Daryl Morey. You be the judge?

[Zubby]

Not sure if serious...
I hate defending Morey punk ass too but cmon.

draft wise

2007
#26 Aaron Brooks...........should have taken...........#27 Arron Afflalo
#31 Carl Landry.............should have taken...........#48 Marc Gasol
#54 Brad Newley............should have taken...........#56 Ramon Sessions

Didn't we have McGrady, Battier, Head, Wells etc... loads on the wings with no PG and you want Affalo over Brooks!?! Brooks was beast for us.

When you start talking about #48 & #56... players that every team passed on aleast once you know you're been biased... cmon
Landry WAS beast for us! not to mention we had a guy named YAO **** MING!!!! and we need a pf... smh

2008
#25 Nicolas Batum----------should have kept him instead of trading for #28 Dontae Green
#33 Joey Dorsey------------should have taken..........#35 DeAndre Jordan, #36 Asik or #46 Dragic
#54 Maarty Luenen---------should have taken..........#60 Semih Erden

We drafted Batum for Portland... and everyone here was on Dorsey junk when we drafted him...
again We had Yao, and Jordan could barely play fundamental bball...
We have Dragic don't know wtf you brought his name up...

Semih Erden... WHO!?! wtf

2009
#32 Jermaine Taylor-------should have taken..........#37 DeJuan Blair or #43 Marcus Thornton
#34 Sergio Llull............INC
#44 Chase Budinger........good pick

Blair? didn't we have Scola/Landry! an again every team passed on Blair(knees... half board would of been up in arms drafting him) and Thornton(chucker)

2010
#14 Patrick Patterson.........should have taken.......#18 Eric Bledsoe, #19 Avery Bradley, #39 Landry Fields or Jeremy Lin

Bledsoe, Bradley, Lin(well this f*cker went undrafted...)
Muthaf*ckers don't we have Lowry/Dragic wtf we draft another pg for... Morey isn't f*cking Kahn!

and plz Landry!?! wtf u got to be kidding me Landry Fields is garbage next to Patty Pat! show me this 2 years from now!

2011
#14 Marcus Morris.........should have taken #15 Kawhi Leonard, #23 Kenneth Faried, #17 Iman Shumpert
#38 Chandler Parsons------good pick

Ok yea he done f*cked up a lil hear... but Parsons is straight beast so gtfo!

still have D-Mo in the wings

[texasholdem]

Morey has always taken the best player available, never drafted for need so all your ranting about "we had Yao" blah blah blah is pointless.

Landry Fields is garbage next to Patty Pat!

they play different positions but Fields has scored more points and grabbed more rebounds per game than PP while shooting the same percentage from the floor (48%) in their 2 seasons.

[Zubby]

Morey doesn't always take the best player available...

Example:
Blair was obviously better than Taylor and was a 1st round talent...

Fields also played on all those D'antoni teams, and PP just came from offseason surgery like a week both the season started iirc.

PP also is played out of position.

[Mr. E]

Here's my thing with Morey- He's doing the best he can in the situation that he has.

His first few years he had two very expensive, but very injured players that Les was determined to build around. That hindered what he could do as a GM. He couldn't go chasing big name players with the salary situation he was in...and he wasn't allowed to trade McGrady until the bitter end (and there was never, ever, ever, ever, EVER a chance in hell that Les would have let him trade Yao).

He had to find productive players on good contracts, and I think that he did very well with that. His worst contract signing was Ariza; but he was able to cut the losses and get out from under it quickly.

He's tried to make big moves as we know; but while he hasn't been able to close the deal on most I can't fault him for what Stern did to completely screw us with the Pau block. That move right there showed that without Yao and McGrady he had a plan and was ready to swing for the fences. I can fault him for some moves; but I have to give him credit for that one. What happened there wasn't his fault - he succeeded in a very good trade and was really done dirty by the Commish.

Morey has managed the cap like no other GM. Houston has not been synonymous with "bad contract" since he's been here. He seems good at getting those "good" to "really good" players on friendly contracts; but just hasn't hit a home run yet.

I do think that the Pau deal would have been a complete game-changer for this team. But alas, we'll never know.

I think that people who say that "he sucks" are being very unfair. I think that those who say he can do no wrong are fools. He can do wrong; but unlike most GM's who do wrong he doesn't shoot himself in the foot or go shopping for necklaces at the Albatross store.

