[ClutchFans] Video: Full Daryl Morey 2016 Post-Season Press Conference

In the end DD they completely panicked in canning McHale after 11 games thinking they could hand over the team to the defensive coach who was in charge of the teams defense for the first 11 games. I was never a huge fan of McHale but I still think they would have been better off rolling with him till the end of this season and then search for a new coach. JBB was put in a situation that was so far above his head IMO.

 

pretty much this.

 

Actually from my understanding they were being pressured by Harden to get rid of McHale....

T_Man

 

There is absolutely no proof of that whatsoever. Les came out on the day of and said it was his decision. He was truly really pissed off, and rarely goes public in that negative manner

No way Harden did that. That was some single person posting BS to stir things up, and has never resurfaced again in any news anywhere.

But, people will still bring up that I guess, since people love conspiracy theories versus the in-your-face obviousness of Les' quotes that day and he reaction to saying everyone is in the hot seat.

 

The most interesting thing to me in the interview was him talking free agency, and that we still have a fit with long, athletic defensive guys who run transition and play defense.

sigh

No we don't Morey...unless you are talking end of the bench guys who should never see many minutes...ie, guys every teams has if they want to have them.

 

Total denial regarding Hardens leadership.

I don't. I'm disappointed in Morey big time right now. But I don't see any basketball guys out there that I'd have any more confidence in.

Durant will most likely sign a 1 + 1 contact with OKC and push the drama to the regular season.

Agreed. What a joke. I agree with Charles. If I were a skilled big, no way do I want to play with Harden pounding the ball. Everyone wants to play with him like everyone wanted to play with Kobe. Morey knows this too. He just knows the reporters can't bust out laughing at that absurdity in that environment.

He said the vast majority would be returning. Another tall tale. If I'd have been there I'd have said, Whut!?!

He's either delusional or he's full of bullcrap right now. He's too smart to be delusional. I'd say his eyes are really brown.


Most interesting comment was about Les and the coaching search. Watch it again. Les makes the call on the coach. Most everything else was total bullcorn.

And that is the biggest organizational problem we have. Les is a good owner. But he meddles in the basketball affairs and it hurts the team. I think Morey would be better and the organization would be better without Les meddling so much. We just lost the #12 pick in the draft for the privilege of getting bent over and spanked. Morey is too smart to do that. But he has to run the front office according to Les' whim of always going for the win.

I have to cut Morey slack for Les' interference. Even though his lying is getting old.

 

Well, Les has the final say on all decisions because he's the owner. But, Harden clearly has a very loud voice within the organization. McHale wouldn't have been fired if Harden wanted him as coach in my opinion. Even now, it is being reported that Harden will be involved in selecting the next coach. We don't know if Harden initiated the idea to fire McHale, but he almost certainly signed off on it.

Furthermore, the firing of McHale after eleven games has damaged the reputation of the franchise. It makes Les and Morey look like amateurs that are unpredictable and prone to making rash decisions. Top coaching candidates and top free agents may be hesitant to join an organization run by people that push the panic button so quickly.

 

Les flat out said it was a decision made solely in a meeting between him, Tad and Morey. They did not seek out approval from Harden. Everything you said is theory and speculation based on same lame Internet logic that "if you weren't in the meeting, then you don't know, so anything is possible."

Fact is: we do have proof from Les. In an extraordinary media conference the day of. There is zero proof the other way. And we will never hear it, ever, anywhere.

Quit spreading BS that Harden demanded McHale be fired, when Les flat out said he did it, and in a very public manner that is very rare for him to do...talking negative about everyone, saying everyone is in the hot seat and will be evaluated.

 

Agree with pretty much everything, especially the last part about Leslie. Your last line is the home run!

 

I hated Mchale, but I have to agree, if you are going to fire him you HAVE to have a plan in place to replace him with someone better not his lackey.

Re: Firing

Harden was totally involved in McHale getting fired - anyone that says otherwise is delusional.

DD

 

@2:07 - Pat Beverley is a great player, wait... what???

 

I'm getting sick of hearing that he's smart, no he's ****ing not. I bury that ****ing cockroach.

 

I wasn't spreading BS. I was giving my OPINION, as I stated. I just don't believe that Les would have fired McHale without talking to Harden first. That's my opinion, and I am free to have that opinion. If you want to believe everything that Les and Morey say, then fine.

 

Agreed. Firing McHale was a kneejerk move. They weren't going to get a good coach 11 games into the season to pick up the mess. What self-respecting coach would come in to inherit someone else's system without the chance of running a training camp? So they were forced to pull up an assistant which was not going to turn the ship.

The only thing they could hope for at that point was that the players would somehow come to their good conscience and start to care.

Did Harden tell Les/Morey to fire McHale? I don't think so. Was he a factor that got McHale fired? Very likely.

 

Define "totally involved" DaDakota, so we can understand, because involved doesn't sound like Demanded, right?

Easy, on a scale of Active to Passive involvement with "demanded" to "weak attempt to convince Les to keep him" the extremes, where is his involvement. The middle would be getting asked as part of diligence and saying he's fine with what the FO decides.

Note: this is an owner who had fired three coaches already and would have to double pay two contracts should he fire this one. All evidence points to Les made a knee jerk decision and no player or FO guy pursuaded him against it

 

Kevin McHale told Marv Albert that it had a lot to do with managing a young star, "when they think they know everything and can do it all."

 

I agree, firing McHale was absolutely the right move, but done at the wrong time. Should have fired him after the POR series where he got embarrassed by Stotts.

I don't usually think firing midseason is a good idea, but if you do, then it's never a good idea to bring some new outside coach into the dumpster fire. Promoting the lead assistant worked pretty damn well in 1992 so I see why they did it.

 

To me, Harden was a factor in the sense that he played like he didn't care at the beginning of the season. He, being the best player on the team, doing that made it clear that McHale had lost the team.

I don't think Harden ever hinted to the management that McHale had to go. I am kind of on the fence whether he intentionally got the coach fired passive aggressively. If the FO did ask his opinion on the firing, he likely did not plead for McHale. What was clear to me was that Harden's lack of focus coming into the season is a major part of why McHale is not the Rockets' HC anymore.

 

I agree.

 

Yeah, he's not.