Jerome Solomon completely owned Morey about calling players assets.

At least he never called them liabilities!

 

But he has. He has said many times we are in position with all of our assets to make something happen.

He is absolutely referring to players. he may also be referring to trade exception and draft picks and cash. But make no mistake about it Kevin Martin you are Rocket Assetin Morey's eyes. And that is how he sees you first and foremost. And if you don't like it tough **** we still own your contract and will trade you whenever and wherever we want. Got that assets!

 

Because the Rockets weren't going to make short sighted deals just to eek into the playoffs, which is absolutely the correct thing to do.

 

This. Why is a sports journalist trying to paint the Rockets and Morey in a more negative light?

 

Well technically we finished 14th out of 30. Not that we should be celebrating that either, but it wasn't bottom half...

 

Yup. And thank goodness for that. The moment you start treating players like people, with feelings, and families, then that is when you start overpaying them, falling in love with them and holding on to them for too long. You treat them like cold hard assets and it will be much easier to make objective decisions. This isn't a family business. It's just business.

Landry was probably one of their favorite players, he certainly was one of mine. But the second a chance to flip him came up they did not hesitate. It is the fans' job to b**** and moan when that happens. But we are better off for it in the long run.

Martin was probably the only one that publicly complained. I have zero problem with him doing so. It's a free country and he has every right to express how he feels about it, even though being an asset is, uh, part of the job description. Lebron is an asset. Just a very shiny one.

The reason why I have zero problem with it is because he was professional and did not allow it to affect his play at any point during the season. In fact he had the best year of his career. Same goes for Lowry, Scola, Hayes and any of our main guys. They can bemoan being treated like an asset all they want, as long as it does not affect their work productivity. Which obviously it hasn't, despite the sound bites.

Anyways that's how I feel about the whole "assets" deal. Solomon seems to agree with that part of it, which is good. As for what word Morey used and what he meant to say, who cares. The only reason to be PC about it is for the fans who don't get the above.

 

From 1980-1997, the Rockets appeared in the NBA Championship 4 times.

From 1980-1997, the Rockets made the playoffs 15 times in 18 seasons.

From 1980-1997, the Rockets won 20 separate playoff series.

Now we're talking about how we "technically finished 14th out of 30."

How being last place in our division is "arbitrary."

We've been to the playoffs 7 times in the past 13 seasons...in a league that lets more teams in to the playoffs than it excludes.

We've won a grand total of 1 playoff series in 13 seasons.

If it didn't suck so back, I'd laugh. I was spoiled as a Rockets fan growing up with them in the 80's and seeing the culmination of Hakeem's career in the mid-90's. I just hoped by now we'd see them find their stride again.

 

What's arbitrary is your focus on division ranking as a measure of the team's standing rather than the far more significant conference ranking. I can list several teams that aren't last in their division which, nevertheless, we are better than. So who cares about this "last in division" stuff?

 

it means we're last in our division. it doesn't need to mean more than that. we are in a division. where did we finish? last.

it's not my focus. i don't like finishing last, but it's not my focus. i know damn well where we finished with respect to division/conference/league. it's all a bunch of noise, because we didn't qualify to play in the NBA's true season. that's getting old.

 

Out of all the teams whos name begins with an "R", the Rockets finished first.

Is that arbitrary? I don't care. I like finishing first.

 

Morey has called players "assets" several times. When he was accused of doing so, he got pissed off and said that he's never done that. Oops.

I don't see this as lying, though. I think, at that moment, he believed what he said; he just didn't think about it.

Why is he going to lie about it, if he knows the quotes are out there? Because he thinks people won't find them?

I think it's like, you get in a fight with your wife, she mentions that you always look at hot young women walking by, and in your emotional delusion that you're being mistreated, you say you've never done such a thing.

Of course you've done that, a million times. You just don't think about it.

I don't see this as Morey lying. And of course, it doesn't matter, anyhow. He called them assets. He didn't call them slaves or child molesters.

I'm not going to repeat what I think of Solomon.

 

I think some of you are missing the point. Even if you see players as assets, a GM should never openly talk about flipping his assets during the season. It only puts more pressure on the coach to have players play without looking over they're shoulder. Morey should've kept those asset comments between him & staff. This is probably why Adelman never cared for Morey's antics. The guy talks entirely too much

 

It is Solomon's focus, even though divisions are arbitrary constructs that only really matter in rare tie-breaking scenarios.

