In Shaking up the Rotation, is Morey Attempting to Force McHale's Hand?

Everybody's raving about what idiots the Kings are for doing this deal, and here at Clutchfans, folks are speculating that Morey did the deal to mess with McHale.... only on Clutchfans......lol

 

Morey said on the radio today that they made the move to free up some playing time for the young players. So it's no secret and Morey isn't trying to undermine McHale.

This trade leads me to believe that Patterson and Morris where just on display so they could be traded. But nevertheless I think we're going to see Parsons at the 4 spot a lot until one of those youngsters impresses McHale.

 

If that's what he's really doing it's a riot. Forcing McHale to play someone else at PF - like DMo, Jones and Smith. Also getting rid of TD who played over Lin sometimes in the 4th Q and OT. Hilarious. Maybe he doesn't fire him because of the Rockets record and McHales personal tragedy.

 

I don't think Morey is forcing McHale's hand.

First, Jason Friedman and Matt Bullard have commented in recent weeks that Motiejunas has really impressed the coaches in practice. Motiejunas also both looked fine in mop-up duty (vs. GSW, for example) and even earned non-garbage minutes vs. Clippers. The coaches appear to have a good deal of trust in Motiejunas now and doesn't have to be forced into playing him.

Second, with or without Pat and Morris, McHale is free not to play the rookie PFs. In fact, he has played Parsons and Delfino as the forwards often and can continue to do so.

To the extent that Morey made the deal to clear playing time, I am pretty sure McHale was more or less on board with it despite what he told the media. What he said to the reporters was just a white lie to not hurt feelings of the departing players and their friends still on the team. As a coach, u want to promote unity and chemistry and don't want to be seen as someone contemplating breaking up the team. Much better for the GM to be the bad guy when needed.

 

Yeah, but we all knew he was going to trade those players because we all knew it made sense to trade them. He wasn't doing it to screw with McHale. He did it because they were good trades that made sense. Morey was trading those two players whether McHale played DMO or not. They were on the block.

 

In this case, to get TRob meant we had to take Garcia and his contract off the Kings' hands. Short-term savings for owner. So salaries needed to match. We kept our higher ceiling guys and let expirings and our rookie contract players with less years remaining go (2Pat, Morris, Aldrich and TD).

Morey doesn't let players who are about to expire or who will be entering the last season of his rookie contract play out their contract without trying to get something of value in return. This mean 2Pat (at least by before start of next season), Aldrich and TD had to go. TRob for this package is an easy trade. Morris for Phoenix is to get further under the salary cap.

 

Even if McHale started DMO and Jones, you guys don't think McHale would have traded PPat and Morris? it just didn't make sense to keep them. He was trading them no matter what McHale did because it was a good trade to make. We all knew that and predicted they would be traded. So this idea that Morey has some type of antagonistic relationship with McHale seems like a reach to me. Those guys were done for no matter what.

 

Agreed. I think the general idea even before the season started was to go with the vets in morris and patterson, and if one of them exceeded expectations, then keep that guy going forward. But as good as Pats jumper is, robinson was way too good to pass up. I would imagine Morey was hoping to get more than a second rounder for Morris, but like he said, it will likely be in the 30-40 range, and Daryl has proven time and again that he'll turn that into a rotation guy more often than not. I don't think Morey is doing anything to send a message to Mchale though... its more that the two players we shipped out were expendable... especially at a position where we've got four or five talented guys between 21-23 years old.

 

Morey himself said in his interview that one of the main reasons for the trade was to free up room for the youngsters to play. It's not because he's "messing with" McHale, but rather because he wants to get rid of the glut and eliminate the temptation for McHale to rely to heavily on mediocre veterans.

 

I think it's both. The trade was too good to pass up on because the Kings had been after Patterson for a while, so he was the obvious choice. But at the same time, you can't discount that Morey clearly stated that he also made the moves to clear up playing time for the young rookies that McHale was not playing.

That doesn't mean he has a beef openly with McHale, but by also including TD in the trade, he was clearly sending a message to the coach of what they want to see going forward as he attempts to build a championship team, while still not stepping on the coaches toes by telling him "WHO"to play.

So everything just fell into place for all of Morey's objectives to be met.

 

Lets all not forget that Kevin McHale was himself at one point in time a GM. He knows the business, and whether he likes the move short term or not, he understands that on a team like the Rockets, its a move that had to be made.

If only to free up enough cap space to go after a better superstar this Summer in trade/free agency, he's absolutely on board with letting go of his mediocre starting PF's for the #5 pick in the draft and a chance to play a high upside rookie waiting in the wings.

 

Agree with the free up room folks, and think they took a mild risk on hoping Trob lives up to his draft position.

I am dubious of that considering all the other low risk type of deals we have done, ie Twill, Jhill, and Thabeet.

So for me I think it was clearing the way for Dmo etc more than anything else.

DD

 

Kevin did interview with Charlie. It didn't sound like Robinson was going to play much. he would have to earn his minutes.

 

Morey drafted a glut of PF the past few seasons which put in position to afford to make this trade, which was an offer any sane GM couldn't refuse.

The Moneyball movie/book analogy doesn't apply, because the players that were shipped out were Morey's own acquisitions. It just doesn't make sense that he would force McHale's hand for playing players who were "his [Morey's]" guys to begin with.

 

McHale is a stubborn old fart so yeah

 

Dude, you're one of the few dumbfux who give Lin's fans a bad name. You don't know anything, care about, or respect anyone except Lin. Damn groupie.

Anyway, I think the main reason was upside. 2 yrs was enough time for the FO to estimate Pat and Mook's ceilings. Time to give 3 other youngins a shot.

 

I dont think it's really a surprise to anyone mook n ppat will be moved ,it's just a matter of timing.

 

I think it's some of both. McHale has too much loyalty based on how long a guy has played under his coaching. If you're more veteran and you are an NBA caliber player then in McHale's book you deserve those minutes more than a rookie. Doesn't matter how much potential the rookie has.

Get rid of the more veteran guys and McHale has to play the rookies. No other choice.

 

Morey also said we might be a little worse short term.

So no. totally wrong.

 

I think Morae logged into Clutchfans and saw our posts in regard to dumping PPat and Morris. Thank you, Morae. Thank you for listening to the fans.

However I'm a little saddened about Aldrich. Dude was clearly about to break out and play at an all star level.