The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Matt Moore on Daryl Morey: He's One Of The Best GMs Of All Time

Episode Date: October 23, 2020

Matt Moore on Daryl Morey: He's One Of The Best GMs Of All Time

This is the Matt Thomas show. One o'clock straight up on the Matt Thomas show. Matt Thomas out today. Ross, we're we out with you until 3 o'clock coming up at 2. We'll have Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle. We'll have to make NFL picks. So I'll have to get all other good things going on in the show. But right now we've got another good thing.

And that would be Matt Moore of the Action Network. You can find them on Twitter at HP Basketball. always a good conversation with him. First and foremost, Matt, how are you doing on these trying and unprecedented times in the new normal I tried to fit as many cliches as I could into one sentence? Oh, no, everything's great, man. I don't know why you're worried. There's a global pandemic, and I'm here in Colorado, where there's the largest forest fire in the state's history,

literally overhead the entire sky is black and red. Other than that, though, things are awesome. Thanks for asking. So inside, people are dying and outside, everything's on fire. Other than that, everything's great, right? Everything's great. All right, so let's talk about the fun stuff. That would be the basketball.

First of all, we'll keep it on a national side. The story coming out today that the NBA looking for a Christmas star, but, I mean, before that, we had heard January or even maybe later than that. I guess it shouldn't be too surprising to hear about Christmas because that would make the TV networks happy. I guess it would. I still have a lot of skepticism about this. I don't think it's possible from a number of angles.

If you look at it, let's start with the league's biggest moneymaker is Los Angeles Lakers. They just won a title in October. You're going to give them 45 days coming off of a championship run to get back and then be ready for another full season. That doesn't seem likely. In order for them to be ready, you'd have to get through the cap negotiation has to happen first. They're still in the process of that before the October 30th deadline. Then you have to squeeze in the draft in November and then free agency in like two weeks after the draft before you start. training camp essentially in the first week of December to be ready for a Christmas start.

Like, this is, this just doesn't seem feasible. So I have real questions about how they're going to try and pull this off. I would think that at least, I've heard Martin Luther King Day being mentioned a lot as a, as a possible start date. I've heard later. I've heard later consistently that at least there are some owners that want to try and wait as late as late February to early March. So until we actually hear the date, I'm real skeptical to start talking about anything as concrete. There's too many factors at play here. that's the thing too is if there, even when there is a season, there are so many things that you have to put in place, Matt, and what would we see as far as procedurally with the

protocols? And if they're not going to be in a bubble, as we've seen, there's been outbreaks in baseball, there's been outbreaks in football and college football, but you just had the Big Ten starting up this week. They said, if there's some kind of outbreak, we're just going to call it a no contest. Do you think we could see that in the NBA? What's going to happen with rescheduling? I mean, how would the season get executed? Yeah, a lot of this is, I think they're trying to, the game. plan based off of what's going. Like there is, I think, a certain amount of, well, the NFL is doing it and the MLB did

it. So why can't we do it? I think there's a little bit of that that's going on. I do think some of the way that the sport is played is a little bit different. I think that the arena's being indoors. I think that changes it to a certain degree. There's some of it's all these kind of factors. Then there's the, you know, fans.

They want to get some fans into the building as many as they can. But that's state by state based off of restrictions. And then there's a fact that we just don't know what the, this curve is going to look like as we get further into the winter combined with flu season. We just don't know. So I think that the NBA has to factor all of that in. One thing I have heard is the idea of at least early in the season playing more stretches against in basically baseball type series.

You would go and you would play one team three to four times. And that way, if you load the early season with that, it limits the exposure rate. So if somebody tests positive, you're able to maybe get it content. versus the normal schedule, which we saw when the outbreak first happened in the NBA, we saw like the jazz played New York, who played Cleveland, who played the Nuggets, and all of these different branches kind of broke out. And so you have to be concerned about those things. I think some of that will be factored into the schedule when the NBA does resume.

