It’s 2022 we’re still talking about donatas motiejunas. Can I get some love for vassilis spanoulis the t mac of Greece
I believe Stone has done a pretty good job. I mean he walked in and his two superstars demanded trades and he accommodated both and gained pretty decent assets in the process. We can question some of who he kept or didn't keep in the Harden deal, but in the end the results have led to the last two drafts which I have to say have both been homeruns so far. No GM is gonna bat a 1.000, but to date he's been a solid B+ to A- for me. He seems to want to build and grow a "team". I loved Morey, but he seemed to assemble assets versus the latter.
Yea definitely dodged that one although a part of me at the time really thought Stone was just offering that contract for PR purposes because everyone knew at the time Dipo was looking for a contract much larger than that. I never thought Vic was going to take a contract like that.
It's going to be really interesting what he does next summer when he has capspace to work with. Is he going to be smart about using it or is he going to make it rain unnecessarily?
That's my concern as the team moves away from tanking and towards attempting to win games. Just about every signing Stone has made was a bad one and his failure to move players at the trade deadline last year was nearly a fireable offense IMO. I don't trust him to sign the right FA's to proper contracts, I don't trust him to make trades that make sense, though I do like the Wood trade....it just happened several months after it should have. Obviously he deserves to be given the chance to get it right, but I don't think he deserves the trust of the fans yet when it comes to non-draft moves.
Ever heard of Harden trade? Look at Morey in Philly cant think of anything except get old Rox players. Sometimes 1-2 years is all you need to determine whether a GM is good or bad.
The Harden trade blew up Brooklyn and made Houston one of the most promising teams in the entire league in just two years. One day we will understand that attitude and personality are just as important as talent when you are building a team, and that the wrong player can ruin everything.
He traded for Chris Wood and then dumped ROCO at the same time for a 1st round pick. Strange to keep Stone out of the limelight - he deserves it!
Sorry KPJ, Tate, Matthews not terrible. Even Theis was fine since he was easily tradeable. Oladipo would have been a bad choice, but it didn’t happen. People wringing their hands because we paid Nwaba and passed on Jarret Allen are not seeing the big picture. My only problem with what we have now, is that we don’t have anything but Gordon to match salaries with, so it’s pretty much FA’s or bust in 2024. I think we should take on a bad contract for draft picks, so that we can do some salary matching if we are ready to compete after next year. Gordon Hayward was my pick before the draft…..
I disagree. The Harden trade was as well done as he could have done. It's looking great right now. The signings of Wood, Tate and Garrison Matthews were hits. I think the Wood trade was good, too. LOVED the trade down from 26 to 29 for two additional future second rounders and snagging Tyty anyway. He's done some good stuff.
For anyone wanting to listen to the entire interview and has SiriusXM, it's archived on their app under SiriusXM NBA Radio. He says that Jalen's work ethic is great and he knows of only one other person he'd been around whose work ethic was on that level - James Harden. He said the Christian Wood trade was done to open up some time for other guys and they knew incoming draftee because they knew they would be drafting in that position. They didn't know who they'd be drafting, but it would be at that position (I'm guessing he meant just a "big"). They were worried about playing time for everybody. They thought it was a good value and also thought it would be a good fit for him, too. They don't have everything figured out from the beginning on the rebuild - some of it is you learn things as you go along. One of the things they learned is there are advantages to having the group as a whole struggling and succeeding together and having people on the same pace. "I think for Alperen this is going to be a really really cool opportunity, and then, you know, we do have Jabari coming in. And, I just think for us, it made sense to go in this direction, and I think he's gonna help Dallas, so we wish him nothing but the best." He said everybody says when you're rebuilding, you "have" to have a vet... so Gordon's their guy. The highest compliment he can pay Eric is that he wants everybody on their team to become the professional Eric already is. If the team learns how to be a professional by watching and emulating Eric, they're going to be amazing in 2 or 3 years, because Eric's figured it out. He said when Eric's on the floor, he makes his teammates better. He's one of the few guys that does that without being ball-dominant, so it allows Scoot and Jalen to do their thing. He stretches the court. Everybody talks about guys stretching the court and Eric's one of the pioneers of that because few people get guarded where Eric gets guarded on the court. They asked Rafael to define what "success" is for them. His answer was "it's improvement". It's improvement from every player every day, every month, etc. on an individual and group basis combined with working hard. He says he thinks the group does work hard. He said if we improve, then they've had a very successful year. After that definition, they brought up KPJ's behavior/incident(s) in the past which resulted in a suspension for a game despite his talents. Why should we believe he's going to be that professional you want everybody on your team to be? His immediate response was "how professional were you when you were 21?" They kind of started laughing. Stone goes on to say "that's the reason we're confident to the extent we are - because he's a work in progress, and he knows that. But he's been great with us and had a great stretch with us since that Denver game. He said "but also the entirety of his time with us has been waaaaay more good than bad. He's cognizant that he's not perfect and needs to improve" but they're encouraged by what they've seen to-date and the improvement he's made on and off the court in his time with the Rockets has been exemplary. So they're happy with him, but he's not perfect and the process is not finished as it relates to him or the rest of the group - everybody has to get better.
Certainly the organization has dramatically changed course since the Harden debacle. But the true bar is to see the team win more each year.
Honest question - is Detroit more talented than us? Are they primed to make a run for the play in / exit rebuilding phase before we do?
