The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian T. Smith On Daryl Morey Stepping Down

Episode Date: October 15, 2020

Brian T. Smith On Daryl Morey Stepping Down

This is the Matt Thomas Show. 104 Sports Talk 790. Those of you on hold do not go anywhere. We are taking your phone calls much of the way as we did the first hour. We'll continue to do so. And we invite you to join us at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Astros against the race. Game 5 of the series right here on 790 beginning.

I'll have the on-deck show at 3 o'clock. Luis Garcia will go for the stroes. John Curtis will throw for Tampa. I expect Luis Garcia's day to be short. Hopefully it's two solid innings of no runs, no hits, a couple of strikeouts. But that bullpen will be used quite a bit today. My guess is the Astros try to stay alive. But the story of the day continues to be the announcement, at least from Adrian Walgerhauski,

nothing official from the Rockets in terms of email. or what's in a letterhead or any kind of Zoom meetings. But Darrell Mori is going to resign as the vice president, general manager for the Houston Rockets. And you've heard what I've said about it for the last hour. I want to get a different opinion on that. We'll say hi to our good friend Brian Smith, who always likes to chime in on super big sports days. I had to thought, Brian, the Rockets or the Astros, game five would have been plenty for this radio show. We get this bomb dropped at us about 1130 this morning.

Matt, who remembers Bill O'Brien getting fired? The head coach, General Manager, King of Kirby Drive. I mean, number one, there is literally, literally so much, so much to get into. And I want you to ask me about Russell Westbrook and James Harden, because that plays a part in all of this. But let me just say this. What an insane year for Houston sports. I'm not talking about 2020. I'm not talking about the stupid coronavirus pandemic or the crazy,

election or the economy or whatever. Houston sports, man, since I think it was January 13th, you have you have the chiefs debacle, which ultimately leaves the firing of Bill O'Brien. Then you have the Astros cheating scandal, A.J. Hintz, Jeff Luno gone, Bill O'Brien gone on a Monday when no one in the world expected it. And in some ways, this is the biggest news. not because it wasn't time, not because this hasn't been building for years, but to do it right now, Matt, during a head coaching search, I know that you and Ross love this term, but this is pretty unprecedented in the NBA, and the NBA loves its drama. Yeah, this to me, and again, this is just pure conjecture because they're not whispering anything to me, and I'm okay with it. that. This to me is, I want a coach, says Darrell. I want a coach, says Tillman, and I don't know if they're on the same page. Look, I've been working the phones. I'll be working the phones. I've been

working the phones the last few years. I mean, since I became a columnist's used to Chronicle. I don't love this drama in a sense of, I mean, these are people, these are jobs, these are life, these are families. But I always say, like, I said, Bill O'Brien, I mean, you know, when there's this much at stake,

when you're making millions upon millions, when you go all in, and my lord, did Darry go all in, you know, many times, it's life. It's like watching a reality TV show

or a great, it's like watching the wire or, or, you know, a great HBO show. Things happen, Matt.

There's fallout. Now, I'll say this. this, we've seen this happen a few times. I mean, there could be another part of the story that hasn't come out. But with what I know now and what I've reported for the last few years in the chronicle, with everything we know, a lot of this is tied together, Matt, and a lot of this, the writing was on the wall. But that being said, just like Mike Dantone walking away, and Mike Dantone chose to walk away from the rockets, this, the timing of this, how it happened,

was just as stunning because this has nothing. And I heard the early call. I know there's some talk out there. Attaching this to China is absolutely idiotic, not in the country, but the tweet, and we all know what happened with that. If the Rockets wanted to do that,

if the NBA wanted to do that, if Tim and Fertita wanted to do that, he would have done it when it happened. And you wouldn't have waited until a month after the season ended while you're searching for a head coach to do that. It's not like Ty Lou or Jeff Van Gundy or whomever said, well, you know what, I will be your next tech coach, but you've got to get rid of Darryl Morrow because of a tweet that he sent out 10 months ago.

Give me a freak, or 12 months ago. Give me a freaking break. This is another sign, Matt, that the Rockets have quietly somewhat been one of the most dysfunctional organizations in the NBA in the last few years. Darry, if there was a Hall of Fame for GMs, Darry would end up in that Hall of Fame, right? Darryl Morey is one of the smartest, brightest, most creative GMs and not just recent NBA history, an NBA history,

but he was never able to get over that, you know, that cliche hump. And with the way that Mori ran things, whether it was, you know, daily interactions, whether it was just his personal style, whether it was by far being James Hardin's biggest supporter inside and outside of the building, when you go that all in and you get Chris Paul and because of the hamstring, you fall short, you don't make the finals, when you then trade for Russell Westbrook, when you, when you, when Mike Dantone walks away from you, when you have all these things, when you have frustration and when you have an organization that no matter what, they say publicly, internally, they often contradicted it. They would always say everything's fine. We're all great. You know, we're better than the Warriors. The Rockets Matt have just been churning through drama internally for the last few years. And so in many ways, this is the peak of it. It wasn't Dan Tony. This is Darry who's been doing this forever. In many ways, had long outstayed is welcome. Not only does he step away from the Rockets,

