Thanks for your blunt response and straightforward reply. I could type a much longer post, but I'll just say that I try to support my analysis with facts. By the way, you're one of my favorite posters. I especially enjoy reading your various takes on politics. I'd rather not. In the words of BimaThug, I have neither the time nor the inclination. That issue has also been beaten to death and I don't want to be accused of hijacking this thread since that's not the focus here. Just remember that my original post in this thread was about the topic itself.
I don't pay attention for a week and you guys start a twitter war with Sam Amick? Well done. He's a good reporter of facts but much like with Woj that doesn't imply any objectivity or sense on his part.
I also try to support my ideas with facts. I think the difference is that you seem to be a bit more pessimistic than I usually am. Thanks for the compliment, I did not think I post enough that others remember me.:grin: I agree btw that we should not derail this thread with a discussion about Morey's success and failures
An objective fan is still a fan. The term fan is derived from the word fanatical. Keep that in mind. Even the most objective Rockets fan will have a different vantage point than a Spurs or Mavs fan about pretty much anything involving the Rockets. We are a product of our environment to a certain extent. That being said... the criticism Kwame has on Bima and others is that every move is defended or praised. That's not the case Kwame. EVERY MOVE IS EXPLAINED or the rationale of making the move from the organization's standpoint will be explained by someone like Bima and often myself because when a move is made, people just criticize without regard to why the move was made and just brush the move off as stupid in a vacuum... (Ex:"Why would you trade your starting PG in the middle of a playoff push... stupid Morey") Sometimes moves need to be EXPLAINED... but that doesn't mean they are being DEFENDED. Another major example is the Chandler Parsons debacle this Summer. I can and have explained the rationale of the reasoning to do what they do what they did in that situation all day, and people will flame me and think I'm just being a Morey lover. When the truth is I hated the move, and thought it was bad business to let Parsons out of his contract early. Give me another year of Parsons on a million dollar contract expiring this Summer over Trevor Ariza at 8 mil per any day of the week. But its important that people understand the business side of what has transpired behind the scenes going back to when the Rockets started courting Dwight Howard years ago. If posters were a little bit smarter in understanding how the Rockets front office works, maybe there wouldn't be a need to educate, but there is. But I think it's fair that we ask even the least educated posters to differentiate explanation vs. defending. Big, big, difference.
In fairness to Kwame, my salary cap knowledge is not the focus of his argument. My objectivity is. How well-respected I am by others here for salary cap stuff should not shield me from his criticisms. However, I think my salary cap knowledge is one of the main reasons why I "side with" Morey so often. A lot of times, fans criticize a move without understanding the salary cap ramifications of that move (or the move that wasn't made). I tend to think a lot like Morey and largely understand his thought process. I usually know when a move is feasible or not or when a move that many others want to make just isn't going to happen for cap (or other political) reasons. Coming from that frame of mind, I will inevitably agree with and/or "trust in" Morey on the vast majority of decisions he makes. I don't always AGREE with Morey's moves; but I usually UNDERSTAND why they were made and can appreciate the reasoning. Does that mean I'm not objective? If you feel it does, well, then you're entitled to your opinion. I guess I'll never convince you otherwise. I just wholeheartedly disagree with that assessment. P.S. Kwame, I'm saddened to hear that you've never seen my Twitter commentary (which, again, constitutes the vast majority of my Rockets commentary, far more so than my non-salary cap related posts on this BBS) yet still want to tell me whether my commentary is objective or not. I'm glad that you said that you'll try to follow some of my Twitter commentary in the future. Maybe then you'll see that I am not just some company man for the Rockets.
Based on the reactions, seems like Kwame is the only one who doesn't find BT to be objective. The claim of "majority" at the moment, is holding to be true.
Frankly Bima Thug gives cap information and clarifies the complexity that may confuse other poster trying to make sense of it. Rarely does he get involved in the politics of the moves. He gives his opinion, but he doesn't dwell on it; nor does he try convince anyone about what he thinks. I would say he is very respectful in his tone, and unless it is a cap issue, he is not going critique anyones posts. And with the type of influence he has on the board, that shows he is very objective in his opinion. he allows for good debate.
