No. No. No. Think of it this way: If a tin whistle is made out of tin, then what is a fog horn made made out of? (this is for the verbal readers rather than the mathematical readers).
It seems to me the best, and perhaps only, way to effect mentality morphs is thru shaking up the rotation. To keep from getting your PT cut, you cut without the ball.
I think you're wrong. You have to remember Morey is a moneyball guy. You don't just look at how well the guy performs, you also look at how much he's getting paid. Thus, Morey is waiting to see how much he demands so you can truly see his value vs his contract value. He has a value assigned to Battier in that regard so the only way to compare Battier to Gay (in Morey's construct) is to wait for a true free-market contract for Gay, not one capped by leauge standards.
On Rafer: I don't buy the we're 6-1 so lets not make adjustments. We can ALWAYS be better, and we are 6-1 because of Yao and Tracy, point blank. So Alston continues to be rewarded because of the hard work of his teammates, and is not at all reprimanded for his poor play. On Cutting: I hope that this gets better, but I understand that it is hard to deprogram what is essentially innate habit by now. I agree with the people who say Hayes on Bonzi have it down. Hayes used to cut all the time last and T-Mac got alot of assists because of it; and Bonzi is obviously used to this offense as he never had a chance to really play Gundy ball. On Yao: The possession thing is VERY interesting, and it is why we have Morey around. I like the way Yao is being utilized now, he just needs more touches (though we have to take into account all of his turnovers are touches, as are his freethrows). I would have liked to here Morey comment on Yao's upswing in conditioning. On Gay-Battier: Good answer from DM. I mean he can't really say "we messed up there", when Battier is still a Rocket starter. I agree with his points and his "wait-and-see" answer. No need to clown one of your own. On Steve: It sounds like Morey and Adelman maybe disagree here. Morey probably thinks Steve should play (based on statistics), but Adelman is the coach with final say, and thinks that Alston/James/Head should play (based on record).
I had almost forgotten about the Sagarin ratings. They rock. Interestingly, New Orleans is ranked #2 (which really shouldn't be surprising, given how incredibly good they've looked). Probably more surprising to readers is seeing Portland at #9, but that doesn't surprise me -- I always thought that was a very underrated team to begin with, and their performance in the opener against San Antonio only served to buttress that opinion.
The problem with your logic..or what you feel is Morey's logic...is at least twofold. It first assumes Gay wouldn't have helped Houston at all during the 5 years of Rookie Scale contract. It's pretty safe to say that's incorrect. The second fallacy to the logic is that both Yao and McGrady will be off of their current Max contracts by the time Gay is ready for a second contract. Morey can wait 3-5 years for his answer. I had mine on Draft Night.
