Are teams afraid to do business with Houston/Morey?

You just had to bring up Gortat...

 

When that man sits across the table from you, looks you in the eyes and says "Lets make a deal..."

You better be scared...

 

Von was looking for the full MLE???

Officially. Unofficially, Morey pushed for it as the Assistant GM.

 

Very much doubt it's much of a factor. Teams will do business that they think help them no matter what.

Memphis didn't trade the 2nd pick to Houston-- and they didn't trade it to anyone else, either. Minny, so far, is the same way.

It's not like the Rockets didn't just trade for Ron Artest last offseason, and Kyle Lowry in Februrary. . Memphis also took Steve Francis off our hands for cash and a 2nd rounder. And on draft night, not one, not two, but three teams sold their 2nd round pick to Morey, though no doubt OKC (then SEA) regrets selling Landry to Morey.

 

Yeah, but Ariza isn't the key to our success either. The bottom line is that a young talented big man is more valuable than a young talented wing. There are far more Ariza type players in the league than there are Gortat type players. What prompted Morey to play hardball on a guy that everyone knew would get plenty of full MLE offers is beyond me.

I can only imagine that Gortat's agent thought Morey was nuts to go to the trouble of meeting the player, giving him a jersey, and showing him fan emails and yet not pitch the same contract that he most certainly knew was going to be offered by multiple other teams. It was an Uncle Drayton move.

 

Only "somewhat" new. You're right though, patience is something most people in here don't or can't identify with. I'm a die-hard Astros fan as well as a Rockets fan. I'm much more willing to give Morey the benefit of the doubt and some time to reconstruct the team in his image. Sitting through the last few seasons of Astros mismanagement from top to bottom has me laughing at these guys losing their minds. As long as Les Alexander doesn't interfere with personnel decisions (a la Drayton McClane) Morey should be able to remake this team in short order.

 

That was CD,but I'm sure DM had a lot to do it as well. I never felt that we got enough for the 8th pick. DM has done pretty well,but no GM is scared of doing business with an opponent when they are down. I'm astonished like yourself,that there are some people here who think that he has some magic wand to fix it all. If that were so,Tracy would be well on his way out of Houston.

 

Wow he looks like Al Pacino in Devil's Advocate!! Now make Shane for Rudy and Outlaw happen!

 

I mentioned this earlier, after the Shane Battie article, and some other article. He needs to get out of the media and quit marketing himslef. No doubt he's done some amazing stuff but its going to backfire. He needs to remain low key there's no need to tell the world about how he's so scientific. It'll only make other teams increase their interest in statistics and reduce our edge.

 

From big 3 to big 0. I know its early but i sulkingly think about next 2010 lottery and that free agent scandal thing which will be going on. You are positive about getting Ariza and it cheers me up. Is LA going to fall apart with Artest? I wanna hear more. What i wanna see this offseason (probably wont happen) is a big trade like these other teams i keep getting jealous of did.

Anyways, its just that deals haven't worked with the Rockets. I still trust in Morey.

 

as another point i was thinking that they don't want to make us a dynasty team or are to carefull to make the BIG MISTAKE

 

While the "predatory" comment probably didn't help, Morey has been extremely fair in his dealings.

For Scola, the Spurs dealt a player they thought they had no room for in exchange for cap and roster space. They also got rid of a bad contract. Remember that no one knew how good Scola would be when he came over.

In getting Artest, he dealt away a young, talented player and an expiring contract to a rebuild team. While we may consider that a great trade for Houston, Sacramento most likely got exactly what they wanted.

With Kyle Lowry, the Magic got who they wanted (an experienced PG and no more Brian Cook contract) and Memphis got what they wanted (money, Wilks, and Foyle). Lowry was behind Conley on the depth chart too.

With the Francis trade, Memphis got an expiring contract AND their draft pick back. The Rockets got a conditional pick in 2011.

Notice all of these reek of fairness. Yes, Morey picked some undervalued gems, but he paid fair market value for each of them. Memphis was shopping Lowry, and Orlando wanted experience. San Antonio had no plans to bring Scola over. Sacramento had no need for a 29-year-old, unhappy player.

To my knowledge, Morey's pretty well regarded amongst GMs. He holds the Sloan Sports Conference where he discusses the merits of sabermetrics in basketball with other GMs and owners. He has been fair in his trades, and he doesn't talk about his greatness in the media. The only GM I'd imagine doesn't like him is Mike Dunleavy, but that's because Dunleavy is an idiot, and Morey is friends with Bill Simmons.

 

not afraid but waiting for other people to make a move first.

 

I don't think teams are scared to do business with him - he just happens to have a very specific value assigned to the roster and won't take anything less than value in return. I imagine his negotiating is minimal and he probably isn't scared to say, "the offer is on the table when you want to talk" and walks out the door without looking back.

The good GMs know that sometimes the best moves you make are the deals you didn't do. All the bad GMs in the league will start with wanting a player, and will do what it takes to make it happen. Isiah was probably the worst at this. Other GMs make trades to shake things up and hopefully keep themselves employed for longer while mgmt waits to see.

I don't see Morey rushing into anything and I think that's why we haven't seen a lot of the big trades we want. Teams probably think they can get Houston to overpay for someone because of the injuries on their roster but DM seems like he knows what he wants and he's going to stick to his guns and not hurt his team long term in order to make a big move now. I appreciate that.

 

When was the last time cd traded away high upside for flatline? That was morey all the way. CD would have never made that trade. Eddie Griffin, francis, go down the line and please show me cd giving up high potential for nothing.