When we traded for him we knew this would be the case. Not only did he and the team likely agree in advance to it, he’s the leader of the NBAPA who negotiated for the max deals...it wouldn’t look good if he didn’t take it.
My concern with how this went down is future players from stars to good upper level role players. If they don’t trust this front office they won’t choose us. Why choose a team that will toss you in the crapper. Granted Paul’s fall off of a cliff didn’t help his cause any. This was just the perfect storm to turn into a dumpster fire. Season ends. We won 65 games and were within a gimpy hammy of possibly a ring. Paul’s contract is up. As the president of the players association he could not simply sign a discounted deal. He takes the max. Then the following year his decline was much more than Morey anticipated. My guess is Morey expected two years of 17/18 Paul and then a couple of years of decline that could potentially be offset by a game and skill set that aged well. So he took the gamble and paid Paul the max. Unfortunately that gamble not only did not pay off it blew up in the rockets face. We were not going to win at a high level with the Chris Paul we saw last year. Just about everyone here accepted the fact we had an albatross of a contract and a player that had nothing left and that we were staring at pissing away Harden’s prime. Hell why wouldn’t Morey tell Chris he wouldn’t be traded. No one thought we could move that horrid contract. Then Westbrook falls in our lap? Two choices. Take the high road. Suck, piss off fans and maybe free agents in the future might consider us with their short memories. Or pull the trigger and get a former MVP and now be seen as the douche organization that will F over their players if needed. From an optics standpoint the Rockets and Morey were in a lose lose situation. Choose the lose that provides us with the possibility of a more open window the next couple of years because that window was shut and painted over with a 34 year glass doll Chris Paul.
You’re full of **** most of the time but this is the truth. Harden is running this .org into the ground . We should just make him owner at this point
Players can’t have their cake and eat it too. All is fair in love and war and when you have players under contract for 3 MORE YEARS demanding trades, then IDGAF if a player feels betrayed. Welcome to the new NBA, where loyalty doesn’t mean ****.
No, CP3 is just old and washed up He will go to the hall of fame, but right now he misses almost 30 games a season and cant do back to backs A 40 million a year, half a season, should be bench player
NBA landscape has changed significantly- there is no loyalty from players or teams anymore. Hell Magic walked away from the Lakers without telling the Lakers or Lebron first, KD let everyone including GS and the Nets know of his decision through an IG post, Lebron and the Lakers wanted to traded everyone and their dog for AD, Kawhi dipped on Toronto, I could go on and on... No one cares besides CP3 and a few people on this board...
Would have better if tilman chose cp3 and sent harden to okc to play with wb for 6 to 7 FR picks amirite
No, woulda been best to suck it up, agree on more ball movement and have a united front now that warriors are severely weakened and Klay will be injured.
I hear ya but It's hard our here in these streets while tryin to feel bad for a guy on the decline of his career making over 40 mill a year lol
Cp3 cant play more than 50 games 30 minutes and back to backs and is on a rapid decline. Then what? Harden will need to avg 40 pts 8 assists a game? Wana run harden to the ground?
At this point i wonder if/how much Harden and Paul relationship played a role in Butler going to Miami... Regardless, i feel like the truth is kinda in the middle here, Chris a lot of times has been described as we know so, not exactly an easy guy to have in the lockeroom 24/7, but at the same time i'm starting to get some doubts about Harden ability to face problems when he gets challenged and/or when things don't go in his way...before it was McHale and Dwight (yeah i know, Dwight is Dwight etc), now Chris...and like holic said James knew what kind of player/personality Chris is, if to arrive at this point, all it took was a discussion about how they finished game 6 eh, that's not exactly a great sign... But now that he got his buddy Russ maybe things will go better in terms of relationship, at least i hope so, cause this is likely the last chance he and we have.
Given one or the other, I'd rather have Russ than Butler. On another level, we also ganked Riley from getting his pair.
I think Morey got sandwiched in between Morey and Fertitta. I don't fell sorry for any of these guys because they are all a bunch of backstabbers and cutthroats. Moreys analytics did not foresee that the most efficient method in isolating james would regulate every player to being a role player. Plus even the best NBA players have had to be molded ,reasoned negotiated with. Phil Jackson had to fight Micheal Jordan to give the ball up and support the triangle because Doug Collins did to him what D'antoni did with Harden. If Cp3 had his way though Faried and House would have been better than what they where. The thing that is going to happen now is Westbrook will probably move the ball more and I say probably because he has got guys for lobs threes and back cuts. The Rockets Pick n roll cannot be guarded anymore.
When you look at the protections and timing of the picks, I am starting to think OKC is getting absolutely nothing but a 2021 clippers pick swap. Both Harden and Westbrook’s deal are up before 2024 and 2026 season. I see no way that Tillman maxes or even wants to pay them that kinda money at 34 and 35 years old especially after how much he complained about the CP3 deal. They walk, pj retires, capela probably walks because of how we treated him last summer. We will literally be the worst team in the NBA and with top 4 pick protections there maybe a good chance we keep them all. We have no young players to build on to be any good in 2024 season. I fully expect us to trade one or both of our 2020 and 2022 picks before the season to upgrade and grab 3 and D wing. Who’s gonna be around to keep us from a top 4 pick? Hartenstein? House? We literally have the worst young players in the league and no picks.
You seriously thought the Rockets were gonna win it all vs. all the competition in the West with this current iteration of Chris Paul? Because that's f*cking HILARIOUS.
How exactly did we do him dirty he got his wink and a nod max contract as promised. He didn't get a no trade clause so **** happens. Dirty would have been screwing him over on the contract.
I wonder when it will hit the NBA in the pocketbook. I would think at some point the fan base will lose its interest.
