OKC had numerous ways to improve their team. They could draft, sign free agents, build their existing talent as well as make trades. Trading often times is the quickest way for improvement as you can immediately fill a need. It is said that numerous teams in the league were quite fond of Harden and i wouldnt be surprised in several teams made offers
Les and Morey wanted to give Bosh the max. He would have given the max to several players such as Lebron, Wade. It's not the owner's fault the free agents sign elsewhere. Leslie is a good owner and he supports his GM with his wallet. Not a lot of owners do this. In any case this Rockets fan appreciate what Mr. Alexander has done to put a good product on the floor. I'm sure he will open up the check book this summer to get a 2nd star. Hopefully they accept.
If you were a "big boy" then you would not be so clueless 1 year after the contract situation. Again the only money Asik gets this year is 5 million which is all he cares about. I tried to simplify it for you so you can understand yet instead of being appreciative you act insulted. Companies make millions of dollars in PROFIT but sometimes pay ZERO taxes. They use loop holes and accounting gimicks. It doesn't matter to Asik or Lin what the Rockets use for the cap. They just get 5 million this year pre-tax.
OKC made I believe $30mil last year. And their owner told Presti not to go a cent over the luxury tax even if it means trading an all-star and forgo perhaps assembling the most talented team for the next 5-10 years. Les Alexander, who at the time knew fully that Yao wasn't coming back, was willing to pay a huge amount of (a decidedly less penalizing) luxury tax to get Chris Bosh for a slightly above average team.
Not true. It depends on a lot of things though: - Market size - Salary management - Attendance - Advertisement - Broadcast licenses - Investments by other companies **** teams like Bobcats and teams that spend out the ass on bad contracts are definitely losing investments. I imagine that the Mavs and previous Cavs probably lost a lot of money.
UPDATE: I have since received confirmation--from a VERY reliable source--that the payment made to Lin/Asik in Year 3 by any team acquiring them via trade would be $14,898,938 million and that such other team would have to fully foot the bill for that payment (subject to the Rockets throwing up to ~$3 million in cash into a trade). The cap hit would still be $8,374,646. The fact that the acquiring team would have to pay Lin/Asik $6,524,292 more than their cap number may detract some teams who are economically disadvantaged; but the majority of teams will not be too heavily swayed by this extra payment given the relatively cap-friendly treatment. Just to summarize/clarify for those still confused (as even I was) about the treatment of the Lin/Asik deals: Once the Knicks/Bulls chose not to match the Rockets' offer sheets for Lin/Asik, the contracts those players received applied identically to any team, both the Rockets and any team subsequently acquiring those players from the Rockets via trade. This includes the "balloon payment" in the third year. It's in the contract. The team employing the player when the payment is due has to pay it.
GSW, TOR, and WAS turned down Harden trades. So, no. They were willing to go over the luxury tax, they offered Harden a contract that was slightly under the max that would have put them into Luxury tax territory, but they not willing to give a 3rd wing a max contract. Get it together, people.
Not necessarily. In Asik's case, it looks like he may be worth more than $8.4M on the open market, so the extra cash owed isn't quite that bad. In Lin's case, this is one example where his marketability may actually impact his trade value, since his cap hit isn't too bad and the extra revenue he produces would likely offset the extra cash he is owed. meh's point was that Les was WILLING to pay the tax to get a star like Bosh. When that didn't materialize, the Rockets were left a star-less team. No sane owner would pay big luxury tax on a team without a (healthy) star. Les has never ONCE avoided the luxury tax to the detriment of the franchise long-term. His luxury tax avoidance trades have all been practical and did not harm the on-court product to any material extent.
It was also in an extraordinary year where there wasn't much incentive for owners to stay under the tax.
very interesting , I still believe Asik is tradable because he can put up 10/12 anywhere , but unless Lin puts up borderline All Star numbers , he's here for 2 more years