Yeah. How about you just get some double-headers, too? Like, you know, back in the day when you're on the hard court, you just say, hey, let's run it back. Can you just do that in the NBA? That'd be funny. All right. Well, let's move on locally here, of course.

course. One of the reasons I want to have you on is your perspective on all things NBA and the Houston Rockets. I think you've been a guy who's covered them very well. First of all, I do want to apologize on behalf of the entire Rocket's Twitter. They are an unrebunch, aren't they? They're in a runry bunch, but they've been okay. I think we've been on the same side for a while on most things. I think it's interesting looking at what's going on with the team just in terms of there's a lot of just skepticism from around the league in terms of ownership and what ownership is really willing to do and willing to pay, given some of his statements. He said all the right things, but I think that that's the number one concern that you have to have is what is

Tom and Fertita's actual intentions in terms of spending to win a championship. Yeah, well, let's start talking about Darrell Morey. Just your thoughts overall, how would you describe his tenure as the Houston Rocket General Manager? Because it didn't result in a championship, but by every other measure seems successful. Just your thoughts on that. one of the best GMs of all time. Far none. I mean, just no question that he's one of the best GMs of all time. I think when you look back and you have to be able to look at the big picture with Daryl throughout the entire stretch,

you have to not only look at the Hardin era. You have to look at how he navigated from the Yao era and built around that team to cashing in on Tracy McGrady in the Knicks trade, to getting Kyle Lowry to then moving Kyle Lowry for assets that were eventually moved for James Hardin. to getting Chris Paul. The way that he was able, this is what it's not talked about, for analytically driven guy, he always managed to get the team in contention to either make the playoffs or compete for a title continuously over that stretch. That's so difficult.

Change the way that the game was played on multiple levels, both by prioritizing analytics and the three-point shot, but also like there's stuff like what he did with Rio Grande Valley and the G League. What he's done with so many good coaches that have come out of RGV. There are so many ways that Daryl Morey has influenced the sport, and he's not going to get the credit that he deserves. I don't think in history, because they never were able to get that title. All right.

Matt Moore from the Action Network and find him on Twitter at HP Basketball here on Sports Talk 790. And speaking about Daryl how he left the team, where are the Rockets right now? After the season and they lost four games to one to the Los Angeles Lakers, the eventual NBA champion. James Hardin says we're one piece away, but they've got cap issues. The team is getting one year older. What is Russell Westbrook going to provide a lot of question marks?

So do you buy or sell the notion from James Hardin that they're one piece away? I can buy that they're one piece away, but that one piece away is not obtainable because you can't obtain that one piece with Russell Westbrook on the books. You can't fit that one piece into a structure that's got hardened in Westbrook and the amount of basketball oxygen that they take up. You've got Robert Covington, possibly heading into free agency. you've got, I think, a really limited roster just in terms of the supporting players. There's just not a lot of guys out there besides the PJ Tucker and Eric Gordon that I can look at and say,

like, they absolutely are guys that you want to go into battle with in the playoff series. But those guys are good enough to make the key play that you need. And now factors in. Plus, trying to get this team that has been built one specific way to likely play different because very few people are going to coach the team the way Mike DeAnd Tony did. These are all, I think, factors that you have to lead to the idea that if possible Houston takes a step back this season as they try and figure out exactly who they are. And one of the ways they're going to try to figure out who they are is the next head coach. There has been floated the three finalists.

It's either John Lucas, Stephen, Silas, or Jeff Van Gundy. I'll ask you for a little bit on each of them, starting with Jeff Van Gundy. What do you think about that name as a head coach for the Rockets? I have a skepticism. Love Van Gundy when he was a coach in the league. I've always respected his basketball knowledge and just the way that he looked at the game so much, extremely smart coach. I just have real concerns about guys that have been out that long.

It's hard to apply things that you thought used to work into a modern context. It's just the game is so much different than when he coached. The perimeter is so much more of a big deal. And, you know, he's available and open to those kind of ideas. obviously has a strong connection to the community. I think that's good. But I have some concerns about the ability to adjust. If you can do it, then it's going to work great.

