Nah. Giving up 100 pts 3 quarters in and attributing our bad play to lack of making shots? Are kidding me? Yup great message to send to the team.[/QUOTE] This sort of thinking shows a lack of knowledge of how things work in businesses. Not much to say if you think this is the same message delivered to the team.
LOL. Grow up bro... a radio interview is a bunch of PR BS. It's beyond me why so many people take these interviews as gospel...
I agree. Dragic and the Morris twins made it a point to trash the Phoenix FO. Tyson Chandler trashed the Dallas FO. Josh Smith came back to the Rockets with no ill will after choosing the Clippers. With all the transactions Morey has made I haven't heard anything bad about Morey as a GM. Morey even trades players to teams where they have potential to shine. Lin went to LA close to his home town. Marcus Morris got traded to play with his brother. etc.
You mean hired McHale before we got Harden? You mean McHale who has a better coaching record than any coach during the Hakeem years? Is it that McHale is the GOAT? Harden is better than Hakeem? Or it's a complex issue that doesn't have a simple answer.... certainly nothing to do with incompetence. McHale was an average to slightly above average coach all things considered, but we needed to move on. This is statistically Brewer's worst season since his rookie year, ignoring this season how is Brewer not a 8M/yr type of player with all that sweet TV causing waves in contract negotiations in anticipation of the cap rise? I'm really not sure what you mean by players who don't fit. Les in charge, he signs the checks and he has the say in who we acquire and what direction we take. You think the Net's GM Billy King gave away all those unprotected because he thought it was the best idea in the world or he was ordered to do it by Prokhorov and co? I'm not saying Billy King is a good GM, but you have to understand the context and dynamic. What major step backwards? There's still a trade deadline to go through. Come on DD... you're smarting than that. There are 29 other teams who have the same pool of players to try and acquire, have you forgotten how competitive it is?
Morey - great GM.... lousy coach.... Les needs to pull back the reigns and limit DM to doing his job and get a coach that can do theirs... end of story...
I don't get why people keep criticizing Morey for making JB the head coach. What choices did he have? The real issue was firing McHale just 11 games into the season. At that point, the only option you had was to promote an assistant as the interim. The timing of the firing was just bad. Why did you have to fire him AFTER the season had started? You didn't know what kind of competency he had after having him for several years and giving him a big extension? Really?
he has terrible flaws but i dont wanna take a chance on another gm being better than him. the best ones are taken. i'd rather wait till he gets a chance to get out of this mess maybe not even next midseason, more like end of december/early january
All blinded by the Josh Smith YOLO Game 5 showcase. Seriously, just a huge fat tails there. He should've been canned after the Portland series.
Bro, im not in the NBA..works very differently. People still wanted Artest after what he did. How many people would hire him in the "real world" after that? But to answer your question.. If I felt I was done wrong, I'd have no problem saying it, but that's because I dont overreact to every little thing. Players should know the way the business works..only superstars have control..only reason to be mad is because they lied to you or disrespected you on an ethical level. I don't think our FO is doing that, so they retain respect from players.
I'll repeat what I said to DD: You mean hired McHale before we got Harden? You mean McHale who has a better coaching record than any coach during the Hakeem years? Is it that McHale is the GOAT? Harden is better than Hakeem? Or it's a complex issue that doesn't have a simple answer.... certainly nothing to do with incompetence. McHale was an average to slightly above average coach all things considered, but we needed to move on.
Why don't you go appease yourself? You failed miserably because you are bad PR. You are a bunch of PR BS, bro.
PR..PR...right. Well guess what? The audience that Morey is addressing to in a radio interview in the local station is hardcore Houston fans, not other GMs, not neutral fans, not journalists. That's his audience that he should appease. US. And looks like he failed miserably by all the reactions here. That's bad PR.
Completely agree, which is why I suspect this was a decision made more by the owner than the GM. One thing though, last summer Morey repeatedly mentioned how this was one of the few offseasons he was truly happy with the core and was looking to give them time to gel together rather than make dramatic changes. In retrospect, that contented, laid-back approach might not be Morey's strong suit. He may be best served when he stays aggressive in trades and "asset swapping," no matter what criticism he takes.
