If Portland thinks Houston is bluffing, why didn't they do the trade with Rockets immediately after Hakeem is drafted then？
He could have, but no one knew how good Jordan was going go be they knew he'd be really good but not GOAT. Now back then the formula to winning was having a dominant big man so they did right in drafting Hakeem. Plus the look at the teams the Rockets had in the 80s. Very good teams but lost to Boston twice in the finals.
Real easy to say knowing what we all know now.. but back then Akeem was the clear choice for #1.... even if there was a time machine and we could go back I would still choose Akeem
If Morey pulls off a Melo deal without giving up Brooks or Martin, and we win a championship in the next few years, THEN MAYBE he can be in the discussion.
I say yes because he has done so much in so little time. He has the team set to contend as well as get a top notch talent on the team eventually.
Daryl just walked into my house with a gun and put it to my head after my last negative post. Yes he is the best ever and in Morey we trust.
Do you think Jordan could lead the rockets to a championship, with the same team? If you swap Jordan with Olajuwon, and all the teams remains exactly the same, who do you think would have more rings?? who got to the NBA finals first?
Patterson is the most underrated GM in NBA history. He brought us our first championship and he was the one that setup the Blazers trades that screwed us over with Brandon Roy. He just happens to piss people off too much to stick around.
Morey needs to be involved in some tanking seasons before we can proclaim him to be the best. Any GM who doesn't have at least one superstar handed to him on a silver platter cannot be in such discussions. Trying to mix and patch a constantly injured team with no high picks and no young prospects just doesn't really say good GM. Duncan, Lebron, Hakeem, Jordan, Wade... Now that's what puts a GM over the top. If Morey wants to be a top GM, his first priority is to get Les to rebuild and tank like there's no tomorrow. Before then, he's just mediocrity.
Patterson is one hell of a GM, but I think Daryl Morey is even better. Patterson was the GM of the Rockets for four years. And yes, he drafted Hakeem. But it isn't fair to say that makes him a better GM. First of all, players like Hakeem aren't available in every draft. In fact, they're not even available every decade. Secondly, Morey has never had a number one overall pick. That isn't his fault (or is it his fault since he keeps making brilliant moves that keep us solid? :grin: ). I don't think I've ever seen a GM do more with less. When he took the job we had no supporting cast and two broken down superstars. Now we have one broken down superstar, two borderline stars in Martin and Brooks, and a gang of solid role players and promising youngsters, mostly all of which were not here before Daryl Morey arrived. As for the draft, I cannot believe how good his record is. To put it in perspective, people still give credit to Isiah Thomas for being a good talent evaluator in the draft because he picked Damon Stoudemire, Tracy McGrady, Nate Robinson and Renaldo Balkman. That was over what? 10 years? In this first three years, Morey drafted Aaron Brooks in the late 1st round and Carl Landry & Chase Budinger with purchased 2nd round picks. And that's without even mentioning Sergio Llull and Patrick Patterson, whom we've yet to see on the Rockets but are supposedly both very promising. And yes, pretty much all of those picks went against conventional wisdom. Apparently conventional wisdom just isn't as wise as Morey. And trades? The Luis Scola trade was PHENOMENAL. I still scratch my head and wonder how he turned Vassillis Spanoulis into the best power forward we've had since the days of Charles Barkley or Otis Thorpe. I'd rank that deal right up there with Jesus turning water into wine. The trade to acquire Kyle Lowry was also genius, and despite all of the heavy criticism Rafer Alston received on this board, it was also a much criticized move. Again, Morey proved to be smarter than us. The deal for Ron Artest helped propel us to the 2nd round for the first time in more than a decade. The Martin for Landry move? Yes. We all loved Landry - but Morey essentially turned a purchased 2nd round pick into Kevin Martin there. And the T-mac deal? Yeah. Look at him now. We got the two knick picks and Jordan Hill out of that. And even Jared Jeffries is probably going to be key to any deal we make this year. I won't comment on the Ariza for Lee deal yet because it's too early to make any fair judgment on. I will say I have complete faith that it will turn out to be a great deal. In free agency, Morey hasn't done a great job of bringing in new talent, but I don't really think this is his fault. It's very difficult to lure in talent when all you have is the MLE, LLE and veterans minimum to work with. Ariza was the biggest signing and all that can really be said for that is that it wasn't a real mistake because Ariza was decent here and he was easily moved. Brent Barry was probably a mistake. Von Wafer was a great signing - and then Morey was shrewd enough not to resign Von when he wanted too much money. It's too early to judge the Brad Miller signing. However, one thing Morey has done well is manage the Rockets free agents and restricted free agents. He was genius with Carl Landry. He paid market value for Lowry by matching the offer on him. And he resigned Scola for apparently a little less than New Jersey was about to offer him. So yeah, I'm going to say I think Morey is the greatest GM the Rockets have ever had and I really don't think it's going too far to say he may well be the best GM in the league right now. The only GM's who are consistently ranked above him by pundits and posters on this board alike have all had the luxury of a top three pick or two falling in their laps. Morey hasn't had that and yet here we are, getting ranked one of the top 5 teams in the West by many pundits as is and sitting pretty waiting to pounce on Carmelo.
