Though front office has a fresh look, collaborative environment remains

Tilman Fertitta remains the owner, Tad Brown the CEO, James Harden the on-court face.

But the Rockets will not be the same next season. Not even close.

For the first time in 14 years, Daryl Morey will not be in charge of basketball operations. Morey resigned from the Rockets and has accepted a position with the Philadelphia 76ers.

The face of the analytics movement in the NBA — and one of the league’s most innovative and popular general managers —

Morey put together a competitive team year after year despite the challenges.

From Tracy McGrady to Harden, Yao Ming to P. J. Tucker, Rafer Alston to Russell Westbrook, Jeremy Lin to Chris Paul, Kyle Lowry to Eric Gordon and so on, Trader Daryl went for it, remaking the roster whenever it wasn’t good enough in a tireless search for a championship combination.

Ultimately, the Morey Era ended without a title, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. In the NBA, not trying for a year or two has been key to many a title contender’s success.

New GM Rafael Stone was introduced by the team Thursday — well, introduced is a bit strong, considering Stone has been with the organization for 15 years — and he said not trying will not be part of the game plan going forward.

In fact, if you like how Morey conducted business, you won’t see many significant changes.

“This is a place that I feel like we’ve built something really, really special over the last 15 years,” Stone said. “Collectively, we’ve really impacted the game and the way it’s played, and we’ve been really, really aggressive as a group. And we’re going to continue to be extraordinarily aggressive.

“We’re gonna shoot for it. Whether we get there or not, I don’t know, but I can guarantee you we’re gonna shoot for it.”

That should calm the fears of Rockets faithful, who somehow thought the first move of the new general manager would be to tear everything down and start from scratch.

Stone was part of the buildup. He isn’t inheriting a roster of players with whom he has no connection or a coach who was handed to him.

He was a key part of the hiring committee that selected Stephen Silas as the new head coach. And he played an integral role in almost every major trade the franchise has made since he became general counsel.

Stone described himself as a “deal guy.”

“For the last eight years or so, our goal has been to win a championship because we have James Harden,” Stone said. “We still have James Harden. If you’ve got him, you’re halfway there.

“It’s incumbent on me and Stephen and the whole team to figure out the rest of the whole, but the key piece is there.”

Despite not achieving ultimate success with a championship, the Rockets were one of the league’s smartest franchises under Morey.

“We’ve all had a very collaborative environment,” Brown said. “The whole crew is still there, doing the same work, the decision-making process, and the way that it’s brought up into the executive decision process is really gonna be the same.”

Without question, Morey’s vision and willingness to go against the established grain of the NBA has been at the forefront of the Rockets’ operation since he took over as GM in 2007 after serving one season as an assistant.

Morey fostered an atmosphere in which subordinates were encouraged, if not required, to contribute ideas and perspectives that challenged his thoughts.

That five of his former assistants are top executives with other NBA teams is a strong indicator that he was secure enough to hire the best.

Generally, Morey was a “best way,” not “my way,” type of leader.

None of the hundreds of decisions made under Morey’s watch was done in a vacuum. Stone and new assistant GM Eli Witus have negotiated deals, worked trades and come up with innovative ideas to pull off moves.

“We have the same core group,” Stone said. “I think sometimes people thought a single person would go into a closet and emerge with this new idea, and that’s never the way we worked.

“We bounce ideas off each other. Somebody comes up with an idea, and everybody tells him all the bad things about it. He argues, and if he coverts some people, now, all of a sudden, we’re doing it.

“Everyone’s talking about what they’re observing, trying to figure out if we can find a little edge. That’s how we work.”

The Rockets will look different without Morey, but the work remains the same.