Meh, losing Harden and Morey really sucked. Losing MDA mostly sucked. At the end of the day though, they wanted to leave for various reasons. Only thing we can do is stop focusing on what has already happened and just hope that Tilman matures enough to stay out of Stone's way and as COVID ends and Landrys starts to do better, that he starts to open up his wallet. As far as the historic losing streak, I personally couldn't give a damn about that and no logical Rockets fan should either. It is in our best interest to lose as much as we can, so we can score and keep a top 4 pick. That is something we can actually control versus hoping Miami somehow suck enough to sink into the lottery. Like seriously, we are tanking, why does any Rockets fan in the right mind WANT us to win? Work smarter, not harder. The basketball gods willing, we luck out in building a great core and deep team like Raptors or Warriors BEFORE players earn their contracts and we have to let players ago due to the cap ballooning and actually get a championship. I just don't see Houston as a FA destination for most stars otherwise despite our historically great win%.
He is on the proverbial hot seat... He appeared to be literally sitting in it during that conference.
U still should. He won't say Tillman is behind this. Never will. It's a reason the perception is Tillman is behind this n they have to go out the way to say he is.
Stone, "If you all could just wait until I am ready to retire before you judge these moves I would appreciate it."
He is right on the 10 year thing. What matters in the Harden deal is who we draft in 25, 26, and 27, and then in three years, who those players ultimately become. I don't envy Stone, as he is in a incredibly difficult position, with having to report to Patrck Dumbshitta, and having to pick up the pieces of a failed "all in" team, but his moves have been okay. I definitely didn't like everything with Olidipo, and seems silly to have passed on Allen, but so far, the use of Cap Space (Wood) has been a major win. I am excited to see how he manages his cap going forward, especially if we can move Gordon this offseason. His next big challenge will be how to maximize return on Christian Wood. Relatively short deal and he needs to be flipped before he demands out.
According to idiots. Unless those picks are top 3 picks they should be considered assets. Remember when Morey couldn't trade 3 first rounders to move up to top 5?
Difference is we would be stuck for multiple years on that contract, yay. And Allen is a nice player but he will be asking for the max. If you are a rebuilding team and paying Jarrett Allen the max you are doing it wrong. Would they have fetched more trade value at the deadline than Oladipo? Probably but that is hindsight 20/20. Oladipo is coming off a major injury and was starting to look healthier compared to last year, if he continued to improve he could have had higher trade value especially if the team was doing well. Instead, Wood got hurt, team imploded, and Oladipo started playing selfish me ball. Things certainly did not work out the way Stone planned but that doesn't mean it was the wrong thing to do at the time, only people complaining are those who do not understand that concept, that you can do the right thing and still get a bad outcome. But in the long run doing the right thing over and over will get you ahead. Despite all that, they still got a nice piece in Olynyk and pick swap likely worth 10 spots (bkn to Mia), which is not insignificant. Stone has and continues to do well.
Morey used to treat actual humans as assets and was celebrated for it. Now we are complaining that Stone treats draft picks (an actual asset) as assets?
We have plenty a cap space and the contract is only for 2 more years and I bet we could have gotten as much as we did for Oladipo and not more. We could have signed and traded Allen and he is a restricted FA so we would not have had to sign him for the max. Olynyk is a free agent so how is that a nice piece? We could have gotten all of that and more if we had Allen and Levert. The only thing Stone has done well is getting a 1st for Westbrook.
Why are people shocked that the GM said everything is great? Of course he's going to say that, he's not going to sit there and go "Everything is terrible!" because that would be incredibly stupid to do, would throw the players and coaches right under the bus and back the bus on top of them all while throwing himself under the bus. Of course he's going to act like there is a master plan in action and everything is great. Part of the sell.
