where have you heard this? McHales extremely close relationship with Fred Hoiberg played a critical role in us drafting Royce. Hoiberg told McHale he would fit in and be a great player. My understanding was always that McHale lobbied hard for RW. Now Chico didn't tell me that directly, so I may be wrong, but assuming it was Morey's call over McHale's interest in another player seems counter intuitive.
i think it was clutch who dropped this info. there was also a morey interview where he said he promised mchale to take zeller with the 18th pick because they'd decided to take royce at 16th instead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRUS6QBiViQ "the entire room is against you except the coach" - at 4:02 in the video.. cmon son
Alot of misinformation on this thread all the sudden. This has been beaten to death for YEARS on the GARM. The Youtube video is agent speak. That was not correct whatsoever. Morey was super high on Royce White and spoke up publicly multiple times that it was unanimous that they wanted Royce White, and they had Intel the Mavs were going to take Royce at 17 if the Rockets didn't take him so they jumped Royce ahead of other targets to make sure they got him. The rumor was Zeller at 16 and Royce White at 18 was desired, but I don't think that was ever confirmed nor would it be. The good news about this is Terrence Jones is a better/more valuable player than either of these two guys despite what BasketballHollic thinks of him. So who gives a S#$%?
I can find multiple articles that state McHale stood on the table demanding the drafting of Royce White. Sure - intel may have had them pick him earlier, but there sure is a lot of smoke around the McHale lobbying for him position.
I'm sorry - was there actually a cohesive discussion going in this thread that got derailed? I was trying to find it but got lost somewhere after post #1
And I can dig up multiple interviews where Morey said himself that its not true at all. We weren't in the room so we won't ever know for sure, but I find it very hard to believe that after just 1 year with the Rockets Morey or Les let McHale make any decisions regarding draft picks. Sure they valued his input(or let him think that), and sure McHale has the connection with Hoiberg, but what makes you think that they would give a rats a#$ if he was begging and complaining to get Royce when up to that point (and still this summer with Parsons/Asik/Lin) have done everything without his consideration for personnel moves. Do you really think it was McHale who wanted to sign Papanikolaou over Shawn Marion? Do you think McHale even knew who Papanikolaou was?? Did McHale sound thrilled when he found out that Parsons wasn't coming back during Summer League? Did it sound like he had any part of the decision making process? Come on man. You are better than this. You know damn well that McHale's power in personnel decision making is nil.
77 days to get here and we only have 32 left before opening night to get to 1,000 pages. Come on, we can do it!
I agree with 90% of your post, but I don't think his input is nil. That was also an odd year with multiple first round picks, aspirations for the stars and settling for scrubs. RW was incredibly gifted but a nutjob and McHale's access to his former coach gave us more insight than others. The pick always made sense to me and just never panned out, but I did assume that McHales opinion played a large role in that pick. Does that mean his opinion played a role in Papa G or Ish the dish or Jo Mama? No. I don't think they worry about his opinion in 90% of their transactions, but in this case, I do think they weighed it.
He has already mentioned that he thinks OKC will succeed in working out an extension with him, despite his desire to start.
Very simply, Royce White was a swing for the fences pick. Morey would gamble again on extreme talent.
Well I'm pretty sure Morey, and the rest of the league learned their lesson when it comes to drafting players with mental conditions. Royce White will be the reason why any college player will have to hide any mental condition or go undrafted and work their way on a team the hard way.
Agreed. Probably why I am a fan of Morey's. He swings for the fences but always has a back up plan, or five, going on simultaneously. And I had great expectations for Royce, that kid let me down big time.
