Daryl Morey

Rockets Come Back from 15 Down in the Fourth Only to Fall in OKC

So close and yet so far. The Rockets were about as close as you can come to pulling off the upset in Oklahoma City Wednesday night. The Thunder were fumbling all over themselves and missing shots. The Rockets were stroking it and rolling. Of course, they were down 15, but their furious fourth-quart ... More >>

Lil Wayne Apologizes To LeBron For All-Star Weekend Outburst, Still Hates Chris Bosh

The NBA trade deadline came and went at 2 p.m. Thursday afternoon, and somehow, some way, with everyone fully expecting the Rockets to be one of the passive spectators at deadline time for a change, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey managed to steal the spotlight. Given Morey's seeming addiction ... More >>

Sacramento Kings Fans React To The 2013 Thomas Robinson Heist

As general managers of any team goes, let alone a team that is three seasons removed from being in the playoffs, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is a pretty popular guy. Yes, he's accessible and honest and willing to explain the deals he makes (or doesn't make) in just the right amount o ... More >>

Win-Win: Harden Blisters Former Team On the Court, Morey Does the Same to Sacramento Off Landing Robinson

The NBA trade deadline is always a weird time. It comes on the heels of the NBA's most glamorous weekend and right in the middle of the season. Most years there are trades here and there. Occasionally, there's a blockbuster. Since Daryl Morey has taken over as the general manager for the Rockets, th ... More >>

2012: My Fave Fifteen, 15 Posts I Enjoyed Writing and (I Think) You Enjoyed Reading

A few years ago during the dog days of summer, in an attempt to fill air time with not much else going on, ESPN came up with this gimmick segment called "Who's Now?" Basically, they matched up various sports figures in a bracket style tournament and then had random celebrities (sports and Hollywood) ... More >>

Dear Santa, All I Want for Christmas in Houston Sports Is...

It's Christmas Eve, which means there are just a few hours left to submit your Christmas wish list to Santa Claus. I want to think that I've been good this year, and that Santa will get me everything that I want. So Santa, here's my list. I'll see you tonight. 15. Some of my fellow UH alums might d ... More >>

Daryl Morey Fires Off A Kurkjian Style Stat Dork Tweet To Defend Jeremy Lin

By any real measurement, the first season for Jeremy Lin as a Houston Rocket has been fairly pedestrian. Statistically, he has struggled shooting the basketball (.399 field goal percentage) and seen his minutes scaled back in recent weeks. Purely to the human eye, Lin has had trouble meshing with ba ... More >>

Sports Illustrated Gets In Depth with Rockets GM/Geek Daryl Morey

If you've ever seen the movie Moneyball, you probably have a tiny inkling of what goes into the data-heavy methodology behind modern sports analytics. It's a complex mix of raw data, probability and computing power. Prior to Daryl Morey's hire as the Rockets GM, no one had seriously tried it in the ... More >>

James Harden Is A Houston Rocket: So, Now What?

I haven't used a Sopranos analogy in a long time, and frankly, since the series has been defunct for more than five years, I have no idea how much longer the Relevancy Police are going to allow me to do so, so if I may: Remember in the first half of Season 6 of The Sopranos, when Tony got shot in t ... More >>

CongraduLINtions, Houston: It's a Point Guard!

Over the last few weeks -- and, frankly, for quite sometime before that -- the name Jeremy Lin has been twisted to fit any number of ridiculous puns (check out HPBasketball's Twitter feed on Tuesday for some hilarious examples), Linsanity chief among them as the young phenom brought crowds at storie ... More >>

Eight is Enough: Rockets Logjam at Power Forward Dissected

As the Rockets head into summer league play with their ultra-young roster, a question has arisen among fans: what exactly are they going to do with eight power forwards? It's a valid question. They currently have eight guys who play the position -- some can split time at other spots, but more on tha ... More >>

In Like a Lamb: No Moves, No Trades for the Rockets in 2012 Draft

Pick two came and went. Then pick five. Then seven and eight and it began to dawn on Rockets fans: For all the talk of trades for Dwight Howard and moving up into the top ten of the draft, Houston, a team mired in mediocrity, would stand pat and roll the dice with picks 12, 16 and 18. In fact, there ... More >>

Rockets GM Daryl Morey Meets With The Media To Discuss The Draft (And Mention The Aborted Pau Gasol Trade A Few Times)

