Bill Simmons Podcast with Daryl Morey

Thanks Dr of Dunk!

 

Thanks!

 

thanks Pryuen.. I mean Dr of Dunk

 

who's got my heady recap?

 

thanks listening right now

so far its mainly about daryl's intro into the NBA and his time with the celtics.

typical simmons

 

haha Daryl just said the trade was really Rafer for Kyle.

take that Brian Cook lovers!

 

Is it just me, or does Simmons sound like a dweeb.....

 

not just you, he sounds like some little kid who gets his lunch money stolen all the time

from what i heard so far in regards to rockets:

the difference between traditional "GM-ing" and the stats approach Morey implements. DM said that they weigh both and usually the traditional (intuitive) approach and the stats approach go together the hard part is when maybe the stats support a player but watching the player play something doesnt fit right.

talked about tracy that he was hurting all year and that there was miscommunication on the announcement of the surgery.

said he you always hope for development from the younger players

BS said the importance of late game FT% said we got Barry for that reason.

Said Ron has been a model player so far this year and that Ron was Yao's favorite player since he is always working hard in the games and practices.

Said he was surprised at the lack of trade movement this year

Said he wasnt a huge fan of the way the trade deadline was structured by the league..the timing and how trades needed to be submitted to the league to ensure that it goes through.

Joked that Shane would be the next commissioner...said he was very loyal to Duke.

said the rockets are playing their best ball now, whether that is because they have a solid rotation (due to injuries) BS called them a longshot title contender right now.

DM is a huge believer of collecting assests even if they arent used on court because you never know what they can be turned into. Cites how having some assets made the Artest trade possible.


thats all i heard for now will try to add in more when i hear something relevant. or others can add more details

there is a lot of just general basketball talk

 

Man... Simmons + Morey = Whiney Voice Overload.

I like their respective work, but both have about the worst radio voices ever.

 

Talked about potential playoff matchups.

BS suggested that even though they may not be the lakers in a series you know Kobe would not be happy having to go up against Shane and Ron over a 2 week period every game.

Said the Hornets would be a bad matchup because of Paul

DM said the Jazz are the toughest because of Williams and Boozer

the hornets are tough because of Paul and Tyson


DM was asked if he read the message boards. He said yeah he reads everything out there including message boards (i really cant think of any other board outside of this one) said he was still a rookie in that sense.

BS urged DM to stop reading the message board.

Talked about how being a GM sometimes requires luck, explaining the circumstances around the Scola trade.

Said that season the only PF they had going into that summer before getting Scola was Steve Novak. Said he loved Steve Novak, but did not factor into the PF spot.

BS said he believes Novak will be a valuable player on a good team. similar to Jud Beuchler (sp?)

Morey said they drafted Novak in hopes that the worst case scenario is that he is 3pt specialist but they were hoping that he would develop into something more.

BS mention again that he thinks that at times a player like Novak who does one thing really well may stay in the league longer than a guy like Al Thorton (BS is a clipper season ticket holder) who does a lot of things, but none of them particularly well. Said he wouldnt be surprised to see Novak hitting big threes in 2012.

I think thats about it if someone wants they can fill in the other details. I just kept in the rocket relevant details. There was a lot spoken about the Sloan conference Morey held recently. BS called DM the elvis of dorks. DM joked and said he would OD on numbers on the toilet one day

 

Thanks Yoyo!

 

Its an hour long podcast, so i'm just going to note things interesting to me.

Morey: "gotta get the right players for the right money"

morey: "you figure out that guys like Shane are good players, and thats what coaches have been saying for years. Even if they knew he was good, they didn't know how good relative to another player, or how valuable a high efficient player. They would know intuitively, but they didn't nkow "should i trade X for Y". So hopefully we can develop tools".

Simmons: "is the biggest challenge is to measure battier in a conventional way"
Morey: My job is to make moves on individual transaction levels. Rafer for Kyle trade: we see how Rafer works with our players, but we forecast Kyle with our players. He was a good college guy, without nba playing time. So, it was a leap of faith.

simmons: look at Kidd. His 3 point shot is higher this year. Why? Because he's not the primary shooter. Turns out, he's a great spot up shooter when wide open.
Morey: we wish we could leave Kidd open, but we can't.

simmons on Mo will: on 82games.com, turns out he's great on open jump shots, which means when playing with Lebron, Mo Will flourishes.

Simmons: is having too much talent ruining chemistry?
Morey: turns out we're playing our best ball now. I'd rather have solid players 1-15 who can step up at a high level, than guys who just know their place.

