Not what we got for the trade or how the trade worked out. He clearly played a lot better after that point.
Okay. Well it's too bad his extra motivation didn't do anything to help his 2019 playoff performance!
No, it was Morey and really only to appease Harden pushing for it. We should have traded Harden and not CP3.
ESPN @espn · May 10, 2019 James Harden says he knows exactly what the Rockets need to do to get over the hump. People wanna blame Frittata for ultimately pulling the trigger... but it all happened bc Hard-on was a little b**** who cant take being held accountable...
If the problem was the Rockets weren't using him enough, how come he only managed 50 games in each of his Houston seasons and looked entirely drained at the end?
" I was in Europe, and so I was six or seven hours ahead of them. So I’m talking at 2, 3, 4 in the morning. And we just decided to do it. They ran different statistics by me. My basketball ops [operations] got maybe a little weak at the end, and I just said, ‘We’re doing this. We are going to make the change. We’re going to go after it and roll the dice. We’re going to find that 5 percent.’" Why would Tilman himself go on radio and say this? The same guy that leaked all the junk all of a sudden earlier this season? Lets see, so Tilman and morey were beholden to only what harden wants? Lets look at the receipts 2018, one game from finals, offseason: -Ignored all of our bird rights, including Ariza who was harden's best friend on the team, chris paul and harden both had his respect, he was the locker room leader, cohesion matters in bastetball, heres chris paul himself(exact quote) on Darius miles' podcast on what went wrong, doesnt blame harden: "“People don’t realize, that’s the biggest thing that we missed. That was tough when we lost [Ariza] because he sorta was like the glue. He was that glue for our team.”" -We also ignored MLE, We also ignored TPE which morey accumulated as an asset to get better when we're cash strapped along with bird rights. -We had picks, but we ended up using one first rounder just to get under the cap: "And that was the one thing that Morey never really had. According to the cap numbers at Spotrac, which go back to the 2010-11 season, the Rockets barely went over the luxury tax (just $3.65 million over) in their one season (2015-16) as a taxpayer. The Warriors spent $49.63 million in penalties over the last five seasons, while even the small-market Thunder spent $33.73 million. There was no excuse for Houston to not open up the checkbook. This is a franchise located in the fourth-biggest metro area in the U.S. that has had a superstar in the prime of his career This refusal to spend money became farcical once Alexander sold the team to Tilman Fertitta in 2017. Fertitta spent so much money ($2.2 billion) to purchase the Rockets that he may not have had the liquidity to go into the red to build a title contender. Houston was a laughingstock around the league for the amount of juggling it had to do to stay under the tax. The best example came at the trade deadline last season, when Morey used a future first-round pick to shed the salaries of Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss. There was no basketball reason for the move. It was just done to cut costs. It’s not that Knight and Chriss would have helped the Rockets. But there were certainly a lot of better things that Morey could have used that pick for. Houston also spent that season in a bizarre staring contest with Danuel House Jr. House is the kind of diamond in the rough that Morey routinely uncovered in Houston, an undrafted free agent on a two-way contract who would become a starting-caliber wing. The problem was that players on those deals can spend only 45 days with the NBA team during the season before their contracts have to be converted. Money in Houston was so tight that Morey had to send House back to the G League when he wouldn’t sign a below-market long-term deal. He replaced House with two players he signed off the street (Gerald Green and Kenneth Faried) before bringing him back right before the playoffs. It’s not like House was asking for the world. He signed a three-year, $11 million contract in the offseason. But even that was more than Morey could offer at the time. -So, as you can see, the trajectory changed with Tilman for the worse. Morey went from accumulating assets to gymnastics every deadline to get under the tax to the point we were a laughing stock of the league. DOn't Worry, tilman will continue to lie to the idiots who can't pay attention: " 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." -You ever heard of accidentally including a first round pick to get under the tax? Remember how valuable even late picks are as assets, case in point: thats 25 percent of our return for Harden. furthermore, these moves don't help morey. They don't give us future cap flexiblity or ability to spend what so ever. They don't help the team, they don't help harden, they are tax savings which go into one mans pockets...meanwhile he raised the prices on fans each year Think about harden's persepctive. You see the Cavs win despite unlikely odds against a great warriors team, they over paid in the tax JR smith, Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson...none worth their contracts but when you're in your window is when you spend, they took a shot and history was made. They got their chip. Raptors against unlikely odds went all in, paying an aging marc gasol 50 million to be on the bench, margins and depth matter more in the playoffs. Leonard's shot bounced the right way, history was made again, they got a chip. Then HArden, who in a time of load management doesn't take games off, plays heavy minutes, crazy useage gets back in January after a 38 minute game sees the guy one of our ariza replacements, Daniel house cut for 2 months bc of tax reasons, locker room empty. One month later, Chris Paul and HArden come back after a tough game, the other guy we signed for a minimum, James Ennis, both these guys are in MDA's short short rotation, was traded for a top 55 protected 2nd rounder, no player...2 lockers empty. ...is that a winning culture? Funny that when that and 90 percent of our moves happend to cut cost, losing roster, staff(including our associated head coach who ran our best defense, harden's own personal trainer) and finalyl we end up with a Rookie GM, Rookie coach after our CEO, GM, Assistant Gms(2), coach, Assoc coach, and stars all request to leave a place they loved. Was that all for harden, did hardden secretly want to just save money?
Harden wanted Westbrook. Harden should have asked for a trade then instead of requesting CP3 to leave when he was going to leave anyway. His daddy KD was not coming here. True Tilman blew it for not listening to DM and thinking you can satisfy someone who cannot be in Harden. As a result this is what you get. Likely why DM left but not the only reason. Tilman is probably just a dick. He had a hand in it but be he is not solely to blame.
