H: rockets fell last night 97-92 to denver. what's goin on daryl? DM: team is struggling on both ends of the ball, which is bad for winning. on my end, lots of talk but no fire. H: teams are coming at you and winning the battles individually. DM: defensively this is our worst stretch of the year. i feel like the league has us scouted, we knew this was coming. defensively we have not survived the loss of yao well. we schemed around it but turns out it helps to have a 7'6 guy on defense. H: maybe people will appreciate Yao more now DM: we were the best defensive team in the leauge the last 3 years and Yao was a huge part of that. thats what you get from star players, you get performance on both ends. H: will conroy, what do you expect from him DM: we have gone all year without a 3rd point guard, we feel he's NBA quality. we'll bring him up for 10 days and get him updated on the schemes and all that, so if we take an injury he can step in. might be tough for him to stick around past 10 days though. H: teams are doubling Carl now, what do you do with that DM: Carl is going through the process every low post guy goes through. theres a lot to know. he was wanting to score last night and since he was getting doubled he was taking perimeter shots which arent his best option really. it should open things up when he's doubled but we arent executing to get to it. Caller: dont you think a hobbled tracy is still more productive than trevor and shane? DM: its not an issue of tracy being a great player. the issue is that he did not fit into the style we're in now. he wanted to be a big minute player, but we just cant accomodate that with the way we need to play to compensate for the loss of Yao. H: denver only had 7 assist last night but you still lose, weird huh DM: they only posted us up 30 times last night, i would have done it every time down the court. nene is one of the few players who really gives chuck hayes problems. he's just as big, just as strong, just as low center of gravity, but 6 inches taller. tough to stop him. denver has a lot of individual talent. H: can you comment on the arenas story DM: the league has briefings before the year including things like this. i'm sure the commish did the right thing. Caller: i dont think this is an exciting team, they just lose and fumble the ball around. what's the plan for this team? where's von wafer? where's joey? DM: on Von, he needs to get healthy first, his injury is fairly serious. on the team, we're in a tough period right now and teams go through that. in terms of the big picture, we're on pace to win in the mid 40s with a 30m payroll, but you need to be in the high 50s to be a contender. Yao is worth 8-10 wins himself, and we have another 20m that Mr. Alexander can give us to spend, whether we do it at the deadline or the offseason. if we get 5 more wins with that player, we're right back in it. it's not like we're a bad playoff team with an 80m payroll, so its a good situation. Caller: why is dorsey not playing? we need an inside presence DM: he's too good for the D-League, but up here the coaches have to choose the best choice. i trust the coaches to choose the guys who give us the best chance to win. i never get involved with who the coaches choose to play. 16 playoff appearances in 18 years of coaching so i trust rick. Caller: where is the league going? i hear a lot of statements about the knuckleheads in the leauge but i see it as being pretty positive. DM: the media does that. there's no ratings in saying "he's a pretty good guy". commish had a good comment about Ron Artest. the media painted him as a horrible dude, making rap albums when he was suspended, but he played it for us and it was almost like easy listening. he's a good guy, but obviously the media focuses on what gets them a story. Caller: are we going to be losing any key components in a deadline trade? DM: in order to trade now, we have to feel like its a better option than trading in the summer. obviously we are trying to build a contender so we cant hurt our ability to do that in making a deal. H: bad news is youre in last place in the division, good news is youre above .500. memphis is kicking ass by the way, what do you think about them? DM: we thought we'd still be working our way back to .500 at this point. we still have time to right the ship. we've been struggling, and if we dont playu better it doesnt matter what else happens because we wont make the playoffs. but since the rest of the west is strugglign too, it may take less wins to make it in. maybe 45 or 46 wins as opposed to 48-49 wins. memphis has had great health, they play their guys big minutes though, so if they go through an injury situation it would be a big deal for them. happy for them.
I think Nene is an underrated player. The best combination of strength and quickness at the C spot in the league.
Detected two deceptive remarks.......... ".........might be tough for him to stick around past 10 days though." (deceptive. The tough may be when we find out we are trading one of our other pgs.) and "we thought we'd still be working our way back to .500 at this point." (That is DM bs right there.)
wafer's troubles in greece make sense now. euro teams don't like paying injured players and will find ways to get out of contracts.
The only good news is, if the words are verbatim, that Morey feels they have a better chance at making a deal now than in the summer.
its not verbatim. i type as i listen, hence all the poor grammar. you gotta work fast to keep up with those dudes. the podcast is up at the SR610 page, here: morey interview
DM: its not an issue of Tracy being a great player. the issue is that he did not fit into the style we're in now. he wanted to be a big minute player, but we just cant accommodate that with the way we need to play to compensate for the loss of Yao. Now you know who has been telling all the tall stories (lies) The fact is we are no longer playing the Adelman way but a straight forward half court game. One in which Tracy McGrady would excell!!!!!
DM said there are some options out there right now that he thinks are better than the summer....???? I guess, a trade is more likely? DD
Thanks. I really hope you werent driving as you were writing this stuff down,thats the only time I use a radio anymore.
Its really difficult to play at a fast offensive pace when you're taking the ball out of the basket more times than not.
Thanks for the recap! Dorsey too good for the d-league but not quite good for the NBA(or at least the Rockets) Ron Artest's rap was "easy listening" haha And Wafer still trying to heal his injury. Won't see him anytime soon or at least not here(jmo) Again, thanks for the recap! Good stuff.
Yeah this is something i never realized. Tracy wanted huge minutes like probably 30-35 a game but that didnt fit in what Adelman was wanting to do. Meh life goes on.
yeah, if i could edit the original post, i'd probably make sure that made it in the recap. it was mentioned along the way but I missed it while typing.
This is what I was thinking too, with 3 weeks remaining before trade deadline, its time to train Conroy just in case...
i think it's always been more likely since tmac's contract can get you a lot without messing up the rest of the team. During the summer there's more roadblocks./problems.
