Was Tilman cheap for not going all in? A response.

Yes, Tilfart is cheap.
NEXT.

Spoiler

Trevor Ariza, bird rights. $15M for ONE year. Nope, too much.
Luc Mbah a Moute, $4.3M. Nope, too much. (Yeah, you can say it's a good decision now. You didn't know he'd miss the entire season (minus a few games) back in July. And not because of his shoulder but knee.)

So what do they do in free agency & have since? Have only given out minimum contracts.
You get a minimum contract! And you get a minimum contract! And you get a minimum contract!
"We hope our scrubs outperform their contracts."

Michael Carter-Williams
James Ennis
Carmelo Anthony
Gerald Green
Gary Clark
Austin Rivers
Ken Faried
James Nunnally(10-day)
Danuel House(2-way; can't come to terms on a normal deal)

(but but but who else was he supposed to sign @J Sizzle!)

Traded Ryan Anderson & De'Anthony Melton to save some money.
Traded Brandon Knight for the expiring contract.

"They don't care about luxury tax! Luxury tax has never come up!"

Why did they wait to trade Carmelo instead of just releasing him after he was banished?
Why not just waive Michael Carter-Williams instead of trading him?
Why not just waive Chinanu or Stauskas or Baldwin instead of trading them?

Oh! Needed some luxury tax savings!

"They're not spending the rest of their MLE now(in the summer) because they're saving the rest of their MLE for the buyout market."

THEY'RE STILL SITTING ON THAT $3 MILLION!

"Sorry buyout guy, gotta wait until February 21st when Tilfart finds some pennies in his cushions."

Sorry, every move since the summer has been a cost-cutting or save money move.
You can tell me what they coulda, shoulda, woulda done but Morey's been blackballed, no one wants to help the Rockets, blahblahblah but we can take a look at the moves they DID make.

But hey, whatever it takes, right @Mathloom?

@Carl Herrera @Mathloom @thekad @pippendagimp @jerryclark

 

The Rockets really have been being feasted on at the SF spot, Ennis was not properly switching and was over playing his position. Gordon is okay, but he doesn't cover switches well enough. Shumpert is the only guy we have that can cover faster guards other than Paul, and Shumpert is capable of guarding 3's on switches overall well. The defense has to improve to do anything, and the two places to address were the 3 and the 4/5. Also Shumpert passes the ball well and moves well without the ball well. So he is like Tucker in that he does a lot of the small things really well that we need.

My concern is his shot and length. He will not be able to guard as many guys as Ariza, because his reach is a good 6 inches less, but he is still better than anyone else we currently have. His three needs to go in at a clip of 34-35% to really be playable in heavy minutes. If he is shooting what he has the last two seasons, you will likely see Shumpert push for 30 minutes a game in the playoffs.

 

lmao

That's what I'm saying, though. There's no need for narrative spinning. The deadline was about money, it's clear as day. No need to do any mental gymnastics on this one. Shumpert being a "win-now move" is equivalent to "Melo raises our ceiling against the Warriors".

I mean...Morey has had a disastrous 2018-2019 with Melo, MCW, Ennis, Chriss, and Knight, but I'm confident that he hasn't completely lost his ability to evaluate players. He just had his hands tied with an owner who wanted him to save money.

 

Question begs.

Is he just cheap or the cheapest? Next season answers it.

 

This is a great post and I appreciate the effort and thought-process that went into it. I think we are going to get our answer this coming off season, maybe sooner.

1) Do we resign Shump, so that we still have a movable salary in case another star becomes available (outside of just liking what he brings to the team)?
2) What do we do with this year's MLE? This is something I was really upset about at first. Depending on who you believe, we could have House locked up for 3 years if we were willing to give him the remainder of the MLE. I think signing young talent on team-friendly deals is essential given our limitations to sign free agents going forward. Apparently there may still be a way to do this whilst staying under the cap, but with so many moving pieces and a depreciating MLE, I'm skeptical it will happen.

Point #1, imo, is much more critical than #2. House was a fan favorite and undoubtedly helped our team. BUT, is he a big enough upgrade to warrant luxury tax payments this year? I like House a lot but I'm not so sure.

With this in mind, this is all a wash if we don't spend the tax the next 3 consecutive years. IF this truly was a play to maintain future flexibility, and we really do go all in in each of the next 3 seasons, I think all should be forgiven. BUT, should we dip below the tax again, I'll always remember this as the year we chose to save money instead of capitalizing on one of the best single-season efforts (Harden) most of us will ever get to see.

 

This pretty much sums it up. I'm tired of hearing "we're chasing the Warriors" until we make moves that signify that is the case.

 

Spoiler: OPEN

 

I miss Luc Mbah a Moute's finishing at the basket. If you overplayed the 3 point line and the hoop was vacant, he was putting it in. We don't have that in Iman Shumpart or any of our players really. I thought Ennis would be able to do that.

Jamychal Green and Garrett Temple would have added that. Additionally Temple is a decent ball-handler/shot-creator. We have the best defender of the bunch however and Shump can handle the ball. The trade for Green/Temple was only better for the regular season. Those dudes weren't going to play big minutes in the playoffs. Shump will.

We have the best case scenario for the playoffs.

But going all in, you have to keep Ennis, Baldwin and Stauskas. Taking the pressure off of the salary cap for the next three years will benefit us in the next three years. No rookie was going to make the difference for us. No late 1st rounder and Knight was going to yield a superstar... so in reality we're good. Just need health. That's bigger than any trade any team made this year.

 

This. This. This.

Rockets strategy is by all means path dependent. The many paths made it difficult to reverse engineer the utility function of the owner. But it boils down to two roads. Getting a big fish. Or getting small supporting fish.

If that X-picks proposal could have gotten us Beal, the strategy would not have come along with a cost saving ending. Unfortunately there were only patch solutions out there. (I think even if we had got Green/Temple instead of Shump, we were still able to find ways to go under the tax. )

Too many of us (including myself) are trapped by the post-mortem look-back bias that distorts the perception of the actual decision making process.

 

His last two healthy seasons. Didn't he play like a dozen games last year? Sorry I am mobile and cannot check.

 

I'd vote Cheap because
It is very tough to build the Championship rosters next year.
I value title odds a lot. (Vegas)

 

Y'all are jumping through HOOPS to try and make excuses for this jabroni. Accept the truth. Dismiss his lies. He's not someone to trust. I cant believe Les, Mr. Peta sold to this bozo. https://people.com/pets/white-tigers-at-houston-aquarium-havent-been-outside-in-12-years/

And he wants his son to take over eventually? O lawdt. Help us.

 

What everyone should be wondering about is when Tilman said something very close to the following:

"I don't mind going into the tax. I mean they go into the tax like ten million I don't care"

Is this the line? If Morey orchestrated a series of moves, is $10,000,000 the cut off now?

 

Not a coincidence he signed Chris Paul to the Max and sold the team right after

 

BILLION zimbabwe DOLLAR BUYER