With all the questions surrounding the team these days, I thought it was the perfect time to sit down and chat with Daryl Morey again. I tried to hit on as many topics as I could, especially focusing on many of the issues I see on this message board day in and day out. http://blogs.houstonpress.com/ballz/2007/12/qa_with_daryl_morey_riding_the.php As always, thanks for reading, and your comments, suggestions and critiques are always welcome, of course. JCF
When will we hear from the man "Les" himself. I mean Mark Cuban goes off and speaks to the press all the time.
How cool is it that Morey busted out with a Sports Guy reference! I always got the feeling that, if Morey wasn't a GM, he'd be posting on team message boards just like us...
Daryl Morey: If they make a move here's my guess. Old article where Morey says he and the Rockets scouts liked Gerald Green http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/3790977.html Green's numbers http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3944/career;_ylt=AqP_LyZeqK7jOzKyMR451tqkvLYF
It sucks that Minnesota is letting Gerald Green's talent go to waste. Even though I haven't seen him in action very much, his numbers last year with Boston showed flashes of brilliance. Given enough minutes, his stats were pretty impressive. I wouldn't mind trading for Green to come home, but I don't see him as anything more than a Kirk Snyder on the currents Rockets team. Anyways, great read... I enjoy reading your articles a lot.
I think it's a shame that Morey and Rick think that the problem with the last two Rockets loses were the absence of Wafer and Luther. Morey said that the rotations that we saw tonight are probably what Rick is going to go with for a while. While we won the game, 3 players played 40 plus minutes, and Bonzi and Scola each barely played around 10 minutes. Just because you won the game, that's ridiculous to think that this is the best lineup. Tracy seems to have accomplished his mission with getting Steve out of the lineup, although Steve wasn't smart enough to see what he was doing and actually helped him with his poor play for 1 and a half games. And I know Morey said that they will get their chance again, but obviously he doesn't expect it to be anytime soon. Out of twenty two games, Steve go to start two while only playing one and a half of those, and those performances in that limited time were enough to say your benched for a while now. Yet Wafer sucked like 16 out of 20 games and he is still considered the glue that the team needs. Tmac is written all over that. Obviously Morey didn't give any credit to the first half of the Toronto game, and he and Rick graded Steve only on the second half of the Toronto game and first half of the Sixers game; oh, okay...I think Steve made have played about 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter of the 76ers game, while Tracy jacked up unlimited contested 3's. Im really disappointed in this team's direction and leadership now. There are still my team and I will always route for them to win and hope that they make a run in the playoffs; but Im not going to get my hopes up and get emotional fired up because I see a big disappointment coming this year so far. That said, whatever the knuckleheads decide, Im still supporting the team as a whole.
I think it's certainly understandable that most, if not all, Rockets fans feel a great deal of frustration with the team's start. Blame the players, the coaches, the adjustment period, the schedule... Morey said it himself: too often the play has been lacking. There's no excuse for Houston to be 12-11 right now. Having said that, I think ESPN's Henry Abbot presents some valid thoughts on the subject in his latest post: http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-28-385/Houston--Do-We-Really-Have-a-Problem-.html Maybe this team is in deep trouble. But it's also possible that the outlook could be drastically different two months from now. We'll see. JCF
Wow, that was an amazing interview, really journalistic quality stuff. Have you been hired yet? Seriously though, ESPN hasn't turned out an article this good in weeks or maybe months, and while it's still only an interview, the questions are great and seemed to have a purpose. Morey's coherence and intelligence certainly helps, but still, awesome interview.
everyone wishing for a trade right now is an idiot. end of story. am i happy the way we've played the first 1/4 of the season? hell no. but you're out of your damned mind if you think trading players is the logical answer to our problems. WE HAVE A VERY DEEP ROSTER FULL OF TALENTED PLAYERS.... THIS WILL TAKE TIME. thanks fritz... you continue to impress.
Of course our GM is not really going to expose our problems. If he does than that, and says were the problem is, then it would be harder for us to get a good trade done. We all know Rafer and Head were not what we needed in those Ls.
In these Fritz articles Morey's shared a consistent view of the point guard position. I wouldn't be surprised if he did make a move for a no-name player who's been hitting his shots.
[rquoter]Rick has made his adjustments and he’s going to go with the rotation you saw tonight for a little while[/rquoter] Looks like SF is going to have to adjust to a few more DNP-CDs. It's basically an 8 man rotation, w/ Bonzi, Scola, and Luther off the bench. It's not a bad rotation, but I'd like to see Stevie and Snyder get some time as well. Luther cannot run the point for anything other than spot minutes. I suppose he can bring it up and pass to T-mac, but then Tracy has to have someone to pass it too, and if Battier and Chuck are both in the game his options are limited to pass to Yao, or take a long jumper. we need him for more than that. Bonzi should be on the floor with T-Mac as much as possible. their games complement one another, and they both create match-up problems, and open up the floor for Yao. And Scola needs more playing time. Other than Steve, he's the only player that brings any passion and fire to the floor, plus, he's not an offensive liability. If this is indeed going to be our go-to group for the foreseable future, i'd start: Yao, Scola, T-mac, Bonzi, Rafer. Bring Chuck in when Yao needs a rest, and slide scola over to Center. Depending on the matchup, Battier should back-up Scola and Tracy Steve backs up Rafer and Bonzi, and Luther Bonzi and Steve. Never have fewer than three scorers on the floor at the same time, and never, ever, play Rafer, Chuck and Shane together, much less as starters.
I didnt get that impression from Morey's interview. If anything he seemed to avoid overpraising luther and rafer. Still, I smell a trade coming... for MJ or SF. Trading SF a second time would suck...