I don't want him going anywhere. I think that he's proven to be a very good GM who has suffered from some bad luck. He does need to make an impact - this offseason, in fact. But he is a good GM and deserves the benefit of the doubt.

[Sports Arsenal]

I think that people who say that "he sucks" are being very unfair. I think that those who say he can do no wrong are fools. He can do wrong; but unlike most GM's who do wrong he doesn't shoot himself in the foot or go shopping for necklaces at the Albatross store.

I don't want him going anywhere. I think that he's proven to be a very good GM who has suffered from some bad luck. He does need to make an impact - this offseason, in fact. But he is a good GM and deserves the benefit of the doubt.

I would say that for the most part, I do agree with you. However, I would add that Morey needs to not only take a few more risk, he needs to win on some of them.

The only real risk he has taken were Ariza, Artest, and T-Will. Ariza was a definite strike out. I understand why Morey took the risk, Ariza seemed to be a very good player that had the potential to blossom out from under the wings of Kobe. It failed. Artest, can be looked at either way, the more I think about it, I dont see it as a positive nor a negative. T-Will, on the other hand was a complete strike out and it was a very poor decision. The reports were that he was a headache and a cancer, and the reports were right, and we lost a 1st rounder on him.

Something that is not talked about NEARLY enough is that the Rockets didn't seem to have nearly the problems attracting key free agents until upper management was foolish with personel management. The way that Rick and Daryl handled the McGrady situation seemed to put a bad taste in the mouth of players considering coming here. You could also consider the Von Wafer and Terrence Williams situation. I completly agreed with getting rid of that knuckle head Williams but they let his playing time be too much of a distraction for too long. Now we have a disgruntled to Lowry on our hands as well.

I am not saying that Daryl is a bad GM, but I do think that it would be best for the team to persue a GM that has a good standing with the players and a coach that is respected as well. McHale is not respected in this league for his post player days.
Indiana was able to attract the likes of David West and they are not a major market. Larry Bird? Who knows? Dallas continually adds quality free agents, they do have Dirk, but these players know that Dirk is aging and theres not a lot left in the tank there. They know that the front office is willing to do what it takes.

Just my opinion. Take it for what it is worth

[spolgar]

I think Morey is a good gm. The mark of a good leader sometimes is not just the impact of the successes, but how quickly the organization rebounds from mistakes.

Our GM does not have the draft talent evaluator that Popovich or Presti controls. That is a given. However Popovich has had a healthy trio to build around, while Presti's team has had to lose almost 200 games to get those draft picks. You could say the same for Chicago as well. While our draft mistakes cost us playoff spots, the other teams drafting mistakes merely change their prospects of home court advantage.

With regards to drafting, it is very different to evaluate overseas talent. One always has to take a risk with traditional scouting and the metrics one would normally use college basketball are seldom useful. Most of the statistical evaluating team that Morey has built around would have to adjust heavily for over seas players, especially if they didn't play in euro basket, olympics or FIBA ball.

And for prospects, sometimes they don't really survive the interview stage. I remember Morey interviewing a pretty good player who wanted to be a model. Of course, he didn't get drafted. In hindsight, Morey choosing to make fun of him a bit in a sports talk was probably a faux pas as well. More on that latter.

As per taking risks, he has courted many big market free agents and has not succeeded yet (neither has most of the league for that matter). It's not the matter of money either. Morey's cap management is superb and he can throw money at players. The issue is that this league is a superstar driven business, and there are less than 30 to go around. As per picks, he really hasn't had the opportunity to swing for the fences either.

As per coaching, Adelman has gotten a great deal of luck to coach Ricky Rubio. Rubio has been the exception that unmade the rule that Adelman generally is a veteran heavy coach. In fact, the entire team of the Wolves is young, so Adelman had no choice but to play prospects. However, when he left the Rockets he was mostly concentrated in a win-now mode. He was also given a great deal more input in the Minny front office as opposed to in Houston, where he was rumored not to have bought into the Morey's talent evaluation techniques. Mchale was brought in primarily to develop youth, which he is good at doing. He also achieved mostly the same standings for the previous two years with an arguably worse team.

I think personally, Morey's reputation precedes him, and mostly it is done in a bad way. The NYT Times articles, various blog posts on his methods of mathematical evaluation, his appearances at the Sloan Conferences have all shown folks that he is heralding a new way of doing business, and he's not afraid of showing it. Those people who are doing the same thing exercise some wisdom by keeping quiet and of course be unwilling to do a bargain with Houston, where as the rest of the league will see his success as a threat and will try not to deal with him if at all possible.

