I think we are. Though Scola may be schooling whoever guards him, he's still getting owned on the other end of the court.
I hate to be that guy, but I've said all along that Morey is gonna run this franchise into the ground. Make no mistake about it, he brought about a revolutionary change in the way GM's evaluate players, and a lot of teams have followed suit and adopted many of his "money ball" antics. What we all fail to realize is that in the end of the day, This is real basketball we're playing, not fantasy basketball. There is no statistic that tells you how each guy on the team will play with the other guys. Morey fails to realize that, look no further than the Kevin Martin trade and the Ariza signing for proof. They're "proficient", They fill up the stat sheet, their PER and +/- and foul-drawing percentage and all that numerical $h!t you nerds worry about are all excellent, BUT THEY FAIL AS MEMBERS OF THE HOUSTON ROCKETS. We need to get rid of Morey ASAP. What is Kevin Pritchard up to these days?
Its clear to me that you really haven't paid much attention to what Morey has actually said regarding his own views on stats and what sort of things the Rockets look at. You may want to start there, before asserting what he fails to realize.
GREAT THREAD....finally some1 with a reality check. Kevin Martin is a 1 trick pony. Yeah he's a scorer but disappears in the 4th..but Landry did things in the 4th and made rockets win. I'll keep Artest and Ariza out of this even though I thought they were both good and i think we should have kept either one of them. There's more to scoring in basketball. We already know Yao is injury prone and shouldn't have high expectations on him. Yes yao's a distraction, but Martin is the second highest paid in the team and he's also injury prone. 2 of the most injury prone guys are one of the highest paid in the team and therefore going to be liabilities if yearly statistics come into effect (durvasa help me out on stats with the injury proneness of Martin and Yao pls). To make things worst, Lee and particularly Lowry (since Lee is only gettin paid 1+ million) are playing below par. Lowry is injury prone too. What's the solution? Rockets need a financial analyst to rectify things quick with these problem players mentioned above. Daryl Morey you did great things and all, but please put injury proneness into effect when you decide to trade for players. Because it's injury proneness is not a fluke thing if it happens every year or every other year to players.
every post you do is laughable to me. But beware of the mods, they might not be happy with trollish behavior and delete you from existence.
Enough of Morey and Numbers >_< One more and we'll be the Dallas Cowboys 1-7 ..... which is bad Thats numbers for you
ooh, did I touch nerve there, Mr. clutchfans stat guru? I don't need him to tell me "his views" to rationalize a logical observation. I have a set of eyes and a functional brain, and I've been watching the game of basketball for a while. Yes, he's gonna tell us that he evaluates talent and brings in guys who fit the system etc etc BULL****. Kevin Martin and Courtney Lee are real gems huh. How about Ariza from last year? he fit us like a glove. Anyways, if what you're saying is right, then it just means that he sucks at his job considering how disjointed and god awful our roster is.
If we weren't losing this post wouldn't exist and there would still be DM is God threads around. He's a good GM this is more on the team and coaching. DM doesn't play in the 4th and DM doesn't play D although on this team he'd be an upgrade.
I think the jury is still out. We havent got that superstar yet. Only went to the second round of the playoffs once. We cant seem to get any luck with injuries either. We have two many complimentary players. Most teams have about 8 or 9 players in there rotation. We could have about 12 or 13 players. Trade needs to be made to free up the rotation. A 3 for 1 or 4 for 1 trade.
Morey has stockpiled assets better than any other GM in the league. The fair judge of a GM is when he cashes his chips- when does Morey pull the trigger on a MAJOR trade? To me, that is judgment day for Daryl and his crew.
I only started questioning him after the Brad Miller signing. Everyone and their mother knew he was done. And for almost the entire MLE, of course. He definitely drafts well.
The Rockets are pretty open about why they like the players they acquire. If you paid any attention to this, you'd realize that fit is a big part of what they look at. You'd also realize that statistics isn't the only consideration. Further, the various pitfalls with fantasy type stats and not paying attention to how players fit together was discussed at length at the Sports analytics panels that Morey put together the past few years. So your observation -- Morey only looks at fantasy stats and doesn't think about or care about how players fit together -- is neither logical nor does it reflect reality. Clearly you have a different view on which players fit better next to eachother than the Rockets do. But that's more a difference in basketball philosophy or strategy than it has to do with "stats vs fit" or however you're trying to frame it.
I'm thinking the Brad Miller signing is more to do with Adelman than Morey. Dampier is more what Morey would want (I think) There's a reason GMs don't have rock star status and cult followings. "Want to have beer with" doesnt count much toward being evaluated by CHAMPIONSHIPS.
Tell me what stats are if not the result of someone watching the game. The box score stats are the work of people who are employed specifically to watch games and record events with stats. We know Morey has an extensive staff dedicated to watching games and recording all kinds of in-depth stats that nobody else bothers to track. To the point where Morey can actually make statements on the number of good and bad passes made by the team's second string PG. Morey does this crap for a living. How do you "watch" the game of basketball? If you're like most people then I seriously doubt you're recording it, rewatching it multiple times without a computer spreadsheet or even a pencil and paper in front of you. In all likelihood you watch the game for fun and like to cheer on the players you like while hating on the ones that you dislike. You probably focus on the star or the guy with the ball, to the neglect of the nine other players all doing things at the same time. Whenever someone bashes stats and asserts the superiority of himself "watching the game," I just think they're being arrogant. It's someone casually doing something for fun but expecting to command the respect and authority that comes with doing serious work.
Buford/Poppovich don't watch and rewatch and keep stats and I bet they can't tell you how many good vs. bad passes their starting point guard had, but they don't seem to be doing too bad with a ridiculous line up of second rounders and European players. It's really not that complicated. You can watch film and scout the hell out of players, but if you don't have "it", and by "it" I mean an eye for who can play in your system and who can't, then you won't fair well as a gm. You might stack up the deepest team in the NBA, but you can't field a winner, and unfortunately that's the bottom line in basketball. You're either a winner or a loser, and the Rockets are a big fat loser right now, and we can thank DM for that.
DM has said over and over stats don't tell the whole story, and they also utilize THEIR EYEBALLS when they evaluate talent. DM has done a great job with the cards he was dealt.
Morey is not overrated, but for better results the team must probably bring a more open minded coach, a young one like the one in New Orleans. I think he'll always have problems working with more established and traditional coaches.
I've been saying he's overrated on this board since I've been posting here. Don't get me wrong, he's a good at certain aspects of being a GM (mainly finding undervalued role players and steals in the 2nd round) but has thus far not put together a team that is close to winning a title or even being a serious contender. He has ONE playoff win in his tenure, and the more the team becomes HIS (ie the roster is made up of players he acquired), the team seems to be getting worse. Ultimately he has failed to get us the superstar we need and has failed to put together anything close to a contender.
At the end of the day, signings are Daryl Morey's job, you can't blame Adelman for Miller, that was Morey's decision, regardless of whether Adelman wanted Miller or not. Morey gets credit for the good moves and should get blame for the bad, that's just how it goes.
