158 replies to this topic

[Kade]

I may as well start a thread instead of saying it in a number of threads currently running.

It's time for Morey to go. Fired. Let go. Whatever. Just go. You seem like a great guy, a cool guy in fact and would probably love having a beer with. Enjoyed your past podcast with your friend Bill Simmons (by the way those no longer happen and Simmons has alluded to Morey has to step it up or could be gone so is that why?) and sure you are a great guy.
That said, you aren't suited to run an NBA team.
The Morey/Money Ball way or running a sports team is proven to be a failed one. There's nothing to reinvent or look at differently when it comes to the NBA. Finding obscure stats to acquire "hidden" talent won't get you a championship or even a postseason series win. Morey you are a smart guy and deep down you have to know this. Don't point to the Yao years as if you were the person who assembled that team, in fact point to those years where it was because the team had two players who could be a threat to any team. Look at every winning team in the NBA and none will have nor will ever resemble the teams you have formed under your leadership.
Stick with the stats convention or work in the back office or perhaps at the college level your style may work. One thing for sure it'll never, ever work in the NBA.
If you want to say you never had the chance to get a Lebron or Kobe well again you have failed as a GM. There's another way to win in the NBA and be at minimum a threat to win it all, through the draft.
Your love of dealing too many players to make your teams just good enough has set the Rockets back years. Where you see upside and gems everybody else who is successful sees as "complimentary" players.
You do have an excellent knack at finding complimentary players but it ends there. You simply won't allow the team to get worse in order to take the chance at the lottery and strike it gold.

The talk of alluring elite players to come will not happen. You have implied this, your fans have implied this but it will never happen. I guess if you say it enough every year it'll happen. It won't. Unless you are a historic franchise or already have a legit elite hall of famer player it won't happen. Look at history as prime example. Getting in the lottery or lottery picks is how it's done. Take away the LA and Celtics and Bulls franchises and you'll clearly see this. Miami had Wade and they were buddies with Lebron and Bosh. Unless you know for a fact that a player is best friends with Durant or Kobe then it won't happen.

Your hiring in coaches have gone from a great to the absolute worse. This is another flaw you clearly have. Perhaps it's "value" you see or that you relish in wanting to prove everyone else wrong. McHale is a failed GM like yourself and a failed coach. You love young "gems" yet hire a coach who won't play them cause that's how he runs a team. See a problem there?

Some people on this board claim McHale and certainly not you was responsible in drafting White, a player rightfully so was passed on by 15 other teams. There were still upside picks to be had at that point w/o the clear cut issue White had. If this is true then this is another reason why you should step down as GM. You can't on one hand say you know and have a plan on how to make the Rockets better only to pass the buck off and have your head coach draft players. You GM, your coach coaches not draft.
I suspect this isn't true, I think to take the heat off of embarrassment you are putting it on McHale.

If you honestly want the Rockets to one day become a success please step down from GM job. You either don't believe or want to believe that the proven ways to win (lottery, elite players sign with your team) apply to you when you are wrong. And take our HC and White with you. You guys made this mess and the fans and city should no longer have to deal with it.

[tombrokeoff]

what if les never green lights "tanking" to get good draft pics? he is trying to run a business afterall. win games to sell tickets. tanking may help the team build but it would hurt ticket sales for a good 2-3 years. IMO

[thejohnnygold]

Dude, much like Tracy McGrady's back and Yao Ming's feet, you are a constant, repeating downer for the rest of us.

[bboley24]

No tank. Acquire assets. Trade assets. Build franchise.

Boston with the massive complimentary player trades to get KG and RA. Detroit's stockpile of amateurs.

It's another path that you "Kade" do not believe it because it's not a get rich quick scheme. Some people strike gold. MANY people strike out. You can point to 4 or 5 franchises in the last 20 years that have struck gold through the draft but think of the other 25 teams that went for broke.

Portland's first rounders breaking ankles and knees. Charlottes multitude at striking it rich in the draft. Clipper pursuit of first rounders never panning out for the last 243052398 years.

Morey, keep it comin' baby. You get some more chandler parsons, carl landrys, aaron brooks, luis scolas, cuttino mobleys, Otis Thorpes and stockpile them. That brings us some Clyde Drexlers, Tracy Mcgradys and James Hardens.

I don't want to look like the Bobcats, Clippers and Twolves swinging for the fences every year. 8th seed in the playoffs with a solid, no nonsense team working for victories (ie Grizzlies and Warriors) has no proven to not bring in championships. But these teams are poised to make moves just as we are. It just takes that one move to make it all happen. Boston style.

