As we drink the Morey Kool-Aid...We are all Guilty

Who would you have preferred he went after? How can you draw conclusions on the effectiveness of Gortat and Ariza after half a season? Gortat hasn't even played yet. Morey has a team hovering around the top 10 all year with 60% of the money everyone else has, and has no bad contracts hampering him in the future (unless you count Yao).

 

And should have instead spent $100 million on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva? Gordon at $11 mil a season. Who now have the Pistons surging to an .353 winning percentage, and 12th seed in a WEAK Eastern Conference?

Elton Brand & Baron Davis signings, wondering how they're helping their teams?

Not saying Morey couldnt have went a tier higher in free agent quality. Just that it SEEMINGLY appears Morey guessed right into not swelling up payroll for marginal upgrades to even DOWNGRADES.

 

i agree with literally every word of this, and it all is part of my point.

maybe no GM's are really good. i guarantee you not one of them gets the amount of undue, unjustified credit and deification that daryl morey does though.

morey is nothing special, and my instincts tell me that even that may be giving him too much credit.

 

nobody.

would rather we signed nobody. ariza is lifeless and terrible, yet they will stubbornly feed him minutes and keep him around to justify his signing.

we have a player approximately 40 times better than ariza wasting away in chicago right now for NO good reason. it's my firm belief that morey has a huge hand in this decision.

 

Even I dont like Morey & Tmac drama, but it is history...
Now, I just hope low-risk Morey can do something which has real impact to team like Artest's move and hope Tmac can get play time in other team.

 

I understand your point about Ariza, but he's filling a role that i don't think will be his permanant role on the team. It's a good chance to throw him out there have him try to do everything, see what he excels at and when the big guy gets back, let Ariza know exactly what his role is. I think he has a lot of potential and will be an above average player at his position.

You and I don't know how good McGrady is right now. It's Adelman's call and Morey is going with it. it seems like he should be getting showcased now, so he must not be healthy enough to contribute.

Look at our roster as it stands- all the good players are Morey's- landry, scola, brooks, budinger, lowry- all have decent contracts.

What exactly is your problem with what he has done? I'm sorry I didn't read every post in this thread, so you probably have mentioned it, but summarize please. I don't see any players we didn't sign that could help us.

 

Morey's grade thus far is slightly above average. But the way he's handled tmac has hurt the team. Mcgrady did indeed quit last year, but snubbing him this year hasnt helped us any. If nothin gets done by the deadline then it will make his handling of the tmac saga 10 times worse. If your not gonna play him then it makes no sense to keep him. The pressures squarley on Morey right now

 

Lets not change the parameters. You asked what teams are doing as well with no Superstars. I gave you two. In Memphis you could actually say their GM had the forsight to take on Zach Randolph who was pegged as a cancer, selfish, horrible player and became their All Star. Funny how Jordan has a team with zero superstars, and about the same record as the Rox, but he's terrible, but Morey....yeah he's a God! Its laughable.

 

What about no superstars and 60% of the budget of the other teams?

 

Oh Im sorry. Last I checked Memphis had the leagues lowest payroll...lol You guys make it way too easy.

 

So you got Memphis or Charlotte pegged to win the title this year? For all the nutlicking you are giving them, they are still middle of the road teams probably fighting for the last playoffs spots if they make it all. Sounds like what the Rockets are going through right now without any superstars.

And I guess we'll throw out the fact Memphis and Charlotte have been the laughing stock of the NBA in recent years, yet the Rockets have played in the playoffs under Morey as GM.

It's laughable that you picked those 2 teams and thought your really made a point when actually you made my point. Those 2 teams aren't going anywhere anytime soon, how is Morey falling behind on those run of the mill franchises?

Thanks for making my point.

 

That's all that needs to be said. Ariza is useful, and in the long term is an asset, and is definitely massively superior to McGrady. Some of his criticism is justified, but acting like he's some massively overpaid scrub, which a lot of people act like, is ridiculous.

Let's look at your two teams:
Charlotte is over the cap, will continue to be over the cap for quite some time, and is significantly older than we are. While we have a way out with the expiring contract of McGrady which worst case will put us under the cap by a decent margin and are filled with young and developing players, Charlotte is the epitome of a team stuck in mediocrity which unlike us, have zero way to get out of it for a long time.

Memphis is a rebuilding team aka. so crappy for so long god damn long that sooner or later the huge amount of high lottery picks they receive pays off. The Rockets have done the same thing while suffering from being above the cap due to T-Mac and Yao and without the luxury of high lottery picks. And even then, they are Memphis. They'll sell their young talent for 10 cents on the dollar sooner or later, and no one cares.

