There have been some doubts around the league that the relationship between General Manager Daryl Morey and Rockets Owner Tilman Fertitta is working. This was before the whole China-Hong Kong issue that Morey was the center of. Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN reports:
“Though a couple of NBA executives speculated Morey might have greater difficulty attracting marquee free agents to Houston, few said that his ability to perform his job would be affected beyond having to placate Fertitta, a shotgun marriage that sources close to the Rockets have considered a tenuous fit since Fertitta bought the team in 2017.”
Daryl Morey is in a win-now situation, that’s why he traded 4 of the Rocket’s first-round picks for Russel Westbrook. He fully believes that the championship window for the Rockets is closing. Morey tried to pull a Masai Ujiri and trade for Russell Westbrook to think it makes them automatic contenders. But the James Harden-Russell Westbrook duo won’t work. Unfortunately not only did he give up too much for Westbrook but now, Morey has made a huge risk that if and when it doesn’t pan out, it fucks the Rockets over for years. This will lead to tension and inevitably lead to Daryl Morey getting fired.
I’m sure when you read this title, you were thinking now, and how it can’t possibly be true. You’re right, not a lot of teams fire their GM in their championship window. However, Morey has already written his future, we just wait for it to happen. From now on, Daryl Morey is in zugzwang with the Rockets. Anything he does will only put the Rockets at a deeper disadvantage. When trying to emulate Ujiri, he made one fatal mistake. The Raptors fleeced the Spurs, while the Thunder fleeced the Rockets. The Thunder will be laughing 3 years from now when they’re almost as good, if not better than the Rockets. The NBA is a big chess game that never ends. Move too quickly and you will never win, move too slow and you’ll never win. This time Morey moved far too quickly for a player that just doesn’t fit. He’s set himself up to fail. Now we just sit back and watch the Rockets crumble.
