Imagine this: You get a job as a general manager of an NBA team and you find out that your team has two oft-injured players sucking up more than half of the cap signed to long-term contracts. After a trade, you have only one power forward on your roster, Steve Novak, who is happy to get 10 minutes a game. Great situation, huh?
That's the exact situation Daryl Morey faced when he was hired in May of 2007. A surprising hire after working with the Boston Celtics for three years and then one year with the Houston Rockets, Morey has turned the Rockets into a team consistently surpassing expectation and never giving up.
Morey came in and, without waiting more than a week, started to make significant moves. First, he confidently put his stamp on the team, firing Jeff Van Gundy, a talented head coach who never had really been able to improve the Rockets' offense as much as he did with the defense, and replacing him with battle-tested veteran Rick Adelman.
Then Morey really started to show his brilliance in the 2007 draft, not drafting the prospects based upon the general consensus, but those he considered the best. In doing so, he netted Carl Landry and Aaron Brooks, arguably the Rockets' two best players this year. At the time, though, Morey drew much criticism for the draft, with Chad Ford remarking: "Morey is smart, and he might make me look very stupid in a few years for saying this, but I think the Rockets' draft was one of the worst of the night."
Next, in a steal that might be known as his best move yet just a few months later, Morey acquired Luis Scola for a second round pick and salary cap relief. This trade was crucial to the Rockets success, because he had finally acquired that bona fide starting power forward to play off of Yao and take a little pressure off him, instead of throwing him out there with Novak or Juwan Howard.
If you are taking notes at home, Morey transformed the Rockets' PF position from Steve Novak into two power forwards capable of starting for most teams in the league today. And all he gave up for both these players was a little bit of cap relief to the Spurs, two second round picks, and cash to the Sonics. This value helped the Rockets build a winning team despite the absurd money being paid to two unreliable superstars.
He did make some mistakes, however. Actually, just two that I can count. Signing Brent Barry and Steve Francis are moves I am sure he would love to reverse. Even so, both Barry and Francis only made about $2 million a year each, and were low-risk moves.
You see, Daryl Morey is brilliant because he makes solid, low risk moves instead of swinging for the fences and possibly whiffing. Even his "risky" move of trading for Ron Artest was relatively low-risk. He gave up a reserve guard and two late first round picks to acquire a defensive stopper and a third option in the offense.
While the trade did not transform the Rockets into title contenders as was hoped, it did not hamstring the team and actually got them further in the playoffs than they had been in the Yao Ming-Tracy McGrady era. I think any Rockets fan and Morey would probably say that giving up Donte Greene and Omri Casspi (who looks to be a very nice player) was well worth getting through the first round and having a magical run in the second.
In his next act of brilliance, in the 2009 draft, Morey got a player that was a perfect fit for the Rockets' offense in Chase Budinger, as well as two future contributing guards in Jermaine Taylor and Sergio Llull, all for only cash (a lot of it) and a future second round pick.
When Daryl Morey said Budinger was the real deal, I thought he was just saying the same old GM shtick, but he has been an absolute steal. He plays well without the ball, can shoot off screens, slashes equally well, and has the strong basketball IQ required for Adelman's offense. All of these qualities sound like qualities found in a lottery pick, but this guy was picked in the middle of the second round!
Finally, while met with the possibility of having neither Yao nor a contributing McGrady for the 2009-2010 season, Morey's reluctance to make shortsighted moves to improve the team by maybe a few wins but mortgage the future showed his incredible foresight in constructing the team.
While it could have been tempting to take whatever he could get for McGrady, Morey's prudence in the matter has set the Rockets up to either acquire an All-Star or have significant cap space this winter.
If you are wondering, if you combine his major trades mentioned above during his tenure he gave up around $10 million, two first round picks, two second round picks, Rafer Alston and Bobby Jackson for Luis Scola, Carl Landry, Ron Artest, and Kyle Lowry (one of the underrated true point guards in the game). That is incredible value. If that trade occurred today, Gregg Popovich might have an aneurysm and the Lakers would wonder whether they could get a deal like that.
To wrap things up, its not his Moneyball style that has earned him a reputation as one of the top GMs in the league, but rather his patience and his belief that a lot of low-risk, high-reward moves are more likely to improve a team more than a couple high-risk, higher reward moves. While he came into a team with a murky future, Morey has quickly transformed the Rockets into a franchise that looks to be a solid playoff team for years to come and, maybe with a little more Morey magic, a championship team.
No comments:
Post a Comment