PrintQ&A With Daryl Morey
Rockets' GM discusses upcoming season
Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer
Portland - With the start of the Rockets' regular season just hours away, Rockets.com's Jason Friedman spoke with General Manager Daryl Morey to hear a handful of his thoughts on the year to come. What follows is the transcript of their conversation.
JCF: I guess to start things off, let’s talk about the team’s performance on offense during the preseason. The Rockets ranked in the top-10 on that side of the ball, which is somewhat surprising given all the new faces, no Yao and a shift in the style of play. I know it’s just preseason but what do you take from that performance and is that something you expect the team to maintain throughout the regular season?
DM: I think preseason is better for identifying problems than things you can count on. So obviously the defense not being where it should be was the main thing I took away from the preseason. On the offensive side, it’s encouraging considering we made a pretty big transformation in a short period. It’s still to be determined whether or not we can keep it up but the fact we were able to get out a lot more in transition is obviously the first step toward actually doing it when it counts.
I think it was what we hoped would happen. But, yeah, it did surprise me a little, though we set pretty high goals for ourselves on offense.
JCF: To score so effectively with no obvious All-Stars, do you think that’s more a byproduct of the system or that the players you have are actually better than people are giving them credit for?
DM: I think the players we have are definitely better than people understand. But time will tell. Talk is cheap and if we win games people will realize they’re a little better and if we don’t, then they’ll be right; or at least the people who have been more critical about where we might be this year will be right. But we’ll see.
JCF: The three-point shot is such a huge weapon in the NBA – both making it and defending it – and I know how much you guys value its importance. But does it become even more important for you this year because of the way this team is currently constituted?
DM: I think it’s always been a component of our offense. We were the No. 1 three-point shooting team three years ago when we had Yao, so it’s always been a big part of our game. It’s hard to rank a thing’s relative importance but it’s definitely something we feel we can use as a pivotal part of our offense.
JCF: You started things off by talking about the defensive drop-off you’ve witnessed this preseason. I know that was something you were worried about prior to the preseason starting, so where do you expect this club ending up defensively this year?
DM: I think if we keep it in the top-5 we’ll be really happy. Without Yao Ming, who’s a very good defender, if we can keep it in the 6 to 10 range that’s what we’ll need to do be a playoff team. If it falls out of the top-10 I think we’re going to be in trouble.
JCF: OK, well along those lines, one of the things I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is the idea of Chuck Hayes being this team’s sort of stealth MVP. You guys obviously have two great wing defenders in Trevor Ariza and Shane Battier but you don’t have quite the same luxury on the inside right now. Chuck is a great interior defender and you don’t just notice that when he’s on the floor but it’s something that’s also very noticeable when he’s off it. Is he as important as I’m making him out to be?
DM: Do we have a team MVP award now? We can call it the Jason Friedman Memorial Team MVP Award.
JCF: I’d be honored, Daryl. Though, quite frankly, the “Memorial” part makes me worry a bit for my future…
DM: (laughs) Hey, I think Chuck is very important to what we’re doing. We wish he was less important, I think, just like we wish Yao was less important because when you lose those guys it hurts so much. In the past, when Yao went down we had Chuck there and, now, if Chuck goes down we’re still trying to figure out who can slide in and give us a lift. I think Pops has shown some good things, probably more than the other bigs, but I think all of our bigs have the potential to give us a different look and lift with things like Brian Cook’s shooting and Joey Dorsey’s overall rebounding.
JCF: The early part of the schedule is obviously extremely tough. That’s not a newsflash of course and it’s not even anything new since it seems this club always has it tough in November and December before things finally turn around when the calendar hits January and February. So with that in mind, is it really just about keeping your head above water and trying to stay at or near .500 until things ease up?
DM: Well, we’re currently treading water with a boot on one foot (laughs). But hopefully we can tread away. I think the first seven games we won’t be favored except in one.
JCF: OK, well on to more uplifting subjects, it was pretty clear – at least from my vantage point – that you decisively won the Twitter smackdown with Bill Simmons last week…
DM: (laughs) No bias there, right?
JCF: Of course not! But here’s the thing: One day later, he followed that up with a couple paragraphs about you in his NBA preview column and the best way I can describe that particular excerpt is “glowing.” Was that his version of waving the white flag?
DM: (laughs) I don’t think I’ve ever won any sort of smackdown with Bill. And he’ll especially kill me if you write anything about it. I mean, there’s been a small group of people who believe in what we’re doing - Bill Simmons, Jemele Hill, and maybe Marc Stein but he’s been on the fence lately. So I think we’re open to people believing in us and hopefully we can follow through.
JCF: OK, well here’s one last question and I think I know your answer before I even ask. Do you at all relish that underdog position of being counted out before it begins? I’m guessing you’d probably prefer people think you’re on pace for a 65-win season and then deal with the expectations which accompany that.
DM: Yeah, I think you’re right. We’re sick of being underdogs. We want to be the dog, you know? It would be nice to just be the dog once (laughs). We had it lined up to be the dog last year but the dog got hurt in the knee and foot. All I know is that we’re not the dog right now.
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