When a franchise hits the switch, gathers the right players and has a little luck, the rest of the league can only hope that period of dominance is short and fast. The Golden State Warriors they were the team that defined the second half of the last decade. A team as talented as they are unique, changing the game and setting the tone for its construction roster of his opponents.
At the time these conditions occurred, there were two reactions in the NBA. On the one hand, there were those who pushed the rebuild button, seeking to advance deadlines so that their line of development would not coincide with that of Californians. On the other hand, the contenders tried to adapt to the new reality with more homogeneous and open teams that will face the Warriors. But there was a third way, one so unique that only a certain mind was willing to carry it out to its final consequences: Daryl Morey’s Houston Rockets.
counted Mike D’Antoni on the JJ Redick podcast last April when it started every season it was clear they were built solely and exclusively to beat the Warriors. Every signing, every tactical decision, every defensive strategy was all aimed at getting Golden State out of the playoffs. His identity was built on another Goliath of his era, the Rockets a kind of David’s workshop.
The saying that history is written by the winners takes on greater meaning and value in the world of sports. An ecosystem that has a certain appreciation for the runner-up, but that systematically forgets who had real weight in the success of those who came down to the next. These Morey Rockets were the opponent that had the most against a team formed by Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
“You could see it in their eyes, we had them. We had them on the ropes.” mourned D’Antoni inwardly The Old Man and the Three when we remember the 2018 series against the Warriors.
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The way in which these His rockets moreyball were built, beyond his desire to tear down the giant of his time, he had a scientific basis. around one sun from which everything came they turned their attack. James Harden It was him alpha Y omega, everything had its stamp, he was born and died according to his performance and only the appearance of Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook changed the script slightly. Beyond The beard a cast of supporting players and performers willing to fulfill their sketchy attacking role. The reporting of this work tends to ignore the relevance of the defense and it is precisely what they did back that allowed them to keep such a revolutionary proposition in practice on the other side. Automated changes, small, flexible formats and with very specific players. Only the statistical parameters that Daryl Morey and his research team detailed information They really know what gaps were filled by players like Gerald Green, Luc Mbah a Moute or Austin Rivers.
Years after this, the essence of this crazy plan still lives on. And he’s doing it on the other side of the country, in Philadelphia. The Sixers are the inheritors of that work, which translates into names with notable pasts in the Texas franchise, such as James Harden, PJ Tucker, Daniel House and Montrezl Harrell. All this with Daryl Morey pulling the strings from the offices.
The current President of Operations for the 76ers is tasked with making one of the league’s storied franchises a winner again. More than 20 years after they last set foot in the Conference Finals and nearly 40 years since their last ring, Morey assembled a cast of old Houston acquaintances for the occasion.
“There’s No One Like Daryl Morey”Tucker told The Ringer in October. “His mind, the way he thinks about certain things. It may be something that no one pays attention to, but it will convince you that what he is saying has meaning.”
This executive is the author of one of the most famous reflections on how narrow the margin is between being a champion and a laggard. Morey developed what is known as the 5% theory. for which he defended that if you have this percentage “If you have a chance to win the title and your team is included in that very small amount, you have to focus on winning the ringhe said in 2012.
With all this baggage in mind, it stands to reason that the 76 year olds They have put everything on the table to try to get the long-awaited championship. A gamble that, for now, seems hard to see coming to fruition as the team marches with a balance 12-11 between injuries to their stars, erratic divisions and a certain team acclimation process.
While from the outside one might look at the names that make up the team and think Morey is trying to replicate the success of the Houston model, the reality couldn’t be more different. The Sixers are a team whose style could be perfectly suited to the turn of the century, where the low post and mid-range play is heavily weighted. In fact, since Morey took office, Philly is the fifth franchise with the fewest triples over the past three seasons. Without further ado, he is averaging 31.5 a night when in his last three seasons with the Rockets the percentage was 44.2, being the ones who threw the most.
In his short period at the helm of the administration, the exec has proven that his team building model was neither unique nor rigid, rather fluid. The 76ers have thrown for average 13.1 mid-range shots in the last three seasons with a success rate of 43.7% and names like Tobias Harris, Joel Embiid or Tyrese Maxey leading the attack. In fact, this is not strange James Harden to be career highs in both attempts and hits.
The tough question here would be, was it a player’s decision in the face of his physical decline or a gamble by management?
The fact is that, unlike what happened in Texas, now the moreyball 2.0 looks more like an old school set. And it’s that when the general trend is pointing in one direction, finding a way to get out of the way, make your own journey and make sense is the best shortcut to success. The Philadelphia 76ers are trying to do just that by focusing their game on low suspensionslowing it down swing and with a distribution of countercultural publications.
This is all the work of the man who is said to have ruined basketball due to the application of advanced statistics.
“When people get mad at the direction the stats have gone in the league, they’re just mad at gravity. [ofensiva]. They are angry with the rules. Because analytics are not good or bad. It just is,” Morey admitted as much in an interview with The Ringer. “It will tell you which direction takes you to an area where you are more likely to win. This can make the game more or less interesting. Data doesn’t matter. It’s like you’re crazy about development. It just happens. Analytics is simply doing what everyone has always done: using data to make everything more efficient.”
The The Philadelphia 76ers are Daryl Morey’s new jobwho has started an update on his moreyball in a radically different way than the one that brought him to the top with the Houston Rockets. What remains to be seen is whether the results of your analysis will be more or less correct.
As always, the game will pass the penalty.
The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the NBA or its organizations.
