Daryl Morey is much better than some are giving him credit for

It's not a debate. It was absolutely a stats move. I'm not an insider but was at a party with someone who was absolutely an insider, no questions asked. He said it was a stats move and that they had to convince Les bc battier'so stats were initially underwhelming. Also said Rudy Gay developed a little faster than they thought. But the implication was very clear, and the source is impeccable (again, this was years ago and I am NOT an insider). This was a random conversation bc we were alums of the same college.

 

Williams didn't work out- that was a miss. It's easy to say we should have drafted players picked after our player. There are players every year that teams miss on. I think his drafting record is solid, but not spectacular.

 

Landry, Chase, Parsons were all second rounders that are legit NBA players. He also did well with some undrafted players such as Chuck Hayes and Troy Daniels. Brooks was a very late 1st round pick and averaged 20 points a game for us and turned Vspan into Scola.

Morey has had more hits than misses. The only real big misses were Kawhi and Batum. However he got Parsons in the same draft as Kawhi, so it's a wash. Batum turn into Green which turned into Artest and our only playoff victory in forever so he made lemonade out of that lemon.

 

I think Morey has done a good job. I would criticize him on these points:

• I wished he valued player veteran leadership higher. Last year there must have been close to 10 threads about the need for a veteran leader on the team. This year it's evident the ship has been more stable with Ariza and Terry.
• Seems average or worse at gauging talent. The blame could be on a variety of other factors but historically he hasn't found hidden talent that blooms later. At the same time, he's skipped on a few eventual stars. He seems to need to see production to value it, a common Moneyball criticism.
• I'm not a fan of the methodology of the big three approach and think it pigeonholes teams; I prefer a Spurs/Suns approach. However, I think Harden and Howard have proven to be good stars to go with (much more so than Melo, Westbrook, or some others) and that this team is in a great position as is. This is my personal bias as I recognize that the power of star pull is what generally drives teams and the league.
• I'm mixed on asset turning. It obviously has its merit but at the same time, there's a point when "that's just business" goes a little too far. Ideally I'd like to see a franchise stick with some guys, see some young guys develop, and have a long term bond between owner, coach, and players. Call me old-fashioned.
• Lastly, I think he could use a little more "walk quietly and carry a big stick". I think he's shown he's a predator too openly and GMs/players have adjusted to it.

Overall though, he's done well. No one should complain about having a GM like this battling for your team. I even like his handling of McHale, regardless of how the fan base wants fast turnover.

 

Parson, Lowry, Dragic, Daniels, Asik, and TJones. He saw something in them that no one else saw. You could even argue Harden, since there were other teams not willing to give up assets like Beal for him.

 

OP is missing gifs

 

Morey got us Harden. Nuff said.

 

Royce White

 

Great GM, but his media profile is too high, and that makes him an easy target. He could cut his media time in half and still be more visible than most general managers, and I think it makes his job more difficult.

 

These three posts pretty much say all that I feel about Morey.

I do think that there are some Morey fans here who think whoever dare to criticize Morey must be very dumb and that they must want Morey gone. That kind of mentality is as annoying as the LOFs. And I think these people actually stir up some unnecessary anti-Morey sentiment in those who don't want to treat him as god.

 

His media profile became high because Adelman wouldn't talk to the media at all, Mchale does the media more, but its hard to kill that sort of profile without disappearing from the industry.

 

There are many fair criticisms for Morey. Of course he is not perfect and did several mistakes. He is still probably the best GM in the business.

He is a guy that takes a lot of chances - some work out some don't. But by doing this he took a team with no promise and no future to a team with 2 legitimate stars and lots of assets and flexibility.

Right now he is trying everything to get a 3d star. Getting a star is always difficult, he got very close this offseason and if he had gotten Bosh we'd probably be the favorite to win it all this year. I don't fault him for keep on trying.

 

the no play call offense was carlise's idea too, lol

The guy even said when they won the title, he wasn't really making play calls at all.

 

To be fair, Royce White played some of the most badass college ball that has ever been played.

 

My big issue with Morey is his choice of Kevin McHale as coach. I think it was a good risk to take and McHale's characted may have even helped us in landing Howard. But a team with championship aspirations should not have a coach on the final year of his contract, a coach who has not proven he has what it takes to win tactical battles against other NBA coaches.

We should have fired McHale this summer IMO. I feel like, even if we happen to latch onto that stroke of luck which propels us to a surprisingly better season than we're expecting, we will squander the opportunity in the playoffs by not having better coaching. That will have been two years of the Howard/Harden combo in their prime gone to waste.

I also think he's not taking enough risks right now. If we cannot get a star 3rd guy, it should not hold us back from making small trades to solidify this roster. I think that the league is wide open at the top, we are as good as anyone in the East, OKC is going to have problems, Spurs are a year older and Kawhi's contract status looming.... we can be in that conversation with a couple of minor moves, like getting just a Brandon Bass and a veteran PG. K-Pap is readier than we anticipated. Ariza is fitting in. Howard is looking strong in the post. Harden is in mid season form already. Beverley and Jones need help.

Maybe Canaan develops fast, but we definitely cannot deal with BOTH of D-Mo and Jones. One of them has got to go, and I think Jones' potential is higher at this point. Someone like Bass can bring defense, consistency and slightly better range to the 4 spot.

I feel like we are restricting ourselves to one idea. That we must have a big 3. We can get that eventually, but is it worth wasting two seasons? I don't know.

 

You actually have no idea about how to judge a GM. You like the moves by Morey, that do not mean those are good moves. Like every year in the past, all Morey fans would cheer for Morey for every move, but kept quiet in playoff time.

so shut up.

 

I'm not completely sold on this offseason's moves, though it might prove to work out in the long term.

Still, I appreciate that Morey wasn't willing to stand still when IMO he believed that the Asik/Lin experiment was not going to cut it. I think most GMs would have been willing to stay the course an extra season or two to see if it works out just because they have already invested a lot into the direction.

On the other hand, Morey seems willing to cut losses and change course more easily, which results in more frustrations in the short term but a possible big payoff in the long term.

 

Not that I disagree with you. But there are split opinions about the 3-stars approach. Some people support it and some think we should concentrate on building a good supporting cast around H&H.

Theoretically, you can be doing both simultaneously. In practice, there are times you have to sacrifice one in order to achieve the other. The obvious issue is about flexibility. Flexibility is very important in preparing for getting a star player. But in order to maintain flexibility, you have to let go of otherwise good role players at times. This is why we are seeing high turnover rate on not just the roster but the core rotation.

 

The league is focused on Morey and Morey should get off Twitter and lay low for a while there.