At the 1:00 mark Daryl Morey CONFIRMS that Dwight Howard would have been traded to Houston at the trade deadline if he was not going to extend his contract with Orlando at that time.
my favorite part was when Jim Rome thought he caught Morey saying James Harden is as good or better than Kobe. But Morey backed off and compared Kobe to Bill Russell. We don't need a motivated Kobe on our heels, then again i dont think the rockets have anything to do with the sinking ship we know as the Lakers.
Dwight revealed to Morey that Orlando told him they would have dealt him to Houston if he didn't extend. Who knows if that was true and Orlando wasn't just bluffing, but wow.
Take me in the room as you met with Dwight Howard. The pitch? I was trying not to screw things up. We had (the whole crew there). I was hoping not to screw things up. He saw NBA royalty and he was impressed. When did you first target Dwight and what made you think he'd be a good fit? We tried to trade for him twice. After we were allowed to talk to Dwight, he revealed to us that Orlando had told him he was going to be traded to us if he didn't extend there. The NBA has become a rim and three pointers league. Having a guy who can defend the rim like Dwight just becomes more important as the game changes. How valid was the criticism towards Dwight and did it help in your recruiting? I don't think it was valid. Obviously I'm biased. I hope my worst year, I lead the league in rebounding. Pretty impressive to do that. Obviously had injury issues he worked through. We just did the physical, he looks totally healthy now. I don't think he was last year and that got public and ugly between himself, teammates, and management. He's healthy now and we're excited to have him. Your market a better fit than LA? I don't know about that. I think he's a great player and probably fits anywhere. Probably a lot of extenuating circumstances. The Lakers, Mitch Kupchak is probably best in the business. I hope to do what he has been able to do in winning multiple titles but the reality is that team isn't as good as it was in the past. I think Dwight made the right choice, for his best chance to win. Talk about how you felt when he left that room? Parsons said he was confident Dwight would become a Rocket. As you left, did you know he would be coming to Houston? Not until he moved his hand on the contract did I feel comfortable things were done. We encouraged Dwight to take a careful look at the process, because we felt the evidence and best fit was on our side. [Laid out the Rockets case] We felt if he took a careful look, if winning was the number one criteria and it was, he would pick us. Did you get the sense that he's willing to fit in or he has to be the guy? My sense is he wanted to join the best team possible. James Harden is a great player and has been to the Finals like Dwight. Both of those guys will be the leader of our franchise going forward. Dwight has no issue sharing the spotlight with James going forward. ... He feels like James can maybe one day be as great as Kobe's been. James has that upside? That's an unfair comparison. That's like saying can Dwight be as good as Bill Russell? Kobe is one of the greatest ever, top ten player all-time. If James can even come close, I think we'll be fine. They're different players. James is more of a play maker and Kobe is one of the best scorers of all-time. Bigger pickup - Harden or Howard? Getting Harden is the harder piece. When I was talking to the owner about turning the franchise around, and the belief by all of us that we did not want to tank, never got in the top ten of the draft, always had winning seasons even after losing Tracy and Yao, the worry I had is that meant you're probably gonna have to trade for that first guy. If Harden isn't on the team, I don't think Dwight picks us. We felt the Harden move was the harder move. Conventional wisdom is you have to tank to get better. You missed the playoffs but didn't plummet all the way down and still overhauled the roster without a high lottery pick. How were you able to do that? That is the more trying path. We were looking at a tough year before James Harden came along. We felt we had the picks and young players and Martin that might entice OKC. You have to be well prepared but also have good fortune. We had both. What about Lin and Asik? Both to start the season with Houston? Both are great fits. When Asik wasn't on the floor, we were a bad team frankly. We were a top ten defense with Omer on the floor. With Dwight and Omer, we'll have a top ten defense this year. Lin, we feel like is a great fit with Dwight was like the fifth best PnR player in the league last year and Dwight was the best screener/roller and feel like they're a great fit as well so they'll be on the team this year, yes. Royce White - as you look back, how would you describe that experience? Tough for everyone. It was prior to having Omer, Lin, James, we drafted Royce because of his upside. We felt he had a chance to be an all-star with his talent. He went through a tough year. We tried hard to work with him. It's good for him to have a fresh start in Philadelphia. We knew it would be a gamble but it didn't work out here. Looking back, wish you did anything different? I think the gamble was right and sometimes you gamble and lose. It was clearly a mistake. I think the concept of picking him, knowing we needed high end talent at that point, was right but it didn't work out. Chandler Parsons - did you know what you had when you drafted him in the second round? No, nobody really knew. We liked him a lot and that's why we picked him but all the credit to him for all the hard work he has put in. Everything he's got he deserves. We were ahead of the league knowing on how good he was but nobody knew he would be this good. Credit to him and his hard work. On paper, do you have a championship team? We feel like we have a chance. We're not the best team in the league. SA, OKC, Miami, we're not to that level and there a few other teams you could put in there but I feel like what I live for, the owner lives for, and our players live for, is for a chance going in. I still have my work to do. The coaching staff and players to keep improving ourselves to give ourselves a better chance. I do think we're still behind a few teams at this point.
Harden a play maker? Interesting... Some would have you believe he's a ball hogging chucker who only gets assists because he has the ball so much.
lol, no from Swordfish. Thanks for reminding me about that movie though http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZpIuJu9lgU
Harden is an incredible player. Those people are dumb. What I was more interested in is Morey confirming again that their internal analysis shows Lin as the 5th best pick and roll player in the NBA last year. Kind of pours water on the idea that Lin is only valuable if he can be a spot up shooter.
This statment by Morey should answer the question, :Who team will it be Harden or Howard? My sense is he wanted to join the best team possible. James Harden is a great player and has been to the Finals like Dwight. Both of those guys will be the leader of our franchise going forward. Dwight has no issue sharing the spotlight with James going forward. ... He feels like James can maybe one day be as great as Kobe's been.
The problem is he is going to have more spot up opportunities then PNR opportunities because of Harden. So yes he can definitely help us in the PNR game, but I believe it would help our offense even more if he maintained his late seasons 3 point shooting percentages and made teams pay dearly for leaving him open.
This is huge. It pretty much confirms that Dwight should be close to Orlando Dwight next season. He has no excuses not to dominate next year. But I thought all the LOH's said Lin was a scrub???
