[The Athletic] Leroux: Rockets’ Repeater Tax fear more excuse than reality

I wasn't complaining about the Lawson trade, it was obviously an attempt to get better, but by the time the season was ending Lawson was gone, Dwight was about to bolt, Mchale was fired, the team was literally playing .500 basketball with no interest in compete so, there was no reason to lose a lottery pick to make the playoff just for the sake fo saying "yeah! we made the playoffs even this time"...for me at least. We could've retain that pick, and if i remember well that pick would've turned into a 2nd rounder for the next season so, i was just saying that we lost a potentially big asset there, not to save some money, but to save some face/pride or whatever, still a waste and bad asset managment which was obviously on Les, just like overpaying Ryan Anderson btw, which is the true reason why we're where we are.

 

Right, but Knight isn’t very valuable clearly. At least Gordon can actually play, hows Knight going to rebuild any value if he’s not playing. Knight is dead money at this point.

 

Let’s not pretend we weren’t willingly to give up all of our picks for a star.

 

The team is a business and a profit generator, it has been among the league's most profitable teams for years. Lets not act like he gave $2B away to the rockets.

 

Yes. They tried to make a winning move then. That would have been great. But the deadline proved that the mindset had changed. The focus became saving Tilman money.

So in the end....we have even less of a chance at a star player now. We no longer have as many assets and we no longer have large expiring deals to help match salaries. Sure, Gordon will come off the books, but he's a core piece. Are we going to pawn him off for money next year if a star isn't able to come?

 

I know people would love to have Le$$ back but there was a time when people were bemoaning his cheapness and statements to the regard that winning was not the top priority, but rather striking it big in the China market.

 

If you retain Shumpert … if not , you've turned Ryno's contract into nothing.

Some might think that turning that contract into nothing is great cause he's off the books …. but think again - all the assets you spent in turning that contract into nothing are a net zero while you are still over the cap and no longer have that contract to facilitate bringing in any salary. That's not so great.

Which shoes would you rather be in -

A) over the cap with just EG

B) Over the cap with EG and Shumpert

Obviously option B allows you more freedom of movement.

I feel for you dude - I lived in South Oklahoma …. Err Dallas back in the late 80's , early 90's .... while my teams were in Houston , had to listen to all the Mav's fans (at least they sucked back then) and Cowpie fans (that was painful) ….

 

I was actually hoping a mega rich Chinese owner had bought the Rockets when Les was selling it.

 

I think paying $25 million luxury tax a year is reasonable for a chance to win Championships.
Any thing less than that is considered cheap.

 

Or Faried right?

Right, but this is Knight we are talking about. Can’t we go further into luxury tax with a free agent signing or is the only way to add more players is by matching salary at this point?

 

Who knows - we might have better uniforms then.

 

Not gonna argue the main points of this post because bottom line , you are right - You really get limited opportunities to win it all and you have to maximize them ….


But as far as GSW is concerned , they will be in the repeater tax next year unless they cut a lot of salary. We assume Boogie is gone , probably a good assumption but they cant keep Durant and Clay too and not be paying that repeater tax - The same thing Morey is trying to avoid is what could spell the end of their run. One or both of them is probably gone.

And as far as the Lakers - Lebron …. he's showing some signs of all those years in the league. Missing a ton of games , 10th in the West with a team that's more talented than the one he willed to the conference finals in the East. Even if they land AD , that's not enough to put them back in contention with the best teams in the West.

Philly and Toronto , I don't think they can hang with the best teams in the west.

The only way we're back at square one is if GSW pays that repeater tax or Durant and Clay take big discounts.

I'm looking at this like next year is our best chance to win it all …. have to , otherwise all I have is the Tilman's cheap narrative.

 

I don't think they will pay Faried that much - NonBird rights - 120% of this years salary or he walks - Just my opinion.

We're over the cap , have to match salary within 120%+100k in trades or use exceptions to sign free agents. We'll have non-bird rights to our own free agents and the taxpayer version of the MLE to use otherwise - that's it. That's why that Ryno-Knight/Chriss-Shumpert contract is so important in the grand scheme of adding talent to the roster (without having to give up something else).

If you don't retain Shumpert the only avenue to ADD is the T-MLE.

Retain Shumpert and you can move him or EG and not subtract to add. If that makes any sense.

 

No, Iman is the direct continuation of the Ryno/Knight contract. You let them go it doesn't give you any extra space. If Iman isn't here next year, either because we won't pay him or because he's awful, we turned the asset into nothing.

Here's hoping he plays well and we pay him next year. Morey and D'Antoni love him apparently.

 

$11M for Emon Chumpert?

 

Sweet! Pay it, man! We need this!

 

I guess they would offer him a big enough 1+1 contract, just like Ainge did with Amir Johnson a couple of years ago, that's basically an expiring you can move in the first season, or in the second if/after you exercise the team option. All of this assuming Shumpert agrees to sign a similar contract of course, which i'm not sure it's a given tbh...for as good as he's going to play in these 3 months, i don't see teams giving him the same money he's making right now, especially for two/three years so, we can basically overpay him.

The problem is that a 1+1 contract is clearly a trade bait so, it's like you're saying him "ok, we're going to overpay you but in few months you'll be out of here". On the other hand, if you sign him to a big contract for two years without a team option, that can quickly become a bad contract as soon as he plays meh or gets injured.