9 replies to this topic

[bboley24]

I am all for the "In DM we trust".  Love the guy.  

Who here feels as if we don't make any moves before the deadline, DM should answer to this year's mishap?

[txtdo1411]

I wouldn't fire him. We were trending upwards his entire tenure, until the atrocious disaster of this season. I'm in the camp of stability typically beats changing front office execs, coaches, systems, players, etc. every few years. I thought Morey was one of the better executives in the league, and even after this year, he is definitely by all intents and purposes better than average.

 

He has built a team that has flaws, but it looked like before the season, that it was a deep roster and most importantly looked like it had chemistry. I don't know where it all went wrong this season, but I would be willing to be patient and try to figure this thing out. We are still in fairly good position cap and flexibility wise. There are a ton of difficult questions that are going to need to be addressed this off-season (FA for Dwight, Jones, Motie, as well as Ty, Josh, Terry, etc.) A lot of question marks going into this off-season.  I didn't think much of it at the time, but that lottery protection for the 1st round pick we owe Denver might actually end up being huge if we continue to slide down the standings. 

 

I'm so disappointed in how awful this season has been, but I would like to think the years of progress we have made still outweighs the stench of the 2015-16 Rockets. I vote for stability, but with how fire happy every owner is these days, I guess I wouldn't be too surprised if Les fired him if we miss the playoffs. 

[majik19]

Morey has done a great job collecting talent. We've never had a top 10 draft pick in his tenure, and yet we have two stars, several good role players, promising young players, etc. 

 

That being said, he hasn't seemed to figure out the "fit" part of the equation. We all know he will sacrifice just about anything to get more "talent." And you have to have top-shelf talent to win in this league (yes, bring out the Pistons, but other than that, top shelf talent). 

 

But maybe now, he needs to think more about fit and less about talent (though we have a looming Dwight Howard contact situation).

 

The problem is exactly what Rahat hit on in the blog post today. How do you build a team around Harden?

 

Ideally, it feels a lot like the pieces we have. You'd want a defense first PG who can hit 3s (Beverly). You'd want a defense first wing who can hit 3s (Ariza). You'd want a rim protecting 5 who is a threat around the rim (Howard). The 5th player is a bit of a mystery - I feel like a Josh Smith who can hit 3s is ideal, but also a bit of a unicorn. 

 

And yet... it hasn't worked. Maybe it's just a bad coach - roster mesh? That's the other element I didn't address, but it's also really hard to figure out the coach until you see if it works. 

Edited by majik19, 09 February 2016 - 09:35 PM.

[bboley24]

Like I had mentioned before, I am a DM minion.  Im more or less wanting to know how you all feel if DM doesn't make moves before the deadline.  I think if any year that there should be a shake up midseason, it's this year.

[Cooper]

I think he's earned an opportunity to try and fix this. Its not like there is a clear choice that will come in and magically fix everything.

[Willk]

I am glad to see somebody is asking this question. If the Rockets had a star player that was around for 8 years and only advanced past the 1st round once, fans would be saying it is time to get rid of said player. The only thing Morey really has done was to luck into Harden. OKC had much better offers for Harden (imagine Klay Thompson on OKC) but unwisely, OKC picked the rockets offer.
Yes Morey was an innovator in the analytics field, but now every team has an analytics department. And it seems the good teams analytics departments are better than the rockets. The game may be passing Morey by.
Morey's coaching decisions have been suspect at best. What contending team fires their coach and promotes the fired coach's top assistant? It seems JBB was hired just to be Morey's yes man. If Morey does not hire a real coach soon calls for his firing should be getting louder. JBB has not changed anything from McHale. That should tell you who is in charge.
Finally, Morey needs to answer for his roster construction. Morey counted on a guy who had back surgery to come back 100% healthy. Look at the teams that were available to McHale the 1st 3 weeks of the season. The 1st game the bigs were Tjones, Capela, and Harrell vs a big nuggets team. Having 4 roster spots devoted to SFs was stupid. The next game only DH12, Capela, and Harrell were available. The 3rd game vs bosh/ whiteside the bigs were Capela, Harrell, and Hayes. This roster was set up to fail if Harden didn't shoot 50% from the field every game the 1st 3 weeks. Morey has never taken responsibility for this failure and I doubt his ego ever will let him. I think he has until next year's all star game and if things do not improve dramatically, he needs to go.

