Daryl Morey dishes on Rockets, Carmelo Anthony in interview

Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey appeared on The Haberstroh Show for NBC Sports, and he dished on a wide variety of topics, including Carmelo Anthony and Houston’s slow start.

One of the more interesting parts of the interview had Morey discussing whether or not the league had caught up to the Rockets, who have been at the forefront of a three-pointer-or-layups-only philosophy driven by analytics. Morey admitted that his way has become the way for a lot of teams, and the opposition’s newfound familiarity with Houston’s style may be a contributing factor to the Rockets’ slow start.

“For sure that edge is eroding. Our job is to find the next one,” Morey said, also according to USA Today Rocketswire.

“...In a five-on-five game . . . eventually you have to put it on the floor. So it’s not like its any mystery how we play. The kinds of things that we keep close to the vest are acquisition strategies, and how we forecast players, and things like that. But in terms of how we play, there’s really no secrets in the league. You have to put it on the floor... Frankly, I wish the NBA was a little more complicated, like the NFL, in that there is a lot of on-the-court optionality. There really isn’t a ton in basketball. As soon as it’s on the floor, it’s pretty easy to adjust to.”

Morey also had a little to say about the Carmelo Anthony situation, placing the blame squarely on his own shoulders for the awkward fit Melo ended up. He also feels that Anthony can still play, saying:

“He can really still help a team. I think just how things evolved in terms of how we were using him, we really thought that was going to work. And to be fair to Carmelo, I do really think he can help a team, and I think a team’s gonna nab him here pretty shortly is my guess. But in terms of how things evolved for us and our heavy use of a switching defense–which we had a mix last year; we ended up finishing using it pretty exclusively, but we had a mix of that last year–that was one thing that wasn’t a perfect fit. It really is mostly on me, honestly. I saw the fit there, and it really didn’t go the way that I thought it would.”

Make sure you check out the entire interview, where Morey also talks about Michael Jordan and producing his own musical.