i'm suprised i didn't make more errors than that.......... i never once said morey doesn't deserve props for not getting out of the first round..........hayjon made that BS up.
Morey has seemingly made some solid moves, but the jury's still out in my opinion. In retrospect, his handling of the Landry signing last summer might turn out to be a mistake. From what I've heard, he was integral in the Gay for Battier trade as well, and I can see legitimate arguments on either side with that one. As an official GM, these are his main moves (I'm not counting the Adelman hire, since I don't know his level of involvement on that one): (1) traded Juwan Howard for Mike James and Justin Reed's contract (adds an extra year of salary) (2) drafted Aaron Brooks late in 1st round (3) acquired draft rights to Carl Landry in exchange for cash (4) traded Spanoulis for rights to Luis Scola and Jackie Butler's contract (5) signed Steve Francis (6) resigned Chuck Hayes to a 3 year contract (7) signed Dikembe Mutombo to a 1 year deal (8) signed Landry to a 1-year deal (9) cut Jackie Butler and Justin Reed (10) traded Bonzi Wells and Mike James for Bobby Jackson (removes a year of salary) (11) did a bunch of complicated stuff in 08 draft that I can't recall ... but basically turned Darrell Arthur into Donte Greene and Joey Dorsey (12) drafted Marty Leunen in second round (13) signed Brent Barry to a 2-year deal The Rockets didn't have the same flexibility in terms of cap space, high draft picks, and young talent that some other teams (like the Blazers) have had. As a result, we had to rely on more modest, subtle maneuvering to improve the team. So I don't think there were any big, obvious "splash" moves here other than getting Scola for Spanoulis. The Francis and Mike James acquisitions look pretty bad right now. I liked both, so I can't complain much. The success of the Landry draft pick hinges on Morey's ability to resign him this summer for a reasonable price, and that Landry doesn't remain an injury-prone player. Otherwise, that will just turn out to be a half-a-year rental that led no where.
I am not sure if Morey is a great GM yet. He is pretty good already. Great? give him a couple more years to prove it. But I am pretty sure he is smarter and knows more about basketball than 99% of the posters here (including myself, of course).
Morey prob looks a lot better to us because we're comparing him to other GMs we know... e.g. CD (i love the man, but he made some bad moves.)
morey did quite well with the limited flexibility of the team. But having said that, the team was a 34-48 team(injury hit season) at 2006 and 51-31 season at 2005. And the team was a 52 and 55 game winning team the past two season. In 2 season he have bolster the squad, but still failing at the playoffs. Of all the trades, only vspan for scola came out smelling like roses. Others are more of parallel moves. he wasted Sura's TE, juwon and bonzi turn into an expiring contract in the form of Bjax, SF3 got injured(i really hope he can be healthy this year), synder turn into nothing, after the release of loren woods( who was in the squad to provide cover for deke). he finally got Barry, but too bad its a couple months late. The drafts, well AB looks like the next sure thing during the summer leagues and the USA scrimmage. But he cant even take minutes away from Rafer and Bjax. On Landry, he sure is a good pick, a calculated risk, as he is known for his injuries before the draft. But morey decide to low ball him, and till now, we still have no idea will Landry line up for Rox coming season, and how is the knee. The current draft, he did really well, where being able to get 3 players with 2 picks. However, Dorsey could be the next Big Ben or just another 6 fouls. Ability to grab rebounds, play defense, but he is small for his spot, and if he cant make the open jump shot, i really doubt he will be much better than hayes. Greene is a scoring machine, that blow cold and hot. I have yet to see a comment made by himself, that he will learn to play more defense, get more rebounds and control his shooting. He might be the Rashard Lewis that rox did not pick few years back, or he might just be a 6"9 Head, good shooting, and nothing else. Leunan well, if he cant defend SL players, i really doubt he be able to defend NBA players. His shooting numbers is solid but not outstanding. I will say that Morey is a better GM than most, but to say that his a genius....
I'm quite certain Morey is a genius. It doesn't insure that he is the best GM, but I have to say I like what I've seen so far.
15 to 20 statisticians? Let's say they make $50k each (assuming a couple guys who know their stuff and make big bucks and a bunch of guys right out of college, but this number is still low). Add health insurance, etc, and its ~ $62k each. Times 15 is almost $1M per year. Add costs of computers, rent, coffee, etc, you are well over a million. Anyone else having a hard time believing Les would put 15 to 20 statisticians on the payroll? And, how much statistical work could there possibly be to do? Computers are doing the heavy lifting. I'm not seeing it. I'd think 2 or 3 guys would be a robust number of stats guys. I'll not disbelieve denniscd, but are you sure you heard right?
I didn't need to read any further. This says it all. If we have 20 statisticians and still can't get out of the 1st Round...maybe the roadmap is upside down.
