Absolutely. But my point was that I just don't see New Orleans pulling off a deal for Artest even if they had pulled off the same moves that Morey had pulled off. All the reasons NOT to add Ron Artest to a team would be even greater for the Hornets (or for most other teams, for that matter) than for the Rockets.
One thing I love about Morey is that he makes moves that limit the amount of risk the Rockets are exposed to. He has stayed away from signing questionable FAs to long-term contracts or trading for contracts that keep our hands tied for years to come. No more Juwans, KTs, Moochies, etc., where we sit around the GARM all day, saying, "If only we hadn't..." He could've had Posey if he'd have been willing to pay the price, but Morey knows what a good GM should know: Posey's a solid player, but not worth the kind of money he got from the Hornets. You end up with a rotation guy who doesn't really get you over the hump, but prevents you from signing the guys who make a difference. Even if Artest implodes mid-season (possible but unlikely, given the circumstances here), we're STILL a better team than we were for most last year: we have two healthy superstars (at least at first); added Barry and Dorsey; Brooks and Landry (fingers crossed!) are no longer rookies; players are more familiar with Adelman's system, etc. Even his "risky' moves are no-brainers: Sign Steve Frances for next to nothing and hope that he's got something left. If not, no big deal. Being a successful GM in the NBA is all about making better decisions than most of the other 29 GMs in the league. And Morey simply does a better job of gathering the pertinent information and analyzing it properly than the majority of the other guys. Morey *seems* to be more level-headed and less prone to OVERestimating players -- the downfall of most GMs, who get all glassy-eyed when imagining how a fading superstar (Shaquille O'Neal, anyone? Jason Kidd?) will get your team over the hump. Look at this one little oddity: Wouldn't you think a solid organization like the Spurs would make SURE they can sign Tim Duncan's replacement-to-be Tiago Splitter BEFORE they drafted him? Morey himself made certain Scola would sign with us before he pulled the trigger on THAT deal. But the Spurs made the biggest possible blunder, drafting a foreign player with a very-late first-round pick. That was a stupid, stupid, move. Something tells me if Morey were sitting on the #28 pick and had a foreign player in his sights, he'd make sure #29 and #30 weren't interested in Splittler, then trade down a few spots so that he wouldn't have the salary-scale issues that prevented the Spurs from being able to sign their prize. That's just plain smart thinking with an eye on ALL of the possible outcomes. I don't care that he's a stat geek and not a "personnel guy" (whatever the hell THAT means) -- Morey is a stud, plain and simple. If anyone is going to get us back to the finals, this is the guy.
Morey was assigned his position on my birthday two years ago! How cute! Just amazing at how much scrubs he has gotten rid of.
Some great posts in this thread by Carl and NIKE. Something I've been thinking of since the trade is the possibility that Donte Greene was selected strictly as trade bait. To go as far as saying he was specifically picked for Sacramento would be ludicrous as Morey had no assurance that the Artest deal would be on the table, but I think he took Greene knowing he was going to try to make a deal later, with whatever team it may be. Donte Greene is not a Moreyball pick. Morey focuses on guys who slip because of some sort of physical limitation that scares off other GM's due to the orthodoxy in managing - Landry's injury problems, Aaron Brooks' height, Dorsey's height. Those three guys are classic $ball picks. They are the fat catchers with high on-base percentage. Joey Dorsey had Daryl Morey written all over him. Donte Greene? Not so much. It seemed odd to take a classic underacheiver. The risk in Moneyball is hoping natural ballers overcome limitations, not in hoping underacheivers finally "get it." But the orthodoxy is still enamored with the "classic underacheiver" type and that's what sells. I think Morey knew this, nabbed Greene who fell quite a few slots, and knew he would be great bait to add onto a later deal. To put it simply, Donte Greene was the "sexiest" pick at that slot and the easiest sell. I never thought Morey would be able to pull off a significant trade with BJ's contract. It's very interesting watching him shape this roster through minor moves that have such long term implications.
