[Tilman Financial Troubles] Shams: Rockets not comfortable going deep into tax

Great post and agreed 100%.

I’d take issue if Winslow, Covington or someone else that could give us 80+ games was available and this was their stance. But with someone like Iggy that’s old, injury prone and in coast-until-it-matters mode....I get it.

Only interested in Iggy if he comes via buyout.

 

I'm not sure I 100% agree with all of what you said, but definitely agree with this part: "If we do nothing extra in this trade I'll be concerned."

Clearly the Rockets are looking to expand this trade, hence the hold up. If the team truly sees trading for Westbrook as their all in move, then go ahead and use the Westbrook trade as opportunity to get more guys, sell more of our future picks for adding difference-makers today. But if Houston comes out of this trade with nothing extra, I worry about the counter-narrative captured here:

 

Iggy or not, I'm just curious to see what happens to Shumpert. Been waiting to see what Anderson/Knight/Shumpert + 2 FRP + 1 SRP + not spending anything MLE last year becomes other than luxury tax savings. It doesn't have to be Iggy. Just spend the damn money. If the money is not spent, then the BS has to be called.

 

Remember when Tilman gave up an asset to dump Ennis on the Sixers for LTS, and then Ennis proceeded to greatly outplay Shumpert.

 

This may sound like word-play, but Iggy by himself would not cost the Rockets $20 million in luxury tax. The combined salaries of the entire roster, including Iggy, would cost the Rockets $20 million in luxury tax. There are two separate questions: 1) is Iggy worth $17 million for 2019-20? 2) Is the owner willing to go into the luxury tax to the tune of $20 million? If you link hypothetical Player A to Luxury Tax Bill B, there is no one available on the market that will be worth $37 million, while only pulling down a salary of $17 million. With that logic, there is no one available that is worth going into the luxury tax over in net dollars.

Finally, if the owner is committed to paying a tax bill of $20 million to go "all in" this year, the Rockets would ideally need a $17 million salary added to its portfolio to have salaries to trade in February should a star come available. That could include Iggy on an expiring contract, plus either Gordon or Capella. Without Iggy, the Rockets would have to trade both Gordon and Capella.

 

I hope this isn't true. Even if a guy like Iggy only represents a marginal upgrade over a minimum salary player (and he's a bigger upgrade than that) then you go out and get him. We are in win-now, all-in mode. This is ridiculous. These types of moves can be the difference in winning it all and not.

 

While you are correct, with where we are right now cap-wise, Iggy and $37M are completely tied together unless we do something stupid like trade Ego / Capela for Iggy. I want Iggy, but at the end of the day, $20M extra for a player like Iggy is a LOT to ask for from any owner.

 

At the end of the day, money talks not words. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

The broke billionaire

 

Small market OKC paid a huge tax bill last year and were prepared for more LT this season. Meanwhile Tilman is wasting two prime years from possibly the best player in the league to save money.

 

Funny you should mention them, because this was the team that ultimately gave up on Harden for mostly financial reasons. You can argue that it ended up costing them ALL of their MVP's (2 of which ended up on the Rockets now).

 

The thread title should be "Tilman, logically, not comfortable with paying 37 million dollars on 36-year-old Iggy"

 

Sell the team. Do you and us a favor.

 

Les traded Hakeem because he didn't want to pay him 1M more per year.

In his more than 20 years of ownership of the Rockets, he paid like 5M of luxury tax.

I wouldn't say he is much better in terms of spending.

 

I don't get how some of y'all don't want Iggy...Have you guys watched him in the playoffs, dude is fkn Killer. If we let him go to another team it will bite us guaranteed.

 

@tinman this is so PURE it hurts.

 

Les Alexander would have traded Jesus on Christmas if he went over the salary cap

 

And he sold secrets to China

 

You see that his D is huge?