after made all his fortune in finanical mkt in the past Les is now determined to turn the rox around use the same approach. numbers, it's all to do numbers folks. can we see the linkage here?
personally, he sounds like an a$$ clown to me. i dont think he is the right guy for the job. why not wait and see who else is available for the position closer to next year? unless the want to bring him in and have like a transition so that he can learn everything from CD.
I hope he will do better with Rox than with Celtics. I just cannot get excited with the news because when I look at Celtics I see a failure.
http://celtics.bostonherald.com/celtics/view.bg?articleid=132837 The Celtics will soon be losing a member of their front office. Daryl Morey, the senior vice president of operations and information, will move to the Houston Rockets first as assistant general manager. Following next season, he will replace current GM Carroll Dawson. Morey has been with the Celts since the new ownership took over on Dec. 31, 2002. He has been working in arena operations, ticket sale strategy and pricing as well as analytical stats on the basketball side. http://www.khou.com/sports/stories/khou060329_cd_rockets.73ad7fd4.html Rockets hiring Daryl Morey as Asst. to GM Dawson 07:21 PM CST on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 From 11 News Staff Reports 11 News has learned the Houston Rockets are in the process of hiring Daryl Morey to be the new Assistant to General Manager Carroll Dawson. Morey is currently a Senior Vice President with the Celtics. He has extensive business background, earning an MBA from the Sloan School of Business at MIT. Celtics General Manager Chris Wallace told 11 News Morey is a "Great hire for the Rockets. He is experienced and can wear a lot of hats."
Good find, Faos. So now we know that Morey's main reason for being here will be to sell tickets and pump up profits. If that means JVZzzzzzz is on his way out of here, I'm happy.
Well, better than a video coordinator. If RudyT can have video coordinators as his assistant coaches, Lex can have a 32 years old statistical analyst as his GM. I am seeing a Weisbrod in the Rockets GM position.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/3758241.html March 29, 2006, 11:56PM Targeting a switch in '07, Rockets' Dawson will groom Celtics' Morey as successor By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle In an astounding change of direction and style that stunned the Rockets and the NBA, owner Leslie Alexander has chosen Boston Celtics statistical analyst Daryl Morey to be his next general manager, succeeding Carroll Dawson after the 2006-07 season. Morey, the Celtics' senior vice president of operations and information, has worked under Boston owner Wyc Grousbeck for the past three seasons but has never been a player, coach, scout or general manager. Morey, 32, will become the Rockets' assistant general manager under Dawson next month before assuming the GM position after next season. Alexander and Dawson would not comment Wednesday about the selection of Morey. Morey said via e-mail that he could not comment. Alexander did say, however, that Dawson will become a "senior consultant" after next season. The owner also said he hoped Dennis Lindsey, the Rockets' vice president of basketball operations, whom many around the NBA considered in line to succeed Dawson, would remain with the team. Dawson agreed to a two-year extension with the Rockets after last season and set the timetable on his move from the general manager position. "C.D. is going to be with the organization for a long time," Alexander said. "He will be a great adviser. He will remain an integral part of what we do." Asked whether Dawson or Morey will make decisions that affect the team beyond Dawson's tenure as general manager, Alexander said, "C.D. is the top guy for the next year. He's the boss." But it is already clear, the new boss is very different from the old boss. Dawson, 65, has been with the Rockets for 26 years, the past 10 as general manager. A former Baylor coach, he was an assistant under Del Harris, Bill Fitch, Don Chaney and Rudy Tomjanovich. Morey's position with the Celtics is his first in sports. He teaches a course at MIT, where he received his masters in business administration in "Analytical Sports Management." With the Celtics, he is not listed with the basketball operations department led by executive director of basketball operations Danny Ainge and general manager Chris Wallace, but "focuses on arena operations, risk management, basketball analytics, and ticket sales strategy, pricing and technology infrastructure." Though many NBA teams, including the Rockets, have expanded their study of statistical player evaluations, the hiring of Morey could be viewed as the NBA's first move toward baseball's Moneyball trend. Moneyball was a 2003 book that detailed the Oakland Athletics' move away from scouting in favor of more statistical-based analysis. Several baseball teams, including the Red Sox with general manager Theo Epstein, have hired executives with non-traditional baseball backgrounds. In choosing Morey, Alexander has opted for an analytical approach to player evaluation in addition to the scouting systems already in place. Because of that Alexander said he wanted Lindsey back. "I love Dennis," Alexander said. "I want Dennis long-term. I love what Dennis does." Morey, who will handle negotiations with agents and other GMs, also understands the need for input from those with basketball backgrounds. "Basketball is an intensely human game, where the personal aspect is very, very important," Morey said in an interview about his position with the Celtics with an MIT alumni publication. "Analysis can point you in the right direction, but it's possible to take it too far. "A Danny Ainge needs to integrate the analytical stuff with his knowledge and experience to make the right decision." That would seem to fit with Alexander's management style. In every organization decision, he expects detailed information. Though Dawson has handled the negotiations, and the Rockets have largely sought to build rosters suited to the desires of Tomjanovich and current coach Jeff Van Gundy, Alexander approves the decisions on all veteran player moves. In the December issue of Technology Review, Morey described his value to the Celtics but also might have revealed a good deal about the Rockets' move. "The reason that opportunity exists is because the ownership groups buying teams are very different than in the past," Morey said. "The franchise is their primary asset and they come from backgrounds with an analytical focus such as venture capital, private equity, and management consulting. In the past, sports franchises were secondary assets in the portfolio of individuals who made their money in industrial-based businesses." Alexander's background as a securities trader would fit that trend, and Morey's background fit Alexander and what he wanted.
lance on the morning show on 610 when finally talking about this said that Dennis Lindsey was also a stats guy and he thought this hire was a slap in the face to him.
