Stock A over Stock B might be genius or it might be foolish but sure as sunrise there will be those who said you were DUMB to invest in Stock A. I would love to see an image of your fleet of Rolls Royce's from all of the genius moves you have made ***prior to events unfolding.
How hard is it to NOT start a 6'4 center? That should be something anybody should know, let alone a tenured NBA gm
Why? The idea is you choose what areas for strengths and weaknesses. i.e. in the Rockets case they traded paint rebounding for perimeter defense and 3Pt shooting. Plus we tried this with Capella - and by your reckoning that you always put out there - no rings = season failure. So a roster exactly like you are suggesting didn't work any better and that team would ALSO qualify according to you as a "regular season team". Exploring new strategies is what evolving in the NBA is all about.
Westbrook? Absolutely, if anyone is dumb enough to take him on. Harden? Nah, dumbass move that would be, but he's also the only one who's even tradeable (tradeable meaning teams will happily give offers if we shopped him).
To be fair, AFAIC, Capela + Harden + Paul had absolutely proven themselves as a championship caliber team if not for some bad luck (and Scott Foster). Once Tilman [probably] forced Morey to acquire Westbrick, though, we were focked. Capela + Harden + WB was going nowhere fast and required some creative tinkering. I don't fault Morey for the small ball attempt. It was a smart effort and probably our only chance to win this season, and I think we were at least better than it appeared against LA before the House drama, though we were probably going to lose that series anyway.
If you want to get rid of our bad contracts and get picks, you get rid of harden. If you want 4 more seasons of heartbreak, keep him.
"Bad contract"...? I mean if you want to just start from the bottom and rebuild, then yeah, I guess Harden is on a bad contract, as would any veteran contract, no matter how good. But if you want any chance of competing over the next 3-4 years, Harden is still our best bet. I'm not opposed to tearing it down and rebuilding if someone would actually give us picks/expirings for Westbrook, but I just doubt that's a possibility. EDIT: Although if we COULD get a halfway decent trade for Westbroke, we might have a shot at salvaging the downward slope of Harden's prime... and if anyone can pull that off, it's Morey.
Huh? In what world does a team address a weakness by completely ignoring another one. You're supposed 2 address your weakness, and add to your strengths. The Rockets completely IGNORED rim protection & rebounding, a year after getting embarrassed by lack of rebounding in a game 7 by Kevon Looney (in which we should've won). So Morey says "F- that, we're just gonna jack up MORE 3's" A pray the day Timan fires this guy
I've seen you say this like 20 times as if you've discovered the Zapruder film. ANY move you make will give up something to gain somewhere else. We all get it you don't like DM's strategy. Message received. In your book rebounding is a big if not the biggest weakness. Some moves will not yield what you expect thus they are calculated risks. I guess what annoy's me about forums the most are those who push their strategy/ideas etc. as if it's an absolute truth that nobody in their right mind might disagree with. If they don't conform to your ideas - burn it down!, start firing people etc... Did it ever occur to you a team can be incredibly successful with a strategy that you don't envision or even approve of?
Its not rocket science. You play in the western conference where teams are bigger and more physical. Plus all the teams we go through to win a championship have depth in size. Whoever thought starting a 6'4 SF at center, in a year this crucial, should be held accountable. Morey BLEW IT. No other GM in nba history thinks starting PJ at center will win a championship