This year, we have trade chips in Martin, Scola, Morris and possibly Lowry, as well as sign and trade baits with Dragic. 3 out of those 5 are regular NBA starters, with a tweener prospect and an excellent backup. Those are some pieces to play with. I think he will fleece the competition again.

As far as I can tell, the rest of the NBA is simply catching up to what Morey has been doing since 2008. With the advent of the new CBA, the rules have more constraints. I'm betting Morey and the rest of Texas will adjust faster than the rest of the league, following shortly by Oklahoma, Portland and New Orleans.

[zapatasblood]

Morey is the best god damn GM to grace the NBA world.

Holdem it is easy to say what Morey should have done two or more after the fact.

Anyways Morey has done the best he could with what he can. At least we are not stuck in horrible contracts and have flexibility that a lot of other teams do not have. **** have flexibility in the world of the new CBA that a lot of NBA teams want. Superstars do not want to come here or be here and there ain't much you can do about that.

[moofs]

I think personally, Morey's reputation precedes him, and mostly it is done in a bad way. The NYT Times articles, various blog posts on his methods of mathematical evaluation, his appearances at the Sloan Conferences have all shown folks that he is heralding a new way of doing business, and he's not afraid of showing it. Those people who are doing the same thing exercise some wisdom by keeping quiet and of course be unwilling to do a bargain with Houston, where as the rest of the league will see his success as a threat and will try not to deal with him if at all possible.

As far as I can tell, the rest of the NBA is simply catching up to what Morey has been doing since 2008. With the advent of the new CBA, the rules have more constraints. I'm betting Morey and the rest of Texas will adjust faster than the rest of the league, following shortly by Oklahoma

Yeah, pretty much. Morey's outside-of-the-trade-table poker face could use some serious work, but it may be too late for that.

I think it's funny that some people in this thread advocated "more risk taking" then beat him around the head and shoulders for risks that didn't pay off. Maybe think a bit more about what "risk taking" really means. (Hint: IT MEANS YOU HAVE A HIGHER CHANCE OF FAILURE, not JUST that the payoff is bigger. The lottery and Vegas are the ultimate risk-taking platforms. ...Eh, that and vodka-imbibed grizzly bear wrestling... What the hell happened to Jove9, anyway?)

Again, the only thing I hold against Morey is missing out on Faried. Blair was excusable because of the knees thing. Leonard was a bit of a whiff as well, but Faried was a huge miss.

AND FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS A NEW GM, for the umpteenth time, please remember what a gem of a GM we had back when we had Dawson. Most GM's are like Dawson. Seriously, go look at his trade record and analyze it like this.

We have one that AT WORST doesn't suck and in all likelihood is probably good and very likely great with the above complex as his lone major flaw. I call it the "Nerd-based Insecurity That Originated During High School Taunting Sessions Results in Shouting about How Damn Smart You Are And Rubbing it in Everyone's Face Smugly When You Can" complex. It's the passive-aggressive outcome of youthful public humiliation.

[M4P]

Morey has always taken the best player available, never drafted for need so all your ranting about "we had Yao" blah blah blah is pointless.

Landry Fields is garbage next to Patty Pat!

they play different positions but Fields has scored more points and grabbed more rebounds per game than PP while shooting the same percentage from the floor (48%) in their 2 seasons.

Are you taking into the consideration that PP barely came off the bench and was incredibly inconsistent, while Fields has been a starter for a depleted NYK team for the past 2 seasons?

Morey has made the best out of what management has given him.

[texasholdem]

Are you taking into the consideration that PP barely came off the bench and was incredibly inconsistent, while Fields has been a starter for a depleted NYK team for the past 2 seasons?

Morey has made the best out of what management has given him.

So if PP was incredibly inconsistent that's not his fault?

My point is so far #39 pick Landry Fields has been a better NBA player than #14 pick Patrick Patterson

[Ribalding]

Are you taking into the consideration that PP barely came off the bench and was incredibly inconsistent, while Fields has been a starter for a depleted NYK team for the past 2 seasons?

Morey has made the best out of what management has given him.

So if PP was incredibly inconsistent that's not his fault?

My point is [b]so far #39 pick Landry Fields has been a better NBA player than #14 pick Patrick Patterson[/b]

You guys are going to drive yourselves crazy with the "what if" game. Besides, it's an impossible metric by which toi judge a GM.