So it suits Les to have a analysis guy as a GM minus basketball experience then dont be surprised when Les replaces JVG with a Coach with little Coaching Experience. You heard it here first!
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/justice/3758238.html Alexander decides CD's number is up By RICHARD JUSTICE Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle DARYL Morey first must understand the hundreds of things he doesn't know. In the end, this may be his biggest challenge. He must acknowledge the value of institutional knowledge and respect the traditional ways of evaluating basketball players. He absolutely must surround himself with people who can guide him down roads he hasn't traveled before. Give Rockets owner Les Alexander credit for having the guts to try something new. The Rockets have missed on too many draft choices and free agents to stay the same course. They haven't acquired enough youth. It shouldn't be forgotten that Alexander has had a big hand in almost every decision. He was the driving force behind the long-term contracts that burdened the franchise. He wanted some of the players who weren't as good as they were supposed to be. If he's going to change the way the Rockets do business, he should begin by making some changes in his own thinking. Morey isn't Beane All we know for sure is that Alexander has decided to go in a dramatically different direction by replacing general manager Carroll Dawson with a 32-year-old numbers whiz who has never made a trade, scouted a player, selected a draft pick, coached a game or played a second in the NBA. Morey, a stat analyst for the Celtics, believes numbers can be used to evaluate players, construct rosters and coach games. He never has done any of these things, but he must have had a terrific interview with Alexander. He teaches a class called Analytical Sports Management at MIT. He's into video games. Basketball's answer to Moneyball? Yes, to a point. That bestseller brilliantly described how the Oakland Athletics used statistics to evaluate players. It made something of a cult hero of A's general manager Billy Beane, who has kept his club in contention while spending far less than the big-market teams. Here's hoping Alexander read the book closely. Daryl Morey isn't Billy Beane. So much for Lindsey Beane played in the big leagues. He served as assistant general manager to one of baseball's best general managers, Sandy Alderson. Even as Beane relied on statistics, he also leaned on other sources of information, including veteran baseball men. Beane's prodigies are scattered throughout baseball, but in almost every case, they still use traditional scouting methods in conjunction with their numbers. Morey's hiring by the Rockets sent shock waves through the organization because this isn't the line of succession Dawson had in mind. He wanted his longtime — and competent — assistant, Dennis Lindsey, to be the next general manager. Now Morey apparently will serve a one-year apprenticeship to Dawson before taking over. He should pay attention. In terms of making trades, working the phones and being aggressive, there are not many better than Dawson. He has made his share of mistakes, but so has every other general manager in every other sport. Morey's first move should be to convince Lindsey to stay, to explain to him how much he needs him. If Morey walks in and believes he has all the answers, he'll fail. Others were left not knowing where they stand. Alexander should end some of that uncertainty by extending coach Jeff Van Gundy's contract beyond next season. Van Gundy has had a comfortable relationship with Dawson. They have disagreed on many issues, but each has been around the NBA so long that there is a mutual respect. The Rockets are painting the move as an attempt to add another source of information. It's much more than that. The Rockets already used statistics, but in the end, they evaluated players by what they saw and what they believed. Were they sometimes wrong? Yes. They missed on Stromile Swift, Bostjan Nachbar, Eddie Griffin, Bryce Drew and a long list of others. They never should have let Scott Padgett leave after last season. They should have acquired more perimeter offense. But they're not 31-40 because of those mistakes. Injuries are responsible for the record. They're 21-10 when Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming are both on the floor. That's a 56-26 pace over a full season. Alexander has pushed his basketball people to make splashy moves, to push for something more. He believed Griffin was worth the gamble. And McGrady. He has had more trouble understanding why depth is important. Teams can't withstand injuries when they're giving significant minutes to players who would be at the end of the bench on most other teams. Morey may be exactly the right guy to find valuable pieces sitting on the ends of benches around the NBA. He also must listen to Van Gundy and to Lindsey. He has to make them understand he gets it. I would really love to know what's going on in JVG's head right now. I also wonder how you can construct an algorithm that factors in "knuckleheadedness".
I am very skeptical toward money ball in basketball. The Seattle Sonics claims to use that, and it's not doing it for them.
The more I learn about this guy, the less I like the hire. Was he even involved in any personnel decisions for the Celtics? Was he ever involved in negotiating a trade or a salary? What is there to make us think he might know what he's doing? Plus, he's only 2 years older than me, so I'm jealous as hell.
Wow, talk about a pile of crap from Justice. Why do people have the presumption that Morey is going to come in and start cleaning house according to a computer program? Am I on idiot pills? I mean, you've got to figure, if Justice & Co. (possibly by stealing my volunteer background research from this thread) did their homework about Morey they'd find this (posted on page 1) Yeah, that sounds like a guy who thinks stats are supreme and will never consider anything else ever, ever ever. And as for his Beane example - distinguishing Beane from Morey since Beane's a veteran player. Who's had more success with the moneyball approach? Veteran Beane or non-veteran, 28 yeear old neophyte Theo Epstein? One too k his team to the playoffs a few times, the other ended the curse of the Bambino within a couple of years. Christ dick, if you're going to use anectdotal evedence, at least be careful to not use the kind that can be exploded. And I don't get the "well, injuries, so no harm" exculpation at the end. The reason why we suck when we get injuires is because we have 1. injury prone role players, and 2. role players who aren't that good to begin with. Phoenix lost Stoudemire the whole season - they didn't experience the scale of degeradation that we did.
