[Feigen] Fertitta disputes idea Rockets used the Trade Deadline to get under the Luxury Tax

GS want him in case iguodala injures. friendship.

Raptors and bucks want him also.

 

Bradley has been real bad since his Celtics days. We really just don’t have any good options. We needed one of those first wave buyout guys, but we didn’t get it done.

 

One success
Draft market
Free agent market
Trade market

 

Then we ride or die.

 

What benefits are you hinting at …. their hands are literally tied in the offseason being over the cap with 8 players under contract & no real movable assets. They'll have the T-MLE and that's it. No picks in the coming draft and unable to trade the following years #1 pick and no tradable contracts - unless you are moving a major rotation piece.

They have no tools to improve.

 

You aren't looking at the bigger picture - How does all that affect the team and its ability to improve going forward ?

You tell me what tools and assets they have to make this team better in the coming offseason when they'll be capped out , forced into use of the T-MLE instead of the full MLE , no draft picks , unable to trade the following seasons #1 draft pick and having given up the ability to aggregate Knights salary while having only 8 players under contract for next season - two of those being Hartenstein and Clark and another being Nene's corpse.

You tell me how they get better ?!

 

I thought it was obvious we could not when we signed cp we went all in.

But we have the mle. So we can sign 2-3 role players to fill in whatever needs. We can also sign a few undrafted players and maybe one produces.

Also, the warriors will most likely lose one of draymond, cousins or kd. So that helps.

Sorry, we do not have an all star center signing with us for $5 million.

So yea, the money we save this year and next allows tillman to go over the cap and sign role players after the warriors lose a big piece.

 

Accept they are already over the cap so how do you propose they sign these role players with the money Tilman saved? Veterans minimum ?!

They went about "Winning" backwards.

Most teams do their best to maximize the talent they have during their window of opportunity and shed salary after that point - Look at GSW , that's why they will likely lose one of those players you mention - they'll be subject to the repeater tax next season and will likely break that team up as a result - But they had a hell of a run before the repeater caught them.

By doing it backwards - shedding so many assets in an effort to avoid the tax during their best players prime , they have no assets to maximize their chances of winning during that window …. but hey , they are under the tax and not subject to the repeater during Harden / CP3's current contracts - wow great , wonderful - Now tell me how you get better ?!


Honestly they'd be better off in terms of ability to improve having not made any deals at all - Still having Anderson's $20m+ contract to absorb salary , Melton and all the cash & picks given up in dumping Ryno / Knight / Chriss / Ennis …. even if they would be over the tax line , they'd have the same MLE they will have now & all those movable pieces …. instead , we have no pieces to move and are out of the tax - Big Whoop!

What good does being out of the tax do if you cant improve ?!

 

I agree that this was one of the bigger negatives of the knight trade . I know we exchange knight for a guy who can play THIS YEAR , but not having knights expiring could make things tough next season


Here's what I can think of off the top

1) Gordon , expiring contract decent player .

2) re-signed shumpert ; no clue on the contract ... also it's in bad taste to trade a player just signed in the offseason .... especially if it's a long term deal

3) uhhhhh that's really all I got . We are gonna have to hope that farried / rivers / house want to come back for cheap OR we are gonna do the vet min shuffle again .

If we only have the taxpayer MLE I would bet on us saving some again for buyouts .

We're going to have to use MLE funds though to retain our guys we don't have rights to though .

Does anyone know if retaining farried or rivers will come out of MLE ?

Edit.

Your next post was even better .

I am extremely worried about tilman .

If you are right .... and I think you are right (about ways to add salary and talent )

Then that means that Morey definitely knows that.

I know DM is a cap genius and likely knows / can come up with creative ways of doing things .... but it seems like it's gonna be tough .

My point in this is that if you can figure this out ... then the rox figured it out and this precautionary move is just about saving money

 

Over the tax

You know what i meant

Tell me, do you think there is a move we could’ve made this year to beat the Warriors? Right now saving money makes sense in a business sense. If the warriors cant stay together then we can make moves accordingly.

 

Can't we trade our 2020 1st after July 1st? That would leave us with 3 expiring contracts totaling $26 million plus a 1st to trade this summer. Plus 2022, 2024, picks, etc. if we wanted to make an offer like the rumored Jimmy Butler trade offer.

