also the only guy i ever see on national tv besides JVG that gives any sort of respect whatsoever to the rockets.

Rafer’s a proven quantity for any GM – he’ll give you poor shooting, decent defense, and pretty good passing. Lowry wasn’t.

Let’s pretend that Otis Smith knows pretty much what Morey knows – Kyle Lowry is probably better than Rafer, but you’re not entirely sure and it’s clear that the Grizzlies don’t value him properly. If you trade for him and it turns out you were wrong, then you’ve fucked up big time because you took a chance on a 23 year-old PG who couldn’t win the starting job in Memphis. It’s likely that you’ve lost your job.

If you’re Morey, you’re a little more willing to take the risk – even if you’re not sure about Lowry, you’re pretty sure Brooks can handle the job, and even if he can’t and Lowry fucks up, too, you’ve got an owner who trusts you (and who tolerated worse mistakes from your predecessor, anyways). Beyond that, you can always play it off as a rebuilding attempt following McGrady’s injury.

Of course, as BDL pointed out when the trade happened, the stats available to us seemed to indicate that Lowry was better than Mike Conley while they were both in Memphis, and he was better than Rafer all year.

It’s probably most accurate to say that it’s a combination of Morey simply better evaluating Lowry than either Orlando or Memphis, as well as being in a better position to take the risk.

It’s the same reason GMs are so willing to overpay for free agents rather than trade for young players – you know what you’re getting from a veteran, and it doesn’t look as bad when he fails.

It would be a lot less fun if we did NOT beat Utah on the way to a ring.