Yes and No. Harden back then and Wood now are still not in the same ball park talent wise. Not close.
There is a lot to it and some of it is contrary to what some of these recent articles have said. The easiest answer is that Harden was very close and trusted Daryl Morey....... loved playing for MDA...... both are gone and he doesn't have confidence in what is left.
Not saying Morey is bad. Or that Stone is great, he's only had so little time even though his moves so far have hit it out of the park bringing a bleak situation to one where its almost win win assuming we get someone on Simmons level if Harden is traded. Morey is a good gm, his approach with analytics has changed the nba, although I would give the credit to Les for being innovative enough to hire him in the first place. But over the years what was his signature move really besides the Harden trade? Dwight was a failure. Ryno was an abject failure. Melo was a failure. Cp3? Which teams wouldn't take cp3? I'm not even sure how much credit he should get for the Harden trade. Kevin Martin and a bag of cheetos is a no brainer for an up and coming star for anyone that didn't have blind folds on. That trade was loved instantly even here on CF. In hindsight Morey's greatest move may have been trading a starting Rafer for backup Lowry. That was a brilliant move. Pretty meh since then considering his messiah image (literally a meme). I would much rather have a Presti or Hinkie.
I think it's totally fair for Harden to feel that way. Can't blame him at all. Should still show up to work, and maybe he will change his mind after his first pnr with Wood. Or not. We will see.
I mean, ultimately it is up to the GM to execute the moves. He should definitely get a ton of credit for the Harden move. This board had a meltdown when we gave up Jeremy Lamb and a future guaranteed lottery pick (turned out to be Adams) for Harden. He drafted Parsons, Brooks, Landry, Capela which all turned out to be pretty good players. He traded the T-mac of Greece for ****ing Luis Scola. He traded for Goran Dragic (it was a crime that he didn't pay up to keep him, ended up giving the money to JLin [obvious Les Alexander move]) Traded Rafer for Kyle Lowry like you already stated. Traded Kyle Lowry for a guaranteed lottery pick (very unique protections) which ended up helping us land Harden. Convinced Howard to sign over here, which was a pretty big deal. Howard's first two seasons with Houston were great, I mean we got to the WCF with him on the team and he always played well in the playoffs. Traded for CP3. This board lost their mind when we gave up Williams, Beverley and Harrell for CP3. Hell, you still have members questioning all we gave up claiming we could of competed for a championship with that cast instead (LOL). Traded Rudy Gay for Battier (once he wasn't able to trade up to draft Brandon Roy), another move that this board lost their mind about, just ask @Clutch lol. Traded for Ron Artest by using Donte Green's one ****ing 40 point summer league game as the bait (bahaha). Trading T-mac for Kevin Martin was a great move. It's too bad Yao could never come back healthy. Signed PJ Tucker to an extremely friendly contract (PJ is pissed about it lol). I mean there are plenty of other moves that he made over the years and Morey deserves ton of credit how these teams stayed competitive no matter what. He's no Jerry West or Pat Riley, he just doesn't have that type of reputation, but he is still well respected around the league and still deserves all the credit in the work for the work he did here (and criticism as well).
Like I said he's a good gm and has consistently built a competitive team. A lot of those good moves like drafting ab or landry, or even Parsons ended up not moving the needle much. Harden move was a game changer. Lowry trade, then turning him into a guaranteed lotto was a great move. Picking Capela was also very good, forgot that one. When I said overrated what I mean is, Stone is this no name, thrown into maybe the most dire situation imaginable, then his first move was turning Westbrook(albatross) and Covington into Wall, Woods(imo young all star), and 3 first round picks. That's incredible and sets the team up for no matter what happens with the Harden situation. That's on par with any move that Morey had made during his entire tenure outside the Harden trade imo.
Leaning on Morey back channeling to Harden about the ownership of the Rockets. I believe Morey didn't want to go anywhere until he heard something during the interview with JVG. Most likely that the Rockets won't be spending happy from here on out on free-agents. And for Morey himself, lack of freedom to choose his coach.
