What EVIDENCE do we have that Morey is doing a great/good job?

So a gm in training can convince the same owner to trade the 8th pick for shane, yet he can't convince the same owner to mover forward with younger players? Give me a freaking break!

How come we didn't hear about les meddling at the end of the olajuwon era? How come all of a sudden les has turned into steinbrenner or daniel snyder when this was never the case before? Y'all are just reaching for something and trying to blame anyone.

I think morey has done a good job, but this team is in worse shape than it was years ago despite shedding the cap killers of yao and tracy.

 

We aren't. Our flexibility has paid off in the past, allowing Morey to flip decent players for players like Kevin Martin and Ron Artest, and it will pay off in the future. We nearly flipped Martin and Scola (whom we obtained for practically nothing) for Pau Gasol. If that trade had worked out and we had Gasol and Nene at the 4 and 5, there would be no questioning Morey's strategy. I'm confident he'll be able to make this team a competitor.

 

Morey's LONG-TERM direction for this team has proven to be questionable at best. You could blame it on other things such as stars wanting to pair up but the fact of the matter is that it hasn't worked. Other GMS around the league at least have their own long-term vision for the future, and the GOOD ones are executing them, either if it's by tanking, or by attracting free agents by clearing up cap space (such as New York).

What exactly is Morey doing? He has so far wasted 3 years and his long-term vision isn't working, it's not happening, the Gasol trade was an act of desperation, ask Morey and he will tell you that Gasol isn't what he was looking for at the start. Morey didn't think to himself "hey, let's acquire a bunch of assets and trade for an aging 31 year old Pau Gasol", no, he was aiming for CP3, Howard etc. He *settled for Pau Gasol because w/o that trade, his last 3 years would have NOTHING to show for it, proof of failure as a GM.

If Morey was/is smart, he would realize that his plan is not working, and that is an indictment on the quality of him as a GM, you can make small trades etc. but the bottom line is that his long-term plan he has failed to execute. Morey needs to give up on his failing plan and go for a different one, or else he should get fired and we should bring in someone who will change up plans.

Are we really going to blame the "changing landscape of the NBA" on Morey's inability to attract a star? Morey should have realized this earlier or else that's his fault for not and leading the Rockets down a path with little chance of success.

 

Cap wise I'd say we're in better shape, actually.

Team-wise we're worse. Because we no longer have Yao or Tracy (back when they were good/healthy).

 

This board is ridiculous! Do you guys remember what our roster was in 04-05? Do you guys remember our roster when we took the lakers to 7? Just to remind you guys this is the team Morey put around Yao and T-Mac.

Yao/Dikembe/Hayes
Scola/Landry/Hayes
Battier/Artest
Mcgrady/Wafer
Brooks/Lowry.

Our BACKUPS would have been a competent starting lineup. Is it his fault McGrady screwed the whole organization by being a p***y? When that was known Morey tried to rectify the situation and had a trade in place for Carter. But no McGrady lampooned that deal with a surgery. That team had a bunch of players from Morey's regime: Scola, Landry, Artest, Wafer, Lowry, Brooks.

Brooks drafted when everyone questioned the need for a PG
Landry drafted when everyone again questioned the move
Scola traded for V-Span and Butler
Wafer picked up in FA
Lowry traded for Alston
Artest traded for Green and a future late first?

Wtf is wrong with you people. TMAC pussied out, dikembe went down in the first round, yao went down in the second. With all of that he kept a team that is still able to compete, he's still drafting well, and trying to rebuild on the fly. THe man said its best to rebuild through the draft but Mr. Alexander wants to remain competitive. You cant question the past, and if you question the future direction, then get mad at the owner.

The leagues changed Team USA members want to play with each other and win, not win on their own. If you don't have a member of the redeem team then you have to get a guy from the CAA agency on your team or have a budding superstar. The league has changed and Morey's doing his best to keep up but it doesnt help with Stern screwing us over.

 

Morey fans have been acting in the same way as TMac fans.
...finding all kind of excuses...
but they can not face the fact that the team failed for playoff in 2 seasons already and very likely will do again in this season... the worse thing is the team shows no hope atm.

 

sorry, once personal attacks start, you lose me.

fyi though, none of this post really makes much sense. Personal attacks, straying way off topic, and putting words into my mouth are telltale signs that you don't have much of an argument. Ciao.

 

Man some of you guys are maddening. Now I remember why I go months without posting in this damn subforum. But once I start up again it's like an abusive relationship, I just can't stop myself from coming back to it.

