I attended last night's Portland Trail Blazers - Houston Rockets playoff game in Portland and after the game I had a chance to sit down one-on-one with Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey. I'll bring you that conversation on this weekend's edition of SBR. Morey joined me on SBR last year when the Rockets were in the midst of their 22-game win streak.

Morey, a graduate of MIT uses quantative analysis as one of the tools to evaluate players and you can't argue with the results. He was limited by payroll space because the Rockets pay most of their money to Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, so his challenge was to surround those players who were effective on the floor, yet cost effective for his limited payroll.

Guys like Shane Battier, Aaron Brooks, Luis Scola and even Von Wafer have been big contributors. Morey rolled the dice on Ron Artest when he traded for the controversial, but talented player this past offseason and Artest has been a model citizen and a key contributor to the Rockets success on the floor this season.

If you have never heard of Morey, think Oakland A's GM Billy Beane or Boston Red Sox GM Theo Epstein. Morey is one of the brightest young minds in all of basketball.

I met him on my trip to China in 2007 when I was following Yao Ming, Steve Nash, Carmelo Anthony and other NBA stars for a week. Morey is a very down to earth guy and I think you'll hearing enjoy our conversation this weekend.

On a sad note, it was tough to watch the career of Dikembe Mutumbo come to a close last night after he suffered a career ending knee injury. Mutumbo is one of the true humanitarians the sports world has ever seen.