He did the same to MDA and Morey and Harden. So it isn't a surprise he did it to Cousins. My hope was that Tilman would modify his practices, not so far.
It's also possible someone else leaked this away from the Rockets. It really doesn't benefit the Rockets here but it clearly looks like Tilman being petty. Maybe someone is doing a double fake.
He won't. It's the never ending saga of Tilman has no business owning a professional sports organization. It's amazing how theres folks that are still completely blind to it no matter how obvious or how many times this guy outs himself
I don’t think we are that far apart in our overall thinking. I was simply stating based on the history of this league almost no teams have accomplished anything by flat out tanking. In other words the unabashed desire to dismantle the team of any talent usually back fires because by the time the talent that you accumulate develops you have put them in such a crappy environment that they walk at the first opportunity. Now that the season has played out the way that it has you can justify blowing it up and tanking for the remainder of the season. Whatever happens with our pick happens at this point. We have a couple of options as far as how to proceed. One option is to let all the expiring deals walk at the end of the season and renounce their bird rights and use all of that cap space to sign a near max deal on a John Collins type. Another route is to package HoláDepot and a few more of these expiring guys and try and trade them and pick/s for someone that has yet to prove their worth like Michael Porter Jr and take on a bad contract like Gary Harris. The final piece would be acquired with Wall’s expiring deal. You have all of these draft picks to trade along with Wall for a disgruntled superstar to pair with Wood and player X that you signed or traded for the year before. Let’s say Damian Lillard didn’t want to play for Portland anymore. There would be no other way to trade for Lillard other than to have a similarly massive contract to match his. These max deals can only really be moved for each other. The Harden deal only worked because of HoláDepot’s expiring deal. This is why someone gives you a nice prize for his final year contract. Which brings me to your question why would we not move Wall now if he is indeed moveable? The answer depends on what we’re trying to accomplish. If it’s just the fastest route to being competitive again then by all means you trade him in a CP3 like deal for a package similar to what OKC got for him. The thing is we want rings and in order to get a chance at that we will need Wall’s contract to be able to even come close to trading for a superstar. I’m no capologist but there might be a way to let Wall and Wood expire and then sign a superstar and then sign Wood to a new deal but that would require a lot of maneuvering and another lost year so even if it were possible I believe retaining Wall for one more year is the best option for us.
It is McMahon.... he got it from the Rockets. He also has a relationship with Tilman. It benefits the Rockets to the extent that anyone questions why the Rockets release Cousins, they can point to him being a poor mentor for Wood and that he wanted off the Rockets. The part that the Rockets did not expect is that Cousins responded..... MDA, Morey and even Harden for the most part did not.
Honestly, has anyone left the organization on good terms in the past year. MDA felt like he was disrespected, and wanted to sue tilman for ageism comments Morey left years of money on the table, made up some lame excuse to gtfo WB requested a trade, but hit pieces of him came out saying that he wants to to dominate the ball and didn't get along with Harden. Harden, how many hit pieces came out for him since the off season Now the Cousins thing I am seeing a trend here. Why can't this org just transact things quietly and without so much drama
They certainly should not have said he complained, that I agree with, but they did him a solid by guaranteeing his contract. What they should have done, is just say we want to look at some younger players......the truth is Cousins was/is a NET NEGATIVE on this team - he is horrible right now. The org chose their messaging poorly......but no one wants to say the truth, that his career is probably over. DD
I also don't think we're that far off, but where you and I seem to disagree is attempting to retool in the short term versus a long-term rebuild. You seem to think the Rockets' fastest route to contention is to keep moving assets to acquire All-Stars and rebuild sooner rather than later. I disagree. I don't think the core of this team can legitimately contend, and the worst thing you can do in the league is be just a really good playoff team. Let's take the examples you just gave. Say the Rockets signed Collins to a max and somehow pulled off a miraculous deal for Damian Lillard. Does a core of Lillard, Collins, Wood, Tate and co. make the Rockets a contender? I still say no. Lillard has been surrounded by even more talent than that in the past, and Portland has accomplished nothing. I don't want to be the Blazers. And a guy like Lillard is running out of prime years anyway. And I realize those were just examples, but my point stands. Maxing out borderline All-Stars and trading for disgruntled second tier stars doesn't get the Rockets to contention. I would much rather see them go the route of teams like Milwaukee, Boston, Philly, Dallas, Phoenix, etc. Find a stud or studs in the draft and build from the ground up, and then add free agents afterward once you have a core you feel like you can build into a contender. Yes, it's more of a gamble. They could turn into the next Minnesota or Sacramento. But I would rather see them be terrible for the better part of a decade to take a shot at drafting a stud then clinging to being competitive as a 6-8 seed while never truly having a chance to compete.
You’re not wrong. If you get a stud of studs you are always going to be better off than if you have middling all stars. I guess I just don’t trust Tillman in a long rebuild. He will sign a low tier all star and ruin any chances to get truly bad enough to get that franchise player that the team would need. If he loses corporate sponsors because they are in the middle of a decade long tank session he wouldn’t have the patience to fully commit. Whatever route we take I enjoyed our discussion and I’ll buy you a drink if you’re ever in the Bay Area. Cheers.
Another hidden perk of a true tank is the hopeful thought that a truly tanking team could add to the financial losses of Tilman —- therefore forcing him to sell
Yeah I saw that but I still don't see what was hard to understand about the entire incident, anybody could see the team had no need for him.