Name a GM who you guys think would have done a better job these past 4 years, and why. I'd at least like to hear the arguments.

 

Winning records for seasons with $30,000,000+ in salary injured.

Now that that's out of the way, the real test begins.

 

Agree wholeheartedly. This has been SOP for the Rockets as long as Les has owned the team. And, it's the coach who takes the fall when things don't work out. It was that way for Rudy T, JVG, RA and McHale is now on deck. He hung onto Yao not for basketball reasons but because Yao was a slot machine that kept paying out. He's handcuffed Morey's hands because he doesn't want to "rebuild" this team which effectively dooms them to mediocrity. He is the primary reason the Rockets now find themselves painted into a corner.

 

bingo. i said exactly this in another thread. the nail couldn't have been hit more squarely on the head. people just refuse to understand this though. instead, they take it a step further, and excuse morey and give him eternal immunity from criticism because stern stopped it. it boggles my mind that people buy into a lineup of gasol, nene (maybe), and kyle lowry being appreciably better than what we have now.

morey's tenure, in my opinion, has been one act of pulling the wool over fans' eyes after another.

 

Yes, because its very easy to trade injured players. We had to ride those contracts out because we had no other choice.

 

When you look at the outrageous contracts Cuban has given out to the likes of Shawn Bradley, Rafe LaFrenz and the late, lamented Eric Dampier, there is NO way you can conclude that he was "discovering and exploiting market inefficiencies". Cuban is basically an idiot but now he's an idiot who has finally seen the light. As such, he'll be a much better owner than he was previously which is bad news for the Rockets as long as Les owns the team.

 

It's hard for GM to succeed when the owner handcuffs him, then it's even hard when he gets the opportunity and the commissioner ****s all over his opportunity.

 

Those moves all took place 7+ years ago with Don Nelson as GM. Either way, I was just pointing out your misconception about what Moneyball was.

 

Boozer and okur was their big free agent prize and ak-47 was their returning star. Boozer missed 31 games and ak-47 missed 41 games, so yeah they won 26 games and got Derron williams. They added him to a mix of 23-25 yr old players and went from a 26 win club to conf finalist in less than 3 yrs. So they were bad 1 yr out of the last 20 despite letting 2 hof leave for nothing. Tracy and Yao left for nothing and he's no hall of famer and look where the rockets are.

 

lets not forget martin for tmac; scola for vspan; artest for bunch of nobodies; turning a mistake in ariza into lee; having a deal in place to turn kmart, lowry, dragic into pau, nene and chuck before nba screwed him over

 

Anyway, can we just retire the expression "Moneyball" when we're talking about Morey and our front office? I mean, it's just analytics. Gathering as much data as possible and trying to look past conventional wisdom and statistics. It's quantifying the impact of a guy like Chuck Hayes and yes, finding undervalued guys through the draft. And buying low and selling high on players -- that's not Moneyball, it's just good business.

To me it's just a more advanced, nuanced form of scouting. Like what Morey said at the McHale hiring, how they looked past the shooting %s and focused on the increase in quality shots whenever McHale took over as an interim coach.

It seems like the stats angle is almost like a dirty word for some people. It's like in baseball, when some fans will automatically say "defensive stats have no meaning, etc., etc.," and ignore the face that systems like Dewan's +/- system that looks at video of every individual play to determine positive and negative fielding plays.

Dunno, just a pet peeve.

 

I think we have different definitions of mediocrity. I consider 2 (and probably 3) straight lottery years mediocrity.

Morey has done a great job of keeping this team from totally sucking on ice the last few years. But as a hardcore Rockets fan for the last 30-something years, I expect more than that before I consider your tenure "great."

And I respectfully disagree with your opinion about the trade. Gasol's best years are behind him and Nene is overrated and not exactly a spring chicken himself. We're trying to build a team around these 2 guys? Really??

 

Like the one that was the reason for his departure? Ring a bell? The one where he told him he wanted the team to play "up-tempo" and more "Phoenix-like" (D'antoni phx).

Epilogue: So what happened - he went out and hired Adelman- time to run & gun, right? Wrong, hard to run & gun when you have a 7-6 lummox, and the Rockets pace stayed the same until Yao left. But hey, at least they were more Phoenix like)

Srsly? Les has hundreds of millions invested in China, as well as millions of dollars staked on marketing Yao directly. Morey had zero leverage to ditch Yao.

This whole thing is basically you just typing "Battier trade Battier trade Battier trade" all over again. Get over it - the Rockets made a win-now move, forfeiting a win-later player in Gay. Results were mixed. Life happens.