[ESPN] Rockets to evaluate GM Daryl Morey, interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff after season

Wow that is generous for 1 WCF appearance based on the Clippers choking. I thought an A would include at least one Championship in the 9 years he's been with the Rockets.

He has been average at best C+, B-

 

You have to be willing to look at the situation as a whole. What did he have to work with? What were the specific circumstances. Anyone can look at the cover of a book and come up with their own story but you have to read the whole book to really understand what happened.

Daryl was absolutely brilliant in rebuilding the roster after Yao and TMac were gone.

Zero losing seasons

Elite if not unique ability to use the salary cap in the Rockets favor

Signature trades and signature free agent signings.

Zero top 10 draft picks

Less has an edict to never tank

Inherited two highly injury prone superstars in TMac and Yao who were really healthy together.

etc...

Over the course of his tenure he has done an outstanding job. Not perfect be there really is no argument he has been damn good.

 

Lmao. How many successful playoff runs have we had? How many times have we made it out the first round?

It seems you'll give Morey all the credit when we succeed, but when things go south he's somehow never the reason. How convenient

 

When someone brings up Yao & Tmac you KNOW you're grasping for straws lol. Thing is it's been 10 YEARS. He did a great job of keeping the team mediocre, but he's out of his league trying to build a contender. If Morey can let Rick Adelman walk after having the best winning percentage of any Rocket coach at that time, then Les can FIRE his azz despite his mediocre success. It's a what have you done for me lately league. Lets not change to rules for Morey

 

How does Morey compare with the GM's that have won NBA Championships since he started with the Rockets? So he's worse than GS, SAS, Miami, Dallas, Lakers, Celtics, Cleveland, OKC, and Magic, because their GM's have led them to the NBA finals.

2015 Golden State Warriors 4-2 Cleveland Cavaliers
2014 San Antonio Spurs 4-1 Miami Heat
2013 Miami Heat 4-3 San Antonio Spurs
2012 Miami Heat 4-1 Oklahoma City Thunder
2011 Dallas Mavericks 4-2 Miami Heat
2010 Los Angeles Lakers 4-3 Boston Celtics
2009 Los Angeles Lakers 4-1 Orlando Magic
2008 Boston Celtics 4-2 Los Angeles Lakers
2007 San Antonio Spurs 4-0 Cleveland Cavaliers

 

The area of basketball culture is where Morey has failed - with the way we flip players, and our lack of quality coaching, we have eroded the Rockets basketball brand.

We had Adelman - and Morey forced Finch on him knowing Adelman would refuse, and then signed McHale and compounded that problem by extending McHale with the assumption that teams would be after him.

We have a team full of entitled players, who don't mesh well together and a rudderless leaderless team and coaching staff.

All of this is on Morey - he has been a better than average horse trader, an average at best drafter, and is great at saving Le$ money by avoiding the tax.

But, his flip flip flip mentality creates a culture of "Me First" moreso than team first.

IMHO, Morey either has to be fired, or we bring in a basketball guy above him to help build a proper roster.

DD

 

Did you not get the part that Morey was not allowed to tank after the demise of the Yao-McGrady era? Besides, there was ample evidence that letting coaches go has always been the owner's decisions.

If Morey could fire his own boss, he would have done it long ago.

That said, I am not defending Morey's flaws. I have been a critic since about 3 or 4 years ago. But I still see him as one of the top GMs in the league.

 

What has he done to make you say that? I think he is present - but is one of the top?

I don't see it, seems his dogmatic approach to his philosophy is making our team one dimensional....and his lack of understanding of the importance of chemistry and coaching will hold us back.

DD

 

I imagine CEO Tad Brown would be orchestrating that, maybe with Gersson Rosas, EVP of Basketball Operations. The front office is bigger than just Les and Morey.

I think basketball culture has long been the concern with Morey's approach. We saw him treating players like assets and swapping people out all the time and worried that it would impact team cohesion. It didn't seem like an issue before, until we finally have a season of relative stability and the chemistry just went to crap. You could take away that treating players like assets is not the problem, but I think it still could be. You can't just turn it off one year and everyone is going to forget that Morey swaps you out like Pokemon cards. I'm not arguing that Morey should be fired, but being the GM is about more than making good trades.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Regardless of what happens in the playoffs/playoff chase...

