In Defense of Tilman's Repeater Tax Fears

Ah yes, you saw that Trevor Ariza 20% 3 point shooting in the Warriors series and thought, "Man, we've gotta get us some more of that! What would we do if we lost our 3 and D guy who can't hit 3's that can no longer play any D"

Those 8.9 points on 9 shots per game were irreplaceable. Who could come in and put up a .445 TS% and a .389 eFG? What would we do if we lost our worst player instead of giving him 15 million dollars?

 

So Ariza was the problem. Clearly the genius Fertitta figured it out and replaced him with 3 cheaper SFs. Melo lasted 12 games was it before temper tantrumming and jab stepping his way out of town. Ennis was also later dumped to save $. House emerged out of nowhere and was actually good, but still pretty raw. So to save money after his max 2-way games played were reached he was sent back to the G-league until late into the season where signing him to an actual NBA contract would be cheaper. Then lo and behold once the playoffs came House looked unprepared and raw; almost as if having more NBA game reps under his belt might have helped.

 

He was clearly A problem, and the worst player on the team when the team needed it most.....also, since when did Fertitta become the GM? Morey was the one bringing players in. Sure Fertitta forced the Westbrook trade in a futile effort to keep Harden happy by giving in to his demand it happen, but that's about it. Moving on from scrubs is something Morey did a lot, why is it a problem when that scrub's name is Ariza?

 

Because the replacements were even worse and every step taken in the development of the replacements was more interested in saving $ and quite willing to risk positive basketball outcomes for the team? Insult on top of injury that Ariza would be later traded for (not with) assets.

Ariza is a symptom of the disease; not the cause. It was not any one action; but every action taken cumulatively. They were designed primarily to save cash surrendering basketball assets to do so. Ariza is a symbol of a series of actions.

Your Morey red herring is sad. While he may have indeed moved on from Ariza, we all know there is no chance he choose to take all those actions just to save $.

 

Cap flexibility is something Morey preached since day one here...yet because of the irrational hatred some have for the new owner due to non-basketball reasons, that same kind of thing is all of a sudden a problem.....despite the fact that they managed to create what is currently the best roster the Rockets have had since CP3's first season here.

I guess I'll just never understand that irrational hate because it's just not my style. You know people are really reaching when they are throwing a fit about not paying the worst player on a playoff roster 15 million dollars to stick around and torpedo another playoff series.

 

Do you realize that EVERYONE on our team was shooting a low percentage for that series? Do you know who had the main responsibility of guarding Durant? Do you know who(as well as Luc) was a main piece of making our defense what it was. Ariza. Do you know who was glue guy in our locker room and was good for team chemistry. Ariza. No longer play any D. FOH Bobby you are out of your depth and you dont know ball. You are stooge, a Tillman cronie.

LOL there is thing called defense. We played GS and Utah in the playoffs, two great playoff defenses who would not have beaten without great defense of our own.

You are out of your depth here. Back on ignore. I dont want to read your disgusting posts any longer, I know what your agenda is. Have fun on January 20th, itll be a great day

 

They were still capped out without signing Ariza. It didn’t give them any flexibility.

 

And yet no one as bad as Ariza.

And he got absolutely torched all series long without even slowing KD down....in fact, KD averaged over 30 points per game in that series....which is 4 points per game more than he averaged that season and even more points per game than he averaged in that season's playoffs.

So what point did you think you were making?

You seem to REALLY love washed up scrubs be it PJ Tucker or Trevor Ariza and it's just weird.

 

That's not what I was talking about when it comes to that specific decision, I was talking about the other moves to drop the cap over the years where Morey was here. The Ariza decision was based on him being the worst player on the team when the team needed him most. He's a 3 and D guy who played terrible D and couldn't hit wide open 3's anymore. You don't pay those kinds of players if you want to be a contender.

 

Ariza had the main responsibility of guarding Durant. Durant shot a 59 TS% for our series down 5% from his regulars season that is good defense, goodbye cretin. That's great defense. For real this time.

 

House and Ennis were league minimum or near league minimum. Melo was a few million. They still didn’t have any “cap flexibility” without them. They had space for league minimum minimum contracts and basically only minimum contracts with or without Ariza, Ennis or Melo. That isn’t how the cap works. Dollars and value are situational and not a 1 for 1 type thing.

Ariza was certainly not worth $15 million, but they essentially could not sign anyone for anything more than the league min. The question wasn’t “is Ariza worth $15mil” it was “is Ariza better than players who would sign for league minimum contracts”. The fact he was traded for Oubre (his terrible shooting this year notwithstanding) that next season was just salt on the wounds.

 

OK Tilman.

 

So Ariza was on KD and KD scored considerably more than he did all season long....and somehow you think that's evidence that Ariza did a good job? LOL

A slight dip in TS due to slumping a bit on his shots at and near the basket....you know, due to Capela contesting shots in that area, while hitting nearly 40% of his 3's which would be directly against Ariza.....does not suggest Ariza did a good job.

Face it guy, Ariza was absolutely worthless when the team needed him most, he couldn't hit wide open 3's, and his defense was pathetic. Yet you wanted more years of that, just like you want PJ Tucker extended. It seems like your loyalty is with washed up scrubs instead of with the team.

 

No, the question should be, "was Ariza worth having on the roster?" and after that post-season where he was completely worthless, the answer was "no".

 

What? He's not in the same position. He's not in a position where HAS to spend. He's got Tatum and Brown for a LONG while. Its not the same dude, you can't make it the same. Hayward in his career has exactly ONE post season above average. He's not that good in the playoffs period. He had a 50 TS% for the post season, and he's never been a good defender. So it's not a huge loss for Boson on that front. Defense, yes DEFENSE the main reason we lost to the Warriors a SECOND time.

Still not that good in the post season and he's been like that for awhile. The Celtics are YOUNGER. They arent pressed to win now. When Tatum becomes a true top 10 player, than we can talk but there is no immediate pressure there like there was for us. Having Hawyward is not gonna help them beat the Nets, Bucks and Sixers, he's not a needle mover in that regard. The difference is that Ariza was needed on the margins and would helped us. Hayward is not gonna do crap and they still have more years to contend. Your argument doesnt work because their superstars are so young and will get better. Jaelyn is 24 for god's sake.

And yet Bazemore would have helped more than Shumpert or House or Ennis. We needed more wing depth and we did nothing that season but cost cutting, nothing at all. Yea Hayward probably could have gotten assets and they probably should have paid him to get someone else. But thats still not as bad as Tillman cheaping out on our team who was on a vastly different timeline. It's never going to be. James Harden was a top 3 player in his absolute prime against the Warriors, you spend, period.

 

It’s pretty astonishing that even though he was traded for a young wing player that had value that very year you still don’t see the value. Mid year the most valuable thing in the nba is decent sized expiring contracts for contending teams. Well unless you’re the Rockets in which case you attach draft picks to get rid of soon to be expiring contracts a little earlier to save a few million (Lawson / Anderson - both also not worth their contracts) but sacrificing the later pick and also the assets you could get in the trade.