GM hits major topics in Q&A
Daryl Morey addresses NBA season’s status, team’s title window and critics.
Amid the NBA shutdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, with stay-at-home orders and social distancing replacing road trips, practices and games, the work goes on.
For players, that means home workouts. For executives, that means offseason planning moved to March and April with conference calls and messaging apps.
With hope the NBA will eventually restart its 2019-20 season, though with even that uncertain in distressing times, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey answered questions from how his front office has adjusted to the prospects for the season he hopes to resume and beyond.
Q: In these unusual and troubling times, how do you spend your days now compared to what you would normally be doing at the end of March and beginning of April?
A: Normally, we would be stressing about our playoff positioning and winning the game tomorrow night. Everyone is adjusting. Obviously, everyone’s working from home. We for quite a while have used a messaging platform to keep everyone together. It’s not as big an adjustment with the front office just because we’re used to being on the road. We’re used to being remote a lot. That helps.
The biggest adjustment is for the players, No. 1 and then coaches. Those of us that are always out on the road scouting or at the NCAA Tournament it is less of an adjustment.
We schedule Slack calls periodically. We’re prepping for everything we can anticipate may happen once we get going again. For example, we think whatever happens, we think there will be less time to prepare from the end of the season to the off-season. So, we’re doing a lot of that prep now on potential free agents next year, potential trade targets. By preparing, I mean video work and other background that we can do.
Q: Is there a lot of draft preparation that would normally begin after the tournament underway now?
A: We don’t currently have a pick, but we have a long history of buying them, which I think has a reasonable chance of happening. We also might have a trade to trade (into the draft.) Actually, having no pick ends up harder than having a pick. You normally don’t want to roster more than one to three rookies in a given year. We generally like to roster at least one because I think it is smart to always have a developmental pipeline going.
You’re preparing for a much wider list. You have to be ready to trade into the first round. You have to be ready to buy a pick. You have to be ready for the crush as teams chase undrafted players. We’re going to prepare everything now because we just don’t know how much time there’s going to be between things like we normally know.
Q: What kind of communication has there been with players?
A: With players, it’s pretty intense at the workout level and the health and wellness level. We had guys rehabbing. Luckily, they were at a stage they could just get the workout programs and do them themselves. (Guard Michael Frazier, out with a fractured left forearm, was the only player listed out with an injury when the season was suspended.) They can do workouts directed by Javair (Gillett, the director of player performance) and Willie (Cruz, a strength training assistant) and the crew there. And then John Lucas gives them basketball workout plans as well.
It’s hardest for the players. You can’t replicate playing games. It’s a social sport. It’s much easier to get motivated to do workouts when you’re doing it with someone else. These guys are professionals and we have the most veteran team in the league, basically. I’d worry more if we have a bunch of young players. But we also need to hit the ground running when things restart. It’s been interesting.
I talk regularly with Mike (D’Antoni), who talks with the players as well. We’re all monitoring everything, the country, the world, basketball. Everything.
Q: You sound confident that the season will in some form restart.
A: I think they’re asking me not to comment right now, but I’m confident in general. I’m optimistic in a lot of ways that we’ll come out of this crisis and that basketball will come out of it as well.
Q: There’s more that we don’t know than we do, but if this hiatus leads to a decrease in revenue and there is agreement on next season’s luxury tax and salary cap that decreases from projections, the Rockets could go from being a non-tax team as you were after the trade deadline to a tax paying team. How does that impact or not impact what you do?
A: Our (trade) deadline really set us up well. Not only did we shoot for a better structure of our core players, that they fit together better, but also allowed us to be more flexible going forward to add players that we think overall as we allocate our player spending. We were over-weighted at the five spot. This opens up ability to spend at other spots.
We’re going to operate pretty much as every team does and as we have since I got here in 2006. We’re going to put a championship caliber team on the floor. We’re not going to let anything get in the way of that.
