I'm just curious -- what are the examples of Les being a "cheapskate"? This rep gained a little steam with some when he would never pay the luxury tax, but that looks like the correct course of action for reasons other than saving money.
Les should put himself in the hot seat just for changing the colors and logo of a team after winning back to back titles.
According to various posters and tidbits of information posted here over the years it seems like Les' unwillingness to go above and beyond as an owner has been behind many of the moves that have hurt this team in the recent past. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=261837 There have been many threads like this over the years. After the Portland series a couple of years ago many posters were very dissatisfied with Les. I agree that not paying the luxury tax has helped us in many instances by not ruining that dreaded "flexibility" but in other places it has hurt us. For example not picking up a point guard at the deadline last year. Which in some part (not saying fully) had to have been due to an unwillingness to pay up $$$.
We were barely on the playoff bubble and trying to rebuild. Les always said he was willing to go over lux tax fo the right players and team. He's always been a big risk taker. Were very lucky to have him.
The fact he was willing to cut McHale and pay him out his contract proves he wasn't just a cheap skate.
Plus if nothing else, Les was responsible for the dark Jeremy Lin days. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=223873
For every "cheapskate" move has made over the last few years, he sure is paying it with McHale's firing.
Like he paid it during T-Mac and Yao's prime? He has claimed he would pay it many times, but has yet to do so. Also, I'm not advocating that blindly paying the luxury tax is always a good idea. Just saying that Les has had his fair share of blame for things that have gone wrong with this team over the years. He's also the one who wanted a "faster more offense oriented team" to get away from the grueling defense days.
funny thing is if the wins don't start coming in bunches very soon, we can be assured that les will commence salary dumping to get back under the lux tax yet again
This is the cold hard truth that most people want to ignore. Le$ hasn't accomplished anything as the owner of the Rockets. He inherited a championship team that was built under a previous regime. The Rockets need full regime change. Le$, Maury, and McFail all need to go. One battle has been won, but now we move to the next two steps in the broader war for regime change. Each new step we take will signify a battle that is more difficult than the one that came before it. But victory will be sweet once the transition is complete and the team is no longer being held back by these negative forces. If it was easy, everyone would do it.
