As people said he inherited the team and especially the Top 2-3 Center of Alltime (I am biased I know, there was Bill Russell, Wilt and Kareem and Shaq)
Wait, what? We have way more data on Les than we do Tilman. With Fertitta, we've had basically one season and 2.5 weeks. If there's a "for sure" conclusion on either, it's the guy who was there for significantly longer than that.
Tilman looks to suck ass but it isn't because of the lux tax. It's because he's a loud mouth, attention seeking douche it appears. Not my preference for the team I follow.
Tilman is more accomplished as a business owner than Les Alexander. Also, his net worth is between double and triple that of Les. Not sure why there is a stigma that Tilman is broke or cheap but it feels completely unmerited.
It seems like you're saying he should have made a move just to use every last cent whether it makes the team better or not. You make the assumption that there was a trade out there involving Shumpert that definitely made the Rockets better, if at all. We also don't know if he had a trade for Shumpert that was tied to something else that didn't go through. I think many of us just disagree that the best way to construct a team is to immediately throw every dollar at whatever free agent will take it. I don't think it's smart to do that because lesser players will take your money, and because you tie your hands for later moves that may actually improve your team. I don't see this as avoiding the tax as much as avoiding getting hardcapped. If they don't think that the team as constructed isn't good enough to win it all, I don't want them making a trade that gets them hardcapped if they don't think that trade gets them to a level that they can win the championship.
Not to mention the one year he DID pay the tax, he was getting like $10m back from insurance because Yao Ming was not playing. DD
I don't know Tilman or Les personally (lulz?) - but I greatly preferred how Les carried himself in public. I didn't hear bad things about Les as a person. I hear nothing but bad things about Tilman. Les donated to animal charities. Tilman keeps a wild white tiger locked in a cage in downtown Houston (why even?). Les inherited a title bound team, got a taste for winning, and never stopped chasing rings. Many times his attempts to get better failed (Pippen, Derek Anderson, Mo Taylor, Swift, etc) -- but it was always something. Constant commitment to improvement. That's what you want from an owner. I do think Les got out somewhat because he saw what was coming with the huge payrolls and need to dip into the luxury tax to compete with superteams. The value of the team spiked, but the price to compete was trending up (Ryan Anderson $20mil) -- so it was the perfect storm. He wasn't willing to pay the luxury tax? And his response was.... to GET OUT and SELL? Good for him. That's in the best interest of the fans. Kudos. Tilman comes along and buys the team, even though it costs about the same as he was worth at the time (yikes) and despite what comes out of his mouth, he's clearly demonstrated he doesn't want to pay the price to compete. You take GSW to 7 with an injured Paul and you don't go all-in the following year? That tells me you're NEVER going all-in. You cant get any closer than that... Ultimately it isn't about Les in any way. Les could have been trash. It doesn't matter. This is about the current owner we're stuck with. Pretty sure Les was about to fork over whatever he had to long-term to roster Dwight, Bosh, Parsons, Harden though.
Just like Tilman was about to fork over whatever he had to re-sign Jimmy Butler to a 5-year max, had Minnesota taken Houston's offer last fall. You can't talk hypotheticals in one direction and ignore them for the other.
It's not even using every last cent; it's using the available resources when the timing is most opportunistic which was this offseason. We caught a huge break when Rivers decided to take the vet minimum. We caught a lesser break when we were able to bring back House using only part of the MLE. Those are definite wins but we still needed to address our weaknesses at the 3 and 4 spot. Looking at ONLY the players that signed for about $6 per or less, there were some good players there that could have been difference makers on this team. With the competitive balance pretty much even in the West, having a very good 8th or 9th man on this team might mean the difference between a 1st round exit or going to the Finals. I guess my thing is that, based on Morey's track record, he always had a contingency plan ready if his primary move couldn't work out and executed them fairly quickly. I will exclude last year and not hold that against him because we really didn't have much wiggle room. This summer, however, there were more free agents available that played a position(s) we are in need of, we also had decent money to spend, etc. It's still only 7/19 and Morey will always try to find players during the season to acquire but I believe we should have acquired some depth going into the season just to give the team a safety net if *knocks on wood* our players go down with injuries again and one player has to shoulder the burden for x amount of games.
I think the point is that you can't criticize Tilman as cheap and then turn around and praise Les in the same breath. Les proved himself a cheapskate throughout his tenure as the Rockets owner. That is 100% indisputable. Tilman on the other hand basically inherited a less than stellar cap situation where potentially marginal moves will cost him a lot in LT. I would give Tilman at least half a decade before making a decision either way.
The difference to me is that with Les we never gave up a first round pick or any significant asset to get under the luxury tax. It never felt like his cheapness was seriously hurting the team. Tilman has already not used the MLE and not added salary when there were multiple opportunities as a contender to do so. That's the frustrating part. The Brandon Knight trade reminds me of Robert Sarver and when Phoenix gave up Rajon Rondo basically for cash.
Ignore it then. Stick with just the facts. And you still arrive at the same place. Are you reimbursed in one way or another to spin positive PR?
This Not sure why anybody is giving Tilman excuses. He’s said publicly that he’s not worried about the tax and that Morey is advised to go into it and that he’ll “win at all costs”. His actions indicate otherwise. He’s willing to pay for stars like Butler but not for important role players or players that Morey can leverage in future moves. That’s pretty much what it comes down to and I don’t understand giving Tilman a pass for it, at least until something changes.
les sucks never went for it only brought us drexler,pippen,barkley,rice,francis,mcgrady,mutumbo,artest,martin,howard !!