AB or Landry would definitely moved the needle had T-mac and Yao stayed healthy. I mean, with just a healthy Yao, the 08-09 team had a very good chance of going all the way. That was an incredibly well put team with great depth and good coaching that was dealt bad luck. Parsons, well, he was an idiot for rescinding the team option. I get it that he may have been manipulated by Fegan because of the Howard connection, but Parsons would have been a very good player to keep around an additional year for $1M while also adding Ariza to the mix. Imagine having Parsons for that 2015 playoff run. You don't think that would of moved the needle? I guess hypothetical in this case, but I disagree about not moving the needle. Didn't Parsons help recruit Howard to Houston as well? My opinion, he is a great GM. It's stupid that one ****ing injury takes that opinion away from a lot of people. It's not his fault CP3 injured the hammy or that he came back old the next year. It's also not his fault that Harden and Tilman were hell bent on getting Westbrook here, otherwise, last year may have been a different story considering how CP3 played. It isn't his fault that T-mac's knee gave out in 08-09, that T-mac announced his microfracture surgery on ESPN (thus robbing us of the Vince Carter swap). It also isn't his fault that Yao's leg gave out the 3rd game of the second round against the Lakers. I get what you are saying, but at the end of day: jury is out on Wood and what he may turn out to be (I certainly hope you are right) Westbrook, he was going to be moved anyways, it's honestly not a slam dunk move since maybe Westbrook could of upped of his value during the season and we could of gotten a little more him (I actually liked this trade btw, but certainly see the other side of the argument) Kudos on getting us some FRPs. I know the board is down on the protections, but I actually he did well here. Stone has yet to address the media regarding Harden's situation. That is extremely disappointing considering he is the GM now. He has to step up, he can't just let his coach and players take the hits. It's not a good look. Overall, I'm pleased with Stone, but we will wait and see what his moves turn out to be.
Stone doesn't seem as media savvy as Morey, or as personable. I really had no expectation of him and was very down on the franchise and situation. Its pretty incredible what he's pulled off.
media savvy Morey or just always in the media Morey? This is a guy who has gotten a lot of pushback fir making outlandish claims (Harden best scorer ever) and costing his owner and the league endless money with one of the most in savvy media moves of all time. Tillman gets a lot of crap... rightfully so. But cmon... any other employee would have been fired on the spot for that blunder. one of my issues with DM over the years was how much he was in the media saying stupid stuff.
That's true. Media savvy is the wrong word. Sounding like he knows what he's doing may be a better way of putting it. Stone was stumbling around and looking lost during his intro.
I dunno .... What the hell can he say ? Harden aint here. I don't know why ?! I think this might be a case where saying nothing is his best option - not stirring the pot and pointing fingers. Staying calm and not adding fuel to the fire is his only hope of keeping his franchise player - he can cover for him later or he can tell it how it is when the time comes.
For those of you that listened to Stephen Silas's interview today, does anybody finding refreshing how he responded about bringing Wall and Cousins along slowly regarding minutes? He tried to stay away from the words "minute restrictions" but he stated that he pulled both aside and let them know his intentions to look after their health. I guess it's refreshing because Mike D's take was, "well if they are cleared to play, then they can play" and then he would go on to playing them too much. One example is how he didn't manage CP3's minutes correctly the first season. Instead he thought if he sat one night of a back to back, he could play him as long as he wanted that game he did play.
Until the All Star break we are not really going to know Silas' rotation, load management/minutes restriction philosophy, in game adjustments (offense AND defense), ATO efficiency, death line up, etc. His affinity for EGo may backfire or reinvigorate his career, who really knows right now before even one real game is played. Preseason doesn't mean anything yet, certainly would not establish any patterns we can depend on. But I do love his poise so far and I'm optimistic since he was my coaching choice after MDA.
