It's pretty well known that Les refused to allow the team to tank / bottom out and fish for early draft picks - He gave Morey a mandate that the team must remain "competitive." That's why the team stayed in the 40something win range for several years, always drafting late lottery or just outside the lottery.
what does that have to do with trading them? lol You can trade a player even if he was there before you. PG and WB, Embiid and Simmons were all max contracts.
We didnt exactly have high lotto picks at the time, KPJ seemed just as good as a prospect as anyone we had. Who did we have that he blocked? Daishen Nix? Gary bird? House? Saying he wasnt worth it is just using hindsight.
I think it's fair to judge KPJ as a failure of attempting to develop a "project player" while also recognizing that successes are pretty uncommon
If we're using hindsight maybe keeping Hartenstein and developing him that season instead of waiving him would have been a good idea. Of guys on that roster the first season, nobody was particularly deserving. By his last year, we probably could have tried better to develop Jabari's handle. But I agree with OremLK that you can realize successful player development is pretty uncommon and also judge this one a failure.
It's actually surprising that people wouldn't know that. I remember the pre-Harden, Chase Budinger, Courtney Lee, Kevin Martin and co perpetual 8-9 seed years where we kept having plucky team who were fun to root for but ultimately lead to the mediocre treadmill getting crappy late lotto picks and no new stars forever.
Ya what Morey did is by far the hardest way to build a team. Never having a high pick makes it almost impossible to get a star. The pacers also somewhat did it because the kings gave them hali for basically nothing, though their team isn't close to a contender outside of ungodly luck in a garbage conference for one year.
I do personally think he rode Beard's talent to most of his credibility as anything special as a GM overall, but he unquestionably had a similar "moneyball" ability and approach of being able to maximise lesser talents by using his data to find the perfect niche specialists to put together and overachieve. I've always felt his biggest flaw is he can't account for the human side of the equation at all. That's the side where Michael Jordan and Kobe aren't the most efficient players ever but are the best players ever because the numbers only get you so far if you don't have the mind and the heart to work under intense strain and get better whilst you do so. He is, undoubtedly though the guy you want to turn to if you want to put together a team on a shoe string and stay somewhat competitive against all odds - or create a cheapo competitive team of niche players to put around an all time great, should one fall into your lap.
I mean every GM rode their star, that's how the sport works. Krause did nothing without jordan, bob myers literally ran away from the warriors at the 1st sign of adversity, pop did nothing once kawhi left, etc. Jordan was insanely efficient, even kobe was mostly efficient (he never had a season below league average and mostly was 5-7% above) till he tore his achillies. I think the whole "he can't account for the human side" is mostly just nonsense that people who hate nerds use to try to discredit smart people. People said the same garbage about Jeff Luhnow and there is not a human being that has ever walked the earth i would want running my team more than him.
I can very easily think of several people I'd rather have running a team than Daryl Morey though, and no great that I'd take him over.
Sure, he’s not the goat, Luhnow is for sports. Morey is a great GM though, one of the best of my lifetime. Short list of guys i would take over him, maybe 2-3?
I am not saying KPJ wasnt a failure I am saying its unfair to say trying to develop him was wasting time and resources for others because we didnt know he wouldnt pan out at the time. If Stone knew he would beat up his gf and end out of the league he wouldnt have traded for him in the first place.
He has been beyond terrible as Philly GM. On the rockets he failed to get out of the first round in the YaoMac era and were only legit title threat 1 yr in the entire Harden era. He is ok but far from great. You can argue he is below average when you look at the shitshow in Philly. He wasted Embiid's prime chasing Houston retreads and now both Embiid and PG are among the worst contracts in the league.
He was a head case and a diva before he ever came to the Rockets. He wasn’t ever going to work out, and he contributed to the general lack of discipline and accountability in that era. There’s a reason Cleveland gave him away.
Talentwise he was solid but nothing fundamentally great, he was the 30th pick and without the violence crap I would only put him at 23-26th.
They would have more horseshoes up their arses again, they were in the NBA Cup Final before that. And in ECF before that. Carlisle is a poor man's Pop. I don't see them as favorites ever but they are the Cinderella story of the NBA once Hali returns to form.
