Nothing is in a vacuum. First of all the ones who have the power to ask out are superstars not any roleplayer (unless the team is like 20 win). So yes most contracts are forced to be played out one way or another. Also the circumstances the stars asked out of ,matter. If PG had made it to the WCF you think he would be asking out? He was in a deadend team, without ANY means to improve, with a cheap owner who was about to trade him anyway before he expired, to get out of the luxury tax. He did them a big favour. He played for them one year less, in exchange a treasure trove of assets instead of the measly return they would have gotten for him in 12 months. Any team like OKC that is not a contender would take it 10 times out of 10.
Just like to note that that "cheap" owner has paid well over $100M in luxury taxes the past few years. The only owner who has been willing to broach the repeater tax and was committed to keep doing so as long as the team was competitive even when it is in one of the smallest media markets.
yeah out of shame,after having become the go to example for being cheap, after what happened with Harden.
C'mon, I did not expect Harden to average 36 ppg one day. Back in 2011-12. The assist potential is what made him even more interesting. KD was averaging 28-29 ppg at that time. I think the big error was letting him go to a decent West team. They should have traded him East. The Rockets became one of OKC's nemesis thru Harden.
When you reach the NBA finals, you should be willing to pay the luxury tax. Let's not go over it again. In any case, OKC would have traded away George by next september anyway since for a treadmilling team like theirs, the repeater tax would be insane.
Same managing partner but not the same owners. At that time, they had highly leveraged owners whose core businesses were in real trouble. That isn't the case anymore. Nevertheless, to still call them cheap is embarrassingly lazy.
whatever, I mean who cares about all these details? Just managing partner or not, he has already earned a name in this league of being cheap and it's a reputation well earned after what happened with Harden.. He wants to prove them wrong now, good luck with that. Better to lose your eye than your reputation. If you believe that he would continue to pay the repeater tax for a team that is losing in the first round then I don't know what to tell you.
I never said they would pay the repeater tax for a team that was losing in the first round. The fact they are not going to doesn't make them cheap. It makes them smart. Your own argument is absurdly contradictory. Besides, just because they traded Harden doesn't mean they were cheap even if that is the narrative that spread about it. There are a thousand things that can go on behind the scenes. They have shown time and time again since then that they were willing to spend money and they offered Harden $55 out of a possible $60M. They could have amnestied Perkins and kept Harden if money was an issue. It's possible that the fact that Brooks tried to make him a starter and Harden balked, combined with holding out for a small amount of money, they just felt that Harden wasn't invested in the team itself. Their mistake was not one of cheapness but of poor decision making as to which assets they should have kept investing in.
Yeah, poor decision making stemming from penny pinching while being a contender and making the finals. Don't try to come up with "thousand things behind the scenes" to fit your narrative. If they wanted to get rid of Harden, why did they even offer him 55? Why didn't they just trade him away? With 55 he would be good to stay but with 60 he all of a sudden "wasn't invested in the team"? And what is "absurdly contradictory" exactly? The owner was going to trade George soon anyway so as not to pay the repeater tax, and he did them a favour by asking for a trade now that he has peak value. Presti probably was besides himself from happiness.
Hopefully they can find their next big trade demand/FA loss to west coast team out of that treasure trove.
