ESPN the Magazine - Meet Rockets GM Daryl Morey

I think it's widely acknowledged that he was the mastermind behind the Battier/Gay trade, so its fair to assume he at least agreed with letting Azubuike go.

In addition, we have to also throw into the discussion the acquisitions of Mike James and Steve Francis.

Again, I want to reiterate that I do like Morey and am glad he's our GM, but we just need to be balanced here about him, and the statistical approach in general. While we were able to turn Mike James into B-Jax and ultimately Artest, it has to be said that trading for James and signing Francis were big mistakes as neither player has been able to help the team while on the floor at all. If you remember, we traded a pretty juicy expiring contract (J-Ho) for MJ which could have been used more judiciously. Equally, we might have saved the $2 mil or so we spent on Francis for a quality backup PG (even Damon Stoudamire would be a better option than nothing).

 

I think it's a combination of his understanding of player valuations and his ability to find good deals in the market. Consider:

- He drafted three undersized players the past two years, and banked them to be "undervalued" due to their size. So far on that front he's got one successful pick in Landry, a promising one in Brooks, and a too soon to tell in Dorsey.

- He drafted Donte Greene because he had the most upside at their pick but after Donte's 40 pt summer league game, Morey was able to turn that longterm value into an immediate impact player in Artest.

- In that same Donte Greene pick, Morey scooped up Dorsey and a "free" 2nd rounder next year just because he had the intel to leverage teams with the players they wanted.

- And twice now Morey has targeted teams that were motivated to sell and gotten good deals (i.e. Artest trade and Scola trade).

- Morey isn't perfect, but even when deals don't work out (like trading for Mike James) he's able to cut his losses and move on. Deadweight James and inconsistent Bonzi got turned into Bobby Jackson who was another piece of the Artest deal. In the end there's very little waste on the roster, guys who don't give us anything (cue Francis tangent).

Honestly these are classic Moneyball principles. Valuate players, identify and acquire the ones who are undervalued, and make trades where market conditions are in your favor.

Of course the proof is in the pudding. Now this team actually has to do something in the playoffs to validate a GM's success. I'm excited to see how it all turns out.

 

No, let's not assume that Daryl had anything to do with Azubuike getting cut. JVG cut Azubuike cause he didn't show much during the preseason. Plain and simple.

Mike James and Steve Francis...In my mind Steve Francis was a Les signing for the Francis fans here that wanted him back, a PR signing basically. Mike James, I'm going to say that was a popularity signing there also as alot of Rockets fans preferred keeping him instead of trading him for Rafer.

So I'm going to give a pass on Daryl for both Francis and Mike James.

His fleecing of the Spurs for Scola and getting Artest more then makes up for those asterisk deals on his resume.

 

Seems a very generous amount of leeway you're giving him.

By your logic, who's to say whether Daryl really was the mastermind behind Artest and Scola? After all, Artest is unlikely to have come if it wasn't for Adelman being the coach.

 

Not to split hairs but Juwan was not an expiring contract last year. The t-wolves ended up buying out the final two years of his contract. So if we had kept him, Juwan would have been an expiring contract this year. Which may or may not have been converted into Artest this summer, so six of one or half dozen of another.

 

You're right:

But the point still stands that we could/should have been more patient and got way more with a $7.1MM expiring than Mike James. To have that contract in our hands now, for example would be awesome.

 

But Mike James got us Bobby Jackson, whose $6 million expiring contract facilitated the Artest deal. So either Juwan would have been the filler in the artest deal or we would still be fishing because Sacto would've preferred crowd favorite Jackson. Like I said, six of one...

 

Azubuike is a nice player, but we didn't lose much by cutting him. We can partly attribute his success to Don Nelson's system in Golden State.

 

That's not my logic, that's just you not understanding what's going on in the Rockets world therefore making very lousy opinions and nitpicking ultimately small potato details. The Adelman/Artest comment isn't even worth replying to.

Plus like what was explained before, Mike James > Bobby Jackson > Ron Artest. So he turned a negative move to a positive move. Francis can still be turned into a positive move, it's a small expiring contract anyways.

 

There are a number of reasons that could go into not keeping a player (Azubuike) in training camp. What was our financial situation? Which players had guaranteed and non-guaranteed contracts? What was the depth like at the SG/SF position?

When you're an invited player without a guaranteed contract, you really need to stand out to be kept on the team. The Rockets thought enough of him to invite him to training camp, but I can't blame them too much for not keeping him.

 

The only criticism I keep saying about that trade is that we did not get more from Memphis. For the eighth pick, we should have at least got a 2nd round pick or swapped 1st round picks as Memphis had the 24th pick. Otherwise, we did the right move in getting Battier.

 

I'm amused by your resorting to insults such as "lousy" and "potato details". I've actually never heard the term "potato details" before and have never thought of potatoes as being particularly detailed so thanks for enlarging my vocabulary.

One detail lost in the "we turned MJ into Artest" logic is that, along the way, we had to give up Bonzi Wells in order to rectify the mistake of signing Mike James. While Bonzi certainly was no all-star, he was certainly a servicable backup on the wing capable of providing offense in the post. When Yao went down, Bonzi's offense would have helped.

And I certainly don't think that having Adelman as our coach was irrelevant to the Artest deal. Its clear that Artest loves playing for him and equally clear that Morey doesn't do the deal if he doesn't believe that his coach can control him.

How d'ya like them potatoes?

 

You know what this feels like? Feels like I'm talking to a n00b that doesn't follow the Rockets that much.

Giving up Bonzi was a plus in the long run, I'm not losing sleep that he's not here anymore. No team has even signed him yet this year, goes to show you what NBA teams think of him. Artest > Bonzi AND Mike James

Morey would still pull the trigger with or without Adelman as head coach. It was a no brainer given that we didn't give up much. No need to nitpick or lose hair over that one (well you could, I'm not).

 

The noob who registered on clutchfans 2 years before you?

 

Exactly, the n00b who registered on clutchfans 2 years before me that I'm replying to now. That's what it feels like to me.

There are 99'ers who make questionable basketball opinions (2 come to mind, one has overrated players fetish and the other has clutchcity players fetish) so don't feel insulted.

 

Well I'm sorry to have such a fetish for logic, facts and mature discussion.

 

Until I hear Morey or someone from Rox Management say that Morey was behind the Gay/Battier trade and that it was a "stat" move, I have no reason to take it serious when writers/posters say it. When I hear people make assumptions like that, I get the impression people think Morey doesn't watch basketball or something. Like he would actually make a trade based on just 82games.com #'s. It's ridiculous. People always speculate about Battier's 'intangibles', but like JVG said when Battier was first brought here, there's plenty tangible reasons to trade for a player like Battier as well.

 

...I don't exactly know what you mean by countless... because I can count to 30 just fine...

oh... and as far as 2nd rounders go...



Good Day Sir!

ap

 

good guy

 

Daryl Morey is an excellent GM. Nice article too.