Very disappointed in our "salary dump" trade deadline.

Agreed... i think getting under Lux Tax was absolutely the goal unless you hit a HR and get an AD type player. However, the Rockets don't have the assets that teams would want to unload their Allstar/Superstar. They were willing to part with 4 1st rounders earlier in the year for Butler, but that didn't work out either.

IMO, if you go after players like Baze/Mirotic/Temple/Green, while all would likely make positive impacts this year, paying the Luxury Tax now would hamstring the Rockets future once Harden's "super max contract" kicks in. The end goal was to avoid the "repeater" tax, which they've done.

PLUS - they just unloaded a bunch of scrubs for someone that can actually help and also has championship experience. While Shump's stats wont blow you away, he still played an integral part to the Cavs' championship.

 

Good post .

There's still time for tilman to redeem himself. But the way he has talked and the moves we have made aren't giving me a lot of confidence.

Maybe Morey ****ed up going for Paul ... but the fact that Morey takes such huge risks let's me know that he had a dual mandate this deadline . And I think "improve the team" played second to "get us out of the tax."

Maybe had there been a star available we would have gone for it . Still , there was help available and I don't like not throwing the kitchen sink out there when you have harden playing like he is.

 

Well here's my POV on it: if Knight's contract was expiring we probably could have ended up with Otto Porter or someone at that level yesterday. The fact that he had one more year on his deal was why Morey couldn't put together packages that looked better.

As for the Markieff and Mirotic of the world...it's hard to say Morey lost out on them considering both were always available but both are also very injured...well specifically Markieff. I can see why Morey (and Tilman) didn't want to spend assets on players that, while talented and for a need, might not be there come playoff time. THAT would have been doing Harden a disservice (bringing in more injured teammates)

 

Love that we ducked the TAX and now will be able to pay it for the next couple of years with ease..and not worry about the repeaters tax

The Rockets as constructed, with health, are a legitimate threat to win it all, thats why these series of trades make me feel even better about all of this. Good job Morely!

 

and markieff is on the market now btw being release by nop

 

I think we could have landed porter if tilman had OKed it .

Sure Portis and Parker are a better package but we could have included a first or two which is better than the seconds they got.

Knights contract expiring next year could actually be beneficial for teams looking to leverage his salary next deadline . So sure it's dead money now , but will become a positive asset in the future

 

Given his neck injury I don't think Morey will risk it. I think he'll be patient and wait for more players to drop. Of course I could be way wrong because aren't the twins and Harden close?

 

Markieff just had neck surgery .

If adding him is our big play then I'm not excited. Maybe it will work out , nonetheless not a very good bet

 

I’m not there yet, but getting better. I just hate.... Hate giving up draft picks. I also hate that our third best 3/4 is Gary Freaking Clark.

They are banking on scoring big again free buyout vets. I think they are a bit too arrogant after scoring big on Faried and Rivers. We have terrible depth right now at the wings and it’s going to hurt come playoff time.

 

i think harden is close enough to them that he and the rockets will look into it and see what his prognosis is. I doubt if its not a positive outlook of some sort that they do it. They learned from the wright situation last year

 

there was no surgery

 

You gotta admit though, going from owing Porter $60+ million to basically owing nothing this summer is better than having to worry about what to do with Knight in 2019-2020.

 

Oh for sure .

And porter may not be a high enough level player to justify if .

But his fit seems so good and I dunno if we could realistically do better than adding someone of his caliber . Given equal talent level ... his fit seems to be one of the best .

 

There is no luxury tax

 

Lol dude I'm the co-founder of the Otto Porter Movement. I know how great the 3&D Messiah would have looked on this roster.

 

How long is the "now" when youre in the "win now mode"? Rockets have been in "win now mode" for about 4 years now and next year will be another one. Morey should be thinking short and long term. He wasnt able to do much this deadline because of past "win now" moves that didnt work.

 

You don't HAVE to, and in a perfect world, the owner would be willing to pay the repeater tax. For example, OKC is. But the reality is that over 90% of teams don't. I wish the Rockets were an exception to the general rule, but I don't see the point in having a meltdown over Fertitta doing something that 90%+ of owners would do. The other thing, as far as the repeater tax goes, is that we already knew Fertitta wouldn't go there. I don't see the point in getting all up in arms over it today and not when Fertitta said it way back on Media Day. This isn't breaking news -- the only difference is that the Rockets are doing a non-LT season in 2018-19, instead of 2020-21 or something.

Now, if Fertitta and the Rockets don't pay the tax in one of the next three seasons after this maneuver... then yeah. Pitchforks would be justified. David summed it up well here:



I just don't see why today is some huge bombshell and Fertitta's statement back on Media Day wasn't. We already knew it was coming at some point. And it's not like the Rockets did nothing but try to cut costs. They went after Butler, I'm sure they placed calls on AD and Tobias, etc. Unfortunately, they didn't have the assets for the bigger names. So, once they got within 24 hours of the deadline and conceded the "all-in" type moves weren't happening, they pivoted to Shumpert and basically said "let's get the non-LT season out of the way now," since the only upside to paying the tax this late in the game would be keeping Ennis as your 11th man.

If they don't spend in future seasons, it's absolutely worth being upset over all this. I just don't know what the point is in being enraged today, unless you already were by the Media Day comments... and I never got that sense.