[thejohnnygold]

Speaking of T-Mac and Yao, truly it is their unfortunate injury history that hamstrung the rockets. Morey built excellent rosters to succeed around those two stars. Ultimately, it never came to fruition because of injuries...that and utah's match-up advantage over us in the playoffs. This was followed by the league rendering Kevin Martin impotent as a "star" player with the rule change that eliminated one of his best talents. It's unfortunate, but I don't see how any of that is Morey's fault.

As for the coaches, I'm not sold on McHale, but I'm willing to wait out the season with him and see how things progress. Ya know, Adelman isn't exactly doing all that great in Minny...and that is with the highly coveted Kevin Love. Although, I am sure that is McHale's fault since he used to be there.

Given the draft picks we have had, Morey has drafted incredibly well. I think only San Antonio does as well with so little.

[PKM]

Here's the thing I've never understood about the tanking: why the draft? Why is the draft somehow so special? From my perspective, the draft is viewed as special out of pure, simple "that's how everyone has done it before" stuff.

I am utterly baffled that Morey, when he has finally gotten an All-Star at the minimum and a superstar at best, a guy who if you look back at the 2009 draft is at absolute worst the 3rd best player ( and realistically more like the best), a guy who teams will tank to get, can be criticized at all at this point. There is only one Lebron James every decade. If your goal is to literally accept no compromises between that one Lebron James or nothing and take it through the draft, then be prepared to have an incredibly bad team for an incredibly long amount of time. Because that requires incredible luck and not much more.

We have the All-Star who the Rockets have been trying to get. It will take more than two months to put a good supporting cast ( and we have some of the pieces, namely Parsons and Asik) around him.

As for Royce White? If flubbing on a 16th pick is some massive sin, then virtually every GM in the league should be canned. Pat Riley utterly screwed up with the 2nd pick, for crying out loud.

Signed, Paul K McGuire.

[sircharles]

i dont really think you can say mchale is a failed coach, when he has only coached 3 seasons TOTAL(this year being one of those three and his first year only being 31 games because he took over for another coach)

Morey was forced to assemble a team through mid level draft picks and "dealing picks" because Les never wanted to tank, and not to mention the obstacles they were thrown(yao's injury).

Most teams can at least trade away a huge contract like yao's and get some picks or something for it, but the rockets stuck with him and tried to get him going again, but as we all know that didnt happen and we lost a 20 million dollar contract and got absolutely nothing for it.

I dont see how you can be so blind, we've been able to acquire a young star with huge ceiling still(harden), and a lot of young complimentary pieces that could develop into all stars(asik, lin, parsons), and we STILL have tons of money to spend next year on ANOTHER star to put us on that next level.

and you can bitch about white all you want, the fact of the matter is we also drafted lamb and jones who are great talents, and as we all know one of those was turned into james harden. plus we still have motiejunas who is a excellent prospect. You gamble on a player like white because he honestly was one of the most talented players in the draft, just sucks he has other issues.

[bboley24]

So very true....

Cleveland drafting Lebron ... Cleveland left stranded.
Toronto and Bosh... Toronto left stranded.
Wolves and KG... Minni left stranded.
Orlando and Dwight... Stranded.
Clippers and Olowakandi.... ummmmmmm.

I could go on and on and on and on and on... very few teams can just tank and win a championship. It takes alot of luck and maneuvering. That of which Morey has the latter. Give him some luck, and that talent that is Morey will create a dynasty with these young kids to be reckoned with.

[thejohnnygold]

Haters Gonna Hate! A-huh-huh!

[Heredia]

Kade you're retarded, nuff said.

[Cooper]

So very true....

Cleveland drafting Lebron ... Cleveland left stranded.
Toronto and Bosh... Toronto left stranded.
Wolves and KG... Minni left stranded.
Orlando and Dwight... Stranded.
Clippers and Olowakandi.... ummmmmmm.

I could go on and on and on and on and on... very few teams can just tank and win a championship. It takes alot of luck and maneuvering. That of which Morey has the latter. Give him some luck, and that talent that is Morey will create a dynasty with these young kids to be reckoned with.

To be fair Cleveland went to the finals with lebron so that's not really "left stranded" same with Orlando and Howard and Toronto and Minny couldn't build around their guys. I would by no means advocate the firing of morey however he has made some good moves, like getting Martin for the corpse of Tracy McGrady, getting a lotto pick for Lowry and then getting harden. He had a good signing with asik as well. I was never a big fan of mchale but I'd at least let him finish the season.

