[SBNation] Daryl Morey, Sam Hinkie and the Proper Way to Stockpile Assets

Morey deserves quite a bit of credit.

Morey is brilliant because he has consistently put the team in a position to exploit opportunities made available. Getting James Harden was not luck, every other team in the league had an opportunity to aquire him.

Has Harden been better than the Rockets expected? Possibly, but Morey has also had his share of bad luck (Yao/TMac; losing out on free agents). Through it all though, he made sure that no individual moves were above his greater efforts to keep payroll flexibility and assets.

Another thing about Morey that is often overlooked is that he has surrounded himself with very smart, hard working people that are very good at their job. If you look at our front office staff, you will notice it is quality from top to bottom. Further, our coaching staff is also very good. Giving the job to McHale was roundly ripped at the time, and the appointment of Finch was not warmly accepted either. Further if you look at the coaches we were interested in and were unable to get, you will notice most have done very well.

Further, as far as it being a perfect storm, I agree to a point. Morey has in the past said getting the first superstar is the hardest part of the job. He waited patiently and pounced when the opportunity was made available. Further, Morey identified Howard as a target years ago, and put his focus on aquiring Howard via trade or free agency.

 

Yes, Mark Cuban has learned this the hard way. Even an attractive franchise with a popular owner and recent title history can run into issues.

 

I got a feeling this is what Morey told Hinkie before he left the team

Morey: "some team is going to make you its GM and when it does, you will take Royce White from me."
Hinkie: "why would I do that?"
Morey: "where you learn your GM skills from? me. You wouldn't be a GM without me."

 

Link??

 

longterm thinking and alot of patience is now paying of

 

You make your own luck.

Also its better to be lucky than the bobcats.

 

Honestly, I don't thimk there is another GM that has the patience to work so hard so consistantly on so many minor trades netting marginal talent/value upgrades.

Morey outhusstled the rest of the NBA. Theoretically, every player in the NBA is capable of hustling on defense and for loose balls like Shane Battier or Bruce Bowen, but in practice, there are only ever a handful of players in the league willing to roll up their sleves and put in the effort at such a lowly, thankless role.

 

I think the best way for teams to attack this going forward is a hybrid approach to the OKC and Houston approaches. Stockpile cheap, short-term talent as you bide your time until you can draft 1-2 stars/superstars. Then right before you have to give those guys raises use your last remaining cap space to lure an established superstar.

The key is to know when you have found the right 1-2 guys. Until then, keep cutting bait even if it is tough to give up on guys you have grown in house. Don't overrate talent just because you invested your own money and time into it.

 

This. Jrue is a good player, but Hinkie did not (does not) have much talent to start with, so flipping his best player for some good picks and rebuilding through the draft makes perfect sense. Once you get a couple of cornerstone pieces, then you can start to make noise in the free agent market. Until then, build slowly, collect trade-able assets and reasonable contracts.

Jrue is young, so he would have made a nice building block, but at this point the Sixers need a lot more than a nice building block.

Maybe they'll get lucky and convince the league to let them void (or pay off) Royce White's contract and get a compensatory additional 1st rounder.

 

I wish everybody would cool it with the Morey worship. What gives Morey an advantage over the long term isn't that he gets everything right or has it all figured out, but that he takes a lot of calculated risks, and on balance, the wagers that go bad are outweighed by the ones that pay off. If you roll the dice on James Harden, everyone will forgive you for drafting Royce White.

 

if there is wiggins/parker in a draft, you tank

 

Along with alertly mover advantage in that he identified a building strategy designed to exploit changes in the CBA before much of the competition. The Rockets have been one of the few teams structured for the new environment.

Luck will change as more teams restructure their cap.

 

Morey got lucky, but he did manage to accumulate good players and viable draft picks. Essentially, he set himself up for a lucky situation, by putting the Rockets in a position to take advantage of the opportunities.

He's gone through a lot of players, and many who've been undervalued. Those who didn't perform, were dealt or cut. Some have excelled. Hayes, Smith, Beverly, etc. A ton have faltered.

Morey's not affraid to take a stab in the dark for elite talent, keeping it honest, admitting he's taking chances "Low risk, high Reward". He said, getting Jordan Hill, Thabeet, T. Morris, Johnny Flynn, Thomas, etc. were calculated risks. Huge reward, low risk.

Morey made some viable 2nd round pick selections. Landry, Budinger, Chandler.

Morey was an opportunist, providing salary cap relief. See Harden, Luis Scola, etc.

But Morey's been hard at work. He's orchestrated a lot of trade deadline deals. He's gone full steam ahead after some free agents, not being humiliated after being turned down by other free agents.

He stayed the course, and He's landed Dwight Howard, fair and square. Heck Howard took less money to come to Houston, which speaks volume for the work Morey's done for the Rockets Organization.

 

He did as a pro tanker I use to have it in my sig. It was something like I do believe being bad is the best way to get good in the NBA. If you look back historically teams that win got their cores from drafting their stars. Even Miami with Wade. Free agents and trades are very difficult to build a team because you need that cornerstone that is usually drafted first and that is on a cheap contract allowing you to add high prices free agents. Morey has been lucky and good but it maybe unprecedented if we win a ring with a team who's only drafted significant contributor was a second rounder. (parsons)

 

This. People remember things how they want.

 

I think he made a comment about the league rules rewards consistently losing teams because of the insane discount and contract advantages of top first round draft picks.

Then he follows that with how he didn't have the luxury of pursuing or thinking about that option.

So it wasn't that he wanted to tank but rather he wasn't even allowed to think about it.

 

About 2 off seasons ago he said something like " the best way to get better quickly is to be terrible bu twe're not gonna do that here"

I believe it was at the McHale intro PC. Will look it up later

Edit - here's the quote:

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?p=6978092&highlight=morey+terrible#post6978092

 

Except that most NBA GMs don't have the patience to apply Pascalian probability. Its certainly not the old school "gut" mentality

 

Morey and the Rockets have been lucky that not only a lot of his goals weren't met (signing Bosh, trading for Amare, trading for Carmelo, the "Basketball Reasons" trade) but also lucky that the opportunities to succeed presented itself afterwards (Harden and Howard).

What I'm most impressed with Morey is his ruthlessness or genius (however you want to think of it) in getting rid of failed experiments. The Ariza signing, the Terrence Williams, Hasheem Thabeet, Jordan Hill acquisitions were just a blip on the radar and a small footnote in Rockets franchise history because Morey knew when to move them.

 

The posters in the first page are correct. Morey wanted to tank, so this article is nonsense.

The best routine is to tank, but Les did not want to. Somehow Morey has made it work, it took longer, but boy did he do it. And boy is it exciting.