I think we need more time to really evaluate morey. he inherited a team that was to be built around tracy and yao. so what we can see about morey now is how he's able to get role players, or "deals" as it were. after the yao and tracy era, which seem to be coming to a close, we can see how he's able to combine role players with stars. I really want to see what kind of stars he goes after. we know he got artest, but that was more a matter or capitalizing on opportunity. I think he's does a fine job. he turned vspan into scola, drafted brooks and landry (two integral parts of our team), turned bust CD acquisitions of mike james and bonzi wells(a fairly good singing considering the circumstances) and our draft pick into artest. he turned alston, an older ineffective point guard, into a younger, tougher version of him. got von wafer on the cheap. signed barry, who hasn't been a bust, but I think still needs time to be proven. I think the one thing he could've done better is handle mcgrady last summer. to his credit, mcgrady is unpredictable with his work ethic, we didn't want to mess up chemistry, and he wasn't exactly ineffective last year. trading him for chauncy and hamilton though, would've made us a top 4 team, I have no doubt in my mind. I guess we'll see how he handles tmac this summer. I'm hoping for josh smith, baron davis/camby, mike miller, emeka okafor/g-force (all wet dreams though hahah)
Houston Rockets Roster before Morey: Alston/Moochie Wesley/J. Barry/Head McGrady/Bogans Howard/Swift/Hayes Yao Ming/Mutumbo Rockets Current Roster: Brooks/Lowry Artest/B. Barry Battier/Wafer Scola/Landry/Hayes/Cook Yao/Mutumbo Even without McGrady, our new roster would kill our old roster. From the new roster, Morey pulled Scola out of a hat, made a shrewd draft with Brooks, bought the right to shrewdly draft Landry, acquired Artest in a contract year, acquired Battier, signed Barry, and kept Wafer as a walk on. I'd say Morey has done a bang up job.
he is a terrible GM, seriously ask any laker fan before the beginning of last year what they thought of Kupchak and their response will not be glowing. Kupchak was handed his starting PG (fisher who was still on contract with another team was granted a release and signed there, the jazz received nothing from letting fisher go..his contract still counted against the cap) then the gasol trade was pure pure luck I am sure he just threw that out there to wallace and somehow it worked. the only moves that he did that is worth mentioning for the lakers were the Evans/Cook for Ariza deal. Evans played pretty well for the Magic last year I would say thats a plus for the lakers since Ariza helps out a lot from the bench and Cook and Evans no longer play for the Magic. and he drafted bynum, but that was a high risk high reward pick really. picking at 10 in a very weak draft to be able to get a possible star center is worth the risk if bynum didnt pan out its not a huge loss since it wasnt a super high pick. still a good pick by him. bynum is looking to be a good center when he is out on the court. kupchak is not nearly the GM that pritchard, Pop/Buford and Morey are
Also gotta keep in mind that he inherited TMAC and Yao, they were not his gets. TMAC is obviously gone (trade or FA) during / after next year. I'll be really interested in seeing if we resign Yao long term, since he'll be 30, and has a looong history of injuries. Also, I like the fact that he doenst just look short term, ala CD. He's not just about win now, so he wont sacrifice talent (Landry, Brooks) or salary cap. He's lookin to win now <b>while </b> lookin at future remifications (bobby jackson, short term help while expiring contract landed us Artest; Artest short term help, and expiring again). I think this is why he did not get a Carter, a BD, and only did a minor trade, even though the team was in turmoil. So far with role players, he's done a heck of a job. Now lets see what he does to get us real stars.
Call me crazy, but I think Gregg is that good of a coach that the Spurs would get to 50 wins as long as Tony and Manu are healthy.
Morey's big test is about to come soon: how he will rebuild the post-TMac Rockets will be the biggest challenge of his career so far.
