I think it's quite simple, the majority of his moves have worked in the Rockets favor. Meaning we got back more than we gave away. If you're judging him on team success then you must judging him on his inability to foresee injuries to Yao and T-Mac (which I suppose could be valid).
Damn right. The days of handing out 6-year deals to scrubs like Matt Maloney, Brent Price, and Kelvin Cato are thankfully long gone. Not to mention repeatedly squandering 1st round picks on garbage like Rodrick Rhodes, Bryce Drew, and Mirsad Turkcan.
Come on man, get your Rockets history straight http://www.clutchfans.net/news/1333/swift_gay_dealt_for_battier/ Rockets GM Carroll Dawson seemed frustrated with the media when he was asked questions about the deal at the Toyota Center, saying he would only talk about Rudy Gay. I'd be frustrated too if I had been a team executive for more than a decade and just committed the cardinal sin of violating the "Jerry West Rule", as the NBA GM handbook clearly states: 4.2 - If Jerry West calls you on Draft Day seeking to acquire your selection, proceed with the following: 1. Ask him which player he is pursuing. 2. After he responds, quickly hang up. 3. Promptly choose that player for yourself. 4. Disconnect/disable phone. No, Rudy Gay is no sure thing, even if Jerry West saw something in him, but he does have star potential and as assistant GM Daryl Morey stated about the NBA: "You need guys who are significantly better than the average to win."
Exactly. He has made really good smaller moves and is not even a season removed from having Two Superstars burdening his roster with Max contracts. You can really only judge him negatively from what he does from NOW on. This is his first chance to overhaul a roster and make it his own. At the beginning of this season, with a healthy Yao (which by doctors recognition he was) some analysts picked the Rockets to be dark horses to win it all. Thats not what I consider being irrelevant. Yao went down and the organization was already prepared for retooling even before Yao went down. No other team in the NBA has the flexibility now to go in so many different directions and still be a competitive team in the process. -There really is only 4 teams in the NBA that you can rely on to have winning programs every year in the NBA and even those teams have had some rebuilding years in-between. Remember LA before the Gasol trade (even with a superstar in Kobe) and the Celtics before the Big Three trade( even with an all star in Paul Pierce). -Good organizations have transition years, and the Rockets are no different. Feel fortunate we have a smart, motivated, and business savy GM and Owner who are committed to winning and not some shmuck like Isiah Thomas running the show.
Injury issues will always sabotage the best laid plans, and the Rockets have had more than their share. In order to appreciate what Morey has been able to do since he took over, look at the players who suited up the year before. Outside of Tracy and Yao (at that time) and, the rest of the roster was extremely weak compared to the rest of the league. Morey has fixed that issue, but when the centerpiece goes out AGAIN...well, there's only so much that can be done.
what everyone has said, plus.. very few franchises could position themselves to have a ton of useful assets and a competitive team after losing 2 franchise players to injury. If most other franchises lost 2 franchise players, they would have more than 1 year below .500...I think it SEEMs like we might only have to deal with this year below .500 (and last year missing the playoffs) before Morey has us back in contention. And it's because his moves have built in the flexibility to deal with a situation like this, whereas most other GMs are caught watching when they find the "right mix"
How quickly people turn. When Yao went down, this turned into another bye year for Morey and Adelman. Judge Morey by what he does in the offseason, dealing with Yao and shoring our weaknesses.
The Rockets were looking lottery bound after the trade for T-Mac. Les did not want Ward on the team but JVG pushed hard to get him signed as his starting PG. That became a major setback. The trades for Wesley & Barry saved that season.
As many have already stated..there's not much Morey could have done with the injuries. When you have 60+% of you're payroll tied up in two injured superstars, you have very little leverage to go out and sign big name players...which he's been criticized for heavily here. Morey turned this roster completely around and had 2 opportunities for a big playoff run if we hadn't lost Yao in the 22-game win streak season and the ron-ron season. To put things in perspective ... over 300 games under Adelman + Morey, Tmac and Yao played in less than 80 games together. Look at the garbage Cleveland has dealt with without Lebron. Same thing may happen to Denver. Dallas lost 6-games str8 earlier this yr when Dirk went out, and Spurs have struggled when Manu has been unhealthy in the past. Morey's biggest downfall as Rockets GM has been bad luck regarding healthy star players..
he got us Ron Artest a few years ago, and we reached the 2nd round of the playoffs for the first time since 1997
If you do it once or twice, it's luck. If you do it repeatedly, it's not. Maybe Morey's system works really well at identifying players in the draft that others are undervaluing.
^If this is accurate, this should be required reading for all Rox fans. That's a completely mind-blowing stat. Great info!
Why do I still like him even while stuck in mediocrity? Look at our roster. Name one bad contract. People bash him now because he doesn't have any home runs, like grabbing franchise players through risk-taking is easy. But look...every elite team in the league is either elite because it's a glamor city that everyone wants to be in, or because they drafted a franchise star, or both. It's not because their GM is awesome...even the GMs that get praise for being awesome (Presti, for example) were basically handed can't-miss or near-can't-miss talent in the draft. Morey got the short end of the stick in that two franchise stars were in the process of dying as he entered, and people haven't given him adequate time to recover from that.
To clarify this so as not to be misunderstood, I LOVE the team that Presti put around Durant, I just won't give him singular credit for the Thunder being a good team when he got such a good base to build on with KD.
Scola came from the Spurs. In any case, I think Morey has done a great job within the limits that have been imposed upon him (I mean injuries). We were a championship contender with Yao and TMac (especially when Artest was added). Morey went all-in as he should have with Yao, and unfortunately it did not work out. I think Morey will really be tested now, because it is time to rebuild and I think he will be reluctant to do so.
