What EVIDENCE do we have that Morey is doing a great/good job?

The elie move was rudy t all the way. For that team, it was a major move because they had been eyeballing him for awhile at the time. What personal b**** fight are you talking about with jvg. It was time for Rudy T to go with his iso ball and eventually the job was too taxing on him physically. I don't buy him wanting the rockets to stick with Yao 2 yrs 2 long either. If morey, who was still in training can convince les to trade the 8th pick for shane battier, then why can't he convince les to get rid of the higher salaried players? Who told les to trade Dream? I think its a bs excuse and like I've said before, if you can't do your job, quit like jimmy Johnson did.

 

let's put the debate into perspective: would you rather have morey's results that he's produced during his tenure here? Or would you trade that if you could go back to the time of his hire, and take your chances swapping him for literally any other GM in NBA history?

yep, I'd take the latter as well.

 

Exactly. An overwhelming majority of the moves he has made have been good. Further, there are a number of trades (Tyson Chandler, Gasol) that fell through at the last minute which also would have been positive.

 

How about the New York Yankees?!

I don't know how you guys are defining MoneyBall, but in my understanding, it is getting the most value for the least costs. In other words don't throw huge amounts of money at players, be cost efficient, carefully access their potential performance levels. Fundamentally it is a fiscally conservative approach as compared to free spending for whatever you want. The Mavs championship is not the result of frugality.

 

The good outweighs the bad, if you look at each of his moves in isolation. He's kept the Rockets competitive even with a huge chunk of the Rockets cap tied up in players that were injured (McGrady, then Yao). He's done so by making some savvy moves that most people didn't see coming (Scola, Artest, Lowry, Martin) and also with solid drafting (Brooks, Landry, Budinger, Patterson). He's done about as good a job as one could expect, given the Rockets strategy of "rebuilding" without first being "terrible".

The big question, of course, is whether that big-picture strategy is a good one. The Rockets failed to make the franchise-changing move they were looking for two summers ago and last season, and they failed to pull off their major movie just before this season as well. So, how to judge him as a GM? He's clearly smart and knows how to make the smaller moves necessary for quality depth. He knows how to find value in the later rounds of the draft and in the second round. But his reluctance to just start over makes me wonder if we'll ever be more than just a competitive team that's "pretty good".

As someone said earlier, at this stage I'd give him a "B" but (and I know some will say I'm late to the party) I'm starting to question the direction of the team. I hope he catches a break or two some time soon so that I can judge his plan in motion. But right now, it looks like he's stuck.

 

People need to start blaming the owner, not Morey.

 

Well this shows you don't know anything about moneyball. Moneyball is all about extracting the most out of the resources you have, it doesn't mean you should always spend the lowest amount possible. Also, moneyball is really just lingo for common sense, since when is not overpaying for players a revolutionary idea?

In Cuban's case, money was the irrelevant resource, they prioritized other things such as Dirk's prime, roster spots and cap flexibility.

 

He was willing to spend the max on Bosh. He was willing to throw big bucks at Gasol and Nene (arguably overspend). If somehow he pulled off those moves, would he he still be a "MoneyBall" GM?

 

Many of the main reasons have already been mentioned.

One of his most underrated strengths is his ability to flip shaky starters for superior backups.

Rafer ---> Lowry

Ariza ----> Lee

Brooks ---> Dragic

If Thabeet ever finds a way to get out on the court it won't take long for him to surpass Battier and be added to that list (for all those that lampoon Battier-for-Thabeet as a terrible trade). Keep that in mind.

 

Nice post!

I give Morey "A". He is doing the best but something just beyond his control, like Chris Paul trade.

Lets look back, again and again its proven that he is thinking months/years ahead of us

 

You make good points, but the fundamental problem isn't his reluctance to start over but Les' reluctance to start over.

We've seen that Morey is more than willing to make big moves with big trades (Martin, Scola for Gasol), which leads me to think that if we can make a big move for a good, high potential young player he'll do it too.

 

Lock stock and two smoking barrels.

DD

 

Also this thread is just plain stupid. There is no debate to be had, whether you give him a B or an A+++, the fact is Morey has done a good job as GM of this team esp. given the fact that the team he inherited had two fragile superstars and no young talent to build around.

Looking for EVIDENCE is like some dude trying to argue the earth is flat because he can't see the curvature of the planet. Why don't you go look at the drafts we've had, the players we traded for and tell me why he hasn't done a good job as GM.

DM isn't perfect, but he's certainly among the best GMs in the league.

 

Dear god you're serious too

 

interesting that you think all that is more important to being a good gm than winning playoff series and competing for championships.

agree to disagree I guess. To me, if you can't compete in the playoffs, any other perceived successes and accomplishments as gm are rendered meaningless.

 

Also, his resume speaks for itself.

But keep in mind that he's corrected just about every mistake he's ever made.

Flipped Ariza for a better player in Lee

Flipped Brad Miller for Flynn (and D-Mo)

You would almost have to believe a T-Will trade is coming next.

 

Indeed. Put a monkey in the Rockets front office and they'd have a couple of championships by now. Morey can make all the cute moves he want. But a true championship caliber GM just win championships. That's why they're championship GMs.

 

Yes, Morey looks great when you compare his work against that of Carroll Dawson. The roster that CD left was less than pathetic plus Morey was stuck with late 2nd round draft picks. So comparing the likes of Scola, lowry, Landry et. al. against the likes of Juwan Howard, Luther Head, Stromile Swift is a no-brainer as Morey wins hands down.

However, if you look at results, then Morey has been no more successful than CD. Under CD, this team was either in the NBA lotto or first round playoff fodder. Under Morey, not much has changed. The team has been in the NBA lotto for the past two years, he dismissed a great coach because he won despite his roster and his (mis)handling of the Yao Ming situation did not end well. Morey's trade record is spotty at best and he has yet to trade for that star player (although, this is mostly due to the changing nature of the NBA itself where everyone wants to plan for one of five teams). So despite his best efforts, not much has changed. This is still a mediocre team going nowhere and in many respects, things may be worse now than before.

Since their last NBA championship, they have been passed by the likes of San Antonio, Dallas, Utah, NO and OKC and nothing I've seen so far from the hiring of McHale to the current roster leads me to believe than the situation will be changing anytime soon especially as long as Alexander owns the team.

 

you joke, but I agree with that 100%. Even repping you for it.

if all of morey's tinkering and marginal "wins" in minor trades don't result in playoff wins and ground gained on winning a championship, what the heck do any of them really matter?

 

how so?