No, there is no such limit. That said, the Rockets have now used a whopping FOUR trade exceptions within the past year: --They absorbed Rodions Kurucs into the Gerald Green TPE in the Harden trade. --They absorbed Kevin Porter, Jr. into the Nene TPE when they acquired him from Cleveland. --They absorbed Avery Bradley into part of the Harden TPE when they made the Oladipo trade. --They just absorbed Daniel Theis into the Oladipo TPE, preserving their full Non-Taxpayer MLE. This notion that the Rockets' TPEs *always* expire unused is just preposterous, especially in light of the past year. That said, I could definitely see the other TPEs expiring unused, barring a really advantageous trade presenting itself. But I'm fairly confident that the team has at least spoken to other teams about deals that could involve that remaining $5M Harden TPE.
The timing was luck. If OKC paid their 6th man he would have never been a Rocket, point blank, period. We all know geek Elvis was crunching his numbers. No one is denying that. If only his analytics had some type of leadership/on court decision assessment as well that would have been nice.
Précisеly. And again, excuse me for asking, but what did the numbers say about Marcus Morris vs Kawhi? Trading Lowry for the Toronto pick months before Harden become available? If it weren’t for the lucky break with OKC refusing to pay Harden and picking up the Morley pu-pu platter, he would have been out of a job in a couple of years and widely ridiculed as the moron who passed on Kawhi, traded a multiple All Star (Lowry) for a weak lottery pick, drafted Lamb, Royce and Terrence Jones, etc… Morley is fraud and his junk science is completely bogus.
The issue is the failure to deal with complexity and nuance, that’s the issue. Simple reductionist logic that you mention (in the best interest of the business) fails to take into account second order effects, third-order effects, etc., such as reputational damage among the player population, reciprocated lack of loyalty from players, etc. which ultimately hurts the same business. Exactly the same situation with that Morley-ball BS. Simple arithmetic says we should eliminate the mid-range 2. what followed was that seasoned basketball minds like Pop clowned him with a clever tweak, by dropping the bigs… Complete failure to account for complexity and nuance. The guy is a simpleton who managed to craft a public persona of intellectual sophistication.
Why didn't other teams get harden then? Trust me bro I had rockets fans thinking we shouldn't have offered harden the max we could during that sign and trade. Point is Morey believe it more then the other 32 teams.
There were no NBA analytics regarding Kawhi to extrapolate like Harden. Harden had already been in NBA for years when Morey traded for him. Kawhi actually reimagined himself AFTER he was drafted. If you watched Kawhi when he played at SDSU you'd be shocked at the player he became. Poor comp, poor arguement, even poorer conclusion.
Great post, I have now been disabused of this inaccurate notion that most of TPE's, not just Rockets, are rarely used. Appreciate you dropping this knowledge on us.
We ALL saw James Harden in the NBA with our own eyes! Fans, media, GMs… He was a no-brainer, including for OKC if they had the budget; they didn’t. Point you’re missing is that Morey’s junk science did not give him any edge. That’s the essence of this exchange here, look up the previous posts. KL was passed by 13 other teams before the Rockets, so obviously he was not a self-evident pick. What I am saying is that there is no unique insight that Morey possesses. It’s all self-promotion and BS. No other GM in this league has inflated his own self-importance as much as morey, based on smoke and mirrors
It wasn't that simple, and as Rockets fans we should ALL already know this story. https://www.essentiallysports.com/n...by-the-duo-of-kevin-durant-russell-westbrook/ But before the start of the 2012-13 season, the Thunder pulled off an absolute shocker of a move. They traded their star sixth man of the year, Harden, to Houston Rockets for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, and Houston’s first- and second-round picks. But why did the Thunder take this dramatic step? Turns out that having three stars in a single team comes at a huge cost. Going into the off-season, both Harden and Serge Ibaka had 16 months left in their contracts and were eligible for an extension. They had already locked down both Durant and Westbrook to max contracts. Due to this, they were left with two options, sign either Ibaka or Harden, or pay a huge luxury tax.
How about this: Tate's contract is an absolute steal and you would have to pay 3 or 4 times more to get a play of his caliber in the free market. All rational nba owners would guarantee the contract.
Come on man - you can disagree with Morey's business prioritization, but you are living in a world of extreme hyperbole if you think Morey is in any way a simpleton. The complexity and nuance you mention in terms of "reputational damage" and "reciprocated loyalty" are so subjective and lack any way to quantify - philosophically guys like Morey don't believe in those "gut feeling" criteria that are so subjective. You dont win games by who played the best - you win games by how many points your team has vs the other.....and by most quantifiable measures of success, the Rockets have been one of the most consistently successful teams of the last decade or so - in terms of points, in terms of team records, in terms of playoff wins. Is Morey a simpleton because he lost to perhaps the best basketball coach of all time or the best single team in NBA history or lost his 2nd player to a hamstring pull at the worst time? Where is the complexity and nuance you speak of then? Giannis won a title just now and he was 1/4" of a toe on the line away from KD kicking them out of the playoffs where he would have been another perennial loser like Harden and Morey. The reality is there are a lot of circumstances that lead to the perceived failings of Morey that you highlight - it's incredibly complexed and nuanced. ...I mean literally Morey identified value in 3pters that then almost every team in the league started also doing...he also is one of the reasons why every team in the league now has a dedicated analytics department. If you can avoid the hyperbole - maybe you have a point, but otherwise your commentary comes across as one of those doomed poorly conceived takes from the hot take shows on ESPN that everyone hates.
What do you mean it wasn't that simple. To me seems fairly straight forward. Posting a article changes nothing. Morey would have traded mediocre assets after mediocre assets until somebody accepted his package. It just so happens OKC was cheap and didn't think a sixth man was worth it. The article or OKC don't have to say it but actions speak louder than words. Rockets were more than willing to accept a Top 3 pick for scraps. It could have just as easily been another player or not one at all. Do you know how long it took Morey to actually acquire said star? OKC apparently felt if they didn't win it when they had the chance why go over the tax? They may have had a point. Lucky for Rockets they get to tout their star while trying to compete.
You mean the same shenanigans almost every owner does (luxury tax dodging) even in contending years? When did we get this mentality that if the owner isn’t spending absolute max money then he’s worthless and the “the worst?” Because I know for a fact plenty of contending and championship teams have purposefully attempted to dodge the tax and have looked for discount value players to finish out their rosters. This was not always the case. It’s like the lady 3-4 years we suddenly got the impression that every winning team is in the luxury tax every year. And that’s simply not true. Tilman had his hand in some of our problems. But many of them, including culture, far preceded his tenure here.
