Morey would make a fantastic CFO given his natural abilities with numbers. As a GM, he is no better than average with his hits and misses irt to judging talent. Moreover, those who want to see Morey canned don't have much to worry about it. One more year on the outside looking in, and I think he may call it quits.
Is Morey's contract up for renewal at the end of 2012-13 season? If he hasn't landed his star player or convinced Les to tank YES. It will be time for a major change in policy making.
Without Morey we'd have been the Golden State Warriors the past few years. We'd have a mediocre team with less talent than we have now. We'd get slightly better draft picks but we wouldn't have Morey drafting for us. Les would still want us to not tank and try to make the playoffs. And we'd still have Tracy and Yao get injured and cripple our franchise.
Yes, absolutely, sooner than later. Morey's main drawback is his lack of experience in NBA. He is better now than the first 2 years, apparently. I still remember Morey called some second rounders as potential all stars. Anyway, 3 years in a row without playoff appearance has been more than enough, We need to get a fresh start with new GM. No more excuses, I hope.
All I can say is that if you expect just the act of changing GM's to improve the team, you are likely to be in for a huge disappointment. In fact most GM's that would be on the market as replacements right now would likely be significantly worse. I still haven't seen any good arguements on what a different GM would have done that would have a superstar on the roster right now and/or us contending for a championship. There are some great lists of every mistake Morey has ever made, but how about some similar lists for the GM you want to replace Morey with? Fortunately there is no reason to think that Les is in any way disappointed with Morey's tenure as GM. He isn't going to fire Morey for not tanking when that was his choice. Les kept a much worse GM in CD around for 10 years, and even retired his "jersey" for his contributions (though mostly not as a GM). The idea that you can only be a good GM if you are competing for championships right now, is so short sighted and oblivious of the circumstances the Rockets have been in, that it is laughable. Morey very well may find himself out of a job here some day, but I would be shocked if it was any time soon. I understand the frustration and even share in it for where the Rockets are especially after the recent huge skid, but I just don't see how changing GM's is going to make things better rather than worse. And yes, contrary to what many here want to believe it can get much, much worse.
Um, do y'all remember the contracts that we handed out before Morey got here? Mo Taylor, Kelvin Cato, and Moochie frickin' Norris, off the top of my head. Or the Eddie Griffin draft-day trade? Or the endless revolving door of retread point guards and power forwards, such as Rod Strickland, Mark Jackson, Tito Maddox, Andre Barrett, Rick Brunson, Mooch, Charles Oakley, Alton Ford, Torraye Braggs, Lonny Baxter, and Stromile Swift? In less than 5 years, Morey shed ALL of the bad contracts and created a roster which might not be perfect, but contains a bunch of young, developing players. We're fading now because Dragic and Lee have been running on fumes after the backcourt was decimated by injuries, and like it or not, it's pretty difficult to add quality depth late in the season. I don't agree with all of the moves that he's made (namely, trading Batum and drafting Morris), but his good moves far outweigh the bad. In a league with a bevy of idiot GMs, there's few better than Morey, and we'd be crazy to get rid of him.
I agree...can't fire the owner, but that doesn't mean he can't be blamed. One thing i'd like to know, is how often players talk to Les personally. I've never really read or seen that he goes out of his way to speak to them.
Some of us have been saying for years that the reboot should have started the minute Yao limped off the court in Game 3 against the lakers. That moment was literally the beginning of the end. Not even the beginning of the end, just the end, period. These 9th seed finishes have been the worst thing that can possibly happen. Now Les can say "Look, we almost made the playoffs! Maybe we're just a Marcus Camby away!"
I vote no. I'm not a bball expert, but to me it seems like this team plain and simply has a ton of bad luck. I like all the players, I like all the coaches, I like the GM, and I like the owner. All of those people seem like they could belong on a playoff team. But when watching the games this season (and previous) it seems like all the loose balls go the other way, like all of our hustle plays end up as a foul, like all of our athletic moves end up with nowhere to go. Quite frustrating. So, like the rest of us, I don't know what to do.
Exactly! Its called man the eff up! He tried to put some scrub on his bench and replace his longtime assistant. Morey knew adelman would never go for that so adelman bailed with his pride. He didn't whine and cry about it. He didn't say he agrees with the owner that u don't have to tank,but then the next moment he says you need to be bad before you can get good. If you know you're great at what you do, you bounce and wait on the next chance like adelman did. If les is killing moreys vision,then quit. They have plenty of capable people like gerson rosas who can do what he do. They can bring lindsay back who recommended landry and brooks. Do your job or gtfo! Right now, he needs to kick rocks.
Morey showed up at 1201 for gortat and offered 4m. Gortat closed the door after laughing. I remember a lot on this board talked about how gortat isn't worth mle money and thought the wizard did right. Dallas came in and offered the full mle and orlando matched. Its what if,but what if orlando wouldn't have matched and dallas got gortat for mle money? Since he's been traded, he's been basically 16ppg and 10 rebs a game in phoenix. How was that not worth mle for a 25 yr old 7 ft er?
His job is to rebuild while winning. We are now 2 seasons removed from the true end of the tmac/yao period. Technically, he is doing his job, winning while rebuilding. We may not like it, but fans are naturally impatient. All we remember is 94/95 and ignore everything in between. I would think Les knows what he had and was taken away (tmac/yao/gasol) and for that reason won't be as impatient. A 2 yr rebuilding period is nothing compared to what other franchises go through.
I dont' recall what the Rockets used the MLE on that year or why they used (or didn't) use it.....Probably because Time Travel had not been invented and he was averaging 3 points a game, not 16...at the time. As one of the noted player/salary cap evaluators said at the time - he apparently wasn't worth wasting it on: Seriously leeb - only you could take Morey offering a contract to a rising star before he actually did anything and turn it into an indictment of Morey for not getting him.
Again, he made a show of it by offering a low ball contract, just like he did with the red Toyota running after Bosh. Morey could have made the full MLE offer like Cuban did in Dallas....if you are going to play with the big boys you need to use the big boy check book. DD
Agreed. $4M was sucha laughable number for a young, promising big. That proved to be yet another blunder because now he is paying nearly double for Dalembert. Smh...
There's a significant difference in contract length. And the Mavericks didn't get him either, why would offering the MLE turn out any different for Houston?