[The Athletic] Rockets GM Rafael Stone Q&A: Trading Victor Oladipo, Houston’s rebuild, Stephen Silas’ first year and more By Kelly Iko Truth be told, we’ve heard very little from Rockets general manager Rafael Stone this season. Apart from the introductory news conference at the beginning of the season and right after the James Harden trade, Stone has largely been in the background during his first year in his new role. The Rockets are in unfamiliar territory as we head into April, sporting a 13-33 record that’s tied for second-worst in the league. For a team in the midst of a rebuild and direction, you’d like to hear from Stone more — at least publicly. This is a new role for all parties involved — from Stone to head coach Stephen Silas to the team itself as a former-contender-turned-cellar dweller. Houston is no longer throwing punches with the big boys of the league. Instead, members of the organization use words like culture, stability and flexibility to assess their current status. By all indications, those are indicative of a rebuilding process. In other words, Stone has his work cut out for him. A week after the trade deadline, Stone spoke for nearly half an hour with the media, answering questions about the scope of his job. From the team’s big move at the deadline to new faces on the roster to the plan for this offseason, here are the general manager’s words followed by The Athletic’s analysis. On the Victor Oladipo trade We had kind of organizationally made a decision that the Victor fit wasn’t a good one, and at that point, what do you do? Then it became time to make a deal that has some upside and move on to the next stage. From our perspective, we really like the guys in the deal. Kelly (Olynyk) and Avery (Bradley) are both guys we’ve liked for several years. The opening up a spot for playing time for current players — particularly Kevin (Porter Jr.) — was important. We also got a swap out of Miami that we think could be material. There are lots of little parts to this deal that aggregated to something we wanted to do. That’s why we did it. We felt at the time that we did the best deal for the franchise possible. Particularly given the types of things we got back, we can’t know how we did for multiple years. But I feel good about it. I would one hundred percent do the deal again. Literally no part of me regrets that deal for a moment. Analysis: I wished Stone would have really gotten into the specifics of the deal given how late in the game the Rockets pulled the trigger, but I also understand how awkward that could have gotten with some of the players still on the roster. It’s a deal that has future implications written all over it. Judging from Monday night’s game, Olynyk and Bradley are quality pieces that can help a team, and Olynyk especially looks to be just what the doctor ordered as a backup to Christian Wood. The pick swap with Miami could be valuable, but it’s still a gamble; the Heat are making the playoffs next season, barring any unforeseen injury-ravaged year. The Rockets have big plans for Porter, and Oladipo’s presence quite frankly was in the way of exploring those. Houston didn’t send Porter down to the G League bubble and have him play heavy minutes with the ball in his hands for him to come back and take a step back in his development. Considering Oladipo probably didn’t want to be here himself, a trade just made sense for all parties involved. The return is what has everyone up in arms, and while it looks average on paper, Stone seems to have a longer game at play. On the futures of Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk. Could they stay past this season? For sure. Avery’s got a team option but not different from Victor. We’ll have Bird rights for Kelly. We’re trying to find good fits. One of the advantages of the rebuild construct we’re doing is there’s a place for veterans on your team stabilizing influences, helping younger players develop in the right way. I think a good mix of old and young is attractive. That doesn’t mean these guys will be the perfect fit. I’m optimistic about the fit, but you don’t know someone until you work with them. I’m looking forward to getting to know them, having them fit in with the group, and we’ll make decisions at the end of the time. Analysis: Stone mentioned having Bird rights for Olynyk, but will the Rockets really hang on to him? I see his value as an expiring contract, but let’s face it, his stock was down a tad before being traded. If he keeps up performances like his 25-point, nine-rebound showing against Memphis, that value will increase heading into the offseason. In that case, depending on how much cap room the Rockets have to play with after the season, Olynyk might get too expensive to hang on to, especially if Houston is going big-game hunting. I do understand the benefit of having guys like Olynyk and Bradley for the time being, though. Silas seems genuinely pleased just having available bodies to work with, and it doesn’t hurt that those two are serviceable players. I’m just not sure if they’re in Houston’s long-term plans.
On the overall vision and philosophy to a rebuild We tried to win a championship for multiple years in a row and didn’t worry about the future. That’s one of the things I’ve thought about over the last several months, whether we should do that again. Because you’re always trying to learn. I’m completely unapologetic about that. Organizationally, for the last five or six years, we’ve been all in. Given the players we’ve had, the place this roster has been, the team construct, we did the right thing. Where we’re at this year is kind of similar to where Golden State was last year. There’s a consequence to those actions — if you go for it, go for it — trying to maximize this year and not looking two or three years out, there are consequences. In terms of how we go from here, I feel pretty comfortable that we like where we are in the beginning stages. We’re going to take constant bets. We’re going to do it, not all of them are going to work out. But I think in terms of the young players on the roster, we have a young core that we really like. We want to add to them, but I don’t think we need to do a wholesale tank strategy like some teams have done in the past or are doing now. We’ve been ravaged by injuries; our record reflects that. Analysis: This is about as forthcoming as you’ll ever get from Stone. The Rockets, as I wrote last week, have finally come to grips with their present situation. A rebuild is the only logical thing this franchise can do to get back to the levels it was at for the past four seasons. His answer showed how near-sighted teams can be when they’re going for glory, but he would do it over again if he had the chance, as would most teams that haven’t had that luxury of contending. Shooting for the stars year after year does come with consequences, though, and the Rockets are seeing them now. But their flexibility isn’t totally shot, and they have some young pieces to work with as well as the hope of landing a top pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. It looks like they’re also against the outright tanking thing. You can watch a game like Monday’s loss to Memphis and see why; the Rockets can come out and play as hard as they can, have spurts where they look really good