"Worst contract I've ever seen in sports" -Tilman Fertitta, first year as sports team owner, long time large scale greasy food seller
I'm not saying for 1 minute that Fritatta isnt a cheap b*stard who has cost us numerous opportunities due to his cheapness... no... he sucks. Ultimately it was his decision to pull to the trigger - so again... he sucks. but... One could easily assert that they were all complicit... DM, MDA, Harden... but prob not MDA he coulda just kept quiet and grumbled to himself (ala Melo)... but really, why were we even exploring a deal? WB certainly doesnt fit Morey's analytical criteria for a desired asset - I cant see him wanting to pursue that deal based on its own merits... it wasnt a cost cutting move which seems to be the catalyst for most of Fritatta's motivations... No... there must have been something more pushing DM and TF to explore and ultimately pull the trigger on the deal... what could it be... maybe they were trying to placate a narcissistic diva who says he knows 'exactly what the Rockets need to do to get over the hump'... which means shipping out the guy who's trying to hold him accountable for his former buddy (which turns out that didnt work out either...) i mean its not like he'd drive down his trade value and force his way outta town or nuthin... ehhhh... maybe i'm off base... i'm jus a random guy babbling on an internet chat board... lol...
No doubt, I don't tink DM, MDA, harden are blameless. I think all of us wanted more adjustments and variety from harden's game, more defense focus and energy in the playoffs. We definitely wanted different rotations and adjustments by MDA, we also didn't like treating players as assets like DM. But remember its like if you're the manager of any business and the owner says this is the budget, this is where we need to cut cost. Thats what the article was saying, Daryl morey at times even traded assets he accumulated for nothing just money savings, that doesn't help him no future spending flexiblity it was just about tax which literally only benefits the owner. The owners in the nba are replaceable, there is a line to be an owner, its a billionaires showcase legacy piece that will probably pay for itself by the next tv deal, but the one thing they offer is Fianances. Thats the issue and different with Doland Tilman, They both have egos, will shamelessly lie to the public and own fans, and meddling ways have messed up the culture and reputation of their respective franchises and both their fanbases don't like em, but dolan spends, he takes swings even if dumb ones. Tilman watered down and cheaped on the margins of a team with a historic star player, even if cade becomes a successful all star he may very well not sniff harden's impact. Harden is elite among hof level players even. You've gotta respect that, Look how warriors are treating their team with steph, they know hes the cash cow, hall of famer and during his window they are spending tax on plenty that may not be worth it. Like Cavs did with lebron, like Even raptors did with Leonard-same with clippers, same iwth nets. It is the new par, we had tilman retweet warriors tax bill. PErsonally, I get why he would and understand business wise people want to make money. Theres a reason this is a billionaire boys club and the money has grown exponentially in it since the 90s, and the par and spending then won't cut it anymore. Tilman himself bought in the peak, the most over leveraged owner in our league and it shows. The fans only lose, even if you get tillman is trying to stay a float, sucks we have to go down with his decision making. And yes, I think its obvious to anyone that WB doesn't fit moreys mold of player, contract and as does the trade. If he has the objective to do it, just like sending picks for tax savings isn't in morey's personal or job interest, its a directive. Theres no benefit for him, but he still has to do the job that the owner gives adn the owner under tilman, the directive has been obvious to anyone paying attention to transactions both in players and staff. Where I disagree is that WB wasn't a cost cutting move. It is in every incentive for the owners in nba economics to get "star players" They, with teh cap, are the biggest cash cows along with high level rookie picks on their contracts. HAve you seen merchandise sales, jersey sales, national tv access? The nba is marketed and the revenue is based on stars, go check espn or any of the ads. tHe stars are carrying the revenue. And While chris paul is one in his own right, westbrook bests him in merchandise sales and marketability and star power revenue each year. So tilman can easily make money. He cheaps out where the money isn't made in the non headliner moves. Trevor ariza, jeff bzdelik things like that. Yet in the playoffs with such thing margins, those things lead to wins. gO back in history and you can see over the hill role players maybe not worth a big contract but making game winning plays, deflections, anything be it our very own Kenny smith, Robert Horry, Mario Elie to John PAxon, STeve Kerr, Derek Fisher, Sean Ellite, so on...happens every single year bc basketball is about cohesion. So as per harden as some diva. The guy is not media savvy, his mom is his agent. But the guy who had moved his family and bought not rented real estate here, has an active foundation, bought in on the soccer team among other businesses and still hasn't sold propery, the guy who has a restaurant opening rockets themed this year...doesn't sound like a guy itching to get out. Then teh guy with guaranteed money whether he plays bad or good also still playing heavy minutes, useage, games when all the stars are 'load managing'... Then messing around leading the league in points, then assists, and continuing to add to this game quietly each year and dominating to the point where players who should be frustrated guarding him voted him twice as the players mvp...to do that over a marathon of several season let alone one takes a damn crazy drive, commitment, and a deliberate grind to be special, to be great bc harden isn't there by his athleticism like Giannis, he is a skill player. And he did all this while watching 90 percent of our roster moves cutting cost, he saw rosters in rotation being cut or traded for nothing while he is playing 39 minutes and have the owner blame him still. And the fact is the nba life is short, let alone the prime is fleeting, he has maybe 1-3 years of the culmination of his entire life work and his legacy on the line and hes supposed to waste it on an owner who lies to his face, lies to the fans face and he may have just figured out is a used car salesman who always is pointing the fingers elsewhere. Upto you who to believe, morey, monbear, tad brown, MDA's wife, Russ's agent...bring on the 30 for 30 for us in a few years please
