Somewhere, Carroll Dawson is smiling at what was his young apprentice. Surely, the Rockets' current master architect, Daryl Morey, reminds the only championship GM in Houston's illustrious history of himself. When he and Rudy realized they probably didn't have the most dominant team in the league, yet had possibly the most dominant player in Olajuwon, they devised an entire system around exploiting it. Every offensive possession was designed around getting the true Nigerian Nightmare (sorry Christian Okoye) the ball because in the end, no one could stop him. It was beautiful in its' sheer simplicity and eventually helped to spark a leaguewide rule change regarding postplay defense and defensive 3 second rules. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumbinant Fast forward to the Francis years and you'll see Rudy and Carroll at it again, realizing that they were in the same situation as before team talent-wise. They didn't have the most dominant player in the L anymore, but had a couple of phenomenal one-on-one isolation scorers in Steve and Cuttino Mobley. They surrounded them with likewise talents (Moochie pre-contract and Timmy Breaux) rode them to productive seasons until Stern stepped in with more rule changes. No longer could 1 man be isolated on one side of the court and the Rox effectiveness was somewhat lessened. Still, a valiant effort to exploit defenses' weaknesses. Morey's flux capacitor Morey appears to have found another tear in the NBA fabric and may be able to ride it to championships the same way as Rudy and Carrol did. It's the foul game. Just about every player on the the Rockets current team, minus Shane "I need to be traded while I have some value" Battier and some lesser rotation players, has the ability to rack up fouls on the opponent at an alarming rate. Brooks, Lowry, Martin, Yao (eventually), Scola, and Trevor "I need to penetrate 5 times before shooting anymore 3 pointers" Ariza all have games which can put opponents in the bonus halfway through a quarter. When your best players - Martin, Yao, Scola and Aaron - are all good to excellent FT shooters that's a virtual death sentence for opposing defenses. These guys LOOK to get fouled and get to the line. Sinister Stern Which brings me to the pitchforked one, David Stern. How will you step in to try to stifle the Rockets' plans this time around? We have a team that can potentially toss up 50 freebies per night and hit 85% of them. I know his job is to sell the best product possible and watching a team win championships by shooting freethrows may not be the most entertaining widget on the market, but if DWade can do it, why can't our entire roster?? I applaud Morey for finding a niche, a plan, for getting us to the championships again, and sincerely believe we will eventually get there. Unless Stern steps in and says to not call fouls in Rocket games (not unbelievable, but certainly treacherous), we're going to drive and flop and flip and nudge our way to the top. Good job, Daryl. Your connection to the CD-Rudy era served you well and you will eventually, hopefully, have them sitting next to you on Rocket championship parade floats.
Whether influenced through Stern or not, we all know that Yao will have his trouble with fouls both offensively and defensively. It's like the refs follow a different set of rules when Yao's involved.
Nice thread. But we all know the refs will just limit the foul calling in our games, rox always find a way to get screwed. If the refs notice their giving us more calls, look for them to start making phantom calls on the other side.
But will this be enough to beat all the powerhouses in the NBA? I know drawing fouls early and getting to the line is a + but sometimes that plan would backfired too. I do have to admit that Morey pulled off something great. I'm glad they got Kevin Martin instead of Iggy or Butler. Though Butler is a good all around player, Kevin Martin is a more efficient scorer out of the three.
Daryl Morey has figured out the Rudy/CD secret, but it's not what the OP says. The secret is this (protected by spoiler to prevent other executives from googling this answer): Spoiler African American players. Rudy and CD drafted and traded for a lot of them and was able to win championship with Hakeem (born African, but naturalized so he became African American later in life), Clyde, Thorpe, Smith, Maxwell, Horry, etc. Now Morey is carrying on the tradition with the acqusition of guys like Aaron Brooks (his first draft pick), Carl Landry, Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin. In fact, most of the guys Morey acquired since taking over have been African American. It's not a coincidence. Excellent article, but I am still trying to figure out where Matt Maloney, Kevlvin Cato, Mo Taylor, etc. fit into the CD/Rudy plan and how Morey might replicate such moves.
