Very rarely will I agree a first rounder is a bust after literally half the season. The only case is Royce White. Dekker is not a bust, he's not a bust until he gets a jersey on and plays, and sucks consistently. Royce never was willing to put on a jersey, on our terms, so that's why he's a special (nut)case. For anyone saying Morey's a champ for drafting Harrell, but a dud for drafting dekker this is just too soon and you're reaching. Bottom line; keep Morey, he needs to learn from THIS, change his draft approach, change his analytics only bull****, and start by hiring someone he can trust to coach. That's it. I don't want him fired, I want him progressing. He's an extremely smart guy, a hard-worker, you cannot teach those two things. He ****ed up by not valuing chemistry, professionalism, coaching strategy, etc. You don't fire him for that, you make him learn. You fire a guy that knowingly put us in a bad position by stupidity(see Billy King, David Kahn).
Morey needs to hire a proven top flight coach & empower him. This team needs structure badly. You can't have a "player's coach" or an inexperienced coach at this point because of the lack of accountability amongst the players. Allow the new HC to bring in the coaches he wants to get help him get the job done.
First of all JH was just as deserving. Secondly golden states Gm and front office did the same thing compaigning for curry.
This is all on Morey. He's of course gets the credit for bringing together two star players in Harden and Howard without tanking. However, he's also the one who decided after last year's playoff success that the team would basically stand pat. He's the one who decided to let Smith go and that Jones, DMO coming off a major injury, and Capela would be enough 4/5 support behind Howard. He's the one who decided to take a calculated risk with Lawson. Now if the team gets back in the groove and all these moves and decisions somehow work out in the long run, Morey would return to "Dork Elvis" status. But if not, he gets all the blame for the problems, as well.
Entirely too much BS in this thread. FACT: Morey is exceptional at talent evaluation and utilizing the cap rules to maximize talent influx. Morey is cutting edge at analytics which allows the Rockets front office to target players other teams pass on. Morey also works as hard as any GM in the NBA and is a master negotiator. Weaknesses: Morey left an organization with a tremendous culture in place. There was an organizational continuity and attitude that made a huge difference. When you look at SA, they have organizational leadership and expectations. The Bulls under Thibs had a clear leader and philosophy. The players in the teams knew what the leadership was, what was expected of them as players and what was and not allowed. So now for the Rockets. Morey preached that X's and O's were over rated compared to leadership. The Rockets had just let go of a coach that has a clear system and expectations; but he belittle the front office and demanded more control over personnel. He had to go. The Rockets targeted then Spurs assistant Coach Bud, but he passed. The Rockets met with Dave Joerger and Dwayne Casey. Ultimately McHale was choosen based on his leadership and the culture he could bring. The problem was that McHale was the only one with a type of culture or expectations. It was organizational wide and when McHale wanted to punish a player, it wasn't always supported by management. As a result the player did what they wanted. Future: Morey is a very good GM, but he isn't going to establish a culture or identity like Bird or Riley in the front office. So the Rockets need a very strong head coach that knows how to instill discipline, compliance with the system and the power to not play those that refuse to do as told. The perfect coach is Thibs. He is a leader, he sets the culture and identity of the team early. His team play hard and smart and his young players grow. He is an underrated offensive coach and the best defensive coach in 30-40 years. Thibs also is a good talent evaluator that doesn't expect final say but will let his opinion be know. Famously he strongly wanted Draymond Green in the draft, thr Bulls GM instead took Marquis Teague. Morey listens to his coaches on draft situations. He let Adelman get Brooks and McHale got White.
So, if this season ends up with us making the playoffs and having another deep run, despite a mediocre regular season, will some of you still call for Morey to go? Curious.
And how will we make a deep playoff run? Because it isn't with the way the team is put together now. Half of them play as if they anticipate wearing new uniforms soon. Do tell do tell do tell. "Birds of a feather" and all that. (Flagrant way of slapping around someone for inside info.) :grin:
RC - yes Bob Myers- Debatable. His best acquisitions were the drafting of Green and hiring of Kerr. Riley deserves more credit for that team, as he got them the core of Curry and Thompson. But I can see it. I give him a yes too. Ainge - yes Riley - Not anymore, but 20 years ago, probably. Getting LeBron for free doesn't count as shrewd GM'ing. Anyone could have been the GM of Miami and the same thing would have happened. Miami was bad before that and has been bad since then. I guess you can hand it to Riley for getting Shaq and the refs for being corrupt and gifting them a championship in 06. Presti - LOL no. Morey is right around there in the top 5. There are 2-3 guys certainly better than him. And maybe 1-2 more who are debatable. The Rockets have not really had a losing season in 10 years. It takes a great GM to accomplish that.
to me it all depends on his next coaching hire. there are major pros and cons to morey as GM. he makes great roster moves, but assumes too much control of the game plan. i think mchale was brought in to help rebuild a young team. he's decent at player development, while adelman wouldn't give the young guys any time. he was also key in recruiting dwight. however, i think the unintended consequence was morey getting too comfortable calling some coaching shots since mchale didn't seem to have his own ideas. what this team needs is a coach who will hold everyone, including harden, accountable to play defense and move the ball and themselves on offense. someone with a set system besides "run and shoot 3's" would be nice too. but will morey allow a coach to coach, or is he now addicted to the power? if he hires another puppet coach, i'd say its safe to remove him.
I think as far as hiring/firing coaches - Morey is the puppet GM that hires the coach that Les has in mind.
