This isn't the Butterfly Effect... X knew what Y was planning and so on -- the details will come out.
Great thread idea, @Will. I'd venture that D'Antoni knew he was done the moment Tilman chose not to give him a multi-year extension and instead offered him an insulting small deal with incentives.
That said, JVG did drop out of the running. Whether he saw the fast-approaching sh!tstorm or heard rumblings about it from valuable sources, who knows? The guy decided he didn't want to be a part of this.
My guess is Morey said, "I'm out. If you want me to spin it your way, fine, but I'm done here." Silas: "Hello, James? Hey, this is Stephen. I wanted to touch base with you on our plans for next year." Harden: "Dude, they didn't tell you?"
Yeah. I’d feel bad for him, too. But it would make me feel better about him, and the team, just knowing the organization has at least one honest man.
When did Morey, D'Antoni, and Harden decide to leave? Imagine waking up and you find yourself on the Titanic, and you discover its hours before that fateful scrape with that iceberg. How long does it take you to realize you're not dreaming? How long do you try to warn the captain and the crew? At what point do you decide to say **** it and take one of those precious life boats and bail? The moment the title transferred to T ****ing F, Morey realized he was on the Titanic. Once Morey finally realized he wasn't dreaming, I am sure the first thing he did was scope out the boat that would get him away the quickest ... and he wasn't waiting around for the ship to sink. I imagine the CP3/Westbrook trade is when he finally accepted the Capt wasn't going to deviate course and there was no way even Morey himself could stop this impending doom. While Morey was busy slinking around the ship preparing to bail on this impeding colossal disaster, ever so watchful for that moment, even the genius himself missed seeing that iceberg coming. So here we are, 9 months into COVID, a massive gaping hole straight across the ship. The fans are on deck, wondering WTF just happened. Capt Tillman is on deck, telling everyone that its all ok. His multi billion dollar shitty food empire will keep this team afloat. Just Shut UP and Listen. Clutch and Crew are on deck, playing their instruments, trying to soothe the rabid fans on CFBBS & Twitter, telling them all to go to bed. Everything will be ok. We gonna run it back. Harden is committed as long as we dont trade Westbrook .... ...meanwhile, D'Antoni, Morey and the other elites are gently and calmly lowering their lifeboats to take them far far away from this disaster. Fellow fans, grab a life boat. This team is going under. We are officially at the Sterling/Clippers and Dolan/Knicks level. Sadly I do not think we are even close to rock bottom.
Jeff is an intelligent guy, it shocks me that he didn't suspect anything. The first time I thought Fertitta wasn't a good owner was after the WCF. Analysts usually know more than us normal guys.
When did harden know he was going to leave the rockets? When did Westbrook know about harden? What made both so frustrated with rockets and want to leave? Why did MDA quit so suddenly? Why did Morey do the same? The answers are so obvious and was sitting right in front of tilmans face. Morey kaiser soze
It started when Les decided it was time to sell the team and the Tilman decided he wanted to take out loans to buy it.
I think Tilman believed Beard had way too much power and wanted him reined in, i.e. more accountability on the floor, less influence in decision-making off it, etc. I think Beard wanted Lucas to be promoted to head coach and when that fell on deaf ears he got upset and just detached himself from the situation altogether. I think he felt disrespected, having always been a key part of the org’s brain trust, while Tilman felt he was “changing the culture.”
Fertitta is a carnival barking blowhard who allowed his 24 year old son to oversee the Rockets' basketball operations. The problem is Fertitta's desire to insert himself into the administrative side of pro basketball when he has no experience doing so. Couple this with the fact the Fertitta's "empire" is in the hospitality industry, an industry severely affected by COVID, and are therefore likely hemorrhaging money and you've got a perfect storm. I miss #MrAlexander
it’s about the fact that Tillman nixed trades that could have put us over the top or at the very least made us competitive because of his insistence to avoid the luxury tax like the Spanish plague Making Dantoni and Morey virtually quit and Tillman being who he is.It’s one thing to be cheap but it’s another thing being clueless about things that you clearly have no idea about. Let Morey do his job
I dont know how things really played out but my guess is that anyone who didnt want to shut up and listen (aka " make the rockets great again")either left or is trying to leave the Rockets
I havent wrapped my mind around the whole Morey departure... here are a few of the thoughts i've been kickin around... A) DM and Tilly were in on it together... Tilly wanted to save $ (i assume stone is cheaper than DM + return to China market?) and DM knew he could get a better deal elsewhere... so they parted ways... u can add all kinda subtext like DM doin TF a solid by helping him trim payroll - or DM happy to get away from TF's meddling ways... but at the core it was a mutually beneficial and desired decision... B) DM played Tilly like a $2 w**** and sold him this story about spending the time with the fam - knowing full well he was jumpin to his next gig... and TF thought he was being all sly agreeing to let DM outta his contract... C) Tilly wanted DM gone and rode him until he broke... and agreed to leave the balance of his contract on the table... may even have known earlier Tilly wanted him gone and had 76ers lined up - but only bc he had to... Heres the part that I wonder about... If DM was leaving on good terms to spend time with his fam and TF was agreeing to void the remainder of his contract... why wouldnt TF ask for a noncompete clause to the separation pw? If it was DM desiring to void the balance of his contract for personal reasons, I would think a year or 2 of noncompete would be appropriate - for just such an instance as this... idk what to believe... the org has always been about 'the spin'... lol
