As much as we may criticize our owner now and then for not shedding out as much money as we could, not tanking, etc. Mr. Alexander has done a tremendous job and made some very risky business decisions in order for us to get to the position we are in today's very memorable moment in our franchise's history. Some of these risky ventures include: - Signing a relatively unknown and unproven GM in Daryl Morey. Not only did he invest in someone who did have the traditional background of a GM, but he also invested in the cost of actually creating the infrastructure (which any IT person would tell you is enormously expensive) that would allow DM to collect the data he needs, store it, secure it from outside parties, and analyze it in order to create calculated moves year in and year out. - Make a controversial coaching hire in Kevin Mchale over other proven coaches (such as trying to stick with Adelman). We can agree that Mchale's history and fantastic charisma helped lead to the rockets acquiring Dwight Howard. He has done a great job with the rockets this past season and continues to be a players-coach that will hold them and himself accountable. In interviews, Dwight Howard cited these attributes as something he was looking for in terms of a great situation he can be in long term. The hiring decision ended with Mr. Alexander giving a Yes or No, but he took the risk and it seems like it has payed off.. There may be others (including the Asik/Lin deals), but those are the 2 glaring risks that very few owners would have committed to. Thank you Mr. Alexander for not taking the well run path and hope the dots connected down the line (a steve jobs quote!) as they have today.
I swear if a new fan started reading Clutchfans right now they'd think we were a 39 win team with Kevin Martin as our best player, with $25M in unspent cap space.
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php?threads/i-miss-uncle-les-alexander.299505/ With Poll, the people of Clutchfans spoke.
i still remember him walking on the court and shouted at refs during a playoff game. think it was the okc series.
They’d realize this organization is resting off the success of the previous regime and that the process & reasoning behind the transactions made under the Tilman regime have been haphazard at best; Knicks-esque at worst. The fact that Morey swindled the Thunder 8 years ago shouldn’t prevent anyone from calling out the dumpster fire we’re currently witnessing.
They'd realize that it has been one season. This is the first full offseason under Tilman. They'd realize that the Rockets paid Lux Tax twice under Les - $760K in 2011 and $4.5M in 2016. They'd realize that the team is currently $1.16M away from the Lux Tax line with multiple scenarios that could trigger hard caps. They'd realize that everyone's favorite punching bag, Iman Shumpert, is part of a series of bad moves trying to escape from Ryan Anderson's contract, a bad decision made under the Les regime. They'd learn about the playoff game where only 4 players scored, in 2007 (2008?). The playoff games where we scored 68, 74, 78 as 4th and 5th seed teams. It's hard to hate on Morey's building around Harden when Mac and Yao were broken by the time our third best player was better than Rafer Alston. They'd learn about the failed Memphis/Miami trade which Miami broke at the deadline, when they say the only thing we did at the deadline was try to cut costs. They'd learn about the timing of when Les acquired the team versus his two Championships. They'd learn about the Steve Francis years, and the Kevin Martin years. But you're going to argue with or reject every one of those points, because Clutchfans. Last offseason was Morey's worst. This offseason has not been promising. But I can at least understand the limitations of where we are. How about I just leave with this: what if we all followed Clutch and Bima's lead? Their last podcast was super thorough and nuanced discussion and they did not spend any portion of it whining and hating the front office for not signing Jimmer Fredette.
Pppbbbbbhhhttttth......HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Are you serious? There’s no way you’re serious, right? Les basically never went into the luxury tax, hell, he forbade it. He also wouldn’t rebuild either so we got numerous 9th seeded teams that just missed the playoffs. He also went cheap with the Yao/McGrady teams to the point we were starting freaking Ryan Bowen at times. Lastly, there’s the Barkley story where he signed for less because he was promised by Les that it would be made up to his career ended...only for Les to renege on it. Les was a cheap-ass owner, cheaper than even the most cynical folks on here can’t try to imagine Tilman to be.
Talking about shitty ex's with a crazy drought of not getting past the first round... This is what it be like with clutchfans on the rag
Revisionist history. Les was cheap. He wouldn't spend for a supporting cast for TMac and Yao. His trophies were a result of the work of the prior regime. During his regime, the team was never a real force in the league. You think Tilman blows smoke?! Nobody could exaggerate like Les.
Les was cheap also, but at least he wasn't boring. Who would have thought that having a reality show host as the team owner would make the front office boring?
Morey was not unknown he was assistant gm under Dawson. Charlie Thomas and Steve Patterson built the team that won two titles But then again most people here don’t know rockets history
