A lot has been made about slashing salary under Tillman. I think the plan is for 2022-23 season... That's the season when: 1) Wall's contract becomes an expiring deal (assuming he takes option) 2) Gordon's contract can be voided 3) DJ Augustin (if still here) has only a partial guarantee 4) This is the offseason Durant/Harden/Irving can all leave or re-sign extensions (all have player options) Counting John Wall they will have about 70 million in committed salaries with Wood, Porter, Martin, and Tate all under contract. IF Brooklyn breaks up those picks and swaps have tremendous value. They should be able to package with Wall's expiring deal for a disgruntled star while leaving open max cap space. This also ignores a potential top 4 pick in the lineup after this season. Here are some highly paid players under contract at the time under age 30 who might become available: Joel Embiid Devin Booker Ben Simmons Pascal Siakam Nikola Jokic Brandon Ingram Jamal Murray De'Aaron Fox Bam Adebayo Jayson Tatum Karl-Anthony Towns Donovan Mitchell Jaylen Brown Those guys are all currently under 30 and will be making 25+ million in 2 years. It's a good gamble one of them wants to get out. Clearly most won't go anywhere. With Porter possibly being a 1 or 2 and Wood a 4 or 5; it should give us some flexibility bringing in a star player via trade. So they could feature a lineup with: A top 4 pick this year Porter Jr Wood A star player under contract via trade A max free agent With Martin/Tate off the bench... If they don't get a star player in trade, then you are playing for another max free agent after Wall's contract is up a year later. Bottom line, we're looking at a 2 year window to rebuild completely... 3 years tops... I don't think it's a bad plan... it's not a complete teardown since many of the pieces are here now...
I think Stone's plan is to just do what Tildo wants until he can find a GM job elsewhere in the league.
This is the exact same logic after Trump lost the election and his MAGA fans still believing he will : 1. win it by recount. 2. file lawsuits all the way to the supreme court. 3. use republican legislators to affect the outcome. 4. using idiots like Ted Cruz to block the nomination. 5. starting riots and capture the capitol. 6. push Mike Pence to change the outcome, otherwise hang him. 7. even above will be all failed, Trump will still come back in 2024.
I know people are really down on Stone right now, but all in all I think he's taking the smart approach. OKC has most of our picks, he was very restricted in what he could get back for Harden, and he has a meddling broke owner throwing up additional roadblocks. So he's made a bunch of moves that give us the potential to score some lottery picks. High draft picks should be all we are looking to get. Assembling good not great young players who you'll have to overpay or risk losing should not be our primary targets. Whoever made the call to take Oladipo over Lavert was a f**k up, but overall I think he's making the best choices in a bad situation.
Great post, OP, and interesting thoughts. I gotta say, the responses to this thoughtful post are annoying. Is that all this forum is going to be from now on? A bunch of people responding with tired, recycled TF jokes in threads containing actual basketball discussions?
I totally agree with you. Oh but wait, aren't you the guy that actually created a thread here about a bet you made with your friend? LMAO, please do update us how your friend spent that $50 in KFC or Wendy's, I think fans here can't wait for your in depth analysis on the meal.
Just look at the Knicks. They are a bigger market, and open up Max space for super stars every summer. And look at where they are now. Ironically they were even interested in Dipo before the deadline... Can’t make this stuff up.
It’s a plan but I agree with the point about this team going nowhere until Wall and Gordon are out the door...Wall especially. The Rockets have a ton work to do and they need a lot of luck for this to be a 3 year turn around.
I’m sorry you don’t understand the difference between silly threads and serious ones. That’s my point — apparently people like you can’t see the difference anymore.
I think that's why the plan is to develop Wood/Porter and then trade for a star with Wall's contract. That combo of 3 players could be enough to get a max free agent to come...