I do agree we are Armchair GMs. However, unlike the NFL Draft where there are several rounds, the NBA Draft consist of only 60 picks. And you must agree that Daryl's Draft History is horrible. His best draft pick was Chandler Parsons and he's an average to slightly above average Small Forward at best....I definitely wouldn't have him in my top 10 amongst Small Forwards currently in the NBA. But let's just analyze last years pick, Sam Dekker. Where do you play him? Is a 3 or 4? What is his greatest skill? He's not fast enough to be a solid 3, he's not big enough to be an effective 4 and he isn't a great shooter, nor does he have great vision. He does a lot of things well but nothing stands out. Now, I'm on record saying I would've picked Jerian Grant. He has great size for his position, he has very good vision, the ability to playmake (SOMETHING WE NEED), and he can penetrate. Although he's not a great scorer or shooter, he is capable. He would've been a solid addition to our backcourt BUT we passed on him and came back and took another BPA (BEST POWERFORWARD AVAILABLE) in round 2...Montrez Harrell. To me he's not taking the Best Player Available, I would be satisfied if he did that. I think he needs to upgrade the Scouting Department, get with the HC and see what type of players best fit his system, develop a plan.....something THE TEXANS started doing after yrs of messing up their drafts.
Good post. You can also take David Lee off that list, since Morey wasn't GM until 2007 and wasn't even involved with the Rockets until 2006. Given WHERE he's been drafting every year, Morey has been an above average drafter IMO. Not great, but certainly not bad. He whiffed passing up on Kawhi in 2011 (though Morris at least turned out to be a solid player), but that's really the only major "non-hindsight" draft mistake he's made. I suppose you can throw in taking Dorsey over Jordan or Asik in 2008, but the second round is a total crapshoot. Morey is definitely not infallible as a drafter. Not even close. But he's better than some make him out to be. And pointing to All-Stars taken above where the Rockets have ever drafted in his tenure is not a useful criticism.
Parsons was Morey's only good pick. Morris, although good now, was the wrong pick at the time. I am a huge Morey fan but I would have to say that he is a below average drafter. Borderline terrible even.
Clint Capela, for where he was taken in the draft.....not bad. Um....was Aaron Brooks a Morey pick? Not bad, for late in the draft. If I have an issue with Morey and the draft, it's how he puts on blinders when he sees a forward (usually a tweeter, although now more of a 4 in the league) who can shoot the three pointer. Funny how Kawhi Leonard wasn't much of a three-point shooter and is now one of the league's best. Jury's still out on Sam Dekker, but I won't hope for the phoenix rising from the ashes on that guy. If he produces, great. If he doesn't? More fodder for the Morey haters.
Parsons was his best pick, but he's had several other good picks. If you re-did their respective drafts, the following players would go higher than (or at least in the same range as) where the Rockets selected them: Aaron Brooks (26th, 2007) Carl Landry (31st, 2007) Sergio Llull (34th, 2009 - yes, even his draft rights would be picked higher than 34th) Chase Budinger (44th, 2009) Patrick Patterson (14th, 2010) Marcus Morris (14th, 2011) Donatas Motiejunas (20th, 2011) Chandler Parsons (38th, 2011) Terrence Jones (18th, 2012 - yes, even with him being in the doghouse now) Isaiah Canaan (34th, 2013) Clint Capela (25th, 2014) Alessandro Gentile (53rd, 2014 - they could easily flip his draft rights for a better pick than 53rd) Montrezl Harrell (32nd, 2015 - jury's still out, but I think he'll be a top 20-25 player from that draft) To me, that draft record is enough to qualify as "above average". No All-Stars (hence, I'm not proclaiming Morey and his front office to be GREAT drafters), but that's a pretty nice run of good, solid picks to keep them out of "bad" or even "below average" territory.
Not throwing salt, but why is he your favorite if he has only had one good pick and is a "borderline terrible" drafter?