much like Dan Tony did, but he steps away a month after the season while they're theoretically on the verge of hiring a head coach. That does not happen in the NBA. So I've always felt that Daryl, any thought of moving James was preposterous. It might still be, because Tim and may echo those thoughts. I wonder if that philosophy has changed and maybe is part of the reason why there is a disconnect. that maybe there is, hey, if you can go kick the tires, I'm moving James, it gets something, and we sort of rebuild, let's do it now. Yeah, and here's the reality of that.

It's much more Hardin and Westbrook, right? The Rockets made the decision. Top down to trade Chris Paul. And I wrote this 100 times, and it was 100% accurate. As much as it was denied by Hardin or Mori. Remember last summer? Like, everyone forgets things immediately now. Last freaking summer, Darry

basically said publicly our entire roster is on the trade block except for James Harden. Who says that in the NBA? That's how Mori operated. That stuff creates frustration. That stuff creates issues. And that's just one little, little smart of the issues. The Rockets also loved Mori and knew that they wouldn't be in this

position without Mori, but if you keep falling short, Matt, if you can't beat the Warriors, if you can't beat a non-Dynasty Lakers team, if you get knocked out of the second round and the second round. If you go all in with small ball, when everyone in the world tells you small ball for 48 minutes is a pretty stupid idea, even in 2020, you better win a finals. And it didn't happen. And so the second the Rockets lost to the Lakers, and I wrote this in the

Chronicle, Tillman Furtita was staring at a mess. And he knew it. And what's happened since then? Dan Tony's gone. Morrie's gone. But when it comes to Hardin and when it comes to Westbrook, I can't make this any clearer. they love Hardin. They know he's one of the best players in the NBA. They know he should be better. And ultimately, that is on James Harden. So they have not been able to find a coach.

And as of right now, they haven't been able to find a GM who can put together a true championship team around James Hardin. And most importantly, get the best out of James Hardin. And so, you know, I've seen stuff floated for Mori and family and kids and, you know, all these things. And those all may be accurate. but he was the GM of one of the most interesting teams in the NBA. How many times did he say, you know, how badly he wanted to win a finals for the Rockets,

but also for James Hardin. And to fall short, your coach walks away, and for Mori to step down tells you once again that there's just been simmering frustration. And here's part of this that hasn't been reported. And I'll put this out right now because I know it's accurate. there was tension this season between James Hardin and Russell Westbrook. And so you just, you puddle that together and people are going to fall by the wayside. And then you have an owner like Tullin Fertita, who is very demanding, who in many ways runs the rocket,

it's like he runs all those billion-dollar businesses. There has been the feeling the last couple years that they were not being run right, that they could be run better, that. At times, they were dysfunctional. So it's not a coincidence that after this team falling short again and hard and disappointing again and Westbrook looking that bad in the playoffs at certain times that there have been casualties. Man, as you're running through the list, I just came to the notion that we have had three general managers and three coaches gone in one city in 12 calendar months. I've actually handled the pandemic fairly well.

I've been lucky, you know, that's far. You know, you know what's aging me? Houston Sports. Jeff Luno, A.J. Hens, Bill O'Brien as King, head coach general manager, Mike Dantone, and Daryl Morey all since January. It's only October. Well, I look forward to Tomlin's, I look forward to Tomlin speaking. I look forward to Darryl speaking.

I look forward. I think the next head coach of this team will be announced within the next seven calendar days. I wouldn't be shocked at all. And I'll say this lastly, Darry fell short. But Darry ultimately Matt did a fantastic job as the Rockets GM. And that must be said. You're not, there is no reason, unless something comes out,

there's no reason for anyone to kick dirt on him. He fell short. But it's not easy in this modern NBA world with all the super teams and the major markets, you know, L.A., etc. to win the titles. You have the Warriors' dynasty. Mori could have done better at times. I think the team went backward,

clearly the last two years, and they're in a tough spot right now, just like the Texans are, in terms of team building, and maybe they have to consider starting to gradually tear it down. But Darry... And that's the thing is that this organization has never allowed itself. They've never done it.

Yeah, never done it. And it didn't want to do it under less and certainly haven't done so under Tillman. BTS, look forward to reading your column tomorrow morning in the Houston Chronicle. Hey, you're going to be on tomorrow with me. By the way, you're coming back with me at 2 o'clock tomorrow. We've got to figure that out with this Astros team's going to do. I'm piggybacking.

We're going to bullpen at both games. Perfect. Thank you, friend. Brian T. Smith with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Back to your phone calls. Next, 116. It is the Matt Thomas show. Sports Talk 790.

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