I’m sick of all the Morey lovers blaming all of his mistakes on Les

I love Camby and think he is a great defensive player. He will help us big time, but he is terrible on offense. 3pt range???? He is a career 19% avg. almost one 3pt made per year. Come on 3pt range.....really???

 

Morey has in the past says building by tanking is the best way. What do you expect Morey to say publicly when pressed on the issue .."well the owner is geriatric and wont let me rebuild, so I am doing this with one hand behind my back."

 

Just b/c Yao walked off the court against LA doesn't mean his contract did too....

 

That's what I'm talking about. Many of us clamored for Yao to be shipped out years BEFORE. Finally, when that happened and it became apparent that he was done, there was no move to put that contract on the market ...even later as an expiring.
Again, we all know Yao wasn't going anywhere. Les was raking in the cheese from business dealings in China.
Whether it was written into the contract(like the insane 24-7 year round hoops that took him down) or just Les's decision, it was out of Morey's hands.

One thing we all DO know is that it was brutal being a fan, hoping against hope that Yao would stay healthy the last 5 years.....LIMBO.
We were banging our heads against the wall.....It was a bad percentage play basketball wise...See Sam Bowie et al.

And now that we've endured that, Les is going for the quick fix rather than assuring us a new age of Rockets hoops.

Backpedaling, churning, tying to land the big fish...all the while losing value.

 

Fair point, OMR. I actually agree with you on this. Morey readily admits when he's screwed up, and he has made a few mistakes. But the fact is that he only has made "a few" mistakes. Far fewer than almost any other GM. He's one of the best GMs in the business.

Should they have begun the rebuild in 2009-10? Maybe. But I don't blame the Rockets for making the Martin trade and re-signing Scola to his fairly large deal in the hopes of getting Yao back healthy for one more title run. It didn't work out and maybe didn't even have a high probability of working out, but it was probably more likely than the odds of building back a championship contender and time in the next 5-7 years.

Now, with the talent and contracts they have (too much/favorable to be bad enough for a top draft pick), the best course of action was to compete and seek to rebuild primarily through trades. That strategy could very well change this summer or maybe next summer.

Bottom line: OMR is right that Morey shouldn't be given a free pass for his mistakes or for the overall direction of this team. I just happen to think that his mistakes are fewer and farther between than almost any other GM and that I agree with the current direction (and timing of competing/rebuilding) that BOTH Les and Morey are pursuing.

 

I look at the trainwreck of franchises that the Suns, Magic, Bucks, Kings, Warriors, New York, Blazers, Atlanta have become due to bad management and I just laugh at people who criticize the smart conservative approach we have taken. Our GM is a strength. PERIOD.

 

I honestly don't think Morey is responsible for locker room and plane design.

 

I hear where you're coming from, but that financial incentive for Les was a huge driving force.

In the end, it's Les's call.

 

You are associating locker room and plane design with moneyball philosophy... That's not what moneyball is.

 

/agreed!

 

Ad hominem.

 

The Terrence Williams fiasco, imo, wasn't really Morey's fault. Yes, we lost a first-rounder for him but one must understand that the potential reward for the guy was also through the roof.

This is a guy who has ALL the tools to not just succeed, but be an All-Star in the league, but unfortunately he feels that coaches don't deserve the right to tell him what to do.

The only epic fail on the part of Morey was probably signing Trevor Ariza, aka "Handles" to that ridiculous contract (but to Morey's credit, he realized the mistake and shipped Ariza out after 1 season).

 

I agree with parts of this only the fact that getting worse is the easiest way to eventually get better.

KG and Allen were aquired by trading the #5 pick and a good young assest in Jefferson.

If morey could put crack in another gms drink and get a trade like the gasol for kwame deal then he already would have.

We don't have the cap space or loyal star like dwade (who came from a high draft pick) to pair a player like lebron with.

The current top teams in the league all have highly drafted players leading them right now. Chicago-Rose Heat-Dwade Spurs-Has been Duncan until recent years so I'll give you them Thunder-Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Orlando-Howard

Getting high draft picks do matter whether you want to believe it or not.

 

I don't think you can blame Morey or Les because they cannot get an All Star in here to play for us. The only top players I can quickly think of that played here (that did not get drafted by us or was not developed by us) is Drexler, Barkley and Tmac (I do not count Moses Malone because he came here at the merger). And those guys only came here because we were on the brink of a Championship or they were coming to play with Yao.

We drafted Olajuwon, Yao, Murphy, Sampson that turned out to be All Stars and Hall of Famers. Given our history, one would think we need to build through the draft. However the predicament Les and Daryl are in is how to keep this team competitive and fill the seats at the same time.

I know some of you want to see us tank and get a # 1 draft pick and suck for 3 years or whatever to be good again like OKC. Then again #1 draft picks can be busts as well or injury prone, etc. So that is a difficult choice for the FO to make.

The NBA is a business, not an Xbox game. Les bought this team as an investment and to make money. Sure he wants us to win and get a few championships, but I am sure he wants to make money first then win. Some of you will take that as he is a bad owner because of that, but if you put in $85 million or whatever he bought the team for, I am sure you would want a nice return as well.