Is Tari playing his way out of Houston, financially?

The Herb Jones extension is not good for Tari negotiations. Tari is much better than Herb Jones and Herb got over $20 million annually.

 

herb jones is an annual defensive player of the year candidate and has improved his shooting. Tari has much more to prove and has been injured for almost half his career so far. The herb jones contract is not a proxy for Tari…even if Tari will end up better.

 

Herb only played 20 games last season. In the previous year he was 5th in DPOY voting, but Tari had better metrics across the board last year, than Herb did two seasons ago.

I agree that I wouldn't pay Tari as much as Herb got, but I could def see his camp using that as a minimum comp.

 

Love Tari but even if he is better he certainly isn't MUCH better

 

Too bad Herb plays for one of the worst franchises in the league.

 

I disagree. I do believe Eason is better even if we are just comparing sheer will to win but his inability to play back to backs and his leg is 100% worrisome.
If I'm Eason, I'd spend my time proving my worth amd durability and renegotiate after the season.

 

Have to wonder just how much cap space $$$ is going to be out there for these FA's next offseason - it's looking similar to this year where a small number of teams will have cap space and a few more will use the full MLE, the stars will get paid and the rest of the league is left fighting for scraps.


In that case, maybe he doesn't get an offer so big that Stone wouldn't want to match it. So many teams are doing cap gymnastics to avoid the aprons.

(I'm just glad to see Tilman willing to pay the luxury tax for a quality team).

 

Tari might end up being better than Herb Jones in the long run (if he stays healthy), but he's not as good of a defensive player right now, nor has he ever had a season where he shot 40% from three, and his injury history is more concerning as well. Also, Herb started 231 out of 240 career games, Tari has started 16 out of 161.

I don't see how him nor his agent could argue he deserves as much money as Herb.

Personally I'd like to get him on $16M a year or so. Ideally something like a five year deal with the last two years as team options.

More than that, I might consider sending him to restricted free agency to bring back an offer sheet.

 

For the most part, Herb Jones and Tari Eason look to have a similar value on the court right now, according to EPM (Herb better on defense, Tari slight edge on offense). It was looking like Tari was making a leap before he had to deal with load management this season.

With Tari being nearly 3 years younger, and the bone graft likely being fully healed this coming season, I think odds are good that Tari will be a much better player going forward. Mostly, Tari is much more active offensively.

 

So the Herb Jones contract is a good comp of what Tari will get. More future potential, less past results.

 

Tari hands down. But he might not always know what his dribbling will end up with.

 

I truly love Tari's decisiveness on offense (particularly when there is only one defender between him and the basket), but he's gotta decide more often to NOT attack, even when the matchup seems favorable.

 

I would pay the man, very similar to a Jabari deal if necessary. He is definitely part of the core and has a very high upside. Even if he stays the same this year, which he won't (given his injury and his Dad passing), he is worth $18-$20 mil on the open market. Next year with higher cap and his improved play you will be in a position where we can't match. Lock him up!

 

Tari's contract should be comparable to Nikeil Alexander Walker's recent contract (62M/4Years, 15.5M AAV). NAW played off the bench for the Timberwolves and played a similar role to Tari on the Rockets.

 

Tari's issue is his injury history and availability, part of your value is being available.

He may not be getting a great offer and may want to show the org he is healthy forcing them to up their offer, which backfires if he still has issues.

DD

 

You really cant' use those stats to prove much given how individual players plus/minus is invariably impacted by how good the teams they play on are. Houston is a team on the rise - NO a team on the decline. The reality is Tari gets a bit of a bump by playing with a better roster and Jones gets penalized by being a great defender on a team who misses their star focal point for large chunks of time and has to resort to plans B, C, and D routinely as the roster affords.

I will say from the eye test - Jones looks like a better overall player to me than Tari - especially defensively. Herb stays low and does a great job mirroring his opponent and using his length to disrupt his opponent while staying in front of them. Tari still has some growth to go on technique side - his footwork will sometimes get him into trouble against players he should be able to hang with on the perimiter and sometimes he pursues aggressively to the point that he is making plays on the ball out of position which can end up getting him into foul trouble and often create and one situations for our opponents. To Tari's credit sometimes that chaos creates easy transition buckets for the Rockets but I am concerned that for every high pressure chaos moment turning into a TO, he has a dumb play where he fouls a 3pt shooter because he is out of position on a closeout or takes the wrong angle and puts himself in their landing space. Not to say he can't clean all this up and eventually be better than Herb, but to say he still hasn't and as others have mentioned - the availability is a concern.

....and worth mentioning that Herb's contract is a time and place. Tari's eventual contract will likely reflect a different time and place - will there be two teams with $30+mil of cap space AND have a 'best case Tari Eason' sized hole in their roster next year, AND believe Tari can get there? Not sure. Will there be other guys available on the market for the same money....or even cheaper? Not sure but the available market of players and the budget of teams willing to sign him will both play heavily into Tari's number more so than people making comparisons between both players.

 

Don't be silly, convoluted made up "metrics" to prove the pundit's confirmation bias definitely are the only thing that counts in basketball. #inmoreywetrust

 

IF they are underperforming, I wouldn't blame Stone / Tilman for ducking the tax another year ....in fact, they probably should duck the tax in the case that they are not a top 6 seed and considering it takes cutting $6,768,873, maybe they make a move like DFS for a pick in the 26 draft.

Why pay the tax and a year closer to the repeater tax unless you are a contender?
Adjust and try again next season makes more sense to me.

 

2-3 years is not enough wiggle room to operate IMHO.....lol.

I am just curious as to when they decide to tank for a Top 5 pick again.