While the NBA Playoffs have been rolling toward their exciting conclusion in Miami and Oklahoma City, back here in Houston, the Rockets have been busy trying to figure out how they can somehow come out of the next few months of NBA player activity with a team that at least feels like a threat to mak ... More >>

Five Things for the Rockets to Consider This Offseason

Another offseason is upon us in Houston. While other teams battle it out in the playoffs, Houston Rockets fans are left to wait until next year...again. With three straight lottery seasons and only one second round appearance since 1997, it's no wonder fans are fatigued and want to see things shaken ... More >>

Tough Week: Rockets Go from Sixth Seed to Out of the Playoffs

Remember all the warm, fuzzy feelings last week when the Rockets came home from a 4-0 road trip, knocking on the door of a good seeding in the Western Conference playoffs? It appeared this scrappy, tough team was going to defy odds and make the playoffs with no stars and their entire starting backco ... More >>

Houston Rockets 2009 Draft Lottery Posse -- Final Scorecard

I've mentioned this in previous posts, but one of the most amazing and envy-inducing pictures I've ever seen is a picture on Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's Mobile Uploads page on his Facebook account. It's a shot of a blackjack hand, split three times (for four hands total), with a blackjack ... More >>

Houston Rockets Acquire Marcus Camby And Derek Fisher. Wilford Brimley Next?

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post where I offered up some proposition wagers for the degenerates in the crowd who like to bet on really obscure things. (Yes, I am gazing into the mirror right now.) One of them was "Total Trades Made Before Deadline: OVER/UNDER 1 1/2" At the time, I cautiously took t ... More >>

Bet on the Rockets

What will the second half bring?

Houston Rockets Second-Half Preview in Gambling-Speak

The Rockets kick off the second half of the 2011-2012 season tonight. I'm not sure how many of you care about this. The acres of empty seats at Toyota Center lead me to believe that fewer of you care than Kevin McHale, Daryl Morey and Leslie Alexander would have hoped for. Television ratings indicat ... More >>

Looking Ahead: Rockets Hold Off on Re-Upping Lee, 2009 Rookies

The Houston Rockets announced this week that they would not exercise their option to extend the contracts of guard Courtney Lee and the four rookies from the 2009 draft, center Hasheem Thabeet, forward Jordan Hill, guard Johnny Flynn and guard Terrence Williams. The Rockets had the option available ... More >>

NBA Purgatory

Neither the best nor the worst, the Rockets remain stuck in professional basketball's great midsection.

2011 NBA Draft -- 4 Winners, 4 Losers

Tough night for Dick Vitale​My fingers are still recovering from the lengthy (eight printed pages!) live blog I did last night here on Hair Balls, but the day after the draft necessitates some post-draft analysis. I've now had a day to sleep on it, and without further ado, a few post-draft tho ... More >>

Kevin McHale Is The Rockets New Head Coach

Do not read the subhed​In what would have been classified as a fairly startling upset at the beginning of the search process, the Houston Rockets have chosen former Boston Celtic great/Minnesota Timberwolves coach and general manager Kevin McHale as the next head coach of their franchise. In ... More >>

Rick Adelman And The Rockets Agree To Disagree

Rick Adelman: Subbing is an art; his boss thinks it's a science​The press release was entitled "Rockets Agree to Part Ways with Rick Adelman," and read like this: Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey announced today that the team and Head Coach Rick Adelman have mutually agreed to part ... More >>

2010-2011 Houston Rockets Report Card

Photo by GroovehouseSad Rocket fan​Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog post for today, also known as "Day Four of the Jim Rome Smack-Off Recap Hostage Crisis." That's right, based on feedback on my Twitter feed and the monster hits that our rogue "Smack-Off On A Mobile" have been getting, I k ... More >>

The Chris Bosh 2010-2011 Experience (In Quotes)

Chris Bosh, on the rise​OCTOBER 27, 2009 "[Bosh] will never be the best player on a 50-win team. Sorry, someone will spend $100 M on him next spring and regret it." -- Me, in my 2009-2010 NBA preview, prior to Chris Bosh's final season in Toronto SPRING 2010 "Keep in mind, Chris -- this team ... More >>