I agree with this. Kwame's criticism was not about bima's knowledge (which would have been stupid) but it was still unwarranted. I've never seen bima go polar one way or another - I would have classified him as a very respectful of morey (in part as he said bc he understands cap ramifications better than most of us). Kwame provided absolutely no evidence of his criticism and seemed to be projecting on bima. when bima disagrees he's more likely to say - "well, I think this will hurt the team in the short run but here's some reason why this might have happened". That's no where near blind devotion.
If there is evidence/examples to back up one's position, I'm totally OK with it. I just think that a team (not talking specifically about the Rocket, but just in general) will rarely go ahead with a transaction which is a clear losing proposition. Since teams are being managed by rational (albeit, at times, flawed) people, they will naturally tend to avoid the really bad moves. Moves which are clearly beneficial, on other hand, occur all the time for various reasons; sometimes it is luck or perhaps just the result of just very good planning. Speaking just for myself, I think predicting with any precision how well a move will work out for a team is really hard in general. Its easy to recognize moves which are no-brainers on the plus side. After that, it gets pretty murky. Sure, I can distinguish among these the moves that I like and moves that I don't like, but objectively speaking I can't say with much confidence whether a move is clearly a bad one. Especially when the overall strategy of the team may not be totally clear -- sometimes teams are purposely thinking short-term, or long-term, or they are willing to take a gamble, etc.
Just my observation but I've seen Bima position himself more as a reference and informational source by explaining things most of us don't understand or know enough about. In fact I've seen him keep his opinion and projections to himself when many here have wanted to know more of his opinion. Bima's expertise is in the cap and parsing legal wording. Hence it makes sense for him to critic and value what DM does well in those areas (which I think most can say he and our FO excel in evidenced by how they've navigated the CBA and found loopholes). If we had a resident expert on the handling of negotiations or management of relationships with other organizations, agents or players such a person might have a different take on morey. Anyway I personally don't see Bima demonstrating subjectivity anywhere near the same ball park as others here or as much as people want that of him. I've just seen him speak to what he's knowledgable in....which happens to be morey's strength as well i think.
What I want to know is why anybody WOULDN'T want Bima's opinion? As long as you are halfway smart enough to differentiate the Bimathug Cap resource of knowledge from the Bimathug fan opinion, why wouldn't we value that opinion coming from such a knowledgeable resource, and not scold it just because its opinion. At the end of the day, we should all want to be treated as intelligent enough to differentiate and take from what we want out of the info.
FYI, I had a chance to communicate directly with Nick Wright, who I respect as a pretty thoughtful analyst of all things sports. As I suspected all along, Nick meant no disrespect to me. His "siding" with Sam Amick was more about the larger issue of (a large contingent of) overly-sensitive Rockets fans who tend to jump on national NBA guys when they suggest that someone other than Harden might be the MVP. (I explained to him that I was not one of those people and that Sam picked the wrong Rockets fan out of which to make an example; and Nick understands that.) FWIW, Nick wanted me to tell everyone that, while he doesn't post on ClutchFans, he really respects Clutch and everyone else who contributes to the site and he thinks this is a terrific site and source of great information.
What did the media guys expect from being on twitter? duh Well, at least Rockets fans are being heard. Watch out if they vote Curry as MVP. They will want to get off twitter.
I'm guessing Morey embraces the hate, and even fans the flames (Barkley/Cuban twitter wars, unabashed MVP campaign). To be hated is to be relevant. In the past, it has worked for wrestling heels, the Miami Heat, Christian Laettner, etc. Also makes for a more tight-knit "us against the world" team mentality.
I think it was someone in Golden State the other day that said something like "The NBA is trending towards Professional Wrestling" in regards to story-lines and good guys/bad guys. I'll say this much, being the villain isn't that bad at all of a place to be. It means you are very relevant, and a threat. Just ask these guys-
Bima, do you know what Llull's contract situation is with Real Madrid, particularly what the buyout would be, when it can be exercised? And is $625,000 the amount we can contribute towards a buyout this summer? I've looked and can't find any details. Thanks!
We have early bird rights on Brewer, so we can pay him up to 8.2 million even if we are over the cap. Our MLE will have to be used for Smith, McDaniels, and/or Llull.
