[Chron] Tilman Fertitta determined to do "whatever it takes" to improve Rockets

All of these guys talking big on here about how ownership is so bad (1 year in) never have anything to say about the failed HOU-MEM/MIA trade at the deadline...

Tilman is just playing PR at this point. But at the same time, so are Clutchfans. We're not even to the point where anything can happen and both sides are posturing.

Gonna be a loooooooooooooong offseason.

 

What was the contract amount offered by the Suns to Trevor Ariza? How did Ariza perform this season?

You know the answer to your question.

 

It's short sample size, but it just ticked me off
MOREY STILL TALKING AND NOW IT'S LAUGHABLE

Blah blah blah blah
Just stop talking. Tillman talks, Morey talks, Dantoni talks, enough talk. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

3 years in a row we have failed due to lack of adjustments and over reliance on 3s and Harden. I was hoping we could squeeze a title out of it, but last year was the shot and that window is closed permanently.

Please don't turn this franchise into a laughingstock!

 

Agreed, and in the end i also agree with the approach the organization had, of paying the tax only if/when it's worth it. Once we couldn't get Butler or a big impact player it was better to get out of the tax in order to be able to stay in it for at least two consecutive years.

 

Talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk (for another example see Clint Capela). No way in heck he didn’t know about being under the luxury tax. This is a pure season ticket promo speech. Can’t blame him as nobody goes to the games.

 

I'd welcome JVG with open arms. Haha, maybe

 

Not with Mike as the coach....

 

Tilman Fertitta calls Rockets dodging luxury tax ‘fluke’ and ‘accident’, reportedly approves paying next year
By Dan FeldmanMay 17, 2019, 8:30 PM EDT

The biggest reasons the Rockets lost the Warriors in their second-round series:

1. Golden State is an all-time great team.

2. Houston depleted its roster through spending cuts.

Nothing else is even close. Neither Chris Paul nor Clint Capela had a great series. But the Rockets generally played about as well as expected entering the matchup.

That was the problem.

While still excellent, the Warriors looked more primed to get upset than last year, when Houston pushed them to seven games. But the Rockets lowered their own roster quality.

They started in the offseason, letting Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute walk for bigger contracts. Both players wound up overpaid for their production. But Houston didn’t have the cap flexibility to get anyone nearly as good as Ariza. Though Mbah a Moute had a lost season with the Clippers due to injury, the Rockets wanted to keep him. They just deemed him too expensive.

Later in the summer and closer to the trade deadline, Houston made more moves to escape the luxury tax entirely. Those trades cost the Rockets a first-rounder, two second-rounde
rs, a couple second-round pick swaps, James Ennis and De'Anthony Melton. Houston could have used Ennis, who had a nice postseason for the 76ers. All those picks and Melton could have been used to acquire a far better player than Iman Shumpert if trimming costs weren’t the priority.

Yet, Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is – once again – trying to play everyone for suckers.

Fertitta, via Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle:

“Last year (getting under the luxury tax) was a fluke,” Fertitta said. “We were going to be in the (tax). It was an accident. I’m still trying to figure out how we got under. I was positive we were going to be in it by $11 million. But if I’m in the luxury tax, I expect us to win.

Feigen:

general manager Daryl Morey has already been given a green light to pay the tax, a person with knowledge of the team’s planning said.

If I were Morey, I’d be livid. All general managers must work within the constraints set by team owners, but this goes way beyond. Either Fertitta is lying or Morey is a terrible general manager. Morey’s moves in the last year were indefensible – unless he had a mandate to dodge the tax, in which case they were sadly shrewd.

I don’t believe Morey is a terrible
general manager.

I’ll also believe the Rockets will pay the luxury tax next season only when I see it.

Fertitta made a big show about how upset he was with Houston losing to Golden State, which was rich considering his spending limitations were a prime culprit. Maybe the experience motivated Fertitta into spending more in the future. But James Harden and Chris Paul will never have this season back, and especially Paul is at an age where further decline should be expected.

The Rockets also have all their top players already signed. Houston could spend into the tax, but salary-cap rules will inhibit the major spending that was possible last summer. So, this is a much safer proclamation from Fertitta this time.