If I am understanding this correctly your saying Morey like CD/Rudy before him found a way around the corrupt NBA trying to keep the Rox down? All NBA teams try to find their "advantage" and exploit it to their best ability and while some are successful others not so much. Morey's Jedi training taught him well and he is using "The Force" to his advantage but The Lakers have their method, so do the Spurs and now OKC/Portland have found a blueprint for their success. Everyone does their "thing", its what makes the NBA so great. Oh yea, well written...good stuff
nice post/thread.. except for the Tim Breaux reference. I don't know how he fits into the Steve/Cat/Moochie discussion on isolation-centric players. He never really played at all.. and he wasn't a part of those years. Sorry to nitpick, but it was out of place for such a well-written post!
Scola? Andersen? Budinger? (Each of these players he purchased for $3M, each of these players he traded future considerations for as well). Traded a high draft pick for Battier (who I don't think is 100% African American) Majority of players in this league are African American. So the majority of Morey's picks being African American has nothing to do with their race and everything to do with talent.
Morey figgered out African American talent was under-utilized and exploited the other team's misunderstanding. Scola Budinger and Anderson are acceptions to da rule man.
nice post but it's not as if this strat is anything remotely close to iso plays. it's closer to using on base average in baseball to find good hitters than it is building your team around iso players. getting to the line is one of the most basic things in organized basketball. also...scola, brooks, and ariza don't exactly get to the line that often.
Yeahhh!!!! Sorry but i'm not following you on this one??? I'm black and not half and like the poster stated earlier.... 80% of the NBA is black... I don't think Morey is looking at color, he's looking at guys as assets, like a finance person would. He's looking what can I do with this asset, how it fit in with my plan, how much will it COST ME and what is the trade in value to increase my over all value of the project... Sorry bro... but I can't back or follow you on this one.
1) I have never thought of Morey as CD's apprentice. They weren't together very long, and I always had the impression that the overlap was done to allow Les to evaluate Morey on the job. Morey was considered a risky hire at the time due to his relatively young age and inexperience in basketball related things. Everyone knew he was a smart and capable guy, but there was a chance that he just wasn't fit for the GM position. Also, it probably wasn't possible to get up to speed on the advanced stat analysis instantly. Les had to invest in a lot of staff and equipment to make that possible - the Rockets front office I understand is pretty large. 2) I don't see much of a philosophical similarity between the two of them. EVERY GM in the NBA shares the understanding that a combination of star players and role players are required to win a championship. CD and Morey both fall into this category, but that isn't a defining thing, it just makes them both NBA GMs. Building a team (and offense) around Hakeem was the only sane option the Rockets had. 3) Under Rudy and CD, the Rockets always ran isolations. It wasn't because of the rules, it was just how Rudy coached his teams. It worked with Hakeem and Drexler, but it didn't with Francis and Mobley. It didn't really even matter if a star player was out there, they would still run isolations. Think Othella Harrington, Carl Herrera, Scottie Pippen, Kevin Willis, and the other guys that weren't great isolation guys, but were still given plays. 3) Regarding the novel exploitation of the rulebook, I'm not convinced that drawing fouls fits into that category. Drawing fouls is something that is considered an almost primary BB skill. Just one step removed from regular stats like FG%. Morey is placing a higher than average priority on it than most, but I think he is looking at MANY stats (which we may never know) that other GMs aren't considering carefully. Aaron Brooks is possibly his best move to date, and I don't think he draws an exceptionally high number of fouls. 4) I think the defining characteristic of Morey's philosophy on personnel is actually quite a bit different than CD's. CD was VERY willing to sacrifice depth to get the star player. He always wanted to execute the big blockbuster trade that would save the franchise. Morey may have just executed a blockbuster, but I think he would describe himself as an incrementalist. He is constantly trying to upgrade with the even the smallest moves. I'll use examples: -Could you imagine Morey trading Horry and Cassell for Barkley? -Could you imagine CD paying cash for an extra 2nd round pick because it might become a trade asset in the future? Just thinking out loud... what would Morey have done at the end of the Hakeem era?