Houston Rockets -- Screwed City

Daniel KramerDaryl Morey needs to go big time​It's no surprise that Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey has a Facebook page. And it's not one of those aloof "Fan" pages, either, where all you can do is click "Like." Morey has one of those "regular guy" Facebook pages where you can send him me ... More >>

Game Time: Kyle Lowry -- Party On, Daryl Morey

The party starts​Anyone who went to a college with fraternities, sororities, or even just big-time football weekends knows what it's like to live on that row of houses or apartments where every Friday and Saturday is a parade of different keg parties.It's loud, it's raucous, and usually pretty dam ... More >>

Game Time: NBA Free Agency -- Watch Me Compare Daryl Morey to Bobby Baccala

Like Baccala, Morey's got an unpopped cherry​Okay, let me get this out of the way... Daryl Morey knows what he's doing. In Daryl we trust! In Morey we trust! Daryl Morey is the NBA GM version of William Wallace with an undergrad degree from the Jedi academy and a PhD in ninja skills! I love Da ... More >>

Patrick Patterson & The NBA Draft: Pass The (Trade) Chips, Mr. Morey

Photo by Daniel KramerThe dealing has begun, as Van Morrison almost sang​The Rockets had what most analysts considered a strong draft on Thursday, but its true genius may take another week or two to see.No, former Kentucky forward Patrick Patterson isn't likely to go to Toronto in any long-awaited ... More >>

Game Time: Okay Rockets, It's Your Move In The "Summer Of Trying To Be Moderately Interesting" In Houston

Photo by Daniel KramerYou're on the clock, Morey. Entertain us​"Can you really not be aware we've been building a RICO case against Tony Soprano for five f**king years? And then you blow this popcorn fart?" -- Federal agent to local prosecutor in Sopranos episode "Soprano Home Movies""Popcorn fart ... More >>

Game Time: The Knicks And Tracy McGrady...Shortest Honeymoon Ever

​Those who know me know that I have an unhealthy fascination with Britney Spears, unhealthy to the point where I found myself strangely attracted to her even through her hefty "Xanax and Frappucino for breakfast" phase back in 2007. One of my favorite Britney stories ever was her "marriage" to boy ... More >>

Game Time: Jedi Master Obi Wan Morey Strikes Again

At some point, other NBA general managers are going to just stop taking Daryl Morey's calls. Nobody enjoys being made a fool of, no one aspires to be the target of an atomic wedgie on the playground, and no one wants to be the Imperial Stormtrooper that gets snowed by Obi-Wan Kenobi on the way into ... More >>

Why Wait On Prospects? Morey Opts For Star As Rockets Acquire K-Mart

​Daryl Morey, as always, had us all fooled.We assumed the Rockets' general manager had little on the table for the dead carcass of Tracy McGrady, save the Bulls' and Knicks' offers centered around future draft picks that could later be used as assets to trade for a star. The offers weren't bad ... More >>

Game Time: The Week In Tweets

​Maybe I'm biased because I use it all the time, but I'm going to make the bold statement that Twitter has surpassed "fad" status and that it's here to stay. Even at this point, people who don't use Twitter recognize kinda sorta how it works, and even recognize a Tweet when they see it -- "it's go ... More >>

The Rockets Get Some Times Love, The Only Love They Apparently Can

The Houston Rockets are quickly becoming an afterthought in town as Spring Training opens and their tedious soap-opera mediocrity gets pushed to the sidelines. (All of which will change in a blink, of course, if they put together a streak.)But they're getting noticed elsewhere.The New York Times' Su ... More >>

Jason Friedman Wins Big

Q&A with Daryl Morey: Playoff Preview Edition

Burning the Midnight Oil with Daryl Morey

Q&A with Daryl Morey: Riding the Rocket Roller Coaster

Q&A with Daryl Morey: Surprise! Rockets Need Better Point Guard Play

Outtakes: Daryl Morey Could’ve Been a Contender…in Baseball

Outside the Box

Turns out a player's scoring average isn't the big key to a win

Rocket Science: Daryl Morey Brings Hard-Core Statistical Analysis to the NBA

Houston's pro basketball team pins (at least a part of ) its hopes on a brainiac GM

Cover Story: Daryl Morey, Statistical Analysis and the Houston Rockets

It's Official

The Rockets Explore Their Dark Side, and There Is an "I" in Biggio

Wooing Lord Voldemort

Bring On '07!