if you just consider the $$ we're paying scola, he's dirt cheap. but he didn't come w/o bringing other financial obligations to this team.
yeah,i like MOREY even though I don't undetstand something he has done he is a good GM and he knows how manage the team
this thread is more deserving than 1 star. I think Moreys done well so far. Let's see how his record holds up over the next offseason or two.
The Clippers are the worst thing to be. Being a 50-win type team with a lot of room to grow and no bad contracts (i.e. easily tradeable and money to spend in the near future to up the talent level) is a good thing to be.
Jackie Butler? So we had to swallow 2.5 mill plus some cash given to the Spurs. That brings about 5.5 mill we spent to get Scola. That's still cheap.
How many players on the team are being overpaid, though (other than McGrady)? I can't think of any. All the contracts are manageable, and can be traded fairly easily for other assets if we decide to do so. I think that puts us in a very favorable position, going forward.
Morey came into a situation where the two main players - Yao and McGrady - were firmly in place and taking up a bulk of the salaries. All of his moves so far have been putting complementary pieces around those two star players, obviously, and he's done a great job - within those conditions and constraints. (He talks a bit about this in the NYT Magazine story on Battier.) But it will be interesting how he will handle things after the Yao/McGrady era, when he is completely rebuilding the team.
I for one can't wait. I can't wait to see what he's able to do when he no longer has to work around McGrady's massive contract.
I feel like he will try to go after superstars for what he considers fair value (maybe slightly less than the max), but they will sign for the max elsewhere. In the end I see us going with the Pistons' model of building a championship contender (aka many stars on $10 million type contracts instead of 2 on max contracts). This style is much more conducive to playing team ball and making the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
Yes, all things considered, Morey is better than pretty good. He's bloody brilliant. I think Rick Adelman deserves a mention, however, when the success of this team is discussed. Adelman doesn't get the credit he deserves, in my opinion. Despite the injuries, whenever the club has had a run of consistency with the rotation, they've started to play well. That's not a coincidence.
i can't think of a worse comparison. rudy wasn't on the managerial side during the championship years, and when he did become in charge of personnel, his moves pretty much crippled the franchise for nearly a decade. as a GM, morey is the anti-rudy. mo taylor for $8million/year or scola for $2mill? re-sign moochie norris for $24million or trade rafer's negative value for kyle lowry at $1million? bryce drew at #18 or aaron brooks at #26? resign cato for $42million or carl landry for $9million? not tough to see the difference.
I thought I remember Barkley being bearhugged by Karl Malone on that play, but I could be wrong. Either way the Jazz cheat and they suck.
Except "max" players are literally some of the most underpaid players in the NBA, due to the artificial suppressing of their salary. So there's no chance that Morey will pass up a superstar asking for max if the situation arises. That said, Morey has yet to deal with any significant FA so far in his tenure. That should change in 2010. And we'll see how good he is at getting players to come to Houston willingly rather than through trade/draft.
Durvasa, I'm in 100% agreement. Anyone remember that old quote by Jerry Krause, GM of the 90's Bulls? He said "organizations win championships." This sounded incredibly stupid coming from someone with Michael Jordan on his team. But with the emphasis on contracts and flexibility these days, I'm starting to think it's true for our era. Morey has done an amazing job, and the only comparable GMs I'd say are Buford and Presti. Kupchak is ok -- he managed to get in on an incredible swindle of Memphis, which does take some skill, but also a certain degree of luck. I can't think of a truly bad move Morey has made. Not every deal has been a home run, but the non-productive ones have all been essentially freebies.
with the exceptions of not taking that CV for Landry and Billups for Tmac deal he has done okay. he failed to spread the floor more with CV and I am quite sure he could have found a sg within wafer or ron or even with the money he saves with the billups trade. (we were offered the same same trade denver got and probably would have bought out mcdyes? hella cheap)
We are very fortunate to have Morey as our GM. It could be real bad ... i.e. Astros = Wade, Texans = Smith.
