Honestly Carl, alot of times I write you off, but I'm actually starting to believe Tilman is cheap as hell.
Yup. Luc should have been kept. People are completely forgetting how integral he was to our team success last year before injury. And I think Jeff B. agrees and thus him quitting. Not only did we lose Ariza and Luc that were key building blocks of his defense, Rockets failed to get proper replacements.
I was Honestly baffled when we didn't bring him back. Not that we've seen his replacement play, I'm almost angry. We lost a genuine 3nD guy, an A+ perimeter defender, for 3 million? I would trade MCW, Melo and Ennis for the prince at this point.
[May] If we had Luc, we beat the Warriors. [July/August] Dude, he didn't even play vs. Golden State! Non-factor! He didn't get his shoulder fixed, good riddance, we got Carmelo & Ennis, who are better! [October] Why didn't we re-sign Luc?! Missing U Prince Luc!
The Luc situation is tough. 1) He didn't want to take the 2.7M contract from the Rockets versus the 4.3M with the Clippers 2) Rockets did not trust his shoulder to stand up for a full season to use the 4.3M MLE on him 3) We don't know the opportunity cost yet of the MLE money via an unknown buyout player. We do miss him. But there are factors.
This and it is going to keep getting worse. Before the season started I said that this team was a 50 or so win team. Last year things lined up very well for the Rockets and teams had not adjusted their style of play, and the leaders (Paul/Harden/Ariza) were about as focused as possible. You cannot expect that type of focus every year. The reality is that last year was likely the Rockets best chance and they would have won a title had Paul not gotten hurt. Let's see how the Rockets front office and owner respond. There are some players out there that can help the Rockets quite a bit..... and maybe they won't be so gun shy now.
There are plenty of factors and we also do not know what the final bottom line is for TF when it comes to adding salary. Luc hasn't set the world on fire this year either. I was upset they let him walk after Ariza. I felt that they could possibly withstand the loss of Ariza if they had Luc and Ennis.... instead they had Ennis.
There is no one on the buyout market that will be even close to conceivably able to guard Durant and LeBron, or anyone else like Curry or Lillard, WELL in a 7 game series. There could literally be zero buyouts in the damn season. Why would Morey bet on that? He ended up with the horrible Joe Johnson last year.
Yeah, that is how I felt as well. My opinion, but I think the Rockets thought they were going to get him for the 2.7M to be the starter at SF. He he spurned them for the Clippers 4.3M offer. I think that surprised them. I think the Rocket gambled that they could have their cake and eat it too with having Moute AND the MLE money for buyouts. And that didn't work out.
Every year is different. We don't have access to the intel that they do at the probabilities of buyouts. And no one can guard Durant and LeBron well in a 7 game series. They get theirs. It is about stopping the other guys.
That is what happened. They believed that Luc would want to stay and take less money with the opportunity to start so he could get a bigger pay day down the line. Instead Luc took the most money and moved on. The Rockets shouldn't have been shocked as he has done this in the past. He isn't the type of player that demands to start.
Now I can list the names and series those guys got contained. And do you not remember what Ariza did last year? And he has NEVER been on Luc's level defensively and he turned Durant into a ball-stopping shot-jacking mess with no floor game.
Luc went out last year and took minimum money while playing elite NBA defense and borderline elite role player ball. He played like a $10M/yr guy, easily. He did this out of loyalty to CP3 and winning ambitions. They spat in his face by withholding the MLE. I'm glad he left that FO that clearly disrespected him. I was convince the off-season would've been salvaged by giving him that MLE. Still cannot believe they thought adding minimum trash was a better option.
