1) No one is in going to be royally screwed by the new cap restrictions - just about all of the high dollar teams, Lakers aside, have actually set themselves up to be $70M or less next year. 2) This sport is still dominated by whether or not you are one of the 8-12 teams with a bonafide superstar. It's not the NFL. If anything, tanking just became an even more sought after option - you chase a franchise player that will only be paid on the rookie scale.
Remember that it's Les Alexander making the decision. "Who would be better" was not a consideration when firing Rick Adelman; he just wanted Rick out. Same with JVG. Same with Rudy. In fact, same with Calvin. And Turbo. In this business you get results or, eventually, you get fired. And then you get hired again by another team. If Morey is let go he will have no problem getting another job. He'd probably have his choice of jobs and he'd probably wind up with a raise. I don't think Morey could have really done anything better than he did. (The one caveat is that I think his participation in ousting Adelman was an enormous mistake.) But it doesn't matter if he did the best anyone could have done. Adelman did too. In many ways, Adelman did better than anyone could have done. As did JVG. But Les, like all owners, needed someone to blame for the bad results. The injuries don't count in Les's mind. He wants results. Under Morey, he hasn't gotten them. And no owner stands pat when they get a bad result. Maybe for a year, not longer. They do the only thing they get to do to change things up: fire and/or hire. Whether it will improve things or not. The fire and/or hire. And Les is not preparing to hire Morey.
With this group of players (including injuries) please give me what you think the win totals SHOULD be for this team with a: 1.) Bad coach 2.) Average coach 3.) Great coach
Should Morey be fired? Ask yourself this: If he got fired tonight, would he have a gig lined up within a week? If it's yes...then why the **** are you firing him?
Morey is a quality NBA GM, it would be premature in any moves to release him. He's done a pretty good job keeping this team competitive, despite losing what essential was two superstar players and rebuilding in the process. It feels like Houston is two higher end players away or one higher end player and solid piece away from being a serious contender. Ironically, this team was a healthy Yao Ming away from really doing alot of damage in the league. It happens. Everyone focused on tanking, but as I've seen over the years, you do not necessarily need to tank to get a good pick. You can, but as I witness with draft pick trades, alot of teams tend to want players on need and superstar potential, which is why I thought New Jersey traded for Gerald Wallace to which the owner or GM did not see any players on the horizon who could be franchise changing. Considering New Jersey may have had a pick originally slated for 5th to 10th. Sometimes, it is better to take a sure thing or find decent rookie further down in the draft. That's only a theory. My only thing about tanking was if the team decided to go that route, I would not have been against, if they believe it could've gotten them a certain player. Most of all, teams are not going to gut their team for a draft pick unless it is a Shaq or Lebron sitting in the draft. Typically, that's not the case. The Rockets are actually in good position roster and salary cap wise, no lengthy, yet useless contract sitting on the books. Most of that falls into the feet of Morey, not making bad decisions and crippling signings. Not casting doubt on the team, I hope they finish admirably, but we are about to fall into situation, where we could have two first round draft picks in the top 17, money to spend in Free Agency, and assets to trade with in the off-season. I enjoy the scenario of bringing back most of the players (7-9) and adding 3 to 4 new players. The scenario where we could end up with 2 players from the group of draftees - Jeremy Lamb, Meyers Leonard, Arnett Moultrie, Terrence Ross, Austin Rivers, Tony Wroten, Royce White, Tyler Zeller or Perry Jones. You have players you can trade in Kevin Martin (still a good scorer), Samuel Dalembert, Lowry (or Dragic), and filler you might can trade for a solid player or draft picks. Lastly, you have money you can burn in free agency. The crowd that complains about him for not being able to capture Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosh, that doesn't fall on his feet. Those players were or do not want to come to Houston, plain and simple. Name one player that Morey drafted that was truly a bust, or highly touted to be an outstanding NBA player. We haven't had any picks that were highly valuable and sought after. OT: We did not draft Joey Dorsey. We traded for him with Nicolas Batum (That's looking like a bad move, now).
