Ben DuBose: Fertitta’s goal is limiting the “bad years” to one or two seasons

Individually, none of these steps is impossible.

Here's the terribly unrealistic part, though: "if they do everything right"

 

Oh, for sure. Even when you do a lot of things right, you can still mess up some moves or encounter bad luck. Take the Sixers' "process". It took years for Embiid to finally get healthy and then they stunted the team's ascension by giving too much time to a mediocre coach like Brett Brown and wasting the #1 pick on Markelle Fultz.

 

The Sixers are the perfect example of having everything lined up for a can't-miss rebuild, then stumbling through it. Don't forget them blowing #3 on Okafor, and then a #11 on Carter-Williams when Antetokounmpo, Gobert, Adams, Schröder, Olynyk, and Hardaway Jr. were all still on the board.

 

also look at the pelicants and minny....they are stacked with top picks, and even multiple allstars yet cant even get to playoffs lololloololol

 

On the other side, you have the Lakers. The last true superstar they drafted was James Worthy in '82. And let's give them credit for bringing Kobe in on a draft-day trade. So that's 2 superstars over the last 30 years. Does it matter? Not a bit, because they can bring in whatever free agents or make trades for practically anyone they want (Shaq, AD, LeBron, etc.).

 

This one might be the biggest key to the whole damn puzzle .... Dumping Wall and or EG at the expense of assets would be the absolute worst course of action.

You have to wait that contract out ....

 

I wouldn’t call the Rockets losing this year’s top 4 pick as bad luck considering the odds.

There’s slightly less than a coin flips chance of being delayed a year, which is what it is.

 

Yea agreed, the problem with selling the hope of a draft. Look at the mvps, Jokic, embiid, Steph, Giannis, Leonard. 2nd round pick, top 3, top 8, 16/15th pick.
The Draft is not a science neither is rebuilding. Selling us the hope that HOPEFuLLY brooklyn, like La, won't rebuild fast with another free agent and/or collapse then we hit on the draft where the lottrey is less predictable than ever, and the right draft lass is there is exactly what it soudns like, punting and selling us hope.
I like stone's moves sans the trades in terms of who he has found in the draft, but can you imagine any exec saying judge me in 10 years whilw we all pay to watch the games, and tickets and hope it works out?

Houston used to at least get in the ear of top talent, but we had to have a team they felt could win. Right now we have some solid role players and maybe the hope that wood/KPJ are all star talent which they are showing they may be able to do, but lets face none of our production is leading to wins we're at the bottom of the entire league and now in quick short time the rockets are a laughing stock. Goto Realgm forums which is balanced interms of its a variety of fans, let alone espn, and dallas and Spurs people are saying they think fertitta is doing an exemplary job and hope he keeps it up.

So we've got some good pieces that are fun to root for, we're not close to winning basketball. Right now we have talent and a mentality taht can be a hard out but nothing in this marathon of a season that shows we can be a consistent winner. If we get Cade or a top 4 pick, we have a lot to look forward to and its accelerated, but thats only a 52 percent chance we keep our pick. June 15 is a huge day for our franchise.

 

What is wrong with that? He wants to win.....not that I think he will spend for it...but we shall see.

DD

 

win what?

 

Nothing at all, problem is he has a history of not just overselling, but blatantly lying:

"
That's typically not the kind of comment made out loud, much less to the media, by an owner who is attempting to defuse drama. Of course, it's also an unusual approach to point out a coach's age and publicly wonder whether he wanted to continue working beyond next season, as Fertitta did when asked by the Houston Chronicle weeks earlier about a potential extension. That prompted the 68-year-old D'Antoni to make it clear that he planned to coach "at a high level for at least another three years."

Nor is it normal NBA business practice to spill the specifics of an offer that wasn't accepted. Fertitta volunteered that the "great extension offer" he made D'Antoni included a $5 million base salary -- below market value for a coach of his stature -- and $1 million in incentives for each playoff round won.

"Fertitta failed to mention the buyout language that guaranteed D'Antoni only half of his base salary if the Rockets fired him before the extension began. That was the primary sticking point for D'Antoni, who hoped for a commitment of two more seasons beyond this contract and never seriously considered a half-hearted offer of one more year"


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"TF: I don’t know. I really haven’t counted on the government. I’m not one of the largest companies in America and I’m not one of the smallest. When it’s all over with, you can write an article [saying] that I survived and I didn’t get any help from the government."

