I tuned in a little late but here's a recap: Royce and Lamb have the highest ceiling of anyone on the roster, seemed to prefer Royce. Need to get guys right now who can contribute or who will turn into all-stars. Feel we did that with these three. Matt asks about free agency. Morey: Cap is one of best 5 in the league. Have the ability to go to max. Will try to add an all-star ability player in FA or the draft. Will approach FA the same way, looking for all-star or someone who can enhance current players. Isn't one step that will change us into title contender. Will take multiple steps. Matt: Did you see enough of Goran and Lee to feel that it is a winning backcourt? Morey: Really like Goran and like Courtney. Hope to bring both back, but FA process has to play out. Courtney is "up to us." Hope to have him back. Lance: You have some commodities. You say these picks are for us. What kind of potential is there for splashy move? Morey: We saw the buzz. We are working toward what he said. High end talent or players who can become that. Can't force these moves. Generally they happen when a team has a gun to their head about to lose a player. Have to set yourself up for these moves and set your roster up in a way to get you closer to title. Adam: Are you trying to find yourself in the shoes of Orlando GM? Morey: Good friends with GM of Orlando. He's going to be a great GM. Happy he's in the east. (lol at the idea that GMs hate Morey) Matt: Hard to make that deal when you just took over right? You wouldn't have. Morey: Yeah, he walked in at tough time. Has to take step back and evaluate his own team. Lance: Give us an idea of draft board? Morey: Anthony Davis #1 (laughs). Consensus next three were extraordinary players. After top 6 guys, Lamb was next in the group. Lance; Glad you didn't get Drummond. Runs him down. Morey; With you centers you have to just take a bet on them. High bust risk. We were comfortable taking that risk but they weren't there for the opportunity. Morey: We were comfortable taking high upside guys with 70-80% bust rate. Matt: Did Dallas screw you over by trading with Cleveland. Morey: "Maybe" *laughs Matt: Someone trades up and takes a player it can blow your board up. Morey: At 14-18 we were thrilled withboard. When trade happened...happy with who we got. (They wanted the guy that Dallas grabbed) Matt: Marcus Camby went on Twitter recruiting Gogi to stay. Seems like they want to stay, liked what was happening here. Doesn't seem to be a negative feeling towards direction or staff. You haven't scared anyone off. Morey: No no no. Mr. Alexander and the org, Coach McHale are an org that people want to play for. Plenty of options in free agency. Depends on money and situation.
Did dallas screw ya... Morey "maybe"...lol...I m actually sure that the Mavs ripped Zeller from the Rockets...If we had Zeller, White and Lamb...that would at least give me a bit more comfort...
Thanks for the post. Here's what I have beef with: "Have to set yourself up for these moves and set your roster up in a way to get you closer to title." I understand these moves don't often happen overnight, but what have we been setting ourselves up for the last 3 years?
Moment of the conversation. LOL Everyone should listen to the conversation just to hear the way he says "maybe" when he's asked if the Mavericks screwed them.
sounds like we would have had zeller if not for Dallas-Cleveland swap. At 18 that would of been great; but T. Jones actually has a higher upside and is more talented.
Get the PR spin in motion. 80% bust rate - that should tell folks all they need to know - I do like the picks, I just don't like the plan that Morey has put together to get the Rockets to contender status, I think he is failing miserably at that. DD
Read thoroughly. He was talking about Drummond saying they would have gambled on him, not that the guys they took have that rate. FWIW, there is a guy freaking out right now about Royce White being a bad athlete and short.
I feel you, it seems like we are drowned in mediocrity. However I don't blame Morey for it, he really has been trying to upgrade our team the whole time. Just kind of hard to do when a) you consistently get the 14th pick b) your gambles don't pay off (TWill, Artest) c) luck (yao and tmac injury, New York not falling apart last season), d) David Effin Stern. The positive I got from this interview is when he scoffed about roster balance, pretty much saying lets worry about roster balance when Nov comes around... hinting we still will be big players for FA and trades. Lets just hope all the cards fall in place this time.
So Dallas did foil Zeller at 18. They would've probably grabbed White if we had taken Zeller anyways. Interesting. And if we could not execute a trade, I think Zeller, White, and Lamb are great picks. Everything worked except the last one.
I think he is referring more to being setup in case a team wants to deal. If he isn't actively talking to every team then he might not be ready for a deal. Superstars and top 5 picks aren't moved very easily and if you aren't setup to acquire them then you will never get them.
DD....the large majority of centers are busts. He was saying they were willing to take the chance on what likely would have been Drummond. I didn't read that as spin.
Just another way to complain because we didn't make that BIG move. I understand though, I'm a bit let down also, because so much was expected from last night. Patience is a virtue and something Clutchfans does not have... we still have time to make moves and flip pieces for other pieces. I feel like we're not done and FAcy is going to tell us a lot on what plans we have for this squad.
Well this thread certainly adds a ton of perspective in the draft, in retrospect Zeller, Lamb and Jones would have certainly looked much better (although IMHO Henson, Zeller and White would have been better). Some key points to consider though: *DM thinks Lamb is clear a top 10 lottery. Guess we'll see how good his drafting skills are regarding wing players. *DM saying Royce White is a top 5 talent without offcourt issues isn't really anything useful, the fact is he DOES have those, and that's why White isn't a lottery pick. Again we'll see what happens, considering his lack of shooting skills and the depth at both forward spots though I'm not sure how good White will be. *DM and his staff are total risk-takers. Willing to waste a pick on a 80-90% bust rate player if he has enough talent? This is basically a big "F-U" to every poster who keeps talking about how the Org needs to grow a pair, swing for the fences etc. Anyway still not loving the draft because right now we don't have a center on the roster, but who knows, we might be able to pry someone like Asik, Noah or whoever with our ton of forwards.