<Good>

< Good. >

 

Grizzlies starting lineup - $30 mil combined pay
Rockets starting lineup - $20 mil combined pay

Rockets currently with better record than Grizzlies

Grizzlies are 20 mil less than Rockets in total salary. (rough #s - Grizz 54 mil to Rox 74 mil)
Rockets started the season with 40 mil of their payroll doing practically NOTHING.
Rockets are actually 20 mil LESS than Grizzlies in operating budget
Griz: $54 mil.
Rox: $34 mil (which is $74 mil minus $40 mil )

 

Shall I start subtracting salary from Memphis for every game missed? I mean your comparison is flawed.

Also Memphis starts out from the get as the cheapest. Team. Let's not underestimate that. Or take into account how much zack takes up of their starting lineups payroll.

The parameters were "what team is as good with no superstar."

I named two.

 

He's less than 20% into his contract. The jury's out until midway next year, for me. He's already improved over the course of this season.

Onoes, a draft pick when we didn't have any draft picks in the second round isn't a starter!!!11 WHAT A TERRIBLE MISTAKE!!

Do you really expect a home run immediately with every single draft pick, even in the second round? If so, you're just being horribly unrealistic.

You must not have actually watched McGrady play. He looked terrible, didn't play in the offense, and didn't bother doing any defense or running the court either. Someone like that doesn't deserve playing time, and even when he was getting it, he wasn't happy and was dissenting. Stay away, IMO.

We did look for size (Gortat). None was available at a decent price. Starting Chuck Hayes is better than getting into a long-term large contract with a subpar big man who would end up being nothing more than an overpaid back-up next year when Yao returns.

So? Most second round players never make it. Dorsey has looked pretty good lately, but you go ahead and sell him short like you do with Taylor/Ariza. I guess if they don't look like a Rookie of the Year, they're all non-NBA players to you?

First, Artest got 5 years from L.A. Second, Artest chose L.A. to win a championship with Kobe -- he can't exactly do that in Houston. This one just drips with ignorance.

You mean the Von Wafer that has a hip injury and can't get onto any NBA team? You mean the Von Wafer that was such a headcase that he couldn't get off the bench for a Euroleague team? You mean the Von Wafer that would've cost 3 times as much as Jermaine Taylor?

You are an idiot. I don't often call people names on here, but I'll make an exception for you. Have a nice day!

 

Bottomline: Given what Morey has had to work with, what he has done with this team is AMAZING.

I don't agree with most of your analysis, but I don't think Morey is perfect, either. No one is going to be flawless, especially in this situation. Every GM needs to take some risks, and every GM is going to have some slip ups. Even the Spurs have had some boo-boos.

Again, though, your analysis is pretty blind. For many of those moves, it's way too early to make a conclusion. For others, Morey did the best he could with what he had.

 

I'm sure everything has been ripped apart here, but I throw in my 2 cents anyway. You're making a lot of assumptions.

1. Trevor Ariza - He's young, had an awesome playoff run last year. This season he is being put into a larger role which, unfortunately he is stumbling. He doesn't have that one super giant star ready to go supernova and make everyone better. He needs that. But I think long term, Morey is having Shane Battier mentor him so he can be that go to defensive stopper as Battier is aging.

2. Jermaine Taylor - Young guy unable to make the rotation. If he were a lottery pick I'd agree with you, but he's a project with potential. Remember it took Luis Scola and Aaron Brooks a season to get significant minutes. I don't think anyone expected him to contribute this season.

3. T-Mac - I don't think anyone knows the whole story here. Its all rumor and speculation, with some truth sprinkled around here and there. Whatever the case, close the book, he is a Houston Rocket because of the signature on his contract only.

4. Chuck Hayes - No one came in here with any championship aspirations this season. I think he's doing one hell of a job. We're above .500 aren't we?

5. Joey Dorsey - Agree, will probably never make it. But its not like he was a lottery pick. Picks lower than 20 (or even above...see Thabeet, Hasheem) are a gamble. Sometimes you win (Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry), sometimes you lose.

6. Ron Artest - Was free agent (right?) Not really Rockets decision. Even it was, again this is rumor and speculation, but might have been some locker room issues. Aging. I don't agree nor disagree here.

7. Von Wafer - Wanted too much money. We saw him make an ass of himself in the playoffs. Would be nice to have his scoring punch this season, but again, this season is developmental.

Bottom line, like it or not, whether you think Yao Ming is fools gold or not, we're riding the Yao Ming train since he will certainly pick up his player option. We're assembling a team to complement the big fella and work well within the Adelman offense. I like our direction. I'm not sipping the Kool-Aid, I'm chugging. ​

 

the phrase "drink the Morey Kool-Aid" just takes away from any serious debate, this is the kind of rethoric used by crazy political people, we're not "drinking" any kool-aid here, we just see that for the most part, Morey is a very smart GM, nothing to drink here folks... move along.

 

haha. bizarre, yet unintentionally amusing post. it is funny though, i'm sure 99% of posters don't know the roots of that expression.

 

morey is beggining to remind me of ed wade.