[Feigen] Fertitta disputes idea Rockets used the Trade Deadline to get under the Luxury Tax

Agreed on Morey. It is quite obvious now that Morey was internally compromised. Sadly, he was always out over his skis on this one with Ryno and TF used it like the Sword of Damocles over him. They failed us, this team, and Harden.

 

Cheap Tilman. I wanted him to keep Chriss, Knight, MCW, Ennis,Nuannaly,Melo... and pay 100 million in lux tax and also wanted an all-star in return. It's all Tilmans fault. Poor Morey was forced to get rid of all those good players.

 

I understand that GSW is the number one enemy. But I have never been a fan of planning to beat just one team. Back in the 90s, we got Barkley to beat the Sonics only to lose to the Jazz.

Even if we were able to beat GSW last year, there was no guarantee that we could also beat LeBron's Cavs. Timing the demise of GSW is like timing the stock market. It's always wiser to build for a long term future than for a short term window that might or might not exist. The real window for us is Harden's prime years. We have to build a team as good as possible before that window closes.

I am not saying one way or another whether tax saving is good or bad for the team's future. Just responding to the point of waiting for GSW's weakening.

 

That’s all fine, but what are they going to use to get better supporting players? They’re above the cap and the development cupboard is pretty bare. They’ve traded away several expirings to get under the tax this year. The cupboard is pretty bare.

 

The problem for us is this FA cycle. The reason we targeted PG13, Melo, General Soreness, Beal, and the others in that range original is that they were around $20-25M in that last range of contracts before the salary cap jump. Now that range jumps into the 30s. This is completely implausible but it involves reupping Shumpert on a 1yr around $15M, Gordon, and Nene and trading for SNT or trading 12/15. I just don't see it working anymore. The last target was General Soreness and now he is going to want to get paid so he is a mercenary and not opting in. It's no accident we went after the players we did. Those pickings were slim very specific circumstances that benefited us. All of the guys now are FAs that can go wherever they want and we only want a wing. We bombed on that list.

 

Sweet. The West will be more open, but we are a year older with less assets to improve, but hey...at least we saved some cash.