On tanking. “I watched Jim Crane disassemble the Houston Astros for four years. Taking all of these prospects and draft picks, and I just couldn’t believe what he did. He didn’t have a face of the team. I just don’t know if I would’ve made that decision. I don’t know if I could. It took a lot of balls to do that, and I congratulate him for what he accomplished. But to field a team that loses 110 games a year for three years even if I knew I was going to win a World Series. I just don’t know that I could put a product out like that.” On James/Paul being involved “Your superstars have a seat at the table here. We’re not going to trade for someone or get rid of someone without getting their opinions. James and Chris … it’s their team. They have to be on board if we do something. You can’t take the mentality of, ‘This is my team, they work for me.’ That’s not what we’re dealing with anymore.”
On Butler: both getting and retaining “We would love to see Jimmy come home to Houston. It’s not a financial decision, it’s an assets decision on our part. We’ve got a great basketball team. We think we’re as good as anybody in the league. We’re not going to give up unreasonable assets, to break up this team, to get Jimmy Butler. But we would love to have him.” If the Rockets managed to put together a likely package of players and picks that Minnesota would bite on, Butler could still leave after next season if he doesn’t get a max deal. How could Houston manage that? “It’s not impossible. Nothing’s impossible.”
Someone needs to show Tillman a 10 year history of the New York Knicks vs. the Philadelphia 76ers. If in 4 years, Harden & CP3 are on the verge of retirement, he better have the stomach for whatever is necessary to rebuild a team or he needs to get out in two years before that happens. I actually like Tillman thus far, and glad he's honest when interviewed, but there are certainly warning signs that he could be a challenging owner in a few years. I wouldn't be shocked if Morey leaves in a year or two after we see what happens with this final run that CP3, Harden, and Melo have in them. Morey has earned the ability to be trusted to do what is necessary, and I don't think Tillman is going to give him that trust in a few years honestly, but hopefully I'm wrong. Just enjoy this year.
Great find on that article. Those are some choice quotes! Talking openly about Butler.....that's tampering, no? Zero surprise CP3/Harden are in on personnel decisions. Morey has mentioned this in the past. The collaboration with the star players. As for tanking....that's interesting. I guess you never know the strategy until you get there. To get at that point. We'll see what happens down the road after the Paul/Harden reign.
Wasn't Morey a fan of rebuilding, going through "The Process" here similar to what his protege did in Philly, but it was Les that wanted to try to remain competitive and make money? Is what Tilman said any different than that? Why are we already thinking Nosey might leave?
If we got butler I’m not even worried about him leaving. You win a ring your prespective changes. Plus being home may sway him. Can you imagine Gerald green and jimmy butler Together They will throw hands on dudes lmao. We would be the toughest team
just imagine the lack of support the Rockets will get if they’re tanking...the city barely cares about them now while they’re contenders this isn’t the Knicks or Lakers where u can suck and people still fill up the arena, support the team, and are invested
I'm not. Morey isn't leaving anytime soon I'm sure. Harden is his legacy move he'll be remembered by, and he'll be damned if he doesn't do everything to see that he wins a championship here. I'm just looking past the Harden/CP3 years. No reason to really even discuss it now, but just something to note in the future where we now have an owner who is not used to someone who has the kind of power that Morey has/should have to run the show his way rather than Tillman's way.
Tilman knows how great Morey is at working the roster. He's not letting him go anywhere. Morey already has pulled off the near impossible of never rebuilding under Le$.
What happens if Steph Curry pulls his hamstring instead of Chris Paul? We’d beat Cleveland, just like we beat the $hit out of them in the regular season, twice. That’s nothing against LeBron, either. LeBron James was amazing, but he did it alone. LOL, Tilman just firing off quotes. Just damn.
I mean, Morey has shown he can build a championship team without going into full rebuild mode. We lost Yao and Tracy and without tanking Morey built a championship caliber team. Lets hope it wasn't just luck
Tilman was already answering that question in the context of the true poster-child of tanking success -- The Astros. Why does Philly deserve to be mentioned in the same context of the Astros? They are still as close to being an example of mediocrity of tanking as a poster child of success. Still only 4th best last year in the East. Nothing close to the anti-tanking success of Ainge, btw. Certainly nothing like the Astros. So, not sure what showing Tilman the 76ers would do in the context of how he already answered that question. I think we got his answer.
People said the same thing about the Astros. The reality is that teams have ups and down and in almost all cases franchises survive. From his dealings at University of Houston and the football team, I think that Tilman can be convinced to do and would do whatever is best for the franchise. If Daryl Morey believes that the Rockets best bet is to rebuild from the ground up, I would be surprised if Tilman balked. A lot of the issues with the Sixers were the optics involved, they made it very clearly they were trying to be as terrible as possible and actually advertised and built it up calling it "The Process". Also in Philly the rebuild was REALLY long. The Sixers were .500% or worse for 14 straight season until breaking through last season.
"Tilman bar stories" Three nights prior, in a different Houston bar, a man talked to Fertitta for 15 minutes. From Fertitta’s body language and tone it seemed clear the man was an old friend or some kind of casual acquaintance. An hour later, Fertitta reveals that the man was a total stranger trying to get Fertitta, a billionaire, to invest in a 24-hour gym franchise.
Remember when the bbs used to say "I wish Cuban was OUR owner"? Well you might have gotten your wish.