Kelvin Sampson is well liked by Morey and Harden. Their relationship is pretty strong. Sampson is exceptional at building culture and is charismatic and gets his players to play strong defense. Right now he has a pretty good thing going at UH. His family works for the university and his son will likely take over and he has the program on the cusp of being one of the dozen best in the country and improving. If there is anyone that would be able to get Sampson to leave it would be the Rockets because of his relationships with everyone from the owner to the GM and players. If TF is smart he will leave this hire completely to the GM. He is a new owner and already screwed up several times. Let Morey prove how good or bad a GM he really is. Silas I would think would be a strong candidate. Morey wanted Silas last time and really impressed him. What this team needs is someone that can set the proper culture like has been established in Miami and San Antonio and Toronto and a couple other places. We have a strong progressive culture, which is great but we need a culture of either being strong on toughness and effort or discipline or fundamentals. MDA is a Hall of Famer but he doesn’t bring that consistency. MDA is like Don Nelson. Look at the Heat, at the attention to detail in that organization and the clear expectations. They are not perfect, they make mistakes in free agency and the draft. However they always play hard and improve and have clear guidelines. Our front office is extremely hard working and detail oriented but that doesn’t always carry over to the coaching culture. I don’t know if Silas is that kind of coach (he may be) but an ambitious, organized and bright coach would help a whole lot.
With you all the way dude. No one wants to talk about it(they just want to blame Harden) but Mike has gotten so out coached this series. Its really unfortunate.
@Nook Are you hearing any chatter about Morey to Philly? I've been hearing it from different places, by no means am I an insider.
The only coach who can fix Harden... Mourinho But in all seriousness, someone who can talk to Harden after some of his less interested games.
Not recently but it wouldn’t be a shock. TF is tough to work for and has a lot of control over the moves the Rockets make. Also TF is very emotional and impulsive and susceptible to what the media says. Philadelphia would be a team attractive to a GM and they have the money to take on his contract. The real question is whether Morey would want to leave Houston after so long (even if fired). My guess is he would jump at the Sixers deal if the Rockets decided to let Morey go and Philadelphia was interested.
I have some clients who know I'm a big Rockets fan just randomly tell me don't be surprised if you see Morey in Philly.
Tillman’s gonna bring in his cousin or something and make him give him a family discount to coach the team.
MDA not coming back has to be accompanied by Morey leaving as well. Or else there's no point. The same strategy with another coach is just a disaster waiting to happen.
If Morey stays (spoiler alert - he will due to his 4 million dollar/year 5 year deal)....he will try to re-sign MDA to a 2 year (team option 3rd year). No other coach will run his small ball system that he has been grooming for years. Perfect Morey coach and he said as much to the USA Today last week. Morey runs the team NOT Tilman.
Uhm no, if Tilman says no then Morey's hands are tied. And in this case, coach MDA is free after this year so can just decide not to return. Probably in his best interest, because you know if he doesn't perform, Tilman will fire him.
Very well stated! What you outline here in terms of coaching and culture really are important and I think that needs to be key moving forward. I think the Rockets progressive style of play is good. You can see the league is moving towards that. Just that, the roster needs to be tweaked a bit. Boston and Toronto play a lot of smallball. But their smalls are longer than our smalls. That's the difference. Just need a new coach to take what we have now and look at things with a new perspective to unlock more variety. I think Harden is very open to being coached. But that coaching relationship with Harden will be very important. There needs to be respect, but at the same time we need a coach to hold Harden accountable if he strays from the system.
JVG does not excite me. I would want a more progressive coach that is looking where the NBA is trending in the future and NOT where the NBA has been in the past.
That is the friggin problem IMO. Fertitta is here to cut costs but when he is asked to really run the team, he hands it to Morey. Morey himself got to use the eye test more in terms of playoff ball, not just his stats. I think it would be best if the owner understood game plans and more there is to bball.