He's a great coach. I just don't know if he's well-built to immediately jump in to this kind of team being at this level in a modern NBA and be able to make that transition seamlessly. All right. And Stephen Silas is a name that we've seen floated. I think when Mike Dantone was hired, he was one of the guys who was a finalist for the Rockets. That's a name that's been floated and named it a bunch of. of coaching searches. Why hasn't Stephen Silas being hired and why should or would the

rockets do it? Yeah, everyone's asked a question about Silas. He's one of the guys that immediately comes up when he talks to anybody here in the league as a prospective coach. He just has such a good record, you know, the work that he's done with the Mavericks, the work that he's done all the way back, going back for, you know, decades. He's worked in the league and he's come up the right way. He's done all that kind of work. Did really great work under Steve Clifford, that entire tree is really good. He has consistently been a name that everyone kind of mentioned, connects with players, is a large part of it. He's a really good coach for connecting with players as well as bringing into X as and O's mind. His reputation is pretty sterling. As for why

he doesn't get hired, I can't tell you because there's a lot of good coaches in this league that have never really gotten a shot. Sam Cassell being one of them that I always wonder why it is that those guys never seem to get hired. You wonder if it's the interview process issue or whatever, but I think he'd definitely be a pretty solid hire. And then last but not least, John Lucas, the player development coach for the Rockets for a couple of years, obviously former Rocket player as well. What does that name do for you? You know, ties to the organization, obviously, that's good. Player development's always, those guys are always very well-like.

If you're looking to try and navigate the waters of the modern NBA, a lot of it is just managing player egos and locker room tensions. That's a lot of it. You look at the Clippers and them going with Ty Lou. That's a lot of it. he was able to get the most out of a Cleveland team with a complicated set of egos. That's a lot of, I think, what he can bring to the table, but also, you know, a longtime guy that obviously knows a ton about the game. Mixed reviews from people around the league or is whether he can,

he'll be good as a head coach. But there are some that very firmly believe that he would be able, he would be excellent at motivation and being able to figure out the adjustment that the team needs to make throughout the season. And there also has been talked that whoever gets or whoever, is going to get hired, we'll probably have to get greenlit by James Harden. Is that just, I mean, that's just the NBA in 2020? And what do you think James, what is James Hardin looking for in a head coach? Is some guy who lets him do whatever he wants, or is he looking for, I mean,

what do you think on that front? Most of the start players, as far as I'm aware of, don't really care because they believe they'll do what they want anyway. That's usually how it goes, that the coaches, you want a good relationship, you want a coach, it doesn't hold you back, but you don't necessarily believe that who it is matters all that much for your career. I think that the bigger thing is not that you get the sign off or endorsement. It's more that Hardin doesn't object. That's usually how it goes. The star players also very rarely want to be linked to these decisions because, one, they don't want the responsibility for its success. And then two, they don't want the image out there that they are the type of person that involves themselves in front office

discussions. They just say, you know, the team made this decision. I support the team's decision. But there will be a very clear conversation about whether or not Hardin objects to that coach and whether he wants it. If he doesn't want it, that carries more weight than whatever level of endorsement he gives. Matt Moore Actionnetwork.com. Find them on Twitter at HP Basketball here on Sports Talk 799. Before we get you out, Matt, just let the folks know what you guys got going on the website, anything you're working on. Yeah, look at MVP odds for next year and whether or not James Hardin can get back into the race once again, as he has so many years under a new coach. I've got stuff up on the wind totals. Might be fading Houston a little bit under that one.

No. As well as a conversation about the clippers and why Kauai Lennar probably needs a little bit more scrutiny than he's got. You can find all that action network. Make sure I download our app. It's the best way to track scores all across sports. All right.

Thanks a lot. Matt, more. Appreciate it for the time for us. As always, talk to you down the road. Thanks, man. Take care. All right. Appreciate it.

Matt, more. Great stuff with him. As always, once again, actionnetwork.com. Find them on Twitter at HP Basketball. Always a good follow. If you want somebody who really follows basketball close, that is your guy. All right, time for a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show. Do you want to react to anything that he had to say?

Stephen Silas, Jeff Van Gundy, John Lucas. Who would you want as the Houston Rockets head coach? 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90. Matt Thomas Show. Without Matt Thomas continues in a second.