Yep and this again proves just how cheap Les Alexander was! Sold the team right when they were about to be expensive! What Tillman has to pay back in Luxury Tax, he sould probably make back with lebron james, james harden, chris paul landry's and Casino business... imagine those guys making appearances in every golden nugget! Imagine all of them opening up casinos together! If lebron thinks hollywood will get him rich... try owning casinos! He'll own the cavs a year after he retires!
Once the season was ending and next years roster improvement rumors started floating around you could put 2 and 2 together to realize Les was informed by Morey of what the team was about to cost and Les wanted to cash out. He didnt ever want to pay a luxury tax price. It had to be the key discussion point in the meetings when they sold the team.
Luc played/defended multiple positions better than Arizaa during the season before he got hurt. What if Luc gets the MLE? You talk about Morey m.o. When has Morey given up on going 3 star hunting? If no LeBron or Paul George, then Morey m.o. is to stay under the luxury tax level and try again next year. Parsons priced himself out because the Rockets struck out on LeBron/Melo and then Bosh that year. Morey went cheaper with Ariza over matching Parsons and going over luxury tax. Morey would have matched Cuban if they bagged Bosh. So Ariza asks for $10 to $12 mil in order to get $7 to $8 mil.......I would possibly go Tyreke Evans with that $8 mil-ish MLE. 6’6” who can play SF for us. You lose the defense but gain some offense as a better driver. He shot 40% from 3 on 5.5 attempts per game. Joe Harris is 6’6” who doesn’t play great defense but shot 42% from 3. Danny Green at 6’6” is a 40% career 3 point shooter who’s defensive rating was 104 to Ariza 107. There might be cheaper options. Morey can go cheaper option of better offense over bettter defense. We shall see. Morey is not getting boxed in by you or Ariza. Unless Morey projects Capela as the 3rd star, I don’t see Morey locking up the team salary. It will remain with some flexibility for maneuvering for next summer big game hunting.
What you fail to see is the difference vs then and now. Then: operating under the cap, have to remain flexible to improve greatly Now: for sure luxury tax team that is so close. Then: werent a championship contender Now: one of the best teams in the league Then: have to remain roster flexible to not be stuck in medicore limbo Now: few options , over the cap, and morey knows its sll in time Then: looking for 3rd star to move up to be amongst the best Now: we are looking for a 3rd star to move from amongst best to be easily the best. 2 entirely different periods and circumstamces. Quit playing dumb. We dont need more offense. When has tyreke evsns been consistently healthy. You are just adding another injury prone player. Evans is also a 2 guard and cant guard players like durant. Ariza can guard 1-4. If you wanna take a step back then sure go evans. We were good vs the warriors because defense. You cant lose defense. Dont need to use your 5 million exception to fill ariza hole. Thats ignorant. Use it for depth and have ariza. If we dont have james/3rd star , we are bringing the team back. We arent making lateral cost saving moves in the only championship window we have. Morey knows the next 2 years are time to move all in. Lmao when you say go sign a free agent to save 5 million and that leaves us more flexible than just signing ariza? No it doesnt. Signing ariza to a modest contract and addind depth with the exception gives us more contracts that we can actually move. Wheb you operate over the cap your number 1 asset is players under contract to move to match salaries. You wasting your options to sign a replacement is less players under contract and creating more holes on your team. When you are already going to be a luxury tax team bird rights to your free agents are very important. You dont let them just walk.
Daryl is very honest when he says he’s obsessed with beating the warriors. Smart move for ariza use that as leverage
You keep telling yourself that. I would go partial MLE on Tyreke who scored 19.4 pts a game, shot 40% from 3 on 5.5 attempts a game. Tyreke would see it as a pay raise over his $3 mil this yr with Grizz. Part of remaining partial MLE in securing a Luc MaM to bring his $2 mil up to over $4 mil. Another pay raise situation plus Rockets maintain a good defender. Rockets roll out: CP3.....Harden....Tyreke......Tucker.......Capela That’s better than CP3/Harden/Ariza/Tucker/Capela IMO. You can have yours. Any spare change is welcome. Wayne Ellington, Mike Scott, Amir Johnson, Barton, Danny Green (PO), LMA (PO), others. You are locking the Rockets in salary wise while the Rockets have plenty of options if players set their minds at winning a ring at a discount. Quantity over Quality. You are assuming Ariza will budge and come down from $10 to 12 mil over 4 or 5 yrs. do you know him? Has he told he would do that? I’ve seen plenty of situations where players don’t budge. Maybe he only takes a pay cut with another team.....plays hard ball to the end with Houston. Teams with payroll that might offer Ariza money: https://hoopshype.com/salaries/ Sixers May lose out on LeBron sweepstakes and go Ariza at $10 mil. Bulls need help. Kings would go big. They overpay every year. Dallas with Harrison Barnes probably only team with less payroll than Houston not going after Ariza. Suns would like him. Did you see how much Atlanta over paid last year? Lakers have the money depending on their targets. Ariza is from LA. I’m just putting Capela at $12 to $15 mil. Many here think Capela is going to get $20 plus mil (1st yr). Every penny helps. Nene $3 mil is in jeopardy. You are a joke fella. No sense in talking to you. Too dense.
