You can always point out the hits and the misses of a GM's draft records. Morey has picked up some gems in the second round. He also had some glaring misses. The Leonard miss was most famous. But in that 2012 draft, he picked Lamb, White, and Jones when all those aforementioned players were still available. Think about that. He missed Fournier, Crowder, Draymond, Middleton, and Barton, all five of them, THREE times. That was arguably the worst draft of Morey's career. I am not saying that Morey is terrible. He got some solid picks such as Capela. But he is at best average when it comes to drafting in the first round. He has never been the "genius" some people make him out to be. Morey's genius, in my opinion, is in his asset management and his ability to get undervalued players in trades (Harden being the most prized). But even the undervalued advantage has diminished in recent years when more and more teams are using analytics to enhance their player evaluation.
I mean you have to keep in mind that he was not the only Gm to not draft those players earlier. And even the teams that drafted them, probably half of them got lucky with how good they turned out. Crowder and Fournier bounced around a few teams. But if your point is that Morey is not a genius when it comes to drafting, then yeah, you’re right. Definitely hasn’t earned “above average” label. I thought you were implying he’s below average. Edit: not disagreeing with what I just said, but minor note: Lamb probably wouldn’t be categorized as a below average player for a 12th pick. I’d say he’s average. Just averaged 15pts his first year as a starter.
We still have 2 guys in Tucker and Gordon. He also did it with Luc.I let's see how the year goes before we say he has diminished any.
Gordon and Tucker are good. Luc was also good before his injury. Beverley was another gem he found. The most underrated of Morey's acquisitions was probably the Rafer for Lowry deal. But he also had some terrible FA signing lately. Last year's entire offseason signings were garbage. Got a little redemption by catching Austin Rivers falling on his lap. We traded away so many first round picks, I don't even remember who was our last first rounder. Dekker?
I don't disagree with any of this. His homeruns dwarf his mistakes and I really appreciate the fact that he moves on from his mistakes and doesn't double down. i don't think his free agent signings have been terrible they had no long term ramifications on the team. Those are the terrible ones.
Lamb is a solid NBA player. Terrence Jones looked really promising for awhile, but obviously ultimately flamed out. However, I think his career is probably on par with or maybe even a little better than a typical #18 pick. Royce White was a dumb pick because Morey should have been able to sniff out how incredibly arrogant and unwilling to put in what is required of an NBA player he was. But look at some of the other guys drafted ahead of Green, Crowder, Barton, and Middleton in 2012. MKG (#2 pick) Thomas Robinson (#5 pick) Kendall Marshall John Henson Tyler Zeller Andrew Nicholson Jared Sullinger Fab Melo John Jenkins Jared Cunningham Tony Wroten Miles Plumlee Perry Jones III Marquis Teague Festus Ezeli Jeffery Taylor Bernard James Getting into the "We drafted this guy when this guy was available" isn't really fair in a lot of instances.
Except for the Ryno signing, easily his worst move. If we would have spent that money on a better FA, we would have won at least one title.
On the contrary, I think it is only fair to look at it that way. Let me tell you why you can't just look at the player's draft position and his subsequent career. Take the infamous Kawhi miss. Drafting Marcus Morris at #14 isn't bad in a vacuum. He turns out to be a solid player worthy of an average #14 pick. But it was a dumb pick because Kawhi Leonard was still available. If someone told you to take either $1000 or $1 million and you took $1000, you would be dumb, even though getting $1000 wasn't a bad thing. Also, just because 20 other people also chose the $1000 doesn't make you any less dumb. I am sure Morey understands this logic and has been kicking himself since that 2011 draft.