A few months later, you can watch him complain to Trump and tell him to reclassify the help meant for small business so that he can get it without bad PR
""

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Furthermore he continues to anyone else who will eat out of his ass by saying the current state is of Daryl morey going all in for James harden, while the facts don't support that. We didnt use over 10-20 million in trade exceptions, We didn't use the MLe, We didn't use our bird rights, in fact we even cut rotation players mid season, from January of 2019 we cut Daniel house because it wasn't tax friendly until march, then in Feb we traded the other wing replacement of Ariza, James Ennis on a minimum contract for a top 55 2nd round pick. Those players were not replaced so two months of the season harden and paul playing heavy minutes come back to lesser roster while the owner screams and takes the mike and say do better with a worse product.

We also had morey do cap gymnastics for 3 straight years, including losing multiple picks to get under the tax. In those cases that didn't help us with future flexiblity, doesn't help the gm, doesn't help coach/Harden, doesn't help us fans who had prices raised on us. It goes to one man's pockets.


So take the exact joke you thought if we got a reality star in charge of our team, a lot of of overselling marketing, less action and it seems about right to what we get with tillman. He'll take the mike and lie to anyone whose listening and point fingers on any fall guys since hes not involved, except when he goes to colin cowherd(this dude loves to be the face) and brags about how the Front office got "cold" on the westbrook trade until he decided just go for it and pushed it through.


-So yea, what you're saying is right, we should rebuild and build a proper foundation problem is tillman has consistently including recently just lied and contradicted the actions of the franchise.


“All my haters love to say, ‘Oh, his food sucks’ or whatever. But we’re consistent. The hot food’s hot, the cold food’s cold, the music’s right, the property’s clean. You don’t have burned-out lights, you don’t have cigarettes by the front door, you don’t have trash in the parking lots. You know what you’re going to get.”

- this is not the guy thinking I want the best quality and details, this is the run of the mill chain food that gives good enough entertainment main draw, skimps on the margins and waters down the drinks for the profits margins. Itll work great for him and his pockets, the pacers organization makes good dough in being good enough, terrible news for Houston fans hoping to bring back Clutch city unless some lebron like rookie lands in our lap...then we don't screw it up for 7 years

 

.

Gotta go out as an expiring....

 

One or two bad seasons you say? With the cheapskate owner and his failson running things, I'm thinking not one, not 2...

 

He let Morey, MDA , and Harden try to finish what they started, they just couldn't get it done. Most owners completely clean house when they buy the team. If you have three top guys performing admirably in their respective positions but not able to get it down. What are you to do? Give them a raise? Again Tilman could be the worst owner in the world but that wasn't going to change these guys perspective of them realizing the run was over with each other. KD and Kyrie were never coming here for Harden. Everyone that left at their own will because they finally realized what this novelty gimmick has worn off. Especially when other team perfected the small ball you invented.

 

I don't get where you are getting in terms of finishing what they started? He literally watered down the role players even upto a point of giving away people in MDA's frustratingly short rotation for picks to get under the tax mid way in the season. He basically told them to do better with a worse product each year.

Depth matters in the nba, theres a reason lebron, MJ, Kobe all the greats demanded more help bc despite what espn paints as some narrative, it takes cohesion and it takes team talent to win. Think back at all the former titles, From Horry, ellie, Kenny smith, Steve Kerr, John Paxon, Fisher, ...from Tristan thompson/love/JR smith to Marc gasol getting overpaid. For better or worse there are very rarely bargain NBA titles, the market of nba economics is expensive, now exclusively a billionaires game unlike it was in the 90s and its only getting more expensive. The par is to spend to keep talent when you are at the cap. Tillman from his first summer saved money, let go of assets, let alone staff and our associate head coach.

If you're harden and mda and you goto the locker room after you're averaging 37 minutes a game on obscene numbers and in jan 2019 you see Daniel house cut because its not yet tax friendly, then feb you see James ennis, the guy who we replaced ariza with traded for a top 55 2nd rounder, coincidentally getting under the pick..those lockers were not replaced. for 2 months mid season they just saw them go empty and had to play through it.

So thats where there seems to be some dissociation, tillman said they went all in. but the actual facts if you look at all our transactions, 90 percent of them were to save money. He can do it now and we don't care, but during those rare title windows? Those moves didn't help Morey with cap or future flexiblity to add talent, they didn't help coach or harden, hell they didn't even help us fans who had prices go higher..they went to one man. And if you look at the background, you can understand he purchased the team as the most leveraged owner with the most depth in the nba. so I get it, but this is the nba, its a luxury flagship opportunity, if you can't handle the heat you gotta get out of the kitchen bc the rockets have an emotional allegiance of Houstonians which is bigger tahn harden, morey, tillman, alexander or anyone and now we suffer just like knicks fans suffer because of a egomaniac lying owner, except their owner actually spends rather then just talking a big game.

remember these following quotes:

Former Houston Rockets guard Chris Paul was on the Knuckleheads podcast with Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson and explained the impact of the Rockets losing Ariza.

