Why Morey is still a genius - or how Houston's free agency unravelled

well, this much is enough

 

Did you idol worship Morey before supper?

 

What makes you so sure? Bosh was happy in Miami and content with already having 2 rings. A max offer was the icing on the cake for a guy who didn't wanna pick up and leave town.

Dwight on the other hand has zero rings and I would assume is not too happy about that. He may be content to stay in H-Town past 2016, but only if there's no better situation out there with a comparable offer on the table.

 

lol

Exactly. Howard is going to retire a Rocket. This is his team now.

 

what if morey was never the genius everyone thinks he is and the real brain in the front office left last year to head his own thing in the east?

 

I don't know the ins and outs of the CBA, but the OP seems to have a good answer for all responses so far. Good thread, OP.

 

He already left a ton of extra money on the table in order to sign here. And he did it because he wanted to win and was miserable in LA. If in 2 years, the Rockets are nothing but first round fodder(or God forbid a lotto team in the loaded West), you think he's gonna prioritize money over championships(or just a single playoff series victory!) when negotiating what will be the final big contract of his career? Cuz I don't.

 

Bottom line is he took a shot to put together a super team by adding Bosh. Bosh backed out on us at the 11th hour for more money. At that point he had to look at the Mavs contract for Parsons and decide if a core of Howard, Harden, and Parsons, would be good enough to win a title because that is what we would have been stuck with for the next 4-5 years. He decided it was not and chose to get flexibility to make other moves.

Lin was gone regardless, he did not work as a 6th man and could not start with Harden. So we were not keeping him. Omer was gona also. He made that very clear during the season. So those two moves were not mistakes. People keep trying to say we lost 3 key players and it was a screw up, not matching Parson should be looked at as separate from Lin and Omer.

When Morey does make that next trade (because we have the TPE and additional 1st rnd pick and we get a good player that fits and fills a position of need, then we will see what everybody has to say. With Ariza and TJones developing we will still be a contending team (with the ability to make a big move).

 

I'll buy the OP's theory but here's one thing that no one had anticipated:

Gordon Hayward receiving a MAX offer from Charlotte

He went into last season without getting an extension done with Utah, hedging that his play during the season was going to get him that max contract. Of course he played like crap for most of the season and went into Restricted Free Agency not looking like a max player.

It only took one idiot (e.g. Charlotte) desperate enough and had enough cap room to cause a ripple effect during the Free Agency period.

Once Hayward got that Max offer sheet and Utah matched, why WOULDN'T Parsons and his agent think "Hey...maybe getting near max dollars is possible?" during their wait for Morey and the Rockets to do their thing?

And I agree with the OP that the Rockets can't be incompetent enough to think Parsons can't get a near-Max offer after letting him become a RFA but you have to consider that that % was going to be pretty low going into the offseason considering:

1. He plays a position that was filled with players better than him (LeBron, Melo) or offer better value (Ariza) that a max or near-max offer for a player with his resume would be pretty ridiculous.

2. His body of work, while impressive, was left with a black eye after last playoff's performance. He was pretty much outplayed by Batum who was making $11 million a year playing the same position as Parsons.

Once Hayward got that max offer sheet anything and everything could happen and unfortunately it did.

As far as Ariza's front-loaded deal, it's not commonplace but it's not all that weird. He's getting more money upfront and took the best offer he could get knowing that if he had waited too long he would have ended up with little leverage and little money left (see: Lance Stephenson). It was smart on the Rockets part to structure a flexible contract for further trade potential but it was also smart for Ariza to accept a reasonable offer and get paid the most in his first year.

 

harden will be at top of his prime by that time as well. it wouldn't make sense for him to go anywhere on top of the money. it was his own personal decision to choose houston to begin with. i can see what you're saying but it would make more sense if he wasn't over 30 in 2016.

 

which is why i was asking whether the loss of hinkie was more significant then people recognize...

 

Possibly over the long run, he'll make more here. But in terms of guaranteed money, he did turn down a bigger offer from the Lakers.

 

Why is there "no way" when Parsons signed the offer sheet on July 10th and it was announced that Ariza signed with Houston on July 12th?

According to this report ( here ), Ariza had potential suitors with the Mavericks, Lakers, Cavs, Heat and Wizards.

The Heat wouldn't have been able to offer more than the MLE considering they were still anticipating bringing the Big 3 back

The Lakers had caproom but how much of that were they willing to allocate for Ariza?

The Mavericks IIRC didn't even meet with Ariza because they got Parsons on the offer sheet

The Cavaliers...well I don't know enough about them but with Wiggins in the fold I doubt they wanted to bring in Ariza.

That left the Wizards. Washington could have given Ariza more money but they were watching the luxury tax and only rumored to have offered the same contract as what he accepted with Houston. Why would Ariza accept Washington's deal with Houston's did not come with state income tax and a frontloaded payday?