On some level, no matter how hard Tilman was to work with........he did not abandon Morey during the tweet deal and he gave the man 8 million a year over five years.....only to have that person either tell him he was leaving (east coast references) or worse, Morey and Philly really were discussing a contract while Morey was under contract with Houston. I am sure if it is the latter Tilman will be extremely upset and looking to see what he can do. One thing is certain, Tilman will be less likely to take an employee at their word. If Morey loved Harden like a son, it shows how much family means to him. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/te...eparture-Rockets-now-makes-sense-15681900.php
He signed a four year extension in 2017 and another last year for five more years kicking in the 2021-22 season. Interesting to note that Philly is in the story. Philly is mentioned as trying to get Morey in 2018. https://www.nba.com/news/report-rockets-morey-contract-extension
Morey sold out someone who defended him when half the world wanted him fired, someone who had him under contract for another six years, someone who gave him forty million dollars, and left someone "he loves like a son". Obviously he wanted to leave. Most likely he wanted to leave because he did not want to be part of the current Committee structure, making decisions (with owner involvement and veto authority) but rather have more autonomy......or perhaps as much authority as he had under the last owner. He said in the extension article he wanted to be a Rocket for life. He is the one who kept that from happening.
I'm not giving Tilman any positive feedback because he sucks, but the amount of people on this forum who are happy for Morey after he left us to be stuck with this sinking ship without life jackets is obnoxious.
All yall blaming Tilman...I think you're missing the real story. "He also conveniently gets to avoid all the hard decisions that now surround the Rockets he built." He got to completely dismantle the Rockets future to build a team that was good but never good enough to be a real threat, then gets to bail when it's time to face that realization. To top it off, he goes to the East where he knows his bullshit approach to building a team will have a significantly higher chance of succeeding, while taking over a team that's already in the upper echelon of the conference. It's really probably that simple. Coward's way out.
Let's make this clear. This was a mutual parting. Morey wanted full control and Tilman wanted some control. The China thing was an issue and both probably saw this as a positive. There was no fraud here. Morey probably told Tilman he'd had enough and Tilman welcomed the Chinese market back. Both sides win. Morey get's autonomy without the stress of a small market budget and Tilman gets a fresh FO that he can test his "shut up and listen" managerial style on. In the end Tilman Fertitta owns the Rockets. He refused partnerships because he wanted full control and now he has it. It's his plane and we choose to ride in it or not.
Tilman sucks. I don't blame Morey getting the hell out. Giving up pick after pick to duck the tax is unconscionable.
Blaming Tillman for this is wrong. After all, it was Tillman who signed Morey to that extension paying $8M. All you people who are looking for someone to blame for the current state of the Rockets conveniently keep skipping over D'Antoni and Morey who were the true architects of this mess. Blaming Tillman because he refused to throw away money on the luxury tax for a team that was not construced to win but to prove the two of them right is just dumb. And, after they had finally ****ed things up roster wise and salary cap wise, both of them chose to walk away - which tells you a lot about their true intentions.
I believe trading for Westbrook was pushed through by Tillman, who even publicly said he forced his FO, who wanted to negotiate more, to do it. That was the biggest drain of our future assets. There were a couple of other moves, that 'coincidentally' got us to be below the tax line that cost future assets, not sure who that falls on, or whether it played apart in Morey's last decision. Tillman gets credit sticking by Morey post tweet (though it could be a PR hit if he did fire Morey).