This board has lost its freaking mind. Morey was handed two superstars when he came on board, and he quickly built a superb cast of role players around them. Unfortunately he never got McGrady and Yao at full strength. We abandoned TMac two years ago and went all in last year on the premise that Yao would hold up. Obviously that didn't happen. I think we would have been willing to let him walk this past summer if he hadn't retired. We certainly wouldn't have hinged our long term plans on his big heart and fragile feet. So Morey has had one abbreviated and truncated season to rebuild this team. He did try to make some major plays with the Gasol\Nene moves, but that Stern-mangled drama has been beaten to death on this board. We are where we are. The owner has said no tanking, so we're not going to get a GM who wants to tank. Barring that, we have one of the best GM's I think we could land. He's good at finding diamonds in the rough, so we might luck out with an all-star as a late first rounder or even a second rounder. Morey is also good at working economical deals, so he's going to get good assets for good prices. And with the new CBA, he will be in good position if a superstar trade opens up. When we do finally get a franchise player to build around, I can't think of a better GM to have than Morey to surround that player with an outstanding supporting cast. I know everyone wants to be a contender right now, but we're not even one freaking year removed from our franchise player retiring.
The bolded part is extremely important. If you expect ANY GM to get the absolute best player with every single move with the benefit of hindsight, then you're never going to find a GM that you will be happy with. I mean if any of the "misses" that are listed above are "proof" to fans here that Morey needs to be replaced, then please post your proposed replacement GM and make a similar list of who that GM missed on during the same stretch with their picks that were in that range of the draft. Even if your dream GM accepted the job here, he is still going to miss most of the players on the list above. Equally important, do a search of all the picks taken ABOVE where Morey has drafted that ended up being worse choices than who the Rockets ended up with.
Well put and my feelings exactly. How people can see this information and still go nuts as if we have no direction and no chance of success is beyond me. We have a direction, it's to try to get better without being terrible. Just because we were unable to take a huge step in year 1 since our superstar retiring doesn't mean we have no direction or the direction they are taking will fail.
Morey must be the luckiest person in the world if the majority of the voters here are to decide his fate. His job description is GM, and among his major responsibilities is to build a championship team in the NBA which means he is the person who works everyday to find the right players in order to reach the ultimate goal. I am not defending Les and I believe he should leave and sell the team, but he is not responsible for finding the players and putting them together, it is the job of the GM, period. All GM's in the NBA have their own big challenges and they have to deal with the idiosyncracies of their respective owners but the good ones find their way around the obstacles and challenges and lead their teams to success. All GM's, without exceptions, can make a long list of excuses for any failures, but the good ones overcome their challenges and make no excuses. The bottom line is that with all the obstacles and setbacks considered Morey has failed, in almost five years, to assemble at least a contending team. Simply, he failed in his job.
Fire Pat RILEY! FIRE HIM! Who cares that they got that Lebron guy and that Bosh guy... No rings. They have no draft picks... no hope for the future. They are capped out and the looming Luxury tax will eat them alive... If he does not win it all this year.... Oh wait.... Put the torches and Pitchforks down. Morey is has not been the best GM in the history of the world. He has made some mistakes but he has tried some bold moves to attempt to make this team better. Sure I would like things to be different. Ask yourself two things... who would we get to replace Morey and what would they be able to realistically do to change this franchise around. Fierguard Bleed Red Rockets Red
No, why would I do that? So that we can argue back and forth on might have beens and maybes? I think McHale sucks as a coach or is below average, Adelman is a great coach, and JVG is a pretty good one....either blows McFail away. DD
Morey has not impressed me except flipping a few bad contracts for good players and his late / 2nd round picks. A few of his bad calls / decisions: - not trading Tracy earlier - not finding a replacement for Yao when it was clear he was going to miss significant time from 08 onwards - not resigning Deke earlier in 08-09 - making us believe some picks or trades he makes are for potential great guys (JT, Dorsey, Twill) - not resigning Artest making us believe Ariza was a difference maker - and the worst...talking too much, using the word 'asset' and keep feeding us lies and bull**** stories to make us believe he has some magic potion.
Adelman, with this squad (minus Dally/Camby, + no month injuries to Martin/Lowry) .524 winning percentage McHale with this squad ( + Dally/Camby, - no month injuries to Martin/Lowry) .516 winning percentage So more or less equal. I find your opinions lately to be rather extreme and completely blown out of proportion of what is reality. And while I try to show restraint towards fellow Rockets fans, I find myself growing more and more irritated with your posting, as everything you post is anti-something Rockets. You bash Lowry, you bash McHale, you bash Morey, you bash Martin, etc. etc.
I know you do, it is cool, I am very frustrated with the team and organization, I think they are misleading people into buying tickets for the playoffs when they should be doing the right thing and rebuilding and going young. DD