and still end up losing by 10 at home. They don’t have to throw games on purpose to improve their draft chances. That just comes naturally given the talent on hand. On preparing for the upcoming draft and free agency The draft and free agency [are] still a ways away — we’ll be completely prepared. The free-agency stuff doubles down with the trade deadline, so that’s relatively easy. The draft stuff, we’re doing work all year long, but it intensifies in the month before the draft. A normal amount of both. Analysis: Picking at the top of the draft is new territory for Houston. The Rockets never endured a losing season under Daryl Morey’s watch, but those days are long gone. I’d have liked a bit more depth into this answer because this year’s draft is extremely important. Houston has to nail this pick, or it could set the rebuild back even further. I’d assume all 30 teams have the same five guys at the top of their boards — Cade Cunningham, Jalen Suggs, Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga and Evan Mobley. The order of those might be shuffled around a bit, but there won’t be too much deviation altogether. Perhaps Stone doesn’t want to give away his draft secrets too early, but he could have elaborated a bit more. As far as free agency is concerned, however, I get it. The Rockets know that game quite well, and the sign-and-trade they pulled off for Wood is an example of how creative they can get when opportunities present themselves. This summer’s crop has some intriguing names including Kelly Oubre, Josh Richardson, Jrue Holiday and others. Houston plans to be aggressive this offseason, and the Rockets’ “interest list” tends to not change much year after year. They’re essentially interested in all good players. On conversations with John Wall and Eric Gordon I love John and Eric, I talk to them both regularly. We talk about basketball, life, my kids, their kids. This has been a challenging year, but we’re not the only ones that have gone through it. The reality is if you take injuries or COVID absences, life gets really hard really quickly. With games being condensed, it’s challenging. We don’t have a good sense for how good this roster is because this roster hasn’t played together at all. We won six games in a row when we were kinda-sorta healthy and have not since then. Inside the locker room, that’s pretty well understood. It doesn’t mean people aren’t’ frustrated or disappointed, but that’s the reality of what occurred. Hopefully, as we get healthier, we can get a better sense of who we are. Analysis: Wall and Gordon have to be among the frustrated figures here — Gordon, especially, being the only holdover from Houston’s best years (excluding Danuel House). The franchise has already traded Harden, P.J. Tucker, Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul. Will it eventually reach that point with Gordon too? His role as a sixth man is an important one, but Gordon surely has championship aspirations of his own, and he’s always done right by Houston. He’s not the one to make public trade requests or show unhappiness like some of his former teammates, but those conversations will have to occur behind closed doors if they happen at all. If Gordon is seeking a new challenge, it would behoove Stone and the front office to find a trade either around the draft or next season. Gordon can certainly add scoring punch to any team that might be interested. You could say the same for Wall. How long does Houston plan on keeping him around? This has been an important season for him, one in which he’s shown the NBA world that he can still play at a high level even after a long spell away from the game, but he’s also being paid north of $40 million for the next two seasons and probably wants to compete at a higher level. Next season could get interesting. On involving Christian Wood in roster decisions I try and work with people that I think are smart and good at their jobs. That includes our players, past and present. If a player is really smart, one of the questions I have is ‘What are you seeing? What things could put us over the top?’ and have those conversations regularly. We’re still doing that with Christian, but with John for sure, with Eric and even with our young guys. I want to know how they think. Depending on someone’s level of experience/knowledge, you listen more or less. Ultimately, it’s on me, but I do like that input from everybody. All those things get better with time. Christian’s definitely someone I talk to, someone I have a relationship with. What he’s seeing and feeling, he’s the one on the court, that’s valuable information, and I’m always seeking it out. Analysis: Wood, by all accounts, has the tools to be a franchise player. But he’s not one yet. That would be a stretch for Houston to be operating with him in a similar manner to what Harden’s influence was. That was a relationship and a reputation built over time. Wood has enjoyed a bright start to his Houston career (apart from the injuries), but he certainly has a ways to go before he should be looking at himself as a franchise player. That’s a title that comes with certain responsibilities on and off the floor. Stone mentioned guys like Wall and Gordon, which shows you he still leans on Houston’s veterans. Wood, of course, will be talked to about roster decisions, but there will have to be more time with this new relationship before a big step like that is taken. On Stephen Silas’ first year Stephen’s been exactly who we’d hoped he’d be. He’s been great. The challenges, I don’t think either of us foresaw. We’ve had an eventful year. One of the things we’re looking forward to is him getting a chance to implement his offense and defense with a combination of veterans and younger players. Hopefully, we get some consistency healthwise so he can get a sense of how our guys can do what he wants and can be successful in this. Very happy with Stephen as a person; he’s the best you can hope to work with. As a coach, he’s very resolute. His messaging to the team is consistent. Analysis: The job Silas signed up for during the offseason and the job he has heading into April are two very different things. It’s been a challenge for him to implement his style on both ends of the floor because of the lack of consistency on a day-to-day basis. Between the mounting losses and the hungry, engaged fan base, Silas’ name wasn’t all that popular for a while. But from the looks of it, he’s the man for the job and the ideal candidate to lead the team during a rebuild.
Olynyk is not asking for the max and we have his bird rights. I agree that we may have gotten as much if not more for Levert at the deadline but again that is hindsight like I said, the team record imploded without Wood, while Oladipo started playing selfish me ball and tanked his value. It could have played out differently but it did not work out, doesnt necessarily mean the original move was wrong.
He is the worst, yet some people are out here excusing his negligence and poverty moves as though all owners would have sandbagged a 65 win team they inherited. "He refurbished their plane!"
But that tanking is NOT the strategy, per Stone and Silas own words. Rockets just suck organically. A historic level of suck. And that is with players, coaches and a system specifically hand chosen by Stone.
