Even after signing Joe Johnson and Brandan Wright this week, the Rockets’ team salary remains slightly below the luxury tax threshold for 2017/18. Next season, however, if the team wants to re-sign players like Chris Paul, Clint Capela, and Trevor Ariza – not to mention possibly making a run at LeBron James – going well into tax territory is a virtual lock.
New Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, who paid $2.2 billion to buy the franchise from Leslie Alexander before the ’17/18 season got underway, isn’t particularly looking forward to ponying up more money for a luxury tax bill, but he tells Sam Amick of USA Today that he’s ready to do so if it means having a legit chance to win championships.
“The NBA is a tough business,” Fertitta said. “And you can go from making money to losing money very quickly. Everybody has to remember, I did pay $2.2 billion for this team. I didn’t pay $80MM for it, okay? And I’m not worth $20 billion, but I have no problem paying luxury tax if I truly think that it truly gives me the chance to win the championship next year, okay?”
Fertitta’s comments suggest that he won’t simply hand over a blank check to team management — he pointed out that this year’s team is a legit championship contender without team salary going over the tax threshold, hinting that the league’s highest-paid teams aren’t always its best. Still, the Rockets owner has faith that GM Daryl Morey will help him invest his money wisely. According to Morey, the two men have already had conversations about next year’s payroll.
“We’ve talked through (the luxury tax),” Morey said. “We’re going to be in the tax next year, and…nothing’s going to hold him back from putting together a championship team. He obviously has the money; he just paid the highest amount ever for a team.”
Rockets are a wonderful team with a good bench and they’llwin a lot of games in the regular season, but they won’t win it all and here’s why.
#1 reason, Harden does not get “those” calls he’s used to getting as you get deeper into the playoffs. He’ll go one on 3 ( defense gets a little tighter in the playoffs,) and throw up a miss, get a little tap on the hand and not get the call.
#2 Chris Paul is not a championship point guard, he’s a second-round exit point guard, and we’ve seen that for 10 years. Give him an All-Star power forward, give him the legit athletic shot-blocking, lead the NBA in rebounding Center and he still can’t do it.
Whatever the reason he gets hurt, they get hurt, poor coach, whatever.
#3 Eric Gordon is a fine player but he will break down on you. He’s tough gets to the hole, and is one of my favorite effort scorers.
But he lets me down every time… he’ll get hurt, he’s a little overmatched against a bigger shooting guard. Toughness goes a long way but not far enough as you get deeper into the playoffs.
That’s enough for now.
I agree with #1 and #3, even though CP hasn’t passed the 2nd round. He was close to handing the Jazz a first round exit last year since he was amazing. He’s going to be key if Harden struggles.
Yes CP3 has never made it past the second round, but its hardly been his fault. When he’s been healthy, he has played well in the playoffs. When he was in New Orleans, those teams didn’t have a true second option to help him out. In LA, Blake was always hurt. Sure DJ puts up nice looking stats, but the playoffs are a whole different thing where your weaknesses get exposed. DJ, while a great rebounder and shot blocker, is only an average defender as he can’t reliably switch onto smaller defenders and also can’t do anything on offense aside from catch lobs.
Everybody needs to remember that the same thing was said of the Warriors during their first championship run. Not saying the Rockets will make it all the way, but we shouldn’t just hand it over to the Warriors yet.
Chris Paul has problems staying healthy but he’s one of the best players in the league when he’s on the court. It’s not his fault all his teams have been terrible.
It’s also true former Rockets owner said he sold the team because the players salaries are getting too high. How much is too much?
To me the Warriors are still the clear favorites. The core has played together for a few years. The bench too. Steve Kerr is one of the best coaches in the NBA. He is very smart. He lets his players coach. He lets Draymond go off. He’s a players coach. He’s won titles as a player and coach. We all know many of these injuries are for rest. Kerr is known for it. Outside of Iguadala, Livingston, and West, the Warriors are still young. They have 4 all-stars to everybody elses 1 or 2. The Cavs breezed through the eastern conference last season then got tore up bad by the Warriors. Everybody is playing for the chance to play the Warriors. The Warriors can rest a star in the Finals and still win it. Until the Warriors split up over finances, I don’t see anyone beating them. I think they are one of the best of all time.
I see OKC as the biggest threat to the Warriors in the playoffs. D’ Antoni coaches his players to his system. It worked in Phoenix, but failed in New York and Los Angeles. Kerr makes a system to suit his players. For Cleveland, Iguadala plays LeBron better than any one. LeBron has to guard Durant. Kyrie hit the shot to win the Finals 2 seasons ago, he’s gone, plus Draymond was suspended for a game. Boston is too young and Toronto has never played in a Finals before. Washington has a John Wall problem.