We’ll see whether he lives up to even that.



https://nba.nbcsports.com/2019/05/1...ccident-reportedly-approves-paying-next-year/

 

This is a retelling of history.

They had options up to and past the trade deadline and STILL cobbled together a respectable bench. Am I singing praises or something? Naw, I just remember how it went. Takes two to tango for butler, Morris, whoever else guys from Memphis, Llull, whoever. You want the guy to eat luxury tax for ennis yes or no? Straight up. Yes or no?

 

It isn't about Ennis , Ennis was veterans minimum …. as an expiring after the season he affects nothing beyond last season.

Knight on the other hand …. that's what I'm talking about - His $14.6m this season and $15.6 next season is what I'm talking about. Having that expiring contract on the table to facilitate matching salaries , having the #1 pick you gave up to shed it. That's what I'm talking about.

Instead you have Shumpert who expired and no pick.

 

Yes and why?

Because the city was convinced Ryan Anderson was worth the trouble of skin shedding. Next? I remember the whole story bro.

Are you saying knight was worth the luxury tax?

 

Anderson sucks …. but right now , we'd be better off with his $20m contract going into this offseason - That contract allows you the ability to absorb MORE salary.

We'd also still have all the assets we threw away in shedding that skin. Melton & a first round pick ….


Right now , what assets do they have?

The rest of the West is going to be getting better , the Rockets on the other hand have No draft pick and nothing but the T-MLE to offer in free agency and some veterans minimum crumbs while they have 5 free agents that were contributors.

5 free agents to replace with one T-MLE and veterans minimum contracts.

 

It almost sounded like agreement...


Right now? They have a starting lineup that competes with anybody. They also have a young forward and center who should be able to contribute to an NBA bench. I’ll bet Green will ride or die without his hometown on vet min contract. So you should be filling 2 spots, 3 maybe not 5. Morey pulled a bench out of thin air while shedding everyone’s favorite pariah Anderson keeping the team away from an unecessary at best luxury tax. Melton would be great right now huh? Hell a 6’10” stretch 4 doesn’t sound half bad either but they had to go, right? Geez Rivers accepts some MLE money you’re pretty much good to go. World full of hungry young bucks lookin to prove themselves. I’m sure one of them will fill House’s shoes if he don’t like shoes.

The team isn’t broken man. Suffered from having to off Anderson’s contract for sure.

You know as well as I do, as well as Morey and Tillman and everyone left on this trash heap of commentary that butler was the only target available worth that luxury tax spike. I grant you and anyone else your feelings back. Didn’t mean to refute them with the truth.

 

That is exactly my point, you do not spend a lot for nothing.

 

If you don't understand that they are better off asset wise with an expendable contract and a first round pick than they are currently …. then I don't know what to tell you.
As for your layout above - they currently have 10 players under contract …. that leaves 5 spots to fill. they aren't filling 2 or 3. Its Five.
Five of the ten under contract are not rotation players - Nene , Hartenstein , Clark , Choizza and Frazier and Nene may retire and you are filling his spot with a veterans minimum.

In your scenario you get Rivers and that's all , with Ryno/BK and that first round pick …. we get to participate in the draft and have a contract to package with other assets without giving up anything at all talent wise … and still have that MLE to give Rivers. They gave up that "flexibility" to duck the tax , its plain and simple.

You need to take a step back and look at what we can do under each scenario , then you'll understand what I've been saying …. until then , you are only looking at half the picture.

 

EVERY GAME in the series was decided by 6 points or less.

Shumpert was garbage. Ennis was decent for Philly - better than Shumpert overall. The Grizzlies gave up Green and Temple for Avery Bradley.

I often wonder whether we would have regretted offering Knight and 2 protected picks for Green and Temple. Hindsight is 20/20, but it looks very much like we were a role player away from closing the series gap. It was Harden's responsibility to take over the end of Games 5 and 6, but we might not have needed him to. Someone unleashed the phrase "moving the needle" during the deadline, and everyone here was obsessed with relaying that thought. Sometimes a structural/strategic change can have positive domino effects. An additional All Star was not this team's only chance of beating the Warriors.

