btw this rant i'm about to go on is not directed at you, but just an argument against this way of thinking. i've been pretty frustrated and passionate about spending this summer and here's why: every loss to the warriors was by 6 points or less. you don't think ariza could have been +6 just twice to get us to win the series? he could've had all of green, house, and shumpert's minutes. there was no reason to duck the tax in year 1 of paul's contract. duck it when he regresses in year 3 or 4. i'm ok letting luc go he was injured all year, but 1yr/$15M is a reasonable overpay to bring back a 65 win team that was 1 hamstring and 1 rigged game away from a championship. i would also be ok without spending the MLE last summer if they kept ariza on that deal. if not, they should've used the MLE to replace him. either way i think we do in fact beat the warriors this season. the reason being having extra depth during the regular season would've helped us win a couple more games putting us in second or even 1st seed. we wouldn't have played the warriors until the WCF when it was just steph. again we took a fully healthy team to 6 games all decided by 6 points or less. i'm sure if we were playing just steph and dray in the WCF, with ariza or an MLE forward we win. but here's where i'd be ok with it, maybe. if the plan was to wait 1 year for the warriors to break up and the nba to be wide open, which happened this summer... then go all in now and be the favorites! see i can come up with that excuse for avoiding the tax last year, but there is really no excuse why we can't spend the tax this summer. lots of people have been arguing for the benefits of staying flexible... ok for what? until when? what circumstance would have them decide "yes now is the time to spend our money on this player?" only for another star? we don't need one we need depth. lots of posts say we can't hard cap ourselves because we may trade for a high priced player later. but the chances of a big trade are so slim compared to actually signing a FA. plus there is no reason to be afraid of the hard cap by spending the NTMLE. you know who hard capped themselves this summer? Ainge, Marks, Myers, Riley, Burford, Ujiri. are there any better GM's in the league? half the league is hard capped including CHA, DAL, DET, IND, MEM, MIN, and ORL. don't believe the talk, look at their actions. the rockets are for profit first, then for winning. that's what we have to believe until they show us otherwise.
Have you considered Ariza was over his time with the rockets, especially after an awful shooting playoffs? Going for the money when you know the cap will be an issue for your team isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement to come back.
In 2018, We were ahead by 10+ in games 6 & 7, but lost because we ran out of steam. We ran out of steam because we had zero depth behind CP3 (which fans had been talking about all season) and zero depth behind Moute. In 2019 we resolved the backup PG issue with Rivers and CP3 managed to remain healthy, but we had ZERO depth in the front court. Tucker and Capela was it. Ariza was never replaced. I’m a little surprised that you're arguing it was style that lost us those series...when that style was specifically developed to counter GSW. It was absolutely personnel...or lack thereof.
such a terrible post. Couldnt get past the first sentence. If you think the warriors were unbeatable (which they clearly werent) you do not sign paul to a 140 million dollar contract. And you might as well sit harden and tank if you think theres no point in playing. This half foot in the door, sign star players and cheap out on role players, type of **** is a joke and shows the front office has no clue what they are doing.
Unfortunately it is a business. Is it really a smart thing for the Heat to be hard capped in the East when they aren’t even a top team?
Hindsight... hindsight.... hindsight.... So we should have had CP3’s backup after trading for him in 2017, in spite of having another guard in Eric Bledsoe able to play make. It’s just silly to expect for us to have viable backups for our two most paid players. Rivers is a combo guard exactly like Gordon. There’s no winning when you take the position of hindsight. We could have grabbed another guard and he could have sucked in 2017. Why do you assume whoever we could have grabbed would have worked out? That’s a very big assumption just inserting player “x” would have made the difference. It was absolutely style, “your turn, my turn” isn’t winning a title. Harden standing around isn’t cutting it. MDA sticking with the same thing/not changing was a mistake.
That's not the point. The point is he had and still has value. The point is Tilman implies that if he were richer, he wouldn't worry about taxes. I don't hate Tilman because he's relatively poor (according to his own words) compared to other NBA owners. I don't hate that he's constrained by taxes due to him being relatively poor. But that's a real constraint that you should accept as fact because of his financial situation. I do get annoyed that he whines poor then talks about doing whatever it takes, which comes off disingenuous. Anyhow, love or hate Ariza, the only cost to the Rockets to keep him was money. They were already over the cap last year and could have kept Ariza because of his bird rights. You can be argue for the benefit of Tilman's pockets; while I understand the constraint, I will not argue for it being the best interest of the Rockets. Saving money is the best interest for Tilman. "Wasting" money on Ariza is in the best interest of the Rockets. The reason is because even if you don't think he's worthwhile on your championship equation, he still has value and is wanted around the league by other teams. He could be traded (he has been already) for positive value. He could get draft picks and a trade exception. He could be packaged for another star. Ariza, for his flaws, is a positive value player/asset. And the only cost to the Rockets last year was money. I understand it...it's a lot of money. But IKGAF about Tilman's pockets. I care about the Rockets.
For everyone talking about Ariza... can't we just sign him now so you all can shut up? If so, what would it take?
we lost by single digits... You dont think adding up losing ariza, losing melton, not using the mle, using our draft pick to avoid taxes instead of improving the team would be a difference maker?
offering him a contract instead of sitting on our asses would help. Btw since you dont keep up hes already signed
Ariza sucks, and Moute played 5 games last year. Not resigning them was not a mistake. Having a poorly constructed roster with only 1 player taller that 6'6" in the rotation is stupid and still is.
Ariza does not suck or else other teams would not be throwing him 20 million dollar contracts. And signing him for us would have cost us 0 in terms of basketball assets. If hes bad dont play him, if not we might have won a championship.
None of ya'll must have watched Ariza play last season. He's old and washed. The Kings gave him a stupid contract just like the Suns did.
The most damning decision last season was the delay in paying House to avoid the tax. Missing him for those games probably made the difference in seeding, which came back to bite us in the postseason. The simple fact that we did this only to avoid missing the luxury tax makes it look that much worse for a team competing for a final spot - if we were an 8th seed or well out of the race, it might be more understandable, but for a competitor to have an FO operating like that is unheard of. Every other FO was focused on fortifying its team at risk of going over - Portland, OKC, GSW, etc. We were unique in trying to shave costs and give away picks and money to get folks off the books.
Even if he's bad, which I don't think he was, his contract could still have been a tradeable asset. The Suns traded him for Kelly Oubre and Austin Rivers. We ultimately got Rivers off of the waiver wire, but Oubre is a young prospect we could have played and later traded. The only reason to let our players walk is either fit or money and with Ariza it was clearly the latter. Did letting Ariza go help us get a replacement for him at all? We still had no wing defenders by season's end. It's not my money so it's easy to talk. But saying you're willing to pay the tax for a contender, then giving up multiple assets to dodge the tax, all while your GM says we're currently a contender, is going to leave a bad taste in fan's mouths.
Your opinion of his value doesn't matter when the market gives him value. Even if sucks, when other teams want him you can at minimum get a return of a trade exception. Jerami Grant was just acquired via 1st round pick and a trade exception. You don't just lose players for the sake of saving money unless you really need to save money. That's important to Tilman. That's fine. It's just important to keep track of things that have happened purely to save tax money: -2018 1st round pick Melton -let ariza walk (instead of keeping, or SnT, or keeping and trading later for picks, players, trade exception) -2019 1st round pick -2019 2nd round pick -2019 MLE -2020 MLE (still could be used) -Ryno/Knight/Shumpert expiring (are we getting Iggy?)
