Morey Following The Danny Ainge Blueprint

If you are like me, you have little idea what Daryl Morey is doing in Houston besides "shooting the moon." As Peter May points out, he's currently got 23 players on his roster, 5 of which are rookies. So, what's the plan? Well, it should sound familiar.

Bad by Design, Rockets Gamble on Long-Term Payoff - NYTimes.com

The method behind the madness? Morey, who spent time with the Boston Celtics during the last decade before moving to Houston, is trying to recreate what Danny Ainge did in Boston to acquire Kevin Garnett. Ainge succeeded by developing young players (Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Delonte West) to the point that they became valuable trading chips in deals a month apart for Garnett and Ray Allen in the summer of 2007. "It’s very similar to what Boston did," Morey said. "Hopefully, it will yield the same result."

Of course, it sounds like Morey is looking for a quicker turnaround. Instead of taking a few years to develop his young talent, he'd prefer to flip them for Dwight Howard - even if it might just be for a rental. The backup plan is to let Jeremy Lin play a starring role on a bad team and get some lottery picks to go with their young talent. Of course that young talent knows they are just in a holding pattern before they are traded away.

I guess Ainge showed that it is a plan that can work, but it will take a good deal of luck as well. With that said, the other option was continuing to wander in the middle ground of mediocrity - too good for the high lottery and not good enough for the playoffs. That's not a good place to be, so Morey figured he might as well shoot the moon.