[redfaithful]

The NBA this season has 28 teams playing outdated basketball based mainly on personal capabilities, and 2 teams that evolved into playing smart systems on both sides of the game. To my understanding these systems were built using "theoretic" basic elements, and were later refined to best utilize the personal capabilities of the specific players in hand. The disparity is so clear, that only a collection of significant injuries would give any team that doesn't win the GSW-SAS series a chance to become champions.

 

Morey's actions as GM of the Rockets until last year were based on a different situation. We can spend long threads discussing his decision making in previous years, but none of these decisions are as relevant as the question of how to evolve the organization to get to the level of GSW and SAS. And the first step is to find a coaching staff capable to perform this change and convince the players to play within a system. This won't be achieved by trade deadline deals, we need a brain transplant not stitches.

[thejohnnygold]

I don't know what it would mean for Morey to "answer to this year's mishap".

 

I largely agree with Redfaithful.  Morey needs to take a long look at whether James Harden is the kind of talent that can overcome the obstacles we now see before us.  Morey needs to consider what sort of coach will lead us into the next era of Rockets basketball.

 

As a Longhorn fan, I've spent the last 10+ years watching Rick Barnes amass "talent" and then demonstrate how to render said talent impotent.  Shake Smart, in half of a season (utilizing the same talent Barnes had minus lottery pick Myles Turner) has reminded the UT alumni what basketball is supposed to look like.  (The only thing that makes me sad about this is I am concerned that we won't be able to keep Smart for very long.  He is exactly the kind of coach I would be fine with the Rockets rolling the dice on.  If we don't, another team will sooner than later).

 

The time has come to evolve on every level.  I'm not implying that there is only one way to skin this cat--that is seldom true.  I am stating that a new way must be undertaken--the sooner the better.

[majik19]

The time has come to evolve on every level.  I'm not implying that there is only one way to skin this cat--that is seldom true.  I am stating that a new way must be undertaken--the sooner the better.

 

Agreed. The role players aren't producing - Howard and Harden both has pretty good nights last night, and yet we lost to an 7th-seed-at-best team. Do the role players not produce because of how Howard and Harden approach the game? Or are they getting the opportunities and just failing? 

 

The interesting this is we all wanted continuity for years in the Morey era. This year, Morey finally goes for continuity, and this is the worst Rockets team we've fielded in a long, long time. (Before you remind me that we had several 9th place teams, look at their records versus our record this year). The Brewer contract was proof that Morey wanted continuity (it was way out of character for him). And it bit him in the ass. 

 

I will say I'd be up for firing JBB at this point and handing the reigns over to someone else to finish out the season. Personally, I'd like to see Chris Finch get a shot as head coach (for the interim). I think he's an offensive guy, but hell, our defense is probably beyond repair this season. 

[rockets best fan]

The NBA this season has 28 teams playing outdated basketball based mainly on personal capabilities, and 2 teams that evolved into playing smart systems on both sides of the game. To my understanding these systems were built using "theoretic" basic elements, and were later refined to best utilize the personal capabilities of the specific players in hand. The disparity is so clear, that only a collection of significant injuries would give any team that doesn't win the GSW-SAS series a chance to become champions.

 

Morey's actions as GM of the Rockets until last year were based on a different situation. We can spend long threads discussing his decision making in previous years, but none of these decisions are as relevant as the question of how to evolve the organization to get to the level of GSW and SAS. And the first step is to find a coaching staff capable to perform this change and convince the players to play within a system. This won't be achieved by trade deadline deals, we need a brain transplant not stitches.

I call that hitting the nail on the head. while I still believe in Morey it's time for some tuff questions to be asked. I believe he has navigated the organization well up to this year and deserves the chance to repair this situation. with that said I believe Morey's one true short coming is coach selection. the Rockets are Morey's baby and he seems reluctant to release full power to a coach. especially one who will not embrace analytics as the forefront of his offensive and defensive strategies. don't get me wrong I believe analytics has definitely proven it's usefulness,  however I believe maybe to much weight has been focused on that part of the equation. IMO Morey has assembled a talented team who's talents are not being used properly. I have attacked it before...........the read and react offense does not fit the personnel on this team......simple as that. we need a coach who will implement a fundamentally sound system that takes advantage of the talent we have and Morey has to be able to take a step back and let the man do his job