Stone drafted the guys most would have at the top of the draft given the context(Green, Jabari, Amen) and took big swings on upside guys who slipped in the draft(Sengun, Tari, Cam). Essentially this is a single strategy to rebuild asset value by drafting high ceiling guys. Stone has been fortunate that most of the high ceiling guys he has had the opportunity to draft, have proven to have had relatively high floors as well so the risk has been minimal. In terms of FA, I think he made the right moves on the KPJ deal and the FVV deal(had to spend money anyway and he is a good culture guy to overpay on and the contract is team friendly on the 3rd year). At face value I don't like the Brooks deal but if Ime does nothing else but convince him to not be a shot creator, then I think he becomes a high value contract because his offensive efficiency will go up and people seem to be forgetting he is an All NBA defensive player today! All that said, I can understand a path where Brooks turns into a positive value contract....but the 4 year commitment just seemed a little excessive and I wondered who we were competing against to force our hand there. ...I think my issue with Stone is around some of the more nuanced roster building decisions to activate the roster. I suspect we were trying to be bad and that's why we didn't bring useful vets in sooner which I understand but also, punting on player development activities for two years AND not really giving guys like JC and Tyty a shot AND chaining the team to a clearly ineffective coach for so long AND not really looking to pick up useful trade assets along the way to help rebuild roster value....was all just a missed opportunity that I don't believe ultimately give us access to a higher tier of player to draft. Part of the problem with building a roster today is we STILL don't really understand if Jalen, or Sengun, or Jabari can be bult around because we have done too good of a job sabotaging our team for the last few years and it has delayed their development. I mean Silas took the best shooting big in college basketball history and just kind of parked him in a corner for much of the year....granted Jabari didn't do himself any favors with his shooting but like was that really the best way to maximize Jabari's development? Of course not...
Do we lose a second round draft pick