1) 2019 1st 2) Melton 3) Use of our MLE in 2019 4) Possibly the use of our MLE in 2020 (since we didn’t use it in 2019 to sign House, we now only have $2 million left of the taxpayer MLE or $5.7 of the non-taxpayer MLE, which would hard cap us, preventing other moves). 5) Ryan Anderson or Brandon Knight’s expiring to use for salary filler (though we can still SnT Shumpert - not a given) This offseason may have been lost last season. I’m normally a sunshine pumper for the front office and team in general, but unless we come up with something that improves us without gutting the team, I’m worried that we’ve stumbled at the finish line...primarily because the team was worried about the repeater tax 3 years from now. It would be somewhat ironic if the reason we never won a championship was because of a fear of the tax years in the future, when that was the very reason we got Harden in the first place (OKC was afraid of paying all of Durant, Westbrook, Harden and Ibaka...turned out to be a non-issue with the cap spike). Still have some hope, but we need pretty much everything to go our way at this point.
The repeater tax is no joke. Hindsight is always 20/20 as I’m not a big fan of the “would of, could of, should of” game. We go all in last season on role players and still lose then we are essentially taxed out and maxed out. I realize “flexibility” is no fun, but having a maxed out, paper contender is also no fun.
Our window was probably the last 2 years, perhaps this year as well...not 3 years from now. If we had not won a championship by next season, I’m sure the teardown would’ve gotten us out of the tax anyway.
You duck the tax in year 3 or 4, not year one of Chris Paul's freshly signed max deal. You duck the tax when you're gonna/about to blow it up (see the Thunder) but "WhAtEvEr It TaKeS" "GrEeN LiGhT tO bUsT tHe BuDgEt" "WiN aT aLl cOsTs"
it doesn't really matter what we did. we weren't going to beat the warriors with ariza or luc. shumpert actually played well enough. Tilman is a businessman and if we were him we probably wouldn't have overpaid them to just get the same results, losing to the best team of all time. Morey has done all he can do under the owners instructions...could it be that not many stars want to play with Harden? CP3 was one of the few. Its not his fault that other stars don't want to play with a ball hog. Beverley didn't want to eiher. Kawhi could've forced a trade to the rockets...did he? nor did butler. we need to get lucky in the buyout market and hope to find some sleepers, steals..... we need to develop our own talent. One thing that morey did wrong was give Ryan anderson that huge contract, but he did get eric gordon.
I was somewhat okay with 1 shitty offseason/trade deadline last year but to have 2 shitty offseasons in a row is a travesty when we were a CP3 hammy away from being champs in 2018. We deserve better than this ****. How do you follow that 2018 season up by sitting on your hands and "running it back" while losing 2 solid 2 way players and then not replacing them with anyone worth while. It would be one thing if we can pull off coups of getting solid 2 way role players with the Vet min like Rivers but it seems like that is more unlikely than likely at this point. If we do get any solid vet min players, they will be age 36+ which is not what this team needs in the Harden/CP3 era which is closing every so fast. I miss the Morey days of asset building. Signing players just to build up their value and then trade them for more than they are worth. I am sure Tilman is restricting Morey but there is no excuse to expect MCW to be a contributor ever. That was all on Morey which gives me a lot of pause in his ability to field a contender roster with such limited assets at his fingertips.
in the end it was all worth it for the rush that tilman get whenever that direct deposit LTS hit his checking acct
I am in the same place. Nobody listened to us. Just look at how difficult it is to give away those vet min contracts that virtually no one is signing. We only had so few tools. Cost us two titles and a future based on ego.
And with the awesome power of hindsight, it appears our best chances were the past two years. Were we just a role player or two away from winning it all? Maybe, maybe not. The owner made the decision to only pay the luxury tax if it meant getting a star or close to it to pair with CP3 and Harden.
“Cost us two titles” is a bit revisionist and quite generous. Our best chance was in 2017, the first year of the CP3.
I gave this warning when we made the Ryan Anderson trade and then again when we did the Brandon Knight trade. Hated those moves when they happened.
I would argue yes...we were a role player or two away. We had a 6 man rotation each of the last 2 years against GSW.. CP3 / Harden / Gordon / Ariza / Tucker / Capela CP3 / Harden / Gordon / Rivers / Tucker / Capela I do hold the FO/ownership responsible for not having an adequate backup for Moute, and for our terrible offseason last year. There’s no hindsight in that. We never went all in.
$20M “starter” riding our bench and you think that didn’t matter. Name me another team that won doing that and you have a point.
I can’t get behind “the role player away”, especially last year with Toronto making it to the finals. We had a good offseason and deadline in 2017. We had a good deadline in 2018 when we grabbed playable role players. We never went all in because we never got a Jimmy Butler level player. It wasn’t for trying. Maybe we will get Love this offseason or at the deadline this year.
yep like @tinman and @Rasheed They just won't accept that Les was a better owner and we won two championships under him. Meanwhile we can't sign no scrub even under Tilman
I view the coach and Harden’s “my turn, your turn” style more of a hindrance than adding a role player or two who may or may not pan out/ get played.
Add losing Trevor Ariza for nothing. Rockets had his bird rights and he still has value. If signed, he could have been traded for future young players, expiring contracts and picks, or kept to be part of the rotation, or packaged for a 3rd star. He was lost purely because of luxury tax savings.
