I think you might have misread the Lin part. Here's what I read in the transcription JR provided above: "Jeremy worked out incredibly well but it wasn't for us necessarily. Here, he didn't work out for reasons I'll go into in a second, weren't really his fault."
Yeah, he said he would go into the reasons later but didn't. My guess is Morey was using Lin as a hedge against Harden in case Harden didn't pan out. Harden worked astounding so Lin was relegated to role player. A simpler reason is Lin was simply a Lowry replacement. When Lin left in NYK he was averaging 14pts/6asts - the exact same as Lowry. Lin performed better than Lowry in the first year - (Lin 13/6/44% in HOU vs Lowry 11/6/40% in TOR) - the trade was initially a success. However, Lin regressed in his 2nd year while Lowry became a 18/7 starter in Toronto so this 'trade' ending up failing.
Morey is one of my favorite interviews in any sport. He really is transparent compared to many general managers in sports.
I agree - Alston was not a difference maker. I guess he was good at being the Pat Bev to T-Mac's Harden, but Alston couldn't shoot worth a damn.
These happened like 5 years ago lol. Most of it is also how people perceived his moves so not sure what "trade secrets" came out. Anyway really good article and really good questions and also great answers by Morey. It cleared up a lot of the accusations people were throwing at him post Yao-Mac and pre-Harden era. I'm surprised he didn't mention hiring MDA and doubling down on offense as his riskiest move. That definitely would've gotten him fired if it didn't work and EVERYBODY hated that hiring. Then again maybe Les is the one who did that and not Morey. This is gonna seem weird but that time was one I really enjoyed as a Rocket fan. I thought it was crazy a team with Shane Battier, Lowry, Scola, Dikembe and Von Wafer was winning 50 games and making the playoffs lol.
While it is a fair comparison, McDs mistake was holding onto good-great players too long. He missed many opportunities to sell high on certain players. Something I’m not sure morey would have missed.
Rockets have 19 million cap space. How can Morey afford 3 free agent starters and 4 good free agent benches in July? He has no plan at all this summer. Why not give Capela contract extension summer 2017?
Your timeline is off. Lin was brought in to sell tickets and control the offense and pg spot in place of Lowry. We later traded for harden and immediately gave him the keys to the offense. That then lead Lin into an off ball kind of role instead of a primary ball dominate role in which he strived during his peak in NYK. That’s what I think he meant by it didn’t work out here for Lin. Morey probably envisioned an offense built around Lin building up his trade value as the lead guy while meanwhile possibly being bad enough to garner a mid lottery pick. Then James fell in his lap and changed history.
I think he has before. IIRC he thought at the time that Morris had the higher upside because of his ability to create his own offense and possessed all-star potential.
The biggest scary thing is Capela offer sheet. Capela offer sheet (starting at 23 million) will break up the Rockets team. Both Ariza and 4 good free agent benches walk for nothing.
I notice you don’t show much panic with your Warriors team going into free agency Warriors (2018/19) Curry.......................$37.5 M Durant.....................$26.3 M (Player Option) Klay Thompson.......$19 M Draymond G............$17 M Iggy..........................$16 M Livingston................$ 8.3 M McCaw....................$ 1.7 M (Qualifying Offer) Damian Jones.........$ 1.5 M Jordan Bell..............$ 815 Thousand _______________________________ ................................$ 130.2 million devoted to 9 players https://en.hispanosnba.com/salaries/teams/golden-state-warriors What are you going to do about good free agents that everybody wants: Nick Young? David West? JaVale MeGee? Zaza Pachulia? Casspi? Looney? Whatever will you do? Hurry Warriors.....do something. Or risk losing Durant to Dallas. Or Ballmer and the Clips. What a maroon
Well, after Morey landed Harden, Lin became more of a hedge or insurance. Hence I used the word 'relegated' for Lin since Harden became a huge success. Not sure what you mean by my timeline being off, but I agree with your last paragraph.