I’ve been a little frustrated because I’ve seen things out there criticizing the Rockets for not spending on this or that or even dragging up stuff from years ago, that we didn’t spend money on certain players that went on, unfortunately, to not do much after. My job is to put a championship-caliber team on the floor. Whatever happens with the league and the CBA dynamics we all have to play under in terms of our ability to spend, that trade at the deadline is going to set us up as we move forward to add a significant player this off-season, for example.
Q: There have been moves that got you under the luxury tax. You have said you were not under a mandate to do that. But how do you respond to criticism of moves that have avoided the tax?
A: Judge us by results on the floor. I honestly don’t get the focus on what owners around the league are spending. Pretty much every owner is spending … right around the luxury tax line. That’s where we’ve been literally my whole career. Nothing’s changed. That’s how every team operates.
People want to criticize and say we shouldn’t have done a trade because they like the player that went out more than the player we got, that’s fine. I personally don’t understand the focus of marginal moves or whether teams are slightly over or slightly under a certain line. Judge us on results. Judge us on how good we are and have operated since I’ve been here.
Q: Are you free to do whatever move you wish?
A: I absolutely can do whatever I wish. But at the end of the day, that’s within the context of a decision-making structure that involves myself, coach D’Antoni and ownership. That’s how every team operates. The focus in how we operate, I understand it because there’s been some changes recently. But nothing really has changed and every team operates the same way. Every team operates near the same line and every team operates with the same key people in the decision-making process. I’ve been frustrated because of recent changes people try to diagnose and analyze it as if things are different. If you look how this team has operated since I got here in ’06, it’s been the same throughout and we’ve been the second-best team in terms of wins and losses and generally a championship-contender. We’re hoping to do better and win the title this year.”
Q: You mentioned only one significant change, referring to Tilman Fertitta buying the team from Leslie Alexander. But there have been changes to the front office since Gersson Rosas left, Rafael Stone and Monte McNair were promoted, and Chuck Hayes and Ed Pinckney were brought in or given additional roles. How has that changed things?
A: We don’t do a lot of promoting of the guys we hire and maybe that’s my mistake. For me, I like the focus to be on the players. But Ed Pinckney and Chuck Hayes have been really two good additions.
Q: Are they examples of a misconception that everyone in the front office looks at things from the analytics perspective?
A: As you get farther away from the Houston Rockets and then Houston and then basketball, people tend to simplify the narrative even more. It goes from what it is, which is a pretty complex decision-making process across a lot of key people like Ed. One reason I love Ed is his coaching background is extremely valuable. He was one of the top assistant coaches in the league for a very long time and a former top player. Chuck being a recent top player brings a different perspective. People think it’s all analytics, all about data, all an inhuman machine. Anyone close to us knows it’s not true. It’s not even worth trying to convert people.
Q: You mentioned the front office is as you want it. How much of a priority is it, or not, to bring back this coaching staff beyond this year?
A: Coach D’Antoni is one of the best all-time coaches, in my opinion. To me he’s like one of those players in the past that hadn’t quite won the title yet. I’m hoping this is the year for him. He’s one of the all-time great innovators and a great partner. I’d love for it to keep going. It takes two to tango, but we’re going to figure that out in the offseason.
Q: You mentioned competing for a championship. Do you still think that’s in reach?
A: With this core, with James (Harden) and Russ (Westbrook), Robert (Covington), P.J. (Tucker) and Eric (Gordon), we feel that is a really strong core and signed into the future. Maybe we’re not the ’96 Bulls, but I think we’re a team that can win the title in any given year, including this one.”
Q: It has seemed that while Russell Westbrook has made the adjustment, that is an ongoing process for James Harden given the way teams now defend him and the roster changes. Is that, along with the adjustments in general with the rotation additions and changes in February, a factor and an issue with losing some portion of the remainder of the regular season?
A: That’s what’s got us excited as well. James is super basketball smart. He’s figuring out how to play with Robert, how to play with Russ, how to play with this group. And teams are smart and adjusting how they’re defending us, and we’re figuring that out. I think there’s a really good chance … we’re going to keep improving when we come back and into playoffs.
I am hoping for a few more regular-season games so we can get back the home-court (advantage). I think we’re as well positioned as we’ve ever been with our current situation.