And JVG. JVG for wanting a proven veteran over a rookie, CD (officially he's the one who pulled the trigger) for not getting more value out of our lottery pick from Memphis who craved for Rudy Gay. BTW thecabbage, great theory on Donte Greene. I sorta can see that about DM drafting Greene.
Morey was also responsible for this move although he wasn't responsible for pulling the trigger. Not getting enough value for the 8th pick was a mistake.
Unfortunately we will never know really how involved DM was in that trade, unless we get verifiable real insider info on it. Otherwise its just regular Rockets fans gossiping about the usual stuff. Anyway, why would The Logo want to talk to some unknown (at the time) assistant GM? Jerry prolly told DM, "Hey rookie, get me on the phone with CD pronto. Then have your secretary send me a sammich."
It probably was CD's call.DM himself admitted he did all the work to get Battier.(It's in one of the older threads but I'm not sure which one). Pritchard was the Assistant GM for the Blazers but Aldridge and Roy were his picks. In retrospect,it seems unlikely that DM would have agreed to only Battier if he were the GM. He has been able to get second round picks in two consecutive years. I feel that the entire management overvalued Shane. Even Les admitted we didn't get enough out of it.
Traded Juwan Howard for Mike James Signed Bonzi Wells Traded Mike James and Bonzi Wells for Bobby Jackson Drafted Donte Green Traded Bobby Jackon _ 1st rounder + Donte Green for Ron ARtest So in a way, we got Ron Artest out of Juwan Howard.
Not to stomp on CD's grave, but what stands out the most to me between Morey and CD, other than the apparent lack of long term planning of the latter, is the fact that it seemed like CD never got "value." He was as pro-active as any other GM in the game, but you never woke up the morning after a trade thinking "damn, CD absolutely robbed those guys." We always gave up fair value. -trading two promising young starters in Othella and Dickerson for Francis -trading our nucleus for Barkley -trading 3 draft picks for Griffin -trading 3/5 of our starting lineup for McGrady. -trading Kenny Thomas for James Posey these were all good to great trades which I fully supported at the time, but none were "brilliant" steals. 'Robbery' is the first word that comes to mind after some of Morey's manueverings and you're left wondering how the hell he pulled it off. In addition, he has a 'tough-love' management style that is very conducive to long term flexibility. I am almost positive that CD would have handed Carl Landry a $9million/3yr contract as reward and to be done with it, just like he gave Matt Maloney a 7 year deal for beating the Sonics, gave Moochie Norris $20million to maintain chemistry, traded a 1st round pick for Terrence Morris to appease Steve Francis, etc etc. Morey, knowing the market for Landry isn't folding. That's just smart managing.
Ya know, I must have missed that post from his usual Susy Sunshine threads. I'm willing to bet if DM was the sole GM at the time and not have to go through CD, he would have gotten more value out of our lottery pick. Either that or DM is allowed that one rookie mistake. And it fits that we didn't get better value out of that 8th pick that CD was still the GM, just kinda fits his latter track record as Rockets GM. I know it's a paltry contract and a PR signing, but signing Francis is biting us in the butt. That money used on Francis could have been used to sign Landry to the usual 2 year contract for 2nd rounders (and thus avoiding this stupid cat and mouse game between Landry/Baker and DM), and not piss off Deke into thinking twice about signing back for the minimum (also could have offered more to Deke then league minimum.) And yeah I'm not a fan of Francis for the Francis camp, blow me. To me, he represents the most unentertaining and unwatchable Rockets era of recent times (the ISO-Ball Era), not counting pre-Twin Towers lottery times.
I don't know what "better value" would be... I believe Memphis also had the 32nd and 24th pick of the draft and used them on Kyle Lowry and Alexander Johnson. Maybe Rockets could have gotten one of those from them if they bargained harder. I'm not losing sleep over the Rockets not having Lowry or Johsnon.
Kyle Lowry is already better than Aaron Brooks. It's about adding depth,not getting a star. Still better than having JLIII.
