A thread like this is reassuring because it highlights how good Morey's really been for us. The front office has just made smart move after smart move since taking over the franchise, and it's only a matter of time before we cash in some of these assets for a franchise cornerstone. Maybe it happens this year, maybe not, but the future is bright with Morey at the helm!
Why isn't the Artest trade getting any love? Scola was a good get, but there was still more risk because he was unproven in the league. This was a proven commodity, under 30, for late first round picks that could have been outright bought in the first place. Wheeling and dealing at its purest form. 1- Swiping Batum, whom SA supposedly wanted 2- Getting the FA that immediately put the Rockets into contender status.
Here's why the Scola pickup was better than the Martin-Landry-T-mac-Draft picks pickup: The technical merits of the two trades: The Martin-Landry-T-mac move was impressive due to the crafty sequencing of the trade. He feigned a straight-up trade w/ the Kings knowing that it would make the Knicks desperate to not get locked out of the deal, which exposed their bluff and forced them to give up the picks and Hill. That created some serious value, bringing in two badly needed pieces (a top flight SG that fits perfectly into the strategic plan to get outside shooting, a bit of slashing, and rack-up massive amounts of foul shots plus some length at the 4) and creating potential for the future. The Spurs trade was impressive for a different reason. Morey exploited the Spurs inability to incorporate a PF, while literally giving up nothing. He took garbage and acquired a top-10 PF to play for 3 mil. And he did this against one of the best front offices in the league. Overall, the creativity and value-creation of the Martin-Landry-T-mac move was a notch above the Scola move. Impact: But the reason I put the Scola trade on top is that the Scola trade allowed us to give up Landry, which allowed us to make the trade for Martin. Once we had two very good PFs--they were redundant. Both were assets in huge demand with production way higher than their pay. Without Landry as an asset, we don't get Martin and if we wouldn't have been able to pretend that we could shut out the Knicks from the t-mac deal, which means that we wouldn't have been able to squeeze as much out of them as we did.
I am a BIG fan of Morey, but no, that was almost definitely a Morey move, not a CD move. I think that is clear from the various internet articles and papers (don't ask me to link) and the various BBS threads on the topic. Plus, I actually heard it from someone who clearly was in the know (the person did not specifically state "it was a Morey move" but instead said "it was a moneyball move and the front office had to talk Les into the deal because he initially was hesitant given Battier's less than stellar stats." He was pretty clear as to who's move it was. He did acknowledge that at the time they did not think that Rudy would improve by as much as he would. On the other hand, Rudy is now one of the MOST overpaid players in basketball in my opinion. No way we would have kept him at that price (although I suspect we could have gotten value in a sign and trade).
Read the no stats all star article. He dif. takes"credit" for making the trade. CD just said hee made the move so Morey wouldn't have to take the back leash before he became the gm.
I'd go with Scola just because for the Martin trade, we had to give up Landry, who was so huge for us and he was just getting started. He was such a gritty player and great offensive rebounder. I miss having that kind of depth at the 4.
The Ron Artest trade was his best move bar none. If you don't think so then you have something against Ron or a short memory. - He made a move that put us in contention for a championship (on paper). - We were supposed to rival the Celtics big 3 for best big 3 in the NBA. - Morey gave up very little in retrospect for Artest who was coming off a very nice year with Sac. -The board went crazy. It was literally mass hysteria with members saying "crown us". I know things didn't work out according to planned but that's neither Morey or Artet's fault. The trade for Artest helped us accomplish something we didn't do for a decade. Get out of the first round.
It's IMO by far the Tmac & Landry for Martin+picks+Jeffries. Of course if we go by results only, it's very easy to say that the move to get Scola is the best one but it's almost moronic to base these things on results alone. If Scola had turned out to be more like Andersen, which had to have been a possibility, there would have been hundreds of "Lolwut, why Morey trade for this Eurotrash, why he no trade for Chris Wilkox?" type of posts. Scola exceeded the expecations. Andersen fell short. While they are of course not totally comparable, the expected value of moves of that caliber is somewhere in the middle. Same logic goes for the draft picks. The picks are good if they outperform their "draft range" in the long run. It's pretty early to say much about Morey's drafting (especially because apparently Morey doesn't ever find anybody, it's either Adelman, Lindsay, some scout or the towel boys..) OTOH, as someone said, the "craftmanship" and bargaining skills Morey showed in the T-Mac trade were something awesome. The hours and minutes went by and the deal just kept getting better and better. Even if that deal alone never amounts to much in respect of making us a contender (Martin gets injured again, we screw up the Knicks picks, we can't flip Jeffries for anything useful etc.), it was still a master stroke in my opinion.
I'm tempted to pick flipping V-Span for Scola but it could be argued just about any GM could get "lucky" in a straight up swap like that. Mind you, I'm not suggesting Morey got "lucky" and didn't do his homework -- nothing of the sort. Just saying some straight up swaps can be hit-or-miss by nature and this was a very extreme example of that. His best move was the Sacramento/NY trade that brought us all Martin, Hill and all the NY picks, IMO. Sure, we gave up Landry but the fact of the matter is Morey absolutely NAILED that trade and completely defied two GM's that told him "NO" to three things: 1) Kevin Martin was untouchable, 2) Jordan Hill wasn't available and 3) Walsh wanted those NY picks protected to high hell. Morey outmaneuvered and completely undressed each GM on every single matter addressed there. He had stated his goal all along was to acquire an established All-Star caliber SG and not only did he do that but he managed to secure Hill and the NY picks as well. It doesn't get much prettier than that.
The Artest trade, even though he was only here for a year, I loved that trade. Greatest day of my life, I had just been told by my eye doctor I didn't need my glasses anymore, I flip on ESPN and I see that we acquired Ron Artest, I had it all planned it out, how we'd match up with the Celtics and Lakers. It was great. A top notch player for an unproven rookie, a third string pg and a draft pick? Robbery.
Morey won a playoff series for us, we finally see hope instead of a team that's a bunch of regular season pretenders.
He's done a pretty good job of managing the sc and improving the team without negating the team's future, and while that shows he's compotent, it's nothing to praise. His best move, which is often overshadowed, was giving Rox fans a reason to be optimistic.
It was only 3/4 of a season, but plucking Von Wafer outta nowhere was a key move for the 08-09 season. Equally as good as the Artest move and moving Brooks to starter/Lowry in as backup.