So every GM in the league was (Please Use More Appropriate Word) except San Antonio because they drafted Tony Parker in the 2nd? And every GM in the league except for whoever drafted Rick mahorn in the 2nd round. EVERY one?

C'mon, fellas. Quit wasting bandwidth.

[College Boy]

You guys are going to drive yourselves crazy with the "what if" game. Besides, it's an impossible metric by which toi judge a GM.

So every GM in the league was (Please Use More Appropriate Word) except San Antonio because they drafted Tony Parker in the 2nd? And every GM in the league except for whoever drafted Rick mahorn in the 2nd round. EVERY one?

C'mon, fellas. Quit wasting bandwidth.

Finally a sane man has spoken! (and moofs)

Are y'all seriously faulting Morey for not picking Jeremy Lin???? I'd bet you watch football games and get mad cause they run the ball up the middle when the outside is wide open.

Everyone passed on Blair because they were afraid of what eventually became of Brandon Roy. You CAN NOT blame Morey for that. Sure, Carl Landry had knee concerns, but they were not nearly as serious as Blair's.

One year rental or not the Artest trade was a good one. We took the eventual World Champs to 7 games.

And to anyone who said Afflalo over Brooks, you're smoking crack. Let's not forget that Aaron Brooks carried us through the 1st round against Portland almost single handed. in fact, many of us were calling for him to be considered for an All-Star reserve spot. Until he got hurt, no one considered Afflalo.

And all those small time "wash" moves are pointless to look at. EVERY gm in the leagues makes those moves. It's a matter of doing due diligence by evaluating talent. You have to constantly try to make your team better, even if it's the 12th roster spot. Even still, they're 10 day contract moves.

And who brought up the Barkley trade??? What in the hell does that have to do with Morey???

At least be fair when evaluating his moves. Y'all are using a tool that NO gm has ever had the luxury of using. HINDSIGHT. It's so easy to call the T-Will trade a "Terrible" move now. But at the time everyone here saw great potential in that man. It's not Morey's fault Williams couldn't screw his head on every morning. All Morey can do is bring the talent here. He can't develop them. At the time, that was one of those good "high-risk/high reward" moves you're all saying he needs to do. But it doesn't work out, and you bash him for it? The same goes for the Trevor Ariza signing (and that wasn't that high of a risk. He signed for the MLE, it was not the end of the world people).

**Dead Horse Beat Down Alert**

In lieu of the hindsight tool we have at our disposal, remember that really up until we traded for K-Mart, any move made was for a Yao/T-Mac combo (including the Artest move). If God were not a Lakers fan, Morey would be Mayor of Houston right now. You can't compare him to OKC, LAL, MIA, DAL, or SA. They have all had a healthy core for the most part. I can't say say Houston has had a healthy core for a full season in the last what? 8 years? If health would have never been a concern, 90% of those moves would be taught at GM schools across the nation.

I will, however, give you the Marcus Morris pick. Even at the time I was yelling for Leonard or Shumpert (especially Shumpert). I still can not, for the life of me, figure why he's on our roster...

But there is a reason we always bring up the fact that Yao and T-Mac being injured makes a HUGE difference. It's because people always seem to forget it. You can't just look at those moves in light of what our current roster looks like. Imagine all those moves, but with Yao and T-Mac healthy. I'm not saying Morey would be God, but he'd at least be Jesus.

[texasholdem]

Are you taking into the consideration that PP barely came off the bench and was incredibly inconsistent, while Fields has been a starter for a depleted NYK team for the past 2 seasons?

Morey has made the best out of what management has given him.

So if PP was incredibly inconsistent that's not his fault?

My point is [b]so far #39 pick Landry Fields has been a better NBA player than #14 pick Patrick Patterson[/b]

You guys are going to drive yourselves crazy with the "what if" game. Besides, it's an impossible metric by which toi judge a GM.

So every GM in the league was (Please Use More Appropriate Word) except San Antonio because they drafted Tony Parker in the 2nd? And every GM in the league except for whoever drafted Rick mahorn in the 2nd round. EVERY one?

C'mon, fellas. Quit wasting bandwidth.

Parker was the last pick in the first round at 28.

I actually didn't give an opinion on Morey's tenure just who I would have picked instead.