Simmons: I know you're a guy who's all about accumulating assets. More assets, the better, more depth, better positioning.
Morey: Spurs have 3 top 20 players in the league. Yao is one, Ron has potential but is inconsistent, Tmac is injured. We used alot of assets to get ron, and its paying dividends. We need assets to improve on themselves, or they need to turn into something in a trade.

simmons: I like your team, your 8 man rotation. 9 is maybe, 10 is bad.
Morey: you want 8 great players, with separation. Its hard for a coach if 9 10 11 are similar to 6 7 8, there's a push for playing time.

Simmons: So, Tmac. He announces his injury on website, and he essentially takes himself out of trade scenarios. What was your reaction.
morey: It was a miscommunication. He was gonna see 3 docs, but after the 2nd one he made his decision (before seeing the 3rd one).

simmons: Tmac looked out of shape, looked dough-ey. Just looked like he didnt' care.
Morey: He was most excited at ron trade. His knee never cooperated. He was very up front that his knee made it hard to train. I know for a fact he worked his butt off when he took time off to rehab mid-season. Reality of injury prevented that.
Simmons: thanks for the standard GM. So, next year, he's the expiring contract, yes? Can he be that joke next year? And you had a chance to trade tmac in past, yes?
Morey: there's always interest for such a great player. Detroit had interest, never worked for both sides.

Simmons: So, Artest.
Morey: I rewatched the brawl. Turns out, Ron wanted to go on TNT broadcast in the middle of it, but Reggie took it away, so he lied back down, then something got thrown at him. So, its all REggie's fault. His contract is in the right place, with the right coach, on a winning team (which helps chemistry). Ron loves guys who plays hard, likes Yao ming.

Simmons: trade deadline. You had all these smaller contracts, so you could put together a trade anywhere because of the smaller contracts.
MOrey: we had lots of flexibility. we were in center of lots of discussion. thought there would be a lot more action. Also didn't anticipate that all GMs were going for home runs. The standard was that of Kidd trade or Gasol trade. The league is getting smarter.

simmons: how many stupid offers were there at the last 6 hours.
morey: lots of time wasted on stupid offers. All the time. The league sets the deadline at 3 pm, but nobody wakes up until 11, even on trade day. So there's a time crunch, plus a new rule states you needed everyone present at once before 3pm, as opposed to just slipping in one under the door.

simmons: only in last 7-8 years are stats being more complex, and I dislike the trend of evaluating players against each other, as opposed to evaluating players in scenarios.
morey: Yeah, in trades, you want the better player, but in winning games level, its about scenario.

Simmons: in the end though...aren't all the complex stats still subjective?
Morey: You can't prove, but you can't not say that you shouldn't use such metrics. there no way of saying absolutely "this guy is better than this guy".

Simmons: Man, Daryl is Dork Elvis. He's the Elvis among the MIT guys, surrounded at all times by MIT guys.
Simmons: you always have to be a step ahead, meaning: how do you translate the euroteam stats?

Simmons: so, that Battier NYT article by Lewis.
morey: we were talking, I got to Battier, and he was fascinated by a guy with no points or rebounds was someone who Morey thought was great. He wasn't a big basketball guy until recently, and violated everything he knew prior.

Simmons: you match up well against teams with one primary perimeter scorer, ie Lebron, which is why I thought you would destroy Cleveland.
Morey: But Ilgauskas can take Yao out.
simmons: True. however, I think that Kobe would be really unhappy going against Battier and Ron for a 7 game series. But, NO with its point guard is a much tougher matchup.
Morey: Utah is very tough because Boozer runs wild, Yao has a hard time. NO as well because of cp3 and Tyson.
Morey: Our key is what is our go to perimeter player. Yao is great, but no matter how great any post player, its difficult to get a post play in a key situation because it requires setting up.

Simmons: you you read message boards?
Morey: I read everything.

Simmons: you were in the right place at the right time (regarding scola).
MOrey: Scola had a deadline in Europe which would make useless to spurs, so spurs wanted to turn him into something. A lot of other teams didn't have the package of taking on a bad contract + giving money.

Simmons: I think Novak will one day be a very valuable 9th man on the right team.
Simmons: You can never go wrong with someone who can do one thing very well. There's a guy on the clippers with no elite skill (Al thornton). He's gonna put up stats because he shoots a lot, but plays no defense and doesn't make teammate better. NOvak can be that 9th guy on the spurs of 2012 ala Matt Bonner.

 

That was an excellent interview. Thanks OP.

 

Very good interview!

Thanks so much for sharing this.

 

Simmons: ...you had a chance to trade Tracy a couple of times last summer right?

Morey: I think you always have a chance to trade a player as good as Tracy. So_, Detroit did have interest and it just never worked out for both sides...

 

Okay, who's Morey.

 

Thanks, The_Yoyo.