Keep Morey, he's done great with the roster and keeping us flexible... I do concede his next coaching hire better be his last (for a long time).

Our top coaching target should be Mike Budenholzer. His team's have moved the ball and played defense. Atlanta hasn't been able to negotiate a new deal with him. For a guy who has never had a big pay day, its rare that he would pass on security of a long-term deal unless he really wants to move on or they are letting him walk. He could get us out of our current OKC/CLE style of ball where we "take turns" or simply rely on one man (Harden). Morey needs to give Budenholzer the space to coach the talent, not dictate to him how we should play.

Our top free agent prospects should be Conley (great fit with Harden), Horford, and long shot Durant. Two of those three would put us right back in contention as long as we have a coach that can make that talent share the ball and play defense. Let Dwight walk, it wasn't a failure but his stay has run its course. We can't continue to placate him with fruitless post ups. Declining athleticism and attitude... unwilling to run pick and rolls, defend and finish... its just time to move on. It would be interesting to have a big man who can make shots outside of 2.5 feet (and FTs!)

Get rid of Brewer somehow, someway

These lineups are a great place to begin, tweak around these. We'll be a little weak up front, and we'll be relying on Capela to develop and get stronger.

Capela/Horford
Horford/DMo/Beasley/Montrezl
Ariza/Beasley/KJ
Harden/KJ
Conley/Beverly

OR

Capela/Horford
Horford/DMo/Beasley/Montrezl
Durant/Ariza/Beasley/KJ
Harden/KJ/Ariza
Beverly

OR

Capela/Dmo
DMo/Beasley/Montrezl
Durant/Ariza/Beasley/KJ
Harden/KJ/Ariza
Conley/Beverly

These all look like rosters that are mature, move the ball and play defense.

SK

 

Uh...if the Sixers are a historically mediocre franchise than what in the world are the Rockets franchise?

Sixers have been to the Finals 9 times. They made the Finals more recently than the Rockets. Sure, they'd have a bad run the past 20 years, but everything before that was among one of the best franchises in the NBA. The Rockets have also had a mediocre run the past 20 years and had more mediocrity 20 years before that..If it wasn't for Hakeem, we'd absolutely be a bottom 5 franchise in NBA history. Sixers are a top 10 franchise historically.

Back to Hinkie. He took over a garbage team that had no way to the top other than bringing in a franchise player. Tony DiLeo destroyed that team trading for Bynum and then having Bynum take up so much cap space. DiLeo traded Vucevic(great player), Iggy(Finals MVP), Moe Harkless(decent potential as a role player) and a 1st round pick(Elfrid Payton to Orlando) for a player that didn't even play a single game for the Sixers and 56 games of older Jason Richardson.

Hinkie took over and did the smartest thing. Tank. Honestly, they would have been awful even if the plan wasn't to tank.

Last year they were projected 3rd and they got the 3rd pick. Usually projected 2 or 3 jumps to #1. Okafor is a damn good prize at #3.

Year before, projected 2nd, dropped to #3. Embiid could be another Oden, or he could be another Duncan. No one knows, but we will find out next season. Who else was he supposed to take? Gordon? Exum? Smart? Weak draft. Embiid was best available talent despite the injury. Still has trade value as of right now too.

2013. #11 pick, Michael Carter-Williams. He traded Jrue Holiday for the #5 pick to get Nerlens Noel. Holiday has played 34 games, 40 games, and 65 games this year mostly off the bench. Seriously? For a #5 pick? That's amazing. Damn good 2013 draft for a historically weak draft.

He made other trades to get more and more picks too. He never even got the chance at the #1 pick. Never was projected to be #1 pick, but also had to go through some of the fishiest Draft Lotteries in NBA history which also have been weak drafts. The Cavs jumping from #9 to #1? For the 2nd time in 3 years? Cavs also jumped from #3 to #1 in 2013. NBA setting up LeBrons return? Lakers jumping from #4 to #2? Each time Hinkie either dropped in position or chose at his projected spot. No lucky bounce. Still came away with great picks.

All the assets he has and the potential to get Ben Simmons or another top 3 pick this year is going to be the main reason why they will IMO be a good team in the next 3 to 4 years. Tanking is a plan that requires patience and a little bit of luck. Sixers wanted it and didn't see it through. Now Collagenlo will take all of Hinkies credit.
This was a bad move to let him go and i would LOVE to get him back at Morey's side.

