In a recent podcast interview with ESPN.com’s Kevin Arnovitz, Daryl Morey named DeAndre Jordan, in response to the question as to what player he most regrets missing out on. Jordan, of course, was the 35th overall pick in 2008, born in Houston, attending high school in Humble, and college at Texas A&M. More importantly, Jordan’s game is essentially identical to what Morey had in mind when he signed Dwight Howard, before the latter embarked upon his quest for self-reinvention.
Houston took Nicolas Batum that year at 25, but ended up with Ron Artest and Joey Dorsey through trade. Batum was a miss, but Artest was instrumental that season; Dorsey did not become “Ray Lewis with a basketball.” Looking back over that draft, a lot more teams than just the Rockets have reason for regret. Aside from Russell Westbrook, Jordan turned out to be far and away the most valuable player selected. (Ironically, current Rockets Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson were also both selected that year, at 7th and 21st respectively).
I started thinking about Morey’s biggest mistakes again, and the one that is always cited was the selection of Marcus Morris over Kawhi Leonard. I’ll reiterate again that I still think that that decision was entirely defensible. It’s easy to look back now, with the benefit of hindsight, after Leonard has developed into an MVP-caliber player, and criticize the decision. But the rationale was sound. Houston, at the time, in the pre-Harden days, desperately needed a homerun. The city wasn’t a free agent destination and they didn’t have high draft picks. The thinking was that converting Morris, a college power forward, into a small forward, gave the team the highest odds at a star-level impact. Leonard was the safe pick. The risk on Morris yielded higher rewards, and the franchise was not in a position to play things safe. I also contend that Kawhi Leonard might look vastly different today had he not been incubated within the infrastructure that is the San Antonio Spurs organization.
Royce White also fits in as a similar high-upside decision that didn’t pan out. Watching Draymond Green today grabbing rebounds and starting fastbreaks on his own provides a glimpse into how White might have looked (at least offensively) had he been successful in overcoming his fear of flying.
Here’s a question I was thinking about recently: was Terrence Jones a bust? They used the 18th pick on him and, having had him under club control at cheap wages for four years, got two seasons of solid production. Two of those years, he was a starter on quality playoff teams. And think of him what you will, but cheap production is cheap production. But he’s gone now, for nothing. Your answer to the question depends on your perspective on team-building in the modern era. Are you looking to just extract productivity out of certain salary slots, regardless of the name on the back of the jersey, or are you hoping to establish a long term nucleus through the use of your first round picks? I subscribe to the latter paradigm, and that’s why Jones was a flop, why Royce White flopping hurt, and why we have to keep Donatas Motiejunas.