Dude's a rookie for a reason lol. Anyone who says Morey is an average or worse drafter doesn't know what he's talking about, its like somebody saying Ariza is an average to horrible defender because he couldn't stop Durant from scoring 30 pts. There have been instances where Morey wasn't able to maximize the pick like passing on Kawhi but even the players he got like Morris have outperformed the picks they were at. Considering most players picked after top 10 don't even stay in the league once their rookie contracts are done having drafted so many rotation level players is a mark of excellence on Morey's part.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Morey HATER. I'm a VERY HUGE Rocket Fan, so I'm hoping every Rocket Draft pick that he has chose is an All-Star or the next great Rocket. But if you look at your list, that's 10 straight yrs of average to below average players and those foreign players we don't know anything about, because we don't know how they will adjust if they were to play in the NBA. I'm hoping Capela will break through this year. My point with Morey is, it's not his record in the 2nd round but the 1st! Although still average players, he's preformed better in the 2nd round, than in the 1st round. How that's consistently possible I don't know....when is he going to hit that All-Star?? Jerian Grant was my pick last year and like COACHBADLEE said, Dekker is damaged goods due to the bad back, so last yrs pick is already a bust.
I'm not talking about Morey. I don't think he's a good drafter. How is he able to scout? He is just a numbers guy. There's a place for both, but scouting is still very important - esp. in drafting IMO. I'm trying to point out to you the well known fact that you pick BPA - especially in the second round - in the NBA. You don't have loads of NBA talent to choose from in the second round. You're at the mercy of what is available, not what you want. You can't go around advising to do what works in the NFL draft in the NBA draft. It's completely different. Like I said, this is incredibly well known, so it's really not even debatable.
Just to add on: in general, I think scouting is much harder than analytics. Scouting is judgmental and takes unique skills/experience. The hardest thing about analytics is having the data to analyze. They didn't do analytics like this in the past, because they didn't have the data to analyze. Once you have the data, anybody with a good grasp on Logic can figure out what to do with it to get insights. That's why I don't think Morey's skillset is as exotic or unique as people make it out to be. It's very valuable, but not exotic or unique. It's probably hardest to get basketball people to buy into analytics these days (because it is new) than it is to actually find analytical insights.
Since 2009: Llull - Canaan - Ish Smith - Beverley Lamb - Gentile - Nick Johnson Parsons - Morris - Dekker - Covington Motiejunas - Patterson - Jones Capela - Harrell - Greg Smith In red non-drafted findings. Those aren't bad players, having in mind that we're talking about low draft picks. I'm OK with the Rockets management at the draft, feel confortable with their decisiones there.
I'm not debating the fact whether or not you should chose Best Player Available in the 2nd Round or even the 1st round but why hasn't he hit on a draft pick? Like I said, The NBA Draft consist of 60 picks and his draft picks have been consistently average at best. I would much rather him take a flyer on a guy with length and athleticism who is a project, than a guy who is a 4 yr senior that has reached his potential and you know his ceiling is average at best.
When I read your posts, esp. the initial ones, it appeared you were arguing for drafting for fit. If not, we have no disagreement
I agree none of those players are Bad Players but who on that list has the potential to be a Star?? I'm pulling for Capela (he has length and athleticism), outside of that Parsons is average and none of the other players can break a Championship rotation. Let's take a look at the 2014 Draft. I would've picked Jordan Clarkson. I know hindsight is 20/20 but Nick Johnson was a 6'3" two guard, who Morey pegged to play point guard. Jordan Clarkson was a 6'5" point guard in college and who is playing point guard in the NBA. Clarkson has an opportunity to be a star, where is Nick Johnson?
I like Morey because he was the one who got me really interested in the draft. Since his 1st seson I have been getting better at it. Even better than him.
Okay, I'll give you that. But idk about above average. Maybe just average because most of the players on this list were just flash in the pan types. All good players, but nothing to hang your hat on.
We're cool! But I think if you have a system in place, similar to the Spurs, you have to consider "FIT" too when drafting. For example, in the 2014 NBA Draft, I knew without a shadow of a doubt, the Spurs were taking Kyle Anderson. Smart player, passes well and can shoot. He is an average player by most standards and I'm sure there were many more players on their Draft Board that they felt were better basketball players but Kyle Anderson FIT what they wanted to do. Same with the Lakers and big guards! You can almost guaranty that if there is a big guard on the Draft Board and the Lakers are due to pick, it's going to be the big guard. That's how I knew they were going to pick D"Angelo Russell last yr. With Morey, his M.O is short players....why he like short players, I will never know. He did it again last yr with Dekker and Harrell. Even though we only have (2) #2's, I am curious to see what he and D'Antoni does.