[sircharles]

i think he is saying those teams were left stranded after that player left.

orlando at least got some ok draft picks, but the players they got in return were horrible.

bosh and lebron left in free agency and there previous teams were left with nothing.

[Cooper]

Having a guy like lebron for 5 or however many years is better than never having him at all. And the magic got 2 really good young players in harkless and vuvecic plus afflalo is solid. They actually probably came out better than anyone else in that trade so far.

[thejohnnygold]

Having a guy like lebron for 5 or however many years is better than never having him at all. And the magic got 2 really good young players in harkless and vuvecic plus afflalo is solid. They actually probably came out better than anyone else in that trade so far.

Ya know, I hadn't thought about it until now....but I think you could very well be correct on that. Watching the Lakers right now. Dwight is a non-factor so far.

[phaketrash]

Kade, I'm starting to think you're a troll lol. I'm still waiting for that list of GMs in the league who are better than supposedly horribad Morey. So once we've fired Morey, who would you like to hire?

I will kind of agree w/ you on McHale -- that guy ain't that impressive.

[timetodienow1234567]

I agree that Mchale needs to go. Not so sure about Morey. Here is why I think Mchale should go. Lin is so worried about making the wrong play and being benched that he is playing tentatively. I blame the coach and the fact that he's making Harden the point. Lin can't be aggressive if he only gets the ball a few times. And if he starts shooting the ball EVERYTIME he gets the ball, his teammates won't pass it to him. This comes down to the fact that Mchale sucks. The only downgrade would be to have Coach Smart from Sacremento as the coach.

[PKM]

I agree that Mchale needs to go. Not so sure about Morey. Here is why I think Mchale should go. Lin is so worried about making the wrong play and being benched that he is playing tentatively. I blame the coach and the fact that he's making Harden the point. Lin can't be aggressive if he only gets the ball a few times. And if he starts shooting the ball EVERYTIME he gets the ball, his teammates won't pass it to him. This comes down to the fact that Mchale sucks. The only downgrade would be to have Coach Smart from Sacremento as the coach.

So, McHale is bad because Lin is playing poorly?

[rockets best fan]

Kade:
you know I wasn't gonna let this tread slide without putting in my 2 cents I do agree with you on 1 point. time for mc hale to go. the rockets appear to be in the mist of a meltdown just like last year. mc hale has done nothing to impress me coaching wise. it seems when teams slow the game down on us we struggle to score. that (IMO) falls on mc hale. he's not getting max from this team. he's not playing the youngsters. he's not making the correct play calls to close out games. he still looks like he doesn't know what he is doing. I say fire him and let sampson finish the season.

as for morey.......other than the mc hale hire he is doing a fine job(IMO). I am happy with the direction of the team.

[timetodienow1234567]

Mchale is bad because he's playing Harden as the PG. He's the SG. If he's a hybrid guard and he runs the point, then Lin is not the guy for you. Lin is effective when running the point. He wasn't as effective last year when Melo came back and ran the point as the "point forward". I'm just saying that the coaching and game plans aren't being put together to make the full use of everybody's talents. Harden is struggling as the point guard now as well. His last 5 games have not been good at all. Sure he's gotten points, but the turnovers and the bad fg% means he's been extremely inefficient getting those points. Maybe that's all on Harden not letting Lin run the points, idk. But ultimately the blame lies with the coach. Lin will get better shooting the ball in the offseason as he practices catch and shoots more and hopefully gets his 3-point% up, but I still think that running Harden ISO for the majority of play calls is not the right move. But Mchale knows the team better, maybe he's right. It just seems that it hasn't been working.

[Kade]

what if les never green lights "tanking" to get good draft pics? he is trying to run a business afterall. win games to sell tickets. tanking may help the team build but it would hurt ticket sales for a good 2-3 years. IMO

Rockets are bottom 10 in attendance and sliding. Most business men who are successful have to look at the big picture. Year after year with same results will see a steady decline in attendance = decline in sales

Dude, much like Tracy McGrady's back and Yao Ming's feet, you are a constant, repeating downer for the rest of us.

Not my intention to be a downer but sometimes that has to happen in hopes of the end results gets you to an elite team. I'm a die hard Rockets fan and prefaced that I am sure Morey is a great guy to have a beer with but this is a job and your job is to win or go home.