I'd like to address some of the negative sentiment surrounding Morey and our organization, so here's my second post since I left Truehoop! There is a reason why, at the beginning of summer, Vegas odds had the Rockets at 8/1 to win the title this year (same as Spurs), despite being one of the bottom teams in the league. It’s because Morey goes HAM. Let’s all take a step back and look at the big picture. During the 2008/09 season, the Rockets, led by Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, and Ron Artest were contending for the title. This team was essentially the same one that went on a 22-game win streak (2nd longest ever) and would take the eventual 2009 Champion Lakers to 7 games in the conference semi-finals, despite having lost their 2 best players and back-up center (Name me one team that can lose $36 mil worth of players, start a 6’6 third string center, and take the champions to 7 games). During the summer of 2009, the rockets had a payroll in excess of $85,000,000. Over the next 3 years, the rockets NEVER had a losing season and were in playoff contention each year. We have the 5th most winning record over the last 20 years behind only the lakers, spurs, bulls and suns. Fast forward ONLY THREE YEARS and 19823 trades later, we have a young roster of high potential players, including a Team USA gold medalist/probable perennial allstar, for a payroll around $45 mil. Morey is a master capologist, and for every trade that makes headlines, he makes a myriad of unassuming roster moves that improve this team’s payroll/talent ratio. We have enough cap space next summer to sign a max free agent. To Jerome Solomon, 610 sportsradio, and all the other people who have complained incessantly about Morey and the fact that he hasn’t won a title, you need to understand that 29 teams don’t win each year. Only 8 teams have won a title in the last 29 years; the rockets have won twice in this time period. At least our future looks promising, which is more than I can say for other mid-tier teams with no mid-term strategy to win a title such such as the Suns, Nuggets, Sixers, Hawks, Bucks, Warriors, Raptors, etc. I'm excited about the upcoming season and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
I could not agree more. As a diehard Rox fan, I find it embarrassing to see so much anti-Morey sentiment building over the past couple years. If he’s not the hardest working GM in the NBA, who is? So many on this forum seems to evaluate him on an absolute basis, only looking at the bottom line. Relatively, the man consistently outperforms at least 25 GMs a year. His strategic positioning for cap flexibility and his ability to extract value out of picks/trades is unparalleled. Dude is the Warren Buffet of GMs. Imagine if we got the any of the superstars that he’s been chasing. He has more than proven his ability to build a roster with cheap, outperforming talent, exactly the type that you need to fill out a championship roster. Only SA/OKC do this as well as DM...They just had the good fortune of stumbling into Tim Duncan and Kevin Durant. How have we not signed him to a lifetime extension?
Nice read, roger! Actually thinking about some of his hit and misses - gasol, melo, amare, bosh - we ultimately ended up with a better situation than all of those players, imo. I can't think of too many times teams have been able to trade for a player that is already a top 5 at his position and not even at the threshold of entering his his prime - and we didn't really give up a lot for him to do so!
I agree, people always forget that we lost two superstars with pretty much nothing in return. I think we are making a good turn around, you can't sign people that don't want to come here. Good job Morey.
Daryl has a lot of guts to do what he did this summer--change the team completely, giving up all those players we had grown to love. The media and fans were crucifying him, but he stuck to his vision. After the smoke cleared, we have a brand-new, younger team, with a star and almost-star (Lin). And the pieces fit!!! Take a bow, Daryl!
About time someone posted the truth on this board. All the tankers and haters that wanna become the Kings losing season after season can go to a different board. Real fans that are smart could see what Morey was doing could work all along and got shouted down by the masses. Taste the crow!
The most amazing thing he did this summer was to acquire TWO of our starters for absolutely FREE! No picks, no trade, NADA! They are the core of this young team and all for the price of fair market value. If anyone are here is still bitttching, imagine how Knicks and Bulls fans feel about Morey.
I can answer that. A significant portion of the Knicks fan base hate Morey because they feel that Morey consistently gets the better of the Knicks FO in trades and free agency. The most common comments involve the use of the words butt and r*pe....
The point isn't really that this trade is better than that trade but that Morey will continue to aggressively update the roster until we are in a position to contend. Nothing is more annoying than having a mediocre team with a passive GM. We are in a great position right now. Most the marquee free agent locations (LA, NY, MIA, etc) are locked up for the next few years. People seem to forget that free agency draw is cycical, not absolute, and the best available city isnt always the swankiest. We now have an attractive team with star-drawing ability. There are teams out there with nice young talent like utah and philly, but until they find their stars (eg extend bynum), they arent going anywhere. No one is rushing to team up with Nick Young, but to play with harden and gain the support of asia....