It's so cheap for Tilman to call those moves a fluke. The guy has such a cheap character. By all accounts, he's a hard worker. But from an owner give me a hard thinker over a hard worker any day.

I don't believe a word he says. I understand that all owners sugar coat things. Tilman outright lied twice last season. There is no reason to believe a word he says. Based on his actions, he has been a cheapskate owner thus far. When he says he's willing to pay LT if it's worth it, what he really means is he'd pay it only if it's practically guaranteed profit. Plus his assessment of what would be "worth it" is not trustable at all. There are no guarantees in basketball. If you're going to sit on your ass until a superstar falls into your lap in exchange for peanuts, then you might be sitting on your ass through Harden's prime.

Tilman shares at least 30% of the responsibility for us not being in the NBA Finals this season. Does this seem like a guy who retains the coach, core and GM after the team fizzles out against a Durant-less Warriors? Nah. He knows what he did.

The door is never closed and the guy can redeem himself. He's gotten off to an awful start though, and most of the success he's seen here is a result of what the previous owner built.

 

What a bunch of bullshit from these 2 guys.

KD is in the conversation because of rings?? What in the F has KD done when his roster is equivalent talent to Harden? Indistinguishable from Harden, his greatest achievement was making the Finals with Harden and Westbrook and his second greatest achievement is choking a 3-1 lead in the WC to the WARRIORS.

If you put Harden on the 72-win Warriors, they win every title too. No question. Same formula. Same public persona as Durant before joining the Warriors: elite offensive talent, might be a choker, poor defense, mostly an isolation player. They would have the ability to run their classic Warriors offense or go ISO with Harden instead of Durant AND IT'S STEPH CURRY AND KLAY THOMPSON SPREADING THE F*CKING FLOOR FOR HIS ISO GAME. The only difference here is I PROMISE YOU, the Warriors would not be a .500 team when Curry sits, the way the Warriors are a .500 team when Durant sits.

Absolutely stupid. Tell me Harden has not carried teams like Lebron, I can respect you. Tell me Harden doesn't have an achievement like Curry's first title, I can respect your opinion. But don't come in here and tell me that every player with a ring is one thing and everyone else is something else. KD hasn't done what those guys have done, and that's why Sir Whininess is so insecure about what he's going to do next season. It eats him up inside, he is watching it unfold in front of him right now.

If Harden wants to be the subject of talk shows in the future, yes he must win a ring. He/we want him to win a ring for FAR better reasons that THAT. In terms of achievements Harden has been staggeringly good in all but 1 facet of the game. It is the exact same thing that Lebron didn't have before joining a super team. It's exactly what Durant didn't have before joining a super team. It's exactly what Irving HAS, but is NOT enough to carry a talented Celtics team.

The only reason Harden doesn't have a title is loyalty. This goes for people on this board too: Harden can win a title with other teams, do you want him to be the winner you dreamed of with another team or do you want him to be loyal and do his best here? If you want him to win it here, then you must acknowledge that his path is more difficult. His path is more difficult than the litany of players you constantly compare his resume to.

If showing off a ring that he marginally contributed to was his life goal, he could have left and joined a super team. He can still join one. He hasn't done it. I hope he doesn't. You are an idiot if you analyze his journey the same way you do Kevin Durant's. You are an idiot if you get on a talk show, show off a ring that could have been won without your replacement-level contribution and then proceed to talk about how Harden won't be talked about in the future the same way KD is talked about.

Who the F is talking about S Jackson's ring?? A lot more people talking about Karl Malone and Charles Barkley than there are people talking about S Jackson and his ring. ONE of Hakeem's rings is worth 10 of these KD rings. Fans need to look at this stuff as exactly what it is: the media wants Harden to move to a big market team and piggy back on a title. F*ck em. That's something Harden has that most of those other guys don't.

 

jerry lin
harden
paul george
pj thicc
jordan

whatever it takes!
@tillmen

 

Didn’t we hear this BS from Tilman last year ?

 

Trevor knew what he was getting himself into when he signed with that losing team.

He tried for 10+ games and gave up.