 

Bring back Hinkie no matter what it takes.

Morey either strikes out or he hits homeruns. Harden was a dinger. Lawson was a whiff. He's not looking to get on base.

That is the exact mindset that Hinkie understands. To build a championship level team is a lot different than trying to build a playoff quality team. There is no reward for mediocrity.

To say the Sixers are a laughable product is correct, but people are too caught up in immediate results. What good are the Sixers if they finish with 38 wins for the next 5 years? They're moderately respectable? They get rewarded with a middle round pick who historically has almost no chance of developing into an All-Star? Fans don't understand putrid basketball is a shot at redemption. Middling level teams sign decent players and stay stuck in purgatory.

In baseball, a 3-5 year plan is common because of development taking a long time. In the NBA, the best prospects are 19 years old and are expected to make an immediate impact.

 

...as others have stated here, this idea of "basketball culture" is primarily at the heart of the Rockets' woes this season, in my opinion.

One of the more ironic developments of Daryl Morey's tenure as GM has been this...apathy...toward building a "culture" of basketball here for the Rockets. Of course, that simply can't be done without the players you want (players' league, remember?)...which is why it was always understandable, if somewhat tactless, about Morey's mindset regarding rebuilding the roster.

...But that is precisely why having a good coach is necessary. The GM and the head coach have to be working together, to me. Or at the very least, they have to understand and accept what the team goals are, and what the best way to achieve those goals (both short-term and long-term) is.

You know, the Chicago Bulls of yesteryear had celebrated feuds between then-GM Jerry Krause and Coach Phil Jackson (about any number of things, I'm told), but not the least of which was player/personnel decisions. Jackson was fiercely loyal to many of his players, and all of the players tended to side with him. Krause chaffed at that, both publicly and privately from all accounts, but generally speaking, Krause and Jackson (along with owner Jerry Reinsdorf) found ways to work together to field championship teams for that club in the '90s.

...setting aside having Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen there, of course...

...we could take a look down the I at San Antonio and get an up-close and personal view of what a "basketball culture" could look like, even in the perpetual upheaval of free agency that is the modern NBA.

At some point, after all the haggling and roster-juggling and draft chicanery is done, somebody's got to put something on the court that looks at least a little like an NBA team. And I'm sure that Sam Hinkie in Philadelphia (despite his best protests to the contrary) has at least recognized that.

If you're going to build a "basketball culture" (and just for grins, I'm going to assume that what we all mean when we say that is a "winning" culture), you almost invariably have to have a head coach set a tone and create a model for everyone in the "trenches" (players and staff). No coach is doing that sans talent, obviously, but you can sell a plan a lot easier than you can sell an idea.

None of what we've seen or heard from Daryl Morey regarding the team should have been as publicized as it has been over the past few years, but in all honesty, that isn't altogether uncommon. The organizational "friction" should exist between management and the coach, for all intents and purposes, if it needs to exist at all...and I'm of the mindset that it does, what with people being people and all. I'm sure there are a bunch of office fights about this player and that player, and the odd contract dispute that go on every day. But you're better served having the doors closed on all that as much as possible. I think Morey's "Dork Elvis" rock-star status is as much an impediment to team-building as having a vanilla head coach or a "disaffected" franchise player, to be honest.

Not necessarily all his fault...but in spite of himself, he's needed a coach who would tell him "...no...", "...stop..." and "...don't..." at least once or twice...

...which for me, again, made Rick Adelman's removal all the more troubling, if the idea was to get a team to contention relatively quickly through free agency and trade. However much Adelman have bristled at the notion (Adelman was always known as a player's coach), he showed no signs of being opposed to the idea, if he were informed of it. And that move was as much about saving a dollar or two as it was anything else.

Part of making a relationship work is listening to different points of view on any given subject, since any decision is going to affect all concerned. And, at the end of the day, to not simply give people jobs to do, but to let them do that job.

We'll have to see what happens, of course, but it should make for some interesting viewing at least...

