If Morey gets credit for deals he almost brokered, he almost got Bosh, Nash, Stoudamire, Rubio, Caron Butler, Gortat, Cousins, and Philly's lottery pick, too.
The only ones who rag on DM are ignorant fans who just look at the end result without analyzing why we ended up the way we did. "OMG we don't HAZ NO SUPERSTAR" Of course as recently as a year ago we did have 2 superstars on the team. You can't reasonably expect us to get another one so soon after we just lost our two building blocks.
Morey had Amare on a silver platter but didn't have the balls to make the trade. His tenure is a complete failure and he only has himself to blame.
So the Rockets do the following instead... Sign Amare for 6yr/$120 mil(to keep him away from NY in the offseason) Not have Battier or Scola You're right. That would gift wrap the next 10 championships for us. I can't believe Morey passed on that deal. I can't believe you can make such an awesome argument even without graphs.
Do we even know the details of that trade? For all we know Phoenix could have wanted out whole team in return. Yea, we could've had Amare, but who else would be on the team.
Phoenix wanted the trade to be done without completing a physical. I'm not sure why you think it would be a good idea to buy a player with Amare's injury history sight-unseen, but Morey did the smart thing when he passed on this deal.
Here are the details: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4924306 Basically we could've had him for Shane Battier and Luis Scola, but Houston wouldn't except him without a physical.. Its the type of move you have to roll the dyce and see what happens...
Amare is a very possible injury away from crippling NY for a very long time much like Yao except without the Chinese revenue.
While I agree with the main point you're making, SA being so successful with Duncan does have a lot to do with their organization in addition to Duncan's greatness. They've been able to surround him with the pieces to win championships. Take a look at Minnesota as another example. They drafted Kevin Garnett, who for a number of years was probably just as good as Duncan. However, they surrounded him with complete garbage most of the time and they ended up with almost nothing to show for 12 seasons with one of the greatest PFs to ever play the game.
I think Morey's true worth will show itself once Yao if out of the picture after this season (pleaaase GOD!). Once giant glassman is out, barring any external pressure from Le$, Morey will finally show the world what he's all about.
He had about 30 games worth of Amare on a silver platter. Amare was a free agent and it's quite likely he was going to NY anyway.
I can't blame him for not being able to turn role players in superstars. He's not Tim Tebow. We don't suck enough to get a star in the draft. We don't have good enough assets to get a star that want's to STAY here.
Wow，your guys are really amazing... Morey traded all your good defensive players away, and plz look at what players your team have right now!!!!The current lineup is so pathetic comparing to any elite team of NBA. How many years since Morey come to Houston? Are you sure this team is stronger than that team during JVG's era? But the most pathetic is some guys here are still singing:"Morey is God!!!!Morey is God!!!!Morey is God...." Morey is just like the man as below:
Pretty ironic. In hindsight it wasn't a great decision - but we all know how the Rockets are with injury history. I wouldn't have been too thrilled if Amare got hurt as soon as he got here. Would I rather have Stoudemire? Healthy, yes. But I'm almost to the point where I'd rather just suck and have a growing team rather than have a team below its potential due to our stars being injured.
Really? Our best defensive players in the JVG era was VSpan, broken down T-Mac, Rafer, and Juwan Howard? Man, I didn't know that. Personally, I've always thought they were Deke, Yao, Battier, and Hayes. But I guess I must be wrong. The question is whether or not you'd give Amare 6yrs/$120 mil deal so he wouldn't go to NY.
On this board, if you dare question the "In Morey We Trust" mantra, it's considered bashing. I think the only reason he's being bashed now here is because it's an over-correction...it's a reaction to him being deified. I don't know if he can build a real contender or not. I don't know if his approach works in the NBA or not. I'm not gonna throw a parade for what we've done under his watch. On the other hand, I won't suggest he sucks...I think he needs more time.
I think the reason you see a lot of scapegoating these days- particularly with Morey- is that coming into the season, many of us were guilty of having unrealistic expectations. I remember reading threads where posters were predicting 55+ wins, 120 ppg, etc. Although the team hasnt performed up to many of our expectations, for the most part, our win-loss record and stats have been an accurate reflection of the team coming into the season. Martin is actually having one of the best seasons in his career statistically, AB has been injured and struggled a little but has been pretty much what we expected, Scola has been playing about as good as we expected (if not better), and even Battier's numbers and gameplay have been at par with his entire career. Sure, Hill and Budinger havent progressed the way many of us would have liked, but Hill was a low risk-high return move, and Budinger was a 2nd round pick who's still got time to develop. At best, we were hoping to get two rotation players, and thats what we've gotten. I guess my point is that there havent been many surprises. Sure, Yao getting hurt was huge, but realistically, I dont know how much we can expect from a guy playing every other game and chipping in 20 mins per night at that. I personally blame management for the following: not pulling the trigger on the Amare deal, not being able to land key free agents, and assembling too much above-average talent without respect to how that talent will would work together as a unit.