Long post, excuse typo/grammar mistakes. I think Morey is indirectly responsible for 54 and 56 wins seasons in the past, and he's also indirectly responsible for what is happening this season. Morey is the one who gets Harden and Howard, who drafts Chandler Parsons, then lets him go but brings Ariza + Brewer in substitution. Don't forget also about players that help the team while Howard and Jones are out last season. Papanikoulau... yes, people forgets soon, but that guy helped the team until that ankle injury. Tarik Black, that guy helped us get some wins. Even the damn Dorsey helped us. Thanks to those guys we were a good defensive team while Harden in MVP mode won the games in the other end. Those guys were signed by Morey almost for free. You also got to give him some credit for the signings of Brewer and Josh in exchange of practically nothing. Those 2 guys also helped us a lot last season. Pablo Prigioni, he was another player brought in for nothing and that guy helped us a lot off the bench at some games.... Those guys had no flashy names but while they where here they objectively helped the team more than Lawson or the same Brewer are doing this season. I think for this season Morey has built a roster with too many subpar defenders, and he could be rightfully blamed for that. Lawson, Thornton, Terry, plus two new rookies (who often lack a high defensive level at their first years), that together with Harden, Jones and Brewer (already questionable defenders)... probably it makes too many players of doubtful level at that side of the court. Besides that, must be said, players like McDaniels or Dekker, who are on the roster and could be helping defensively where we are worst (backourt defense) are not playing, one because of an injury, the other one for coaching reasons. Anyway not Morey's fault. He is neither responsible of playing that many small ball lineups, blah blah. But he could have done a better job maybe at having more of those Papas/Prigioni/Black guys on the roster. That job he excelled at in previous seasons. Where I see Morey directly responsible and blameable is at the decision of keeping McHale on the bench for that long. McHsale should have been fired after Portland eliminates us. Not only for pure fact of the elimination and the disappointment (Houston was the clear favourite before the series started)... but for what that series showed to everybody. A team that was severely overcoached; a team whose players often showed signs of not knowing how to respond to the adversity or what to do. A team with severe defensive issues... That final play where Harden orders the switching for the winning shot of Lillard is the perfect summary and reflection of what the team was at that series. But McHale was kept. Harden had an MVP season. Morey had some very underrated signings. The average level of the bad teams was lower than this years level, and Houston won 56 games, most of them tied games. The playoffs were fools gold. Houston did not look good against Dallas, we gotta be honest. Those Mavericks were much worse team than current season Mavs are (without Parsons, with Rondo helping us more than them...) and we needed Harden deciding in the end to pass the series. That team was by the moment worse than the Pelicans. Then the Clippers. Houston received 3 blowouts against LA, one of them without Chris Paul, they even had the games perfectly on track by halftime or mid 2nd quarter. And that crucial game 6 seemed also to be a blowout by the 2nd quarter... Let's be honest here, giving Houston players some credit, that was mainly a big screw by the Clippers. Then we can talk about Rivers' responsabilty, not rotating enough and paying it at game 7, but also consider what a First Round series they had.... If you followed those series you'll agree with me that were the best series of the whole playoffs, by far. Very very very high basketball level at every single game. Lets be honest, the Rockets eliminated the Clippers, but the Rockets were not a better team than the Clippers, and were not a better team than the Spurs. What we saw last year at those series, at the previous one against Dallas, and along all the season, it was a team that struggled to beat bad teams, but that had Harden, who decided many of those tied games. In the end WINS, but if you analyse more deeply the team, that team never was a solid winning contending team. In fact, if you take a look at the point differential at the end of Regular Season, Houston had a 3.4; Portland had 4.2, Clippers 6.6, or Spurs 6.2. McHale's team, with Bickerstaff and Finch as assistants, has developed during these years both terrible individual and collective habits that seem to be more exposed than ever since: a) Harden is no longer playing at MVP level. b) The average level of bad teams has improved. Great news for the league, bad news for a team that solved so many games in the final minutes. c) Bargain-signings as Black, Prigioni or Papas have not happened this season. Those together are some wins. The core and the indentity of the team, it's the same. Team defense is the biggest issue for related reasons: terrible dragged habits, undiscipline; too many personnel with natural defensive issues; a defensive system that is not working. A coach who remains trusting that often in small lineups with too many bad defenders playing simultaneously, neither helps. Biggest one of issues is the first one. There is no individual responsability to prevent penetrations, the help is too generous into our system and ends deducting individual responsibility. There is not enough discipline to avoid switching when it is just not needed, and teams take advantage of it. Bad habits to come back in transition, to block your man out at the rebound... and Harden is just too harmful, also because it's been allowed to him day to day since he landed in Houston. Would it be this sad reality the same if had signed Morey a coach like Mike Malone, Van Gundy, Casey, whoever, seasons before? Main change needed is a new coaching staff able of setting up new winning habits and especially able of kicking Harden out oh his comfort zone. That change will happen in the summer and it's the most important, but Morey will nedd to hit there finally. In parallel some roster adjustments will be needed also to break current locker room comfort zone and the whole Harden environment (less rookies, more veterans and high character guys needed, not only on the court but also every day into the locker room and next to Harden at every trip). If I was Les, I would keep Morey, but making sure that those changes happen. For Morey it's time to rectify and assume that coaching is not only important but critical at elite basketball, and that not only a good head coach is needed but also a good team of assistants with quality experience.
The bad reactions on here are without much logic and based mostly on emotions. You ever notice how quiet the GARM is after a win? Apparently you don't listen to much sports radio in Houston because it's generally dominated by football and pretty soon with baseball (Astros are good again)..... I guess you never checked out the thread about the lack of Rocket talk on sports radio. Lastly, yes PR. What bball GM goes on sports radio as much as Morey? He's not gonna go on there and blast his team, he's going to give sound bites with small tid bits of actual info. Again, too many people are erroneously taking what Morey says on 790 as gospel.
I think it's become pretty overblown what Morey's "opinion" on coaching is. I'd have to re-read the entire context of that particular interview, but I have hard time imaging Morey meant what quite a few folks on here think he meant. I look at GS and Spurs and would say their culture is what really sets them apart, which was my biggest knock on McHale. He took the "boys will be boys" approach and it allowed some bad habits to sink it.
