oh no im perfectly fine with our team as constructed, but im not ruling out Morey sneaking in.. He has been after Butler for a while
Thibs is gonna "hard-nosed negotiations" his way out of a good return on a disgruntled player that would be walking away for nothing. His potential return via trade will likely start to decrease as the season rolls along. I hope he's ready to talk himself out of some (or one) easy 1st first round picks and serviceable players.
I can kinda understand Thibs cause once they trade Butler, no matter who they'll get back, whether it's Gordon, Richardson or Tobias Harris...they're bound to be mediocre again, but if the guy wants out, keeping him on the team against his will isn't going to make the situation better at this point.
Yes, Butler's absence will be felt, but Gordon is not a mediocre player by any means. Tobias is pretty good too. The Wolves are mediocre because of their dysfunctional status, even with Butler.
Gordon is good but he's not a star, clear downgrade over Butler, and they barely made the playoffs with him so...Harris is good too but not even a good fit in Minnie, he would be even more of a downgrade imo, a team with Towns, Harris, Wiggins and Teague in the statting five is going to be a nightmare on defense, absolutely awful...and it's not like i would expect good offense tbh, plenty of guys with low iq and they all like to take meh shots instead of making the extra pass.
To be fair, the Wolves were gunning for the third seed before Butler went down last season. Of course, it's a moot point, because Thibs runs Butler into the ground. And needs him on the team, as McHale needed Harden: make one guy do everything. Thibs: "I need you for the big push. Don't you understand? You're part of the big push!" Butler: "I don't want to be part of your big push!"
I'm not sure Thibs has formulated that in his head..... but he is certainly willing to go down that path if it happens based on his history. He just isn't practical or willing to compromise. It makes him great in some ways and difficult in others. I will give you an example. He asked the Bulls for an extension after the Bulls did very well. The Bulls said they needed some time to think about it. He felt that there was nothing to think about, either tell him he isn't getting an extension or give him one. So the Bulls waited awhile to think about it. The Bulls then announced to the media that they had an extension for Thibs. In response Thibs didn't make any comments to the media about his status and didn't sign the extension for months, which didn't make the Bulls look good to their fans. He also wanted Draymond Green in the draft. He came to the GM and said that he usually didn't say which players he wanted in the draft, but that this was the exception. The Bulls didn't get Green and Thibs never got over it. My point being Thibs isn't afraid to do what he thinks is right, or what he wants to do or say, regardless of what is considered standard behavior.
I wonder what Morey thinks about Tillman going public so often on trades, etc. Not that it hurts our leverage based on exactly what he said in this case, but just speaking in general. The Rockets, you have to think, are known around the league with other GM's for being very closed lipped, and that had to help in the past. What helps deals progress in any sales negotiation in any industry is constructive dialog & a clear understanding of the goals everyone is looking to achieve. If a GM now thinks the Rockets owner is going to go to the media every time they talk, it can certainly be counter productive to the Rockets making future deals.
maybe its p maybe its part of the plan (send him out there to tell them were not going to overpay (and then boom) lol
The Rockets have never used the media before (to the best of my recollection) to gain leverage in a trade. It's also a bad sales tactic to use outside indirect communication to state your "win-win" stance rather than communicating directly & honestly to your client. The best way to negotiate is to actually have this conversation directly with the GM so you can say what Tillman said here "the price is too high, we can't lose any of our core pieces", and then follow that up with "tell me more though about why you are needing to get the assets that you have asked for".... hence opening up the door for gaining more of not just their basketball & org needs, but also some of the less tangible reasons that they need to make X deal. Example: that "need behind the need" could be that the owner is looking to free up some cash as well...opening up the door for maybe changing the structure of the deal to substitute cash instead of a player. These are reasons why you don't negotiation through the media. Not saying its never a tactic used, or shouldn't be used, but any professional sales person would 9 times out of 10 do this directly, and not in the media.