And that we are last in our division says a lot more about how improbably strong the division was than it does about our lack of success.

 

Correct. Everyone not superstar knows they can be traded. But Morey make too much buzz about preparing assets for trade is bad for team morale. Imagine working for someone who you know is not sincerely rooting for you…but rooting for "asset's" value to increase for trade. Easy to say handle like professional, but they are humans and many are young.

Good management considers feelings of humans for sake of humans AND for sake of company productivity. This is why I like a man like coach Adelman. He knows how to connect with players and this makes them better. Easy to get mad at Adelman when he leaves in slumping shooter, but he knows players are humans and they go through slumps. He lets them play on instead of giving up, and in long run they usually get better and team gets better. See player like Goran who coach Gentry would bench too quickly when he struggled. Confidence went down and he got worse and worse. Thing is, he was still good player from last year, as we see from how he played in Houston. If coach just knew how to handle better they would be saved from making terrible trade for cancerous, chucking Brooks.

This is why I fear getting coach like Morey that relies too much on stats and that players know he is too much on side of Morey. Stats go down and he will give up on player. Players like to play for coach like Adelman and try their hardest for him. I do not think players will enjoy to play for disingenuous Morey clone coach. Martin is right, Morey need to give more respect than calling players asset and to follow by lying about it.

 

You are correct, sir. And if he played for the Celtics, he would be a Celtic Asset in Danny Ainge's eyes. If here we on the Thunder, he would be a Thunder Asset in Sam Presti's eyes. On the Mavs, he would be a Maverick Asset in Mark Cuban's eyes. And so on and so forth down the line for atleast most of the general managers in the NBA. This is not significant or noteworthy. Pretty much all the other GMs talk and think in that same way. We don't hear them say those words around here because we don't have access to Boston sportstalk radio where Danny Ainge gives interview and we don't read the Memphis newspaper where Chris Wallace gives interviews, but make no mistake about it, they operate the same way as Morey. This talk of Rockets players being considered assets is so completely irrelevant to any talk of Morey's job performance. The ONLY reason it's being discussed is because people are unhappy with Morey for not re-hiring (yes, "not re-hiring" rather than "firing") Adelman and they're searching for more reasons to bash the guy. There's plenty of legit criticisms of Morey, but criticism revolving around him using the word "asset" is utterly stupid, since it is common practice for GMs in the NBA. And yes, not being 100% honest with your fanbase in interviews is also common practice.

 

I don't think divisions are necessarily arbitrary. They determine schedule. These teams are playing the same schedule you're playing. Judging success relative to the only teams that have the same schedule you do isn't exactly random.

But it doesn't matter. It's not like the end result changes if you view it from a different prism. I don't feel any better about the season when I view it from perspective of conference as opposed to division. I don't live in a bubble where I can only consider one at a time.

 

"Any way you look at it, Ray is an asset," Ainge said. "He's an asset to us as a player right now and, if we don't trade him, for the rest of the season. If we do trade him, he's an asset in that we will get back equal talent. If he ends up as a free agent, he's an asset because maybe we can use him in a sign-and-trade deal. And if he just leaves, he's an asset because his salary comes off our books. We can use some of that to go out and get someone with the midlevel exception."

Maybe they shouldn't openly say these things to the media, but they all do. And Ray Allen didn't suddenly forget how to rain threes because Danny Ainge said this in the middle of last season. Any player that lets this crap affect their game just needs to man up. Pretty much every player in the NBA, save for a few superstars on perenially contending teams, has to go through this constantly. Seriously, what player's name across the entire league hasn't come up in trade talks at some point? It's always a possibility that you'll get traded whether the GMs are talking about it or not, you've just got to be a professional, do your job, and hope for the best.

 

You make millions. Get your thong out of your arse and just play ball.

Players used to be fine with being an asset. It meant that they were good. In other words, other teams coveted them.

 

It seems so simple, but I guess the "wizard" hasn't comprehended it. I was essentially told in January by a rotation player that they all feel like expendable assets more than typical NBA players, because they hear about it more than usual. Maybe understanding the PR, human relations, and diplomatic aspect of the game is tougher for a stats guy who never played in the NBA to understand. Just because others do it, doesn't make it right. It also seems that others don't say it as frequently as he does. He really needs to stop using that term publicly so much. Hopefully, he's learned his lesson though and it's not too late in terms of how others view the Rockets and their public, open, and somewhat constant view of players as expendable assets.