The Warriors are still the favorites, but they’ve never been this banged up in the past 3 seasons and never have had as deep of a Western Conference either. Sure the Western Conference has been better than the Eastern conference in the past, but their only legitimate threats were a Spurs team that they only saw once (and played against them without Kawhi, which was a series changing injury) and the Durant-led Thunder who choked up the series win. The Rockets and Thunder match up almost perfectly to play against the Warriors, the Timberwolves can potentially create some problems in the playoffs with their size and athleticism if they can figure out how to play defense, and the Spurs are still there chugging along without Kawhi. In regards to injuries, yes the Warriors had Durant miss time in the regular season last year and Curry missed time in the playoffs 2 or 3 years ago, but the rest of the roster was pretty healthy. This year, most of their major contributors aside from Klay have missed time with injuries. Plus, the amount of technical fouls that Draymond and Durant have built up is something to watch as it could come back to hurt them in the playoffs.
The Warriors are like the Cavs, you can throw out the regular season. Don’t forget the Warriors have played without Steph Curry and Steve Kerr in the Finals. Durant too. The Cavs payed Mike Brown to coach against them in Finals last year. Luke Walton coached the Warriors to the best record in NBA history when Kerr was out. They’ve said they won’t try to do that again. Kerr is messing around right now. Letting Draymond coach a game says it all.
Draymond remembers he cost the Warriors the Finals 2 years ago, he won’t do that again. Durant was Finals MVP and has taken the torch from LeBron. He’s smart enough to know how to play in the Finals.
Harden’ defense and Durant will hurt the Rockets. Klay Thompson will hurt OKC.
You are delusional if you are think Lebron handed the torch to Durant.
And Klay Thompson says on NBA.com his goal is to resign with the Warriors and play his entire career with them. They like each other. For a team this talented they don’t let their egos get in their way!
We’ll see how he feels when a 5 year $200 million dollar deal gets offered from another team.
I’m here to say as a Warriors fan that Klay will not be the same type of player without Steph Curry beside him.
I love Klay Thompson and he makes Steph Curry a better player. Don’t take this the wrong way but if Klay has to be the number one guy, which you will at that salary, it ain’t going to happen.
Klay cannot create his own shot off the dribble and Klay doesn’t have incredible court vision.
Klay is a Lockdown Defender and a dead eye jump shooter. Perfect for the Warriors, and he’s exceptional at those two things.
On another team and expected to be the go-to guy? That contract is not coming from anyone that knows basketball.
Klay has the shoe deal from China. His dad was a long time NBA player. He wants to play his entire career with Steph. He’s loyal. See article on NBA.com
That would be awesome.
Next year? The Rockets are winning it this season.
What makes you say that
They are just deeper all around then those trash Warriors and have forwards in Ariza,Tucker, and Luc who can shoot,defend, and play multiple positions. Chris Paul is a different player in this Rockets system and not just a traditional pass first guard. The floor is more spaced for him to be a different player and be a lot more dynamic. Rest won’t be an issue with Harden also since now he doesn’t have to run the offense and lead the team in scoring at the same time.
Too bad harden is a joke and his fouls drawing play style doesn’t work in the playoffs. The rockets have a deep bench sure, but nobody that can match up with Durant. Thompson can defend harden and those forwards don’t have a leg to stand on against draymond. Get over it, rockets are garbage next to the warriors.
For spending (bad contracts) and titles: Toronto has wanted to unload Valancunas, Washington had to let Bogdanovich go, the Rockets would love to let Ryan Anderson go, OKC brought in Melo and George knowing they could be rentals, Miami has talked of letting Whiteside and Dragic go, Milwaukee fird it’s coach and will probably let Parker go, the Cavs would love to get rid of J.R. and T.T., may have to let Love and LeBron go. Boston has always acquired draft picks and held on to them (except for Kyrie, good move), will probably let Marcus Smart go.
L.A. says it wants 2 free agents over 2 years to get competitive. No one will take Luol Deng.
The rest of the league will stay under the salary cap and either tank or try to be competitive. Except maybe Detroit.
Indiana, Atlanta, and Chicago blew it up last year.
Charlotte, Miami, OKC, L.A. Clippers, and Cavs could be next.
Portland would give up Meyers Leonard for a nickle if the league would let them.