Despite past history with threads (hahaha), he is actually right. And Morey has stated plenty of times that this is the 1st year post Yao and his max contract. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/..._1_goran-dragic-houston-rockets-knicks-source So this offseason was the first time we have officially started a rebuild, and it is sure seeming quick and promising. The average NBA experience of our guys is 2 years.
Man, people on this board really do pick apart every word this guy says and uses it as against him like he's running for president. He's representing a pro sports team. He has to sugar coat everything he says, and worry about selling tickets. The guy has an impossible job where very few of his peers are considered successful. Very few GM's of a rebuilding team have the guts to get on an internet site like this one and answer questions this honestly. Most wouldn't even think about getting on a site like reddit. The question that nobody can seem to answer ever is who would you hire in Morey's place that would do such a better job? If he got fired tonight, tomorrow morning multiple teams would be blowing up his phone to bring him on their payroll. Unless you purposefully want to hire a moron to purposefully tank the team for 3 or 4 seasons to have a shot at a #1 pick. Even then, is that GM going to pick Michael Olowokandi over Dirk Nowitzki or Paul Pierce? Look after two years of kicking and screaming about it, the team is finally where the pro-tankers/Morey haters have wanted to be. The Rockets are ranked what.... 26 out of 30 teams? They are essentially going full rebuild mode but he would never go out there and say it.
Yeah, props to Morey for going on reddit. I cannot imagine anyone else doing that. He was really articulate and succinct in his responses too. I don't understand why so many ppl here rag on him. The easiest way to avoid criticism is to make no public statements at all, like many GMs. It'd be boring if Morey were like that.
Lots of frustration over the years because of near misses...almost drafting Brandon Roy, Rudy Gay...almost getting Deron, Pau, nene, chandler...losing out on Bosh,melo....injuries to tmac/yao, not Morey's fault, but he's been the constant (face) during all those years, so he's gonna get blamed by fans. Cue Les' laugh.
Morey: 47% of Rockets fans are bitter about Yao's injury and cling to the memories of the Olajuwon championship days. They think they are victims. They think they are entitled to playoff runs, high lotto picks and championships. They will never support me. I can never convince them to take responsibility for their own lives.
Lets not forget that Morey works under an owner whom we know voices his opinion rather loudly. Imagine what a night it was for Morey when Lin hit that game winner gainst the Raptors and last few minutes before that? All the calls from Les yapping about waiving Lin...lol
But, it's totally irrelevant. You don't need a lot of cap space to trade your veterans for picks and throw your season into the toilet. It is literally as easy as falling off a log, because the requisite action is similar. If anything, I think it's reproachable that they didn't tank when they still had the burden of Yao's contracts on the books. Today we could be sitting here with a foundation of great second-and-third-year rookie-contract players, and ready to throw money at picking up a great veteran if only they were willing to concede defeat when the writing was on the wall.
Hindsight is always 20/20, and we could of had a much different team with Pau/Nene trade (because Yao's contract was off the books). It is kinda hard to fall off a log when the Rockets were about to pull off their big trade. So lets say we do trade the players all before to tank. Would Bud be worth an 18th pick? Would Lowry be worth a lottery pick? I doubt that, and at that time, it was probably worth it to get more value out of the players. For rebuilding purposes, this offseason was a quick success to gut the team.
He just answered this one about James Harden recently on the same AMA. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/10mrkx/iam_the_houston_rockets_gm_ama/c6v7yz1?context=3
Actually you don't have a lot of "morey haters"...these are just the very vocal minority and trolls from other teams making account just to mess everything up. Even Clutch, who is pro-tanking, has said on record Morey has done a decent job...on the day of the draft when he was disappointed as heck he still gave the FO a C-B grade.
Btw, somebody asked if Lin's Asian aspect played a part in Morey getting him I guess the story about it being Les who pushed for DMorey to increase the offer to 25M is probably true. Dmorey said after the signing he didn't believe the Knicks were really gonna let Lin go, so my guess is Morey wanted to tank real bad and have us start Toney Douglas/Machado at pg prior to HardLinsanity. It also tells us the FO really didn't want Dragic to stick around, they were balking at the 4rth year player option even when they thought Lin was gonna stay put in NYC.