 

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•They appear to be a team that's waiting for this season to end.
•Chemistry is horrible
•Morey will be re-evaluated. He's the poster child for analytics. Analytics is fine. A lot of times when you're strictly analytics, you disregard chemistry & the human element. What's Houston's problem? Chemistry.
•Dwight won't be back. The question is where will he end up?

 

Things that Morey is great at:

1. Asset and cap management. Lots of GMs are clueless in this regard. That are stuck with bad contracts and inflexibility. Our own former GM is a perfect example. (I do like CD as a person and appreciate his dedication to the organization through all these years.)

2. Trading. He seldom makes bad trades. And when he does, he quickly amends it. (BTW, he is also good at accepting his mistakes and move on to solving the problem, whereas a lot of GMs just stubbornly hold on to what they screwed up, refusing to admit wrong.)

3. Improving the talent level. You can't deny the fact that it has been quite a feat to build to the current talent level after losing TWO franchise caliber players to injuries without a pick higher than 12th.

These are three of the most important skills for a GM. Morey is probably also one of the most hardworking GMs. He is always prepared. That's why he can pounce on trade or signing opportunities before most other GMs have time to react. You just can't find many GMs who have all these traits.

My beef with Morey has been his low priority on the human factors, things like intelligence, character, motivation, chemistry, culture, leadership, etc. (The low priority on coaching is just one of the manifestations of this.) I am pretty sure he would deny that he overlooked these factors. But if you look at the players he acquired and players he let go, you can see that "value" trumps everything else. And in the system of max contracts, superstars are always the best values.

It is clear to me that he believes if you can assemble enough talent, everything else will workout itself. Up until last season it seems to work fine. But a lot of us have been warning the giddy crowd that ignoring the human factors would eventually blow up in your face.

 

Adelman's a good coach. But he basically did nothing for the Timberwolves once he got there. So, bad process or not, losing Adelman was not a loss. You then badmouth McHale, but he increased his wins every year he was here, with like a 67% winning percentage overall, and ended his last full year at the WCF where the team, minus DMO and Beverly, played a historically great (only to be improved upon this year) GW team that won a number VERY close games.

I agree that Morey is not necessarily a top 5 GM, and may be in the 5-10 range or possibly just outside of the top 10. You don't fire one of those GMs on a whim. This is the first real year where Morey's plan collapsed. In previous years, given the constraints put on him by Alexander, he has done well to very well. I would argue he needs one more year to make up for this year, at least.

I give him about a B+ thus far. Made some very good moves, made some bad ones. The ones that I think he messed up the worst, for me, are passing on Leonard (biggest mistake of all) and not chasing Lowry when he had a chance to woo him but instead going after Carmelo. Also when our point guard situation was crap I wished he had gone after Isiah Thomas when he was available to be traded or a free agent. But he brought in two superstars (one of whom is declining now) and even if we lose Dwight in free agency, we have enough for two max slots. He makes mistakes, but he recovers well from his mistakes. There's probably one bad contract on the Rockets - Brewers. Other than that, we're in a position to reload even if this season craps out. Ironically, the year that we crapped out was the year when he finally rolled the dice on continuity - which is the very thing you are constantly saying that he should be doing.

 

Bingo. Good post. Exactly my feelings.

 

Adelman is a Hall of Famer coach. "Good"? He took the eventual champions to 7 games with a busted team. He made Chuck Hayes look like a triple double threat running the offense from the high post. He juggled lineups with surgical efficiency. His motion offense was a thing of beauty. And you fault him because he couldn't take a Frankenstein roster constructed by David Kahn to the playoffs? This is late career Adelman too; he had other personal things on his mind that took the forefront in his life.

Morey is a good GM. He has rarely lost a trade, and he did what was asked of him. He gambled on chemistry this year and lost. Brewer and Smith have been horrendous. I doubt that Morey was the one who pulled the trigger on the McHale firing, at least not without substantial input/pressure from Les. If Les fires Morey, another team will snatch him up immediately.

Give him a year at least to fix this. Bring in a new coach who has some input into basketball decisions, sort of like Pop does. Find a system that works.

If you fire Morey, you are basically consigning this team to lotto purgatory for the next several years while a new GM starts his own multi-year rebuilding project.

 

I'm tired of folks saying we got lucky last year because we didn't have to play SA and beat a injury riddled Clipper team, as if we didn't have injuries as well. We beat a team that the Spurs couldn't beat, period.