Westbrook was a huge reach when Presti took him. Outside of Durant, the man went out on a limb with most of his decisions and came out great. More importantly, he set in place a team culture vital to small market success that asked basketball superstars (the guys that make or break your team more than any other team sport) to settle for less than their market worth to build a dynasty. The second ego and entitlement came into it, he set in place the wheels to resign Ibaka and let Harden know he didn't have him by the balls. And you know what? Harden might be playing great, efficient basketball right now and Westbrook struggling in that regard, but come playoffs, when the tempo slows down and everything depends on matchups, that's when you'll see the difference between these two. Because nobody has the combination of strength and speed to stay in front of Westbrook and Harden can be subdued with a good PNR defense. OKC needs to add another legit scorer or shooter to their team cuz the workload for Durant/Westbrook is too high with all the intangible scorers (Thabo, Perk, Ibak, Collison), but Presti is the gold standard for GM's. Painting it otherwise is desperation on your behalf. Anyways, onto Kahn v. Morey. I don't fault him for the '11 and '10 drafts. Both had clear cut #1 picks but very little after that. How are the guys taken after Wesley Johnson faring - Udoh? Monroe? Aminu? Hayward? Is Cole Aldrich even in the league? 2011 gets even worse. Kahn did what he had to - draft high ceiling wing players who could complement Love. And the jury is still out on Derrick Williams - not everyone figures out their niche right away. While Love can put up great stats, you can't win with him as a #1 option. You need a system of great off the ball guys and 1 or 2 better players to be taken seriously, and that's what Kahn is aiming for. So he hasn't made 25 moves to make them a 9th seed instead of 11th - that doesn't make him less "astute" or "savvy" then a hyperactive guy like Morey who is always facebooking and twittering to keep fans in the loop. Every other fanboy will microanalyze and say BUT THIS LED TO THAT WHICH LED TO THIS WHICH LED TO HARDEN, GENIUS... but you and I know how naive that is given how strongly he was floundering before Harden. And more importantly, we still haven't seen the Rockets establish a best case scenario that goes beyond first round fodder.
OKC should thank Portland for not taking Durant. They should thank Memphis for taking Thabeet instead of Harden. They should thank Grizzlies and Heat for taking Beasley and Mayo over Westbrook.
If he picked Marc Gasol or Eric Bledsoe - either which he could have had - then I'd say he had "incredible success". Look, I am not saying he hasn't made good picks. I am saying he hasn't made the best. And he mucked up that Royce White pick big-time. He's not perfect - that's all I am trying to say. He's not "above criticism". People take that to mean I am ragging on the guy. I am not! Geez. Relax people. You can't give any criticism on the BBS without people going nuts. Critique Jeremy Lin, Harden, or Morey and people are going to jump at you like you offended their god.
He's only on the Rockets... Congrats though... You were successfully able to use Wikipedia or nbadraft.net to prove you can look up a draft history! Please go back to being annoying in the other forums... At least leave the GARM alone
Longtime lurker here, weighing in as I haven't seen this mentioned (though admittedly haven't scoured all 10 pages of comments): Bucher mentioned fan and media bias towards Morey because of his (social) media saavy as if this is a neutral or even negative thing. In fact, this is a net positive. He promotes his players so that they're talked about and thus gain more value, often tweeting about less obvious metrics to generate discussion about the value of his players. The organization as a whole no doubt gains value. (Some might say treating his players as assets actually turns them against him and the organization, but every team necessarily views their players as assets if they're smart and trying to get better through trades). Additionally, those saying that Morey lucked out with the Harden trade aren't entirely correct. He was all up in Presti's ear waiting for that hammer to fall and opportunistically snatched him up when the Wizards passed. Being prepared for these scenarios is part of what makes him so good. He then convinced Harden on his adoration for his efficiency and sold him on a vision for the Rockets as his team at a time when we were struggling to get FAs to even look at us twice. (Those benjis could've had something to do with it, too.) We saw the same prep work in the infamous nixxed trade for Pau - he knew the Lakers were looking to trade and wanted to be there when it happened. Finally, if you read the story recently published by Feigen about Alexander wanting the Rockets to run for years, he credits the owner for this vision. If you think back to Gerry Hunsicker during the Drayton Mclain era, he allegedly lost his job due to the jealousy that the owner had over the GM getting all the credit for that run of successful years. Morey is an overall smart dude, not just in terms of being ahead of the statistical curve, but he has the intangibles: he has the insight to please the owner, the players and the fans (through social outreach). No wonder the media is going to give him the benefit of the doubt more often than not. This in turn makes the organization look better, the owner is happier, it gives him greater job security and the team is better for it. /out for another 5 years
Not false. Morey has said that there is no guarantee it would work and that we aren't going to tank. It has been a few years since he said it, but he did say that there were 2 ways to get a franchise player, one of which was picking high in the draft.
