(Apologies to kidney stone sufferers for using "stone passed" in a thread title). So Rafael passed his first big test. This could have gone very badly for us, but instead he did the following: * Managed to pull off a complex deal to acquire Christian Wood on a S&T without being able to negotiate until the last minute (wink, wink). * Created a bit of wiggle room to bring in one or two more rotation guys. * Brought in some youth and potential, both in short supply last year. * Didn't publicly piss off Harden and/or Westbrook, while simultaneously not publicly kissing their asses, either. * Best of all, he did all this while somehow keeping us well positioned to either compete while we've still got Harden and Westrook on the rosters, or to ride out their departures (assuming the compensation for them is decent). Not a bad week for the rook. I'll give him a grade of a solid B, which could go up to a B+ or even A- depending on signings in the next few days.
Yeah I'm fairly impressed so far. Shouldn't be long until Tilman puts his foot down though and starts making moves on his behalf to shed salary. Then when it all goes to ****, he can blame Stone and hire Patty Ferns in his place as our new GM in a couple years.
He didn’t have much to work with but let’s pretend Roco for Wood is a wash. We are in a worse position roster wise this year than last year. Losing Green and Rivers hurts a ton. We only have EG on the bench and a bunch of literal scrubs. I hope the tope 6 are all ready to play big big minutes this year baring some insane trade.
Still need a starting three because I don’t see House as a starter on a championship level team and Gordon is more of a two who can pinch hit at the three.
Really im far more impressed with his decision making this summer than with Daryls recent efforts(with rockets)
They aren't a championship team. That expectation is unrealistic and should not be the lens through which you judge the roster/moves. They are: 1) A fringe contender if Harden/Russ buy in 2) A rebuild scenario if they don't and we trade them 3) A **** show if they don't buy in but we don't trade them Stone has done as well as he could do under the circumstances. He couldn't force Jeff Green to want to stay here when he knows Harden and Westbrook don't want to.
Obviously need replacements for Green and Rivers. But letting Rivers go is for the best. He had some good moments here, but I was not a fan of his attitude or his play this year.
Soooooo... We have... C: PJ Tucker/Christian Wood PF: Danuel House/Kenny Wooten Jr. SF: Eric Gordon/David Nwaba SG: Harden/Ben McLemore PG: Westbrook/Chris Clemons Do we still have the MLE? What did we trade in the Wood sign and trade?
We "have" the MLE but the hard cap limits us to spending only around $6-$8 million more in total to fill out the roster. It's minimum signings from here on out with maybe one guy getting a tad more. Unless they clear some room under the apron by moving Gordon or Tucker OR a bigger deal with Harden/Westbrook of course. We gave up Robert Covington in the SnT.
we only have minimum contracts left unless we manage to clear room away from the hard cap apron by trading gordon for less salary. then we'd still have the ability to use the MLE. we traded ariza, the 16th pick, and $4.6M in cash for wood, a heavily protected future first which will likely end up conveying as 2 seconds, and the lakers second round pick next year, likely the last pick in the draft. I think wood comes in as the clear starting center. I'd put our rotation like this: wood-??? tucker-??? house-nwaba harden-gordon rus-??? we probably look to add a backup center next. someone who can step into the 4/5 rotation with tucker and wood. so we can go "small ball" with tucker at the 4 and wood at the 5, and then "big" with wood at the 4 and new guy at the 5. this would give us a lot of versatility.
Upon promotion I graded it as........(B — / C +) Getting two 1st for Covington was huge. Rockets can now attach w/ Westbro or EGo trade.......(B / B +) From no light, complete darkness to glimmer of light beginning to shine. Obtaining Christian Wood through the Ariza deal..........brings Stone grade up to (B +) in my eyes. ____________________________________________________________ How Mr. Stone fills out the roster and if he can move Eric Gordon and/or Westbrook will determine if the Stone overall grade to this point goes up or down. Moving Westbrook for players..........(A —/ A) depending on return pieces. Moving Eric Gordon.........................(A —) depending on return package Moving Westbro & EGo....................(A / A +) depending on return. Moving neither prior to start of season is a failure. Not an (F) but a (C).........leading to an (F) by trading deadline. Rockets lose all leverage needing to trade Westbrook at deadline and everyone knowing it. If Westbrook nabs us dollars in a trade before the season.....he brings us pennies on the dollar at trade deadline. Stone was left with a complete disaster and has happened to bring some breathing room.
Losing Green hurts more than Rivers. Doc's kid was inconsistent AF, but fun to watch when he was having a good night. That said, let's see what Stone does with the rest of the roster. My thread wasn't created to say he put together a championship roster in his first attempt, but considering how badly things were going just a couple of days ago, I'd say that SO FAR, he's shown himself to be a capable, savvy GM.
The relationship between NBA front offices and players needs to change. If you are a super star, you will get paid an insane amount of money, front offices should take into your input at a higher weight, as the team is usually going to be built around the super star, they should recognize their social causes and support them with anything they do in their communities, but there needs to be a line. If a superstar is going to push a team to make moves that potentially could be catastrophic and cause long term harm, they should not feel like they have this level of control in most orgs. A player like Lebron being in a market like Cleveland would be an exception, because he single handedly drove the value of the franchise. Houston, has the ability to be successful with or without Harden if they are smart. It is important to build a culture where our front office and owner are respected and their decisions are not questioned by players , this respect will need to be earned. It will take some time, but if they are able to figure it out, it could work. Cuban had a ton more money, but he also made some massive errors when he first purchased the Mavs, he's since been humbled, hopefully Tilly will be too.