Locking the team in? Lmao your solution locks the team in. My solution has more players under contract. Your plugging holes. Tyreke cant guard the warriors and we already have his role in eric gordon. Tyreke isnt a forward wing. Hes a 2 guard that operates more at point. Dumb move. Ariza is close with cp3. He is staying unless something drastically changes or opportunity is available. There is a thing called chemistry on defense/ offense. Yont eff it up for lateral or backwards moves. All you are doing is changing players with this grass always greener approach. You want a new player for the sake of a new player. Evans doesnt replace ariza. Evans is a ball dominant 2 guard And partial mle? We are going to be a tax paying team , we cant use a regular mle. We only have tax payer mle at 5 million total. We arent gling to be under the apron this year. Cant use full mle. And dont say you meant tax payer mle because you said evans gets a raise from 3 million per season and we would use partial mle to give him that raise and use the rest on luc. You dont even know what your talking about. Nene was always in jeopardy. Hes part of a money matching package currently for 3rd star
Jalen Rose: I think Trevor Ariza has played his last game as a member of the Rockets. In a salary cap driven sport, he's put himself in position to gain a salary based on his glue guy value & 3/D productivity that he'll get that money on the open market. Rockets have to deal with a lot of that this offseason. What's gonna happen with Chris Paul? Clint Capela? I think the most underrated thing in free agency, ...the number one thing that's getting overlooked in this free agent frenzy, especially after Kawhi has come out & said he wants to go to the Lakers, not only could LeBron end up there but Chris Paul could too. Jacoby: Where? Jalen: You don't listen to anything I say. Jacoby: Where? Jalen: With the Los Angeles Lakers. Jacoby: I don't think they'll(Rob Pelinka) give him a max deal. Jalen: This is how it works: everyone has to take less to make it work. LeBron would be willing to do that for Chris Paul. That's the under reported thing in free agency, especially when the leading domino has already happened: Kawhi has already said he wants to go to LA. If LeBron as an unrestricted free agent & Chris Paul as an unrestricted free agent, guess what they can do? Sign anywhere they choose. Now we could look up at the beginning of this year and see them playing in Lakers purple & gold. That's a lot closer to being realistic than true basketball heads have put out there.
Lol ESPN no trying to hide the fact that they really wanna break up the CP3-Harden duo. Almost like they rooting for CP3 to go to the Lakers
For all the times Ariza has bailed james out defensively.. i think harden should donate a house to ariza which he can then flip and sell to make thebmoney he wants
Except Morey doesn’t blink or fold in keeping his free agents. He let Parsons walk, he let Josh Smith leave, he just doesn’t cave and give out bad contracts just to keep players
Everyone willing to take less money to join the Lakers but with the Rockets everyone is getting the max and their cap is f*cked. Got it.
Is it though? I don't even get why any of these people discuss Kawhi on the Lakers at all. There's not a chance in hell the Spurs deal Kawhi to the Lakers, that would be unprecedented yet they act like its a likely occurrence. I get they love the Lakers and want the Lakers to be relevant but there's just certain forces in the league even the Lakers cannot overcome.
Because it is a business! How many people are buying Ariza Jerseys? I love the guy and I want him to stay but if we can't afford him it should not be any hard feelings. It is what it is. I would however be pissed if he took less money than what he'd make here to join the warriors. That's just disrespectful!
Didn't see this posted anywhere else... https://www.forbes.com/sites/rahath...ston-rockets-value-trevor-ariza/#767401867e53