In fairness to Morey, the goal of the Sura release (which involved waiving Sura instead of trading his $3.8M, only $1M of which was guaranteed) and the Snyder deal was not necessarily to improve the roster, but rather to avoid the luxury tax. Keep in mind that avoiding the luxury tax allows Les Alexander to be more willing to spend money in other moves. With the few million dollars that Les saved by not having to pay luxury tax this summer, he may be more willing to throw in some money (up to $3M) in a trade deadline deal along with Bobby Jackson's expiring contract. That money may be crucial to making a major move that adds a third scorer or other "significant player".
Great GM's make mistakes like anyone else. Joe Dumars is one of the best in the business and he used the #2 pick on Darko. Jerry West gave Brian Cardinal his outrageous contract. RC Buford traded Scola for luxury tax relief, then proceded to give the same contract to Matt Bonner that we gave to Scola. The difference is that those GM's have teams that win. Buford hasn't done anything of note in years, but he still gets tons of credit for prior years because the team keeps winning. Same with Dumars. Jerry West actually did something good recently by stealing Rudy Gay, but the team ended up a stinking turd so no one gives him props for his time in Memphis. It's like Steve Kerr said, "If it works, I'm a genius. If it doesn't, I'm a moron." Morey's only been here for one year, so he hasn't had anything that's "worked" yet. Give him time before you judge him.
I agree unless of course, he is using them to develop new statistical techniques or running advanced statistical analysis (e.g. HLM). You can't make the computer do the heavy lifting unless it knows what to lift Anyways, in terms of Morey being a genius, I'm not 100% sold that i would categorize him as "genius" status in the traditional sense of the word. Yes, he is intelligent individual and he obviously knows what he is talking about. Yes, he did go to MIT Business school but so did a lot of other individuals who weren't geniuses (by the way, MIT Sloan is ranked 6th underneath Kellogg, Harvard, Stanford, etc). Regardless, he has made some solid moves and some mistakes in my opinion. Durvasa gives a great overview of what he has done a few posts up and I'll have to agree that the jury is still out on Morey. We, as fans, are eager to believe that those we follow know best when that may not be true. Let's remember, as good as the Oakland A's were in utilizing Billy Beane's Moneyball technique to save money and get great talent, they have yet to win it all. As a bit of a stats. guy myself, it only takes you so far. Anyone who knows anything about statistics will tell you that the variance you can account for in any situation is limited (anywhere around 30% is considered good). There are so many variables you cannot account for (simply due to other constraints such as time, money, or just not knowing what variables to analyze) that it makes it impossible to rely solely on statistics. It should be an integral part of the process but so should scouts who can observe other variables not easily measured, such as heart and passion for the game. Anyways, all I can say is we shall see.
and what would be the return on that sort of investment? probably not 7 figures, so i agree with you, not saying i don't believe OP, but............ the annoying periods prevail.
Daryl Morey is surely one of the top GM's in the NBA. He transformed this team from top defensive team to one of the better offensive and defensive teams by trading some players that don't fit in Rick Adelman's high motion offense. He can pull a trade whenever and it will be good, I can't imagine what will be the next trade since this team needs some movement, maybe a backup center or point guard, slashing forward (Barry is a veteran).
I'd take one Dean Cooper over 15-20 statisticians, any day. Besides, in the job ad, Morey said they already have their formulas. (I mean, isn't Morey the top stats guy most likely, or has already hired that guy). Sounds to me like these are more on the internship side of the spectrum vs the think tank side.
The Rox avg the same ppg this year as they did the year before, so that didn't make any sense. I agree with durvasa in that he's done a ok job, but really, what has improved as far as titles? I think you get into the great gm room when you draft or trade for a all star and win. Morey has done neither. I like Brooks and scola, and think people on this board overrate landry. Think about this, Paul Milsap was taken in the 2nd rd and probbly could come here and take scola's job. He fell because he's 6'8. Landry went where he did because he's injury prone. Look at the gm in utah that lost 2 hall of famers and has rebuilt the team with young talented guys. He drafted Williams on a move up, AK-47 has been a all star and signed 2 all stars under th age of 22 in boozer and okur as well as having a solid guy like brewer. That's what good gm's do. They make moves to gather high end talent either through trade, free agency, or draft. People bang on Dawson and Hillboy comes to mind, but he made some decisions both good and bad that people overlook. He turned a disaster in not drafting Rashard into trading assets to get francis. The year before the rox had a rookie backcourt. He turned the overpaid Cato contract, into Mcgrady. He made some mistakes, but somehow he corrected those mistakes. He also had the big nuts to get clyde for thorpe to win a title and trade for Barkley to try to get another ring before dream was through. I always thought with Dawson if a big trade was availible, he would do it now like getting Barkley and sign and trade for scottie before the season. We will see how great he is at the trade deadline with those expirings he's holding on to.