Eric Bledsoe? Career averages of 6.2pts 2.9asts 2.0tos on 43.2fg% 26.7 3pt% as the 14th pick in the draft (He was 18th, but since you are talking about us passing up on him, I used our spot)? Chandler Parsons? Career averages of 11.1pts 2.6asts 1.5tos on 45.2fg% 35.6 3pt% as the 38th pick in the draft. Eric Bledsoe would be an amazing success, but Chandler Parsons isn't? It isn't one player that makes Morey an incredible success, it is the number of good players obtained late in the draft, and lack of draft busts. White is a bust today, but so was Marcus Morris a couple of months ago, and now he has proven himself a player in this league.
Oh look, a Morey critique that doesn't mention two max contract players with career-debilitating injuries. You really can't find a worse situation in the NBA. Rockets have had no business being this competitive the past couple years. Basically built a near playoff contender in the west with mid-to-late first round picks, second round picks, undrafted players, and a few midlevel exception signings. If anything Morey should be critiqued for making the Rockets too good.
Westbrook is on a max, Durant is on a max, Ibaka is on 12m and Perkins is on 10, and Sefolosha is a slightly higher paid lesser version of Tony Allen. So honestly the claim that they're getting less than they are worth is straight from the land of faeries and make believe. The only person they weren't willing to give what he was worth was Harden, and so he's not there anymore. But you're completely missing the point, I'm not saying Presti isn't a great GM, I'm saying that you can only do so much depending on what you're given, in effect, you have inputs and your job is to create the best outputs. Presti was given a self selecting Durant, then did well picking Westbrook (although Love would been a better selection), got a jewel in Ibaka (but its not like when picking at 4, you know whose on the table at 24), Westbrook in effect was the right pick for them because sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, then picked Harden which is now Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and a maybe from Toronto, decent players, not top 5 material yet (but maybe Toronto will suck just enough for the #4 or 5 pick). If he was playing poker, he was given a full house and turned it into 4 of a kind, definitely did well, it's not say like Riley who essentially turned two pairs into a straight flush, yes Wade did a lot of the work but again, you can only do as well as the hand you're dealt allows you too. Who would Morey have taken in Presti's place? Durant is a given (half of gms would have taken him at 1, the rest all at 2), Love was the guy he tried to trade up for the next year and Harden is the guy he tried to trade up for the following year? What's the difference there? High lottery picks are often self selecting so not a great deal, what would have Presti done in Morey's place? probably not a lot different. Where do you go with an owner who won't let you tank and your star players fall off the edge of the universe in what should be their prime. As for Westbrook becoming more efficient than Harden, that is simply never ever ever ever going to happen. Westbrook simply takes far too many inefficient shots (long 2pt jumpers) that simply aren't good if your goal is efficiency and you don't shoot like Dirk Nowitzki. No one else shoots like Dirk Nowitzki. Combine that with the fact he can't shoot 3's to save his life and he doesn't have the body control of a Wade (best euro step and backboard user in the game) or even Harden so the short range/rim isn't his best friend either. The 3 he could develop, the body control isn't something you just learn, but not going full r****d like he did against Miami at Christmas is a head thing that he could also improve his efficiency via, but I'm not sure he has the intelligence or humility in him to stop going full r****d, at least not without a PJ style coach. (Their finals tactic was double down on Harden, accept Durant is the messiah (30ppg at 60%) and let Westbrick do his thing, worked more than it didn't, still does, except no need to double down Harden)
You basically agreed with a guy who compared Morey to KAHN. That's like agreeing with a guy who compares James Harden to Luther Head, and then backtrack to say, "Well, Harden's not above criticism, don't act like he's Lebron, folks."
