Morey comes to Philly

 

On Wednesday October 28^th it was announced that the Philadelphia 76ers would be hiring former Houston Rockets General Manager, Daryl Morey as President of Basketball Operations. This move came as a surprise as Morey had just decided to step down as the Houston Rockets General Manager position 2 weeks ago. With Morey taking this position many things become possible for the 76ers as they were the only team that made more trades than the Rockets during Morey’s tenure.

 

One of the first ideas that comes to mind is the 76ers breaking up Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons and doing a swap for either James Harden or Russell Westbrook. The likely scenario for me is to trade Ben Simmons to the Rockets for Westbrook. This would provide a point guard for Philadelphia while being able to maintain strong 1, 2 punch. This would work for both teams as they will have a Big Man and a guard to complement and play off each other.

 

Another Scenario is that trade Joel Embiid for Westbrook.  This would start the building the Houston Rockets 2.0 where you can surround Westbrook and Simmons with shooters. This would let Westbrook drive but also allow Simmons to have the paint to himself and he can post to finish or create opportunities for others with his great passing skills. Also, you can hopefully use Horford as a stretch forward and he can possibly get back to being reliable like he was in Boston 2 seasons ago.

I mentioned trading for Westbrook because I can’t see the Rockets trading their franchise player Harden.  In addition, Westbrook playing style and personality embodies Philadelphia’s toughness and grit. A combination of one of the two trade scenarios have to happen because neither team as presently constituted will make it to the Conference Finals let along the NBA Finals.

END OF AN ERA

 

The Houston Rockets General Manger Daryl Morey has agreed to step down from his position after 14 years. Morey was able to pull off trades for Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and most notably James Harden. He was responsible for orchestrating the Houston Rockets going in on small ball. During the Morey regime they reached the Western Conference finals in 2015.  Morey has had a huge impact on the current NBA by being one of the pioneers when it comes to relying heavily on analytics and using when making basketball decisions. This can be shown in everything that they do from their shootings 3’s almost twice as much as they took 2-point shots the last couple seasons.

 

Prior to the beginning Morey sent out a tweet that was perceived as anti-Chinese government and this caused huge problems for the NBA. It led China not showing any NBA games all season with the only exception being games 5 and 6 of the NBA Finals. Some believe that this played a role in Morey stepping down as the general manager.  When it is all said and done even though the Houston Rockets never reached the promise land of winning a NBA Title his reign as GM was a quiet successful one. This includes having a player who won the NBA’s MVP award in James Harden. Also having multiple playoff appearances. Morey has truly help to push the game forward.   

LAKERS GET NUMBER 17!!!!!!

 

The Los Angeles Lakers came into game 6 on mission against the Miami Heat and ended up winning their 17^th NBA Championship. This ties the Boston Celtics for the most NBA Championships in NBA history.  Lebron James won the Finals MVP and became the first player to win the NBA Finals MVP for 3 different teams. One of the Lakers biggest contributors off the bench was Rajon Rondo who made history in his own way. He became just the 2^nd player to win a Championship with both the Lakers and Celtics. Coincidentally Rondo was also on the championship team in 2008 that gave the Celtics their 17^th championship as well.

The future looks bright for the Lakers with them expected to re sign Anthony Davis whose is going to opt out of his contract so he can sign a max contract. They are favorites to repeat as NBA Champions according to Las Vegas sportsbooks. The Lakers are rumored to make a run at trading for Oklahoma City Thunder Point Guard Chris Paul. Picking up Paul would mean the team would look drastically different due to Paul’s contract the next two years being over $80 million dollars. If the Lakers were able to get Paul, they would strengthen their chances of repeating as NBA Champions. The Lakers started 2020 the same way as they began the started the beginning of the last 2 decades as NBA Champions.