Stahhp Warriors are winning the title this year and the finals will be 6 games or less against whatever the east has to offer.
Bottom line, as someone else mentioned, with Shumpert, I believe we are a better team today than we were yesterday.
It's only bottomline in a vacuum: Was he worth 2019 FRP, 2020 SRP, 2022 SRP, Melton, inability to buy 2019 SRPs, and $3.9m of MLE. We burned all that to get under the tax, but got Shumpert.
Nope. Those days are done. I know it's easier on the conscience to assume we wouldn't have won anyway, but that's silly. Last season it was us and the Warriors, and both of us would have demolished any of the other 28 teams in a series. Those days are gone. The Milwaukee Bucks are the 4th best offense (before adding Mirotic for ****-all) and the top rated defense. The Warriors have never faced that. Raptors are top 10 offense and defense. Celtics are top 10 offense and defense and they only just recently started playing decent ball. This is a new time. The most talented team doesn't always win the series.
This and our acquisitions in the offseason were comically bad for a team that had just won 65 games (or any team). Here's what I have to say to Morey, Tilman, Tad, and Melo: Spoiler: NSFW
Think we tied ourselves with a really bad contract in RA and this offseason was mostly about correcting that mistake. I don't think we manages, you can't say that a offseason where all new players were already dumped, is a good one.
I think it’s worth it to get under the tax if that means we don’t worry too much about spending the next 3 years. Harden could jump another level THIS season and our chances of beating the Ws would still be pretty low, even with some realistic reinforcements at the deadline. The rationale had to have been that our chances this year are too low for us to hamper ourselves in the next few when our chances should be better.
This is a fantasy at the moment. We just sat through a deadline following the owner's declarations that we will do whatever it takes to win a championship this season. That guy is allegedly promising he'll spend whatever the next 3 years? BS imo. Can't take that to the bank.
Yeah but neither side really knows. It’s very possible we approached the deadline saying if we can do A,B and C then we do it, **** the money. But then we find out only C is available. Do we still add when what we think we need to win isn’t available anymore?
Can't really see how we are moving forward, having a huge depreciating asset and player in CP3. If we were a young team, I wouldn't be too disappointed and I get we don't have lot's of trade chips to work with, but we should be in a "Title or bust" mentality this and next year and that's the opposite of punting.
You gave up all those draft picks, Cash, Melton and MLE money for ability to do what exactly? I mean, we only get mini-MLEs from here on out, and our core is locked up to contracts, and we don't have Rivers or Faried's Bird Rights. What spending are we all of a sudden going to afford that we wouldn't do regardless. Even assuming Fantasy that we get another Butler Trade at some point and have to give him a huge payday: Well, we WOULD DO THAT regardless of saving tax now. Tilman is on record saying we would have paid Butler regardless. We have no fear of Repeater, if it means landing a legit Star/Superstar.
I guess I have been conditioned to believe Morey knows what he’s doing. I could be woefully wrong on this one, but I understand the rationale of why these decisions were made.
You're talking about a "let's see what happens, we won't know till the summer approach". The thing is, this deadline was the "we'll see" deadline. This James Harden season may not be repeatable. Chris Paul will almost certainly be more overpaid next season. All we know is that they allegedly went after Butler but at that time the excuse was that they didn't want to give up all the role players. The Wolves denied that the Rockets offered 4 picks. Now the excuse is the repeater tax. We have to understand at some point that a cheapskate owner won't be open about his cheapskating. He will just keep making excuses to not sign off on deals that cost money while following up on deals that cut money. The truth is there is crazy good rationale to take a shot at the title this season. Cousins and Curry are easily exploitable leaks in their defense. If those guys suffer an injury, just like we did, we will regret not adding an above average role player and dealing with the repeater tax later. We have not put ourselves in position to take advantage of opportunity/luck. The idea that the Rockets can beat the Warriors is a laughing matter today, and there are 3 teams who are top 10 defense and offense. Only Rockets fans are living in this fantasy that we are in it, just like a couple of seasons ago. You will see it in the posts here with ludicrous declarations like "if we are 100% healthy and playing well and we get exactly the right buyout candidate and Harden does better than before and Paul/Gordon bounce back and we don't face them till X round, etc.". This is what's called pipedreaming. The universe is not going to align for us, a contender is prepared for several scenarios including injury, poor form, underperforming pieces. We're just not that kind of contender, and we have no idea if Tilman will spend in the next 3 years, and the tiny piece of evidence we have indicates his definition of paying tax being worth it is unreasonable. That's what penny pinching looks like. That's the kind of penny pinching that incidentally got us James Harden, and let's hope it doesn't cost us James Harden.
It's an ambiguous question. It can perhaps be asked in two different ways / parts: A - Do you agree with the owner's utility function? B - Given the utility function, do you like the FO's deadline moves. 70% of the folks do not agree with A, and 70% of the low grades here were prob in response to A. Given the tax ducking objective, and the dreadfully tight constraints DM has to operate under due to legacy moves (that may have had nothing to do with DM's capacity), I think it's fair to give them B and above.
Morey knows what he's doing. He's doing what he's told. He is excellent at shedding salary. Somehow though, I doubt this is the gig he wants. He knows that there's no way you can beat the Warriors spending $20m less than them. Dan Gilbert - widely seen as a POS owner - lost $15-20m after a championship season even with playoff income included. He knew what it took to beat the Warriors. It's also not a coincidence that Lebron picked Gilbert, the Heat and the Lakers while not giving the Rockets a meeting. He doesn't want to be talking about pinching pennies this time of year even if he's on a team that's not ready to win it all.
From the ringer: Winner: Golden State Warriors While we’ve been breathlessly following the ups and downs of various sweepstakes, the Warriors have won 15 of their past 17 games. They have outscored opponents by a league-best 14.2 points per 100 possessions since Christmas. They are scoring an obscene 123.9 points-per-100 in 2019. They’re plus-43 in 175 minutes with DeMarcus Cousins on the court; their five-All-Star lineup is plus-23.9 points-per-100 since his return; and the Death Lineup is plus-20.2 points-per-100 over the past two months. They are going to win and win easily.
The key pieces of a would-be championship team are all still here. Our record against the best teams in the West is still good. We’ve yet to be at full strength yet. Knowing all of that, trading two useless pieces (Knight/Chriss) for a possible starter in Shumpert is definitely moving forward in my book. All things considered.
Yes, and so have I. But you seem interested in knowing spending facts. He executed orders to get below the taxline, knowing (moving forward) he only has mini-MLE and vet Mins to spend, and lost all those picks...and already has the core players locked up. I just want you to understand the Facts of Morey's life moving forward. He doesn't have big spending situations allowed under the CBA. Any major new spending can only be for a Star/Superstar Trade (like Bulter) requiring a future payday, which Tilman would pay for regardless of Repeater.