If you are picking at #16, what's your target? By this i mean, what sort of percentages on "bust" "all star" and "rotation player" would you consider acceptable? Keep in mind at that range, for an all star potential to exist, a higher bust potential has to exist, this isn't the top 3.
For star potential, I think Perry Jones III and Fab Melo were two guys we didn't get that had huge potential with high bust rates. The one guy I wish we had gotten was Jarred Sullinger. I've decided to write White off for this season, and see what happens going into next season.
Morey's decisions are not above criticism. However, he is objectively well above average compared to the field of NBA GMs and well above the guy Bucher compared him to, David Kahn. Of course there are decisions that didn't work out. Of course there are guys drafted later than HOU's picks that worked out better than the HOU draftee. Happens to every GM. They all make a good number of personnel decisions, big and small, every season (and that number is absolutely huge when you consider moves they decide not to make) and some are bound not to work. For example, OKC's highly respected and successful Sam Presti drafted Cole Aldrich with a lotto pick, for example, when multiple players who have certainly been more successful in the NBA we're still available. The Spurs also wasted money and draft pick on guys like Richard Jefferson and Jacke Butler (they gave Scola to HOU to get rid of his contract). On the other hand, even the worst GMs are gonna make some good decisions (especially when the NBA keeps handing them high draft picks). What you need to do is look at a guys's overall success rate in making draft picks and moves rather than just am individual example or two. A good GM has a higher than normal batting average than a bad one, and all you can ask from a good GM realistically is to be significantly above average and not to be flawless and "above criticism" in every decision. This is what gives your team a realistic shot at becoming and remaining a title contender.
Question. How many people, analysts, CF'ers, called Morey nuts this off season? "The genius that out-smarted himself"? Drafted 2 tweener PF's after drafting 2 tweener PF's the previous year. acquired 10 undersized tweener PF's. Traded starting PG for a future pick. Not matching contract for the 2nd starting PG. No PG on the roster. Waived his only low post threat. Reached for a C that has only played in limited backup minutes, could not stay on the court because of fouls and has hands of stone. Backup C played only 30 minutes for his career while looking lost doing it. Backup SF should have been traded for peanuts. Reached for a PG that most only called average. Starting SG can only shoot, can't create, defend, and plays only the 1st 3 qtr's. Backup SG was a rookie is a carbon copy, and does not complement the starting SG. Starting PF has no post game, can't rebound or defend and has a gimpy ankle and is Charmin soft. Gave a max contract to a backup that has career ave. 12.7 ppg and disappeared in the NBA Finals. Kept a backup PG, that could not play PG.
While not all of those things, I was seriously confused at where he was going with all the PFs. I thought we gave up too much for Harden, who I didn't think could be the best player on a title team (OKC will end up with 3 lottery picks from the deal, IMO). Lesson learned. Don't doubt Morey, he has a plan. Even when he makes bad choices (i.e. Brad Miller, Trevor Ariza, David Andersen) he quickly erases it.
This isn't coming as an attack on you juicy, but since when do we classify draft picks as BUSTS in their first year? I understand we live in the age of "right now". Everything has to be immediate and we need to have success right now from the team, a player, the coach, or GM.... but these things take time, years sometimes. To classify a guy as a bust because he's having mentally issues that are preventing him to perform at his ability right now is, to me, a lot less worse than him just plain sucking on the court. We have to give these 19, 20, 21 year olds to mature and learn the game at the NBA level. If everyone could do it at LeBron's pace we'd have no college system and forget high school everyone would be coming straight out of middle school by now. Patience is something this board will never have, I've definitely come to terms with that since joining it.
