Morey radio interview this morning on GameTime: evaluates Rockets players

http://www.1560thegame.com/page1_sub.php?id=153

(This is a radio interview from 8:45a this morning with Morey, GM of the Rockets. Go to bottom set of podcasts for Gametime interviews. I thought it was very informative.)

Great win against the Spurs. We've struggled at home and in close games. It was good to win on both of those levels.

The players are playing with a lot of energy, and definitely getting acclimated to Coach Ademan's offense, which took much longer than we had planned. We're getting a lift from a lot of the new players on the team, with Scola and Brooks and Landry and guys like that. So far its been good with these 3 guys, but its a long season.

Brooks gives us what we had hoped so far ... another guy who can attack the basket.

Scola plays with the most energy of almost any player I've ever seen.

Landry took that ball from Duncan yesterday and dunked it on his head. I don't know that we've had a guy who could do that for awhile.

(What did you see early about Landry that made you go after him, and what did you notice about him early on?)

He was a player we thought would have gone much higher in the draft, if he hadn't gotten injured. He had an ACL injury his junior year at Purdue, and before that he was playing out of his mind. Our medical people felt his repair was one of the best they had ever seen. He's just slowly worked his way back to what we had seen when he was younger, in his ealier days in Purdue. Every day in practice, it's funny, Coach Sikma would say, "hey, this guy is just destroying everybody in practice ... maybe we should get him in the game," and coach Adelman finally got him in there, and he's so far he's played great in every minute he's had. He's got a long way to go as a rookie. It's a big difference getting him in for a few minutes and doing well, and getting consistent minutes where teams begin to key in on, but one step at a time ... we're real happy with his development so far.

Scola has a lot of upside. He's getting used to the NBA referees. It really hurt him defensively early on. He wasn't used to them and they weren't used to him. Now he's not fouling as much, and holding his ground better without fouling, and it's made a big difference. And, offensively, he's just got a knack of getting things done.

(Are they starting to feel like they're a good team again?)

Absolutely. That Philly loss was a bit of a crusher. They just didn't expect to face that again, given how they were feeling. So, we've got to move past that. Take care of business with Seattle twice and Portland coming up is a big game, because thats one of the teams that we've got to pass to make the playoffs, very likely. The mood of this team is very positive, especially getting Tracy back. I think that's really boosted the guys. He just does things that no one else on our team can do obviously, and we were hurting with him out.

(How long until you can get Tracy back to 100%?)

I don't know. Frankly, it will have a lot to do with how he feels today. He got his first big minutes in 11 games yesterday. I haven't gotten the report yet on how he's feeling today, whether theres any swelling, things like that. We need to hear about that before I'll have a good sense of how long that will be.

(Have the sports radio hot buttons of trading Tracy gotten under his skin at all?)

You know he's a sensitive guy who really cares. Some of that bothered him, and I think it made him very motivated to come back and play great. He's someone who loves Houston, and loves the Rockets, and loves his teammates, so it did bother him a bit. Anytime you're out and the team plays well, you're going to get those questions. I got those questions, where we had a lot of people saying we should trade Yao Ming last year, because we played well with him out. I do think it bothers the players, but at the end of the day, they're professionals, and I think they use it to add just a little extra adrenalin when they are out there.

(Are you getting calls if you are trading Tracy and you laugh?)

You get a few calls, just because frankly you are doing your job as a GM, and you hear a player like Tracy is available, you do check in. No real offers or anything. Just like, "hey I'm sure this is not true, but if you were looking to trade Tracy, make sure you call us." Those kind of things.

(What do you see as the future for Steve Francis and Mike James for the Rockets?)

With Steve, he's been struggling with his injury. It's really gone much slower than we anticipated, so this week we had our doctors looking at him against this week again. We'll see what that shows. With Steve, that knee injury is really, really bothering him. We knew there was a high likelihood chance of injury with Steve, but we felt that his talent level really made that investment worth it . It's disappointing that that injury has really limited him so much this year.

With Mike James, he's the same Mike that we knew we acquired with his skill set and ability to score, but frankly, he just got beat out by Aaron, Luther Head and Rafer. We knew someone was going to win that guard rotation, and whomever didn't win, everyone would have questions about. Right now, he's getting beat out by those guys.

(The guys have seemed to pick it up with Tracy out. Can they carry that on with Tracy back in the lineup?)

Yeah, absolutely. Integrating Tracy back in is a big task for Coach Adelman and for Tracy, but we've had a lot of time to prepare and Coach Adelman has worked with Tracy throughout to tell him what he's expecting. Tracy's really excited to get back out there and play hard. I thought he didn't make every shot yesterday, which you would expect with some rustiness, but he really gave us a lift with his passing. The Spurs like to trap on the perimeter, trap our guards especially. The book on us is our decision making isn't good, and I think its probably been accurate. But, when you get Tracy out there, he can get it over the top into the interior of the defense, where as with Rafer and Aaron, they can't see over the top of the defenders as easily. He gave us a lift that led to a couple layups and dunks. Tracy does still remain the best superstar wing passer in the league, and that's something we've missed as well.

(How far do you think we can go this year?)

We haven't changed our goals at all. We've made our road harder. Getting homecourt in the first round, we've made very difficult. It doesn't mean it's impossible, but we've made it extremely difficult. Getting to the playoffs is absolutely still our goal. Our plan all season has been to be healthy and play at a high level going into the playoffs, so we've got to make it, and still execute so we're doing that. But, I believe, with our talent level, we can absolutely win a 7 games series, even without homecourt. It will be difficult, but we feel we have the pieces to do it.

 

I liked hearing how Morey had done his homework on Landry, and found a gem that others didn't notice. My respect keeps increasing for More(y), although not as much for Les(s). Our drafts have been so bad for so many years, its refreshing to see us picking up 2 good players late in the draft.

It was also good to see what's really gone on about TMac, instead of all this nutty speculation, and that James has been beat out, and Francis' issue is an injury.

... good informative input. Morey is pretty open in his interviews, while being fairly sly. Good combo.