“People don’t realize, that’s the biggest thing that we missed. That was tough when we lost [Ariza] because he sorta was like the glue. He was that glue for our team.”

-Theres a reason Miami pays haslem, culture matters, locker room cohesion matters. We cheaped out on ours

"
The full monologue from MacMahon:

That trade was made because Tilman Fertitta wanted it made -- he thought Chris Paul's contract was the worst that he'd ever seen in business or sports -- and because James Harden wanted it made. James Harden, obviously there was a personality clash, this stuff has all been well documented and well reported. I still believe, and I wrote this last summer before things went down. I still believe that if necessary they could have managed that situation; I know a lot of people throughout the organization believe that.

But once Westbrook became available, they saw an opportunity that Fertitta and Harden wanted to pounce on, and they pounced on that. Daryl Morey was the biggest Chris Paul backer in the organization. Nobody -- Daryl or anybody else -- has ever told me that he made that trade with objections, that he made that trade despite not fully believing in it. But I just can't help but think that it was a deal where basically, his two bosses -- Fertitta and Harden -- said 'hey, we want this deal made, get it done.' And he did what he had to do to get it done."

Tillman Fertitta quote:
"
I was in Europe, and so I was six or seven hours ahead of them. So I’m talking at 2, 3, 4 in the morning. And we just decided to do it. They ran different statistics by me.

My basketball ops [operations] got maybe a little weak at the end, and I just said, ‘We’re doing this. We are going to make the change. We’re going to go after it and roll the dice. We’re going to find that 5 percent.’

The one thing I believe you do in business, and you do in basketball, is you never sit still.".

He's not confessing folks, he is bragging.

 

Uh what?

No he didn't.

He came in, immediately started complaining about costs, used assets to dump money, and forced a franchise destroying trade.

 

you lost me at 'If we get Cade or a top 4 pick, we have a lot to look forward'

 

if you know how to draft and have a culture, you also can be the Lakers without being in LA and bring in whatever superstar you want

so get to work i dont want to hear no excuses for being garbage loser franchise

 

Well drafting isn't a science. These guys can have all the tools like Wiggins and still not pan out, that said I'm hopeful especially with what I've seen of Green and Cade.
We have a fifty/fifty shot at a top 4, if we get that we can hope to have a cornerstone and we have a few great pieces there as it is.

below you mentioned culture, and that seems to be a tough element. Have we invested in our coaches,player personel, player development system, is there even an approach or philosophy towards this? We've been cheaping out on staff for a while. Tillman had promised new facilities right when he brought the team, nothing has materialized. People goto miami and Phoenix formerly for their trainers and health staff, Hawks recently hired the suns guys. Do we have anything in place or even some planned infrastructure that can set the culture of getting better and worry about winning and skill development?

Theres been no sign or even know how from the fertittas for any of thise. I hope stone and silas can begin laying the foundation so we don't get some rookie whose bound to leave.

Theres always a lot to look forward to, from the top down are we committed to executing?

 

Ideally it is traded as an expiring which allows you to take back $80,422,144 which is an additional $13,487,024 in salary via trade Vs the alternative of just allowing it to expire which is the second best outcome leaving you with $66,935,120 coming off the books between Wall & EG.

Either of those outcomes is preferable to throwing assets out the window to move them sooner than later.

I really don't see it as "awfully optimistic".


I see 23/24 as a reasonable timeline when you look at the facts.


First off , you'll have had two drafts , At best you'll have a top 4 pick this year along with two other picks between 18-25. At worst you'll have three picks between 16-25.

Either way you are likely to have another early lottery pick next year along with Brooklyn's first rounder with the Detroit and Washington picks as possibilities next year.

That's 5 draft picks minimum , two potentially very early , if you hit on 2 or 3 of them that's a significant improvement.

You have the NT MLE to pay talent in the next two off seasons.

You will have Wall and EG coming off the books giving you the ability to make a big trade at the pervious deadline AND / OR to be a player for the top tier free agents in the offseason prior to 23/24. See the numbers above. If you've put together a solid team to this point , it shouldn't be difficult to entice a quality FA to sign.


Wall , KPJ & Tate will also be RFA prior to 23/24 and you can either retain or move them the previous deadline or via S&T in that offseason. If you are keeping them , they are very likely much improved players over today.

That's a whole lot of additions between now and the 23/24 season.