Why need to tank?? look the lakers GM, he didnt drafted neither of their best players. (Gasol, Kobe, Odom, Artest) and the lakers drafted fisher late in the first round. or the look the GM of Boston, they traded for allen and garnett. you can succeed without tanking.
I don't know, you tell me when the next Kobe decides he thinks Houston is the coolest place to be with all our traditions and glamor, and teams have to continuously pass up on him until he gets to us because he throws a hissy fit otherwise. Or when the next Shaq decides that the best way to start his Hollywood/movie/rap careers in the entertainment capital that is Houston, TX. You do know that the Celtics traded the 5th pick for Ray Allen, right? Incidentally, the 5th pick this year would've been Cousins. You think Morey wouldn't suddenly look a lot smarter if we have Cousins instead of Patterson?
It doesn't really make sense to evaluate Morey by the number of championships his team has won or even the number of times he's gotten out of the first round. Imagine, by the lucky bounce of the ping pong balls, a GM happens to get the number one pick in a year where there's a clear cut dominant player, like Tim Duncan. The GM happens to get lucky in a no-lose situation. Now let's say in an alternate reality that same GM lands the 30th pick in a year in which there was only one star player and the rest were role players. In the first scenario, his team wins a lot more than in the second scenario. Does that mean the GM in the first scenario is any better than the second? Obviously not. A better way to evaluate a GM is: given the cards he is dealt, does he make the decisions that maximize the team's short, medium, and long-run opportunities? There's a lot of uncertainty that is simply impossible to account for that could change the opportunities a GM gets and the performance of the team. Does he make draft picks better than his peers (e.g. if he picks a Landry even though a lot of GMs with better draft positions overlooked him) or does he maximize value from his players. On both of those counts, I'd say Morey is excellent. He drafts gems consistently and he outmaneuvers other GMs to keep upgrading the talent on the team. This is the same reason I'm not ready to say that Phil Jackson is the best coach ever, even though he's got the most championships. If, for whatever reason, Phil Jackson had been the coach of the Atlanta Hawks or Clippers all these years, there's no way he would have all those championships. If he were on those teams, would that mean that he would be any worse of a coach simply because his players were not as good as Jordan/Pippen, Shaq/Kobe, and Kobe/Gasol? Just my 2 cents
Once Morey wins 2+ rings, then this would be debatable. I like him though, but so far all he's done is gain assets for this organization.
This. It takes the entire organization to win championships. To lay the resposibility solely on 1 person is just insanity. No 1 person on any winning franchise is the sole reason they win.
We can't say that the guy who drafted Hakeem Olajuwon is the best. Why? Dude. When you're in the lottery, most especially drafting #1, it's pretty much consensus to get the top talents that other GMs have scouted on their radars. It was pretty much Hakeem, MJ or Bowie. I think he did a good job not getting Bowie but I wouldn't give him that much credit for drafting in the lottery. I'm not gonna give the title to Morey yet, but Morey found real talent drafting from very uncertain picks. Brooks was selected 26th overall, where many picks wouldn't have made an impact. Landry and Budinger were selected in the 2nd round, where normally, these players would either go to the D-league, end of the bench or not even make the team. I say the guy knows how to evaluate talent.
They're off on that one if i read it right. The blazer were offering clyde and the 2 for ralph who was the roy. So the rockets could have had dream,lyde and jordan.
