Are teams scared of Morey?

by ak2themax on Jun 23, 2009 5:27 PM CDT Comment 10 comments

I was talking to a friend today and we started talking Rockets and the draft (obviously, since I'm posting here).

We were talking about the potential lack of suitors the Rockets could have to make similar deals to last year's draft-night orchestrations by Daryl Morey. The question that came up: is it possible that teams don't want to deal with the Rockets because they know Daryl Morey seems to only make good moves?

Yes, there's the signing of Steve Francis, but everything that the Boy Genius seems to touch regarding the draft turns to gold.

Luis Scola, Carl Landry, Aaron Brooks, Shane Battier, and even the Batum/Greene/Artest moves have all made the Rockets contenders, and each player contributed mightily to the Rockets' 2009 playoff run and at least the former four will be integral parts of a 2010 run (Artest as well, should he re-sign). And yes, I know Scola was not a draft-day thing, but it was an offseason move in July, so close enough.

The point is, Morey is magic on draft deals. Do teams want to mess with fire with this ~~guy~~ genius? I can't see the Rockets getting any major steals this year, but I can see teams only coming to the Rockets because they need the help financially, which probably won't help us moving forward. All of this because of Morey.

I'm not saying he should be fired or anything, and if I ever did, you have permission to shoot me in the face. Teams should absolutely be scared of him. What I'm trying to get at is this: is Morey "too good" at being a GM? Are teams afraid to go near him now?

What do you think?

No cursing in title. No pirated material, such as links to online game streams. Thanks.

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Don't forget about Scola

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"I think girls are probably just better shooters." - Steve Novak

by Tom Martin on Jun 23, 2009 5:37 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

what?

I have no idea what you are talking about

How many Biletnikoffs does he have? NOT TWO!

by ak2themax on Jun 23, 2009 5:51 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sometimes,

I hate the ‘edit’ button. Doesn’t properly hold people accountable ;-)

The Dream Shake ...on Twitter.
"I think girls are probably just better shooters." - Steve Novak

by Tom Martin on Jun 23, 2009 11:42 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Quite the contrary

I find it to be a most agreeable service.

How many Biletnikoffs does he have? NOT TWO!

by ak2themax on Jun 25, 2009 4:25 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I understand your point.

but I don’t really think so. I think it’s going to take a lot more of these great move by Morey (and maybe a championship or 2) to get people to really start wondering why they’re trading with him.

I’d be interested to see how Morey fairs on the stock market. He seems to have a knack for knowing when something is overvalued or undervalued. On top of that he’s probably a MONSTER fantasy football player.

"I am from one of the top 15 cities in the world. Buffalo, New York." - TrentEdwardsHoF2018

by Artest4Prez on Jun 24, 2009 8:58 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Hmmm...

This is an interesting outlook. I agree he has done a great job, but i dont think anyone is scared of him because he seems to make only good deals. Just because the Rockets have greatly benefitted from his draft day wizardry doesn’t mean the other teams involoved were necessarily hurt by the moves. I think a team will pull the trigger on a deal if they think it is going to benefit their team, regardless of who is on the other end (unless its a division rival).

by shaqui chan on Jun 24, 2009 10:53 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I’d say no. Pritchard has had mostly great moves for the past three years and people still deal with him. LMA for Tyrus, Foye for Roy, Dorsey and Arthur for Batum.

GMs have egos. They will always think that they can do a good deal.

draft dejuan blair

by Cablinasian on Jun 24, 2009 2:10 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

exactly

Teams still do deals with the A’s and Red Sox in baseball. Teams still trade with the Patriots in the NFL. Morey’s interest in Lowry didn’t stop Memphis (then again, it is Memphis) from trading him for a crappy draft pick.

I don’t think it’s really “ego,” so much as the simple fact that every team does tons of research. If you’re the GM, and if you don’t trust your research enough that you’re willing to deal with Morey, then you’re not GM material. Yeah, I imagine that teams might take another look at a player they’re looking to trade if the Rockets or Spurs or Blazers ask about them, but that’s not going to overrule their own judgments.

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by Only_A_Lad on Jun 24, 2009 2:45 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

It depends

If you assume that draft deals are zero-sum games, then that should be true. But nothing implies that trades should be zero-sum, and I think GMs know that. So it is not reasonable to think that Morey would chase possible deals away with his reputation of being a good trader or whatever.

by Keelhaul on Jun 25, 2009 4:19 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs

an excellent point

but two things:

1) I rarely see ideas like this framed in terms of GMs “winning” or “losing” deals. Mostly it’s just the idea that, when a good GM comes calling, the other team begins to think that whomever the GM asks for is better than they originally thought, and so they begin to fear losing a valuable piece. That wouldn’t affect deals that involve a team with great depth at a particular position (take, for instance, Morey inquiring about Lowry; that would be a case where Memphis has no plans on playing him more, simply because they like Conley more and don’t see Lowry as nearly as valuable), but it might affect others.

2) To some degree, trades are zero-sum games because they are viewed as such. GMs fear getting “burnt” in a trade because it reflects poorly on them, and they’re competing for their jobs. If they “lose” too many trades, even if those trades were economically the right moves because of positional issues or whatever, then they might get fired. Irrational behavior creates more irrational behavior down the line.

Your friendly neighborhood Dreamshake mod.

by Only_A_Lad on Jun 25, 2009 4:39 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs