[Chron] Tilman Fertitta determined to do "whatever it takes" to improve Rockets

If this was les he would be in Florida

 

Dude can't even afford a razor! Amiright, @J.R. , @justtxyank , @Carl Herrera?

 

Pay the luxury tax?

 

@The Cat on his latest Locked On Rockets podcast brought up the idea of using the NT-MLE now that Westbrook is on board. I don't see it happening.

I am in the camp of ownership not paying the LT on *non-stars.* I want to be wrong on this, but I will believe it when I see it.

 

Ducking the tax this year makes that final westbrook 4th year more bearable financially. I understand not paying the tax for meh bench additions. Its frustrating but I get it. Having westbrook and harden at mid 40s millions of dollars to start and paying a repeater tax would be brutal.

My guess is Tillman will pay the tax for big additions that bring in money even if you dont win it all. I dont think he wants to pay tax for fringe bench additions

 

That's exactly it.

Fertitta: "If we acquire So-and-So, how will it affect the team this season going forward?"
Morey: "Well, I conservatively estimate we will have 4 more wins in the regular season---"
Fertitta: "No, no, no. When I say, 'affect the team', you should hear, 'how many more tickets will we sell'?"
Morey: "He isn't a big jersey-seller guy but the winning team---"
Fertitta: "Survey says: XXXXX! How about Kevin Love?"
Morey: "No. F******. Way."
Fertitta: "Make the call." (leaves office)
(ring) Morey: "Hey, Koby, I was calling about K Love, but you probably don't want to trade him anyway."
Koby Altman: "Are you kidding? Hey, let's make a de---"
Morey: "No? Well, I tried. Bye." (click) "TILMAN! He said no way, Kevin's the future of their franchise."
Fertitta: "Shucks. Women like them some K Love. And they buy lots of concessions. Beer. Nachos. Uh, beer. DAMN!"

 

You're not wrong. That's been pretty much confirmed with their actions. Just an embarrassing thing to see given this is our opportunity to win.

 

I'm willing to do whatever it takes to not call Tilman a cheap ba$tard.

 

Tilman really is a cheap ba$tard though.

 

this has now become like the chick who makes half a dozen excuses for why some guy doesn't call her. going back to last summer. still holding out hope. maybe he's just washing his hair tonite. he doesn't really like that girl LeTiSha, he wants me!

 

The thing is, the way Tilman has mandated Morey to act (hypothetically speaking), the Rockets won't be able to add another star or add non-fringe additions. Unless there's another cap jump the year Warriors got Durant, the only way to add talent is to keep acquiring salary and talent and developing them or trading them. The opportunity to acquire significant talent is hampered when you give away 2 first round draft picks (pre- Westbrook), a second round pick, fail to spend $8M of mle money over 2 years, and don't re-sign Ariza, and give up $20M of expiring contracts in Anderson/Knight/Shumpert (assuming Shump isn't SnT'd). And all that was given not for other talent or picks... all that was given purely to save money. Tilman has purposely cornered himself into a spending situation where the only moves left are to sign marginal players, then he's able to say, "well, it's not worth the luxury tax."

 

I know the certain way to improve the Rockets, Mr.Ferttita. Sell the team and GTFO. Keep your promise please.

 

Can't agree more with this.

They've created a situation where they never have to worry about salary exploding. The only way to add another significant player (assuming Shump leaves as anticipated) is to trade Gordon or Capela or both. If it's just one you aren't adding much salary even if you maximize the salary matching NOR are you adding talent. You are merely upgrading talent (maybe) and slightly increasing salary (maybe.) If you combine them you could be bringing back significantly more salary (maybe) but not necessarily.

My fear all along when they first made the Ryno for Knight trade was that they were going to keep downsizing the salaries until they couldn't actually add talent.

 

To be clear, and I know the people in this thread won't believe it until they see it... but I meant down the road, once there are buyouts and someone potentially worth that comes available. Not spending it now just to spend it and giving JR Smith a $5M+ deal.

Kyle Chilek made a good case for this dynamic:



As always, we'll see what actually happens.

 

3 max contracts on same team???

Nevermind that KLove is awful switch defender and is always injured.

 

Tax aside, I don't get the hate. It's not a championship but these 2 past seasons the rox have had some good runs. I still remember the dark days of 2009 - 2014. Cp3 hamstring didn't hold up...a ring right there if he's good. I'm glad we've got Westbrook because that's a huge upgrade.

 

fertitta has only had 1 year's worth of moves to judge and that's obviously been largely based on what we do know they were avoiding. In 2017, all of the summer impact transactions were already made before he became owner. he didn't have anything to do with signing cp3, nene, PJ, moute etc. wb being a huge upgrade is purely being hopeful atm

 

Coming into this summer, most everyone was willing to cut Tilman some slack over avoiding the luxury tax last year because it meant he could take on that LT burden the last three years of CP3's contract without paying the repeater tax. So we were, theoretically at least, poised to go into LT territory to sign whoever we needed.

That went out the window with the Westbrook trade, which essentially set us right back to where we were last summer: Not wanting to pay the LT this year because we've got 3 more years of a giant contract after that and would almost surely be paying the repeater tax in year 4.

I'm sure DM and Tilman talked this over, and I can help but think it's short-sighted on Tilman's part. If the WB experiment doesn't pay off, I would trust Morey to be able to find a taker for that contract by year 3 and hopefully get something of value in return, but not bring so much back that it keeps us in the LT again. Tilman has the best GM in the league when it comes to getting impossible things done, but doesn't seem to trust him to do just that.

Another thing to consider going forward: I seriously doubt Tilman will ever be willing to pay the repeater tax, so any future ventures into LT territory will be limited to a three years at a time, then backing out for a year.

 

I 100% agree with you, but with a caveat. That repeater tax is an absolute killer. Unless you're winning multiple championships in a short period of time, and generating a massive amount of increased revenues, there are very few teams that can take the repeater hit and still run a viable operation. I don't blame Tilman one bit for being incredibly weary of the repeater tax. Where I potentially WILL blame him is if the team doesn't improve during this very opportune window. Like you said, it would be very short-sighted of him to allow the fear of the repeater tax to cloud his judgement when it comes to tangibly improving the roster and vaulting us into championship status.

 

Shut up and listen that I will improve the team on my own terms!