 

No , there wasn't a move that put them on par or better than the Warriors … but that's not the point.

Saving money is great …. as long as it doesn't hinder your ability to get better down the line , in this case , it hindered their ability to get better in the future.

Warriors are irrelevant in this context.

You really need to look at what they have next year and what they can do to improve - not much versus what they could have done had they not made this deal and just paid the tax.
This offseason they will be irrelevant in the trade market , they will be irrelevant in the free agent market and they will be irrelevant (Absent) from the draft …. while having only 8 players under contract and being likely taxpayers.

If the ultimate goal is winning championships - they went about this all wrong ….

 

They have to make the selection in 2020 … they can trade that player after he's picked but that must make the selection.

Sure , they can aggregate that salary …. but in doing so they are giving up rotation pieces when they could have just kept Knight (or Ryno for that matter) and still had the draft picks and not have to give up rotation pieces for salary aggregation purposes.
Bottom line , not having made that trade , they could add to this years team instead of having to send out pieces of it in hopes they get better.

 

@Corrosion

One of the best ways to improve is player development . Unfortunately, we don't have too many great prospects there .

I'm high on Clark , hartenstein, and house ... but I'm high on them to become solid roleplayers .... and it doesn't look like the coaching staff is that impressed with any of their progress (to the point of actually playing (or signing, in houses case) them)

That's another reason why I thought it was necessary to lock up house to a nice long term deal a 3/6 or 3/8 something like that . That way , if he breaks out you can use his team friendly contract as a good asset .

But Morey has always been super aggressive and has never made player development a forefront of his plan . He thinks win-now and knows that proven talent is the better odds .

Our lack of young , athletic , serviceable players on cheap deals is a bit of a bummer . We usually stick guys in the g-league for year 1 ; Bounce them back and forth in year two when MDA decides they can't earn consistent PT .... and then move on to the next wave of talent by year 3 because they will no longer be cost-controlled .

I know that's a generalization , but we really have avoided player development to the tune of trading our first rounders every time we get a chance . I guess we don't want that guaranteed contract to harm our flexibility .

The crazy thing is that most of the guys that we've drafted actually manage to carve out nice little careers . Guys like lamb , Morris , Harrell , and Patterson have all stuck around.

I just question our methodology at this point because I've seen Clark and hartenstein play good , solid minutes .... but we never seem to try to give young players MORE opportunity.

And again , I think the House situation is one of the more ****ed up instances of bad management I've seen . I mean thinking back a couple months ago when this starred ... was there any reason why we weren't willing to negotiate and dip into MLE . It just makes too much sense .... and then we didn't even use Clark in his place ... we just make tucker carry more of the load .

To me that's an example of bad Morey/ tilman habits mixing with bad MDA habits to form a bad situation

 

tobias not old enough.

 

As old as was FTW breh.

 

rip ftw breh <3 <3

 

Don’t understand how fans can defend the moves as helping anyone besides saving the owner money. Rockets could’ve gone in two directions that would’ve been better than what they did.

They could’ve tried maximizing their chances of winning this year by going all in and trading for a better (and longer) role player while Cp3 and tucker are not a shell of themselves. Or they could have saved Knight and pick as a tradeable asset in the future. How can they get better now (or even stay as good)? Who can they trade Gordon and a pick for that would be an upgrade to Gordon or put them over the top?

I get that golden state is most likely to get worse but even so, they will probably end up with a more talented, younger and more well balanced team than we will have. Also you are not accounting for other good teams improving (players improving, draft, trades etc.) Don’t see a possible way rockets could even stay as good as they are now. ( older players, no roster flexibility, no picks).

Morey got the roster into this situation by focusing on winning now and acquiring older veteran players, so to do a 180 and start saving money closes the window. If they don’t win this year tell me how Rockets could remain competitive after this year? Are you expecting Harden to take it up yet another notch to compensate for the role players we are losing + cp3 getting worse? NBA is all about talent and most years we can predict who will be in the finals in the start of the year, does anyone seriously think Houston will have the best team in the next few years with our “luxury tax savings”??