[TMU]

draft wise

2007
#26 Aaron Brooks...........should have taken...........#27 Arron Afflalo
#31 Carl Landry.............should have taken...........#48 Marc Gasol
#54 Brad Newley............should have taken...........#56 Ramon Sessions

2008
#25 Nicolas Batum----------should have kept him instead of trading for #28 Dontae Green
#33 Joey Dorsey------------should have taken..........#35 DeAndre Jordan, #36 Asik or #46 Dragic
#54 Maarty Luenen---------should have taken..........#60 Semih Erden

2009
#32 Jermaine Taylor-------should have taken..........#37 DeJuan Blair or #43 Marcus Thornton
#34 Sergio Llull............INC
#44 Chase Budinger........good pick

2010
#14 Patrick Patterson.........should have taken.......#18 Eric Bledsoe, #19 Avery Bradley, #39 Landry Fields or Jeremy Lin

2011
#14 Marcus Morris.........should have taken #15 Kawhi Leonard, #23 Kenneth Faried, #17 Iman Shumpert
#38 Chandler Parsons------good pick

Look at this RealGM tough guy.

[zapatasblood]

Parker was the last pick in the first round at 28.

I actually didn't give an opinion on Morey's tenure just who I would have picked instead.

I just can't see how you would know what to do. Not even Draft experts, NBA writers and GMs have the ability that you seemingly have when it comes to drafting. Or are you saying now that this is what you would have done after seeing the results?

"What we need to remember is that assessment should be driven by process, not solely results. If a patient comes into the ER, deathly ill and profusely bleeding, and then dies on the operating table, is the surgeon a failure? Context matters. Did the surgeon take the right steps to mitigate horrendously unfavorable circumstances? It’s not enough that the desired end was not achieved. How did he do within the framework of the hand he was dealt?" Red94
http://www.red94.net/report-cards-daryl ... rt-7/9671/

[texasholdem]

Parker was the last pick in the first round at 28.

I actually didn't give an opinion on Morey's tenure just who I would have picked instead.

I just can't see how you would know what to do. Not even Draft experts, NBA writers and GMs have the ability that you seemingly have when it comes to drafting. Or are you saying now that this is what you would have done after seeing the results?
\\

Of course my list in influenced by hindsight. I never said it wasn't.

I don't see how this is any different than people who say Kevin Pritchard should have taken Durant over Oden or people who say Joe Dumars should have taken Carmelo or Wade over Darko. Hell people say Ray Patterson should have taken Michael Jordan over Akeem Olajuwon.

Most everything talked about in this forum is hindsight based. Player X shouldn't have taken this shot or should have passed it instead. Coach should have done this not that.

It was just a stupid list. Sorry it bugged so many of you.

[College Boy]

Of course my list in influenced by hindsight. I never said it wasn't.

I don't see how this is any different than people who say Kevin Pritchard should have taken Durant over Oden or people who say Joe Dumars should have taken Carmelo or Wade over Darko. Hell people say Ray Patterson should have taken Michael Jordan over Akeem Olajuwon.

Most everything talked about in this forum is hindsight based. Player X shouldn't have taken this shot or should have passed it instead. Coach should have done this not that.

It was just a stupid list. Sorry it bugged so many of you.

I, for one, NEVER understood the hype around Greg Oden, especially in comparison to Kevin Durant. I always thought that was a pick that would come back to haunt them. I mean, the man averaged 16 and 10. Don't get me wrong, that's cool and all. However KD became the first freshmen to win NPOY... And same goes for Darko (I know I know, dead horse). So those losers deserve to be crucified for their sins.

[MaxRider]

same here
don't know what is the hype about Oden other than him being 7 feet tall
i see superstar in Durant just like Duncan
i don't care who i have on the team i'm drafting him first
i don't see that in Anthony Davis so i don't really care
so far the last 2 years the players i wanted turn out better than the players Morey drafted

[zapatasblood]

I think that is the only pick that I could say should have never happen. The Oden and Durrant one but that is more so for my homerism of Texas. Huge KD fan.

Well also that our 14th from last year. If you going to draft a SF then draft one that actually is one and not an undersized PF.

[texasholdem]

I think that is the only pick that I could say should have never happen. The Oden and Durrant one but that is more so for my homerism of Texas. Huge KD fan.

Well also that our 14th from last year. If you going to draft a SF then draft one that actually is one and not an undersized PF.

So why is your opinions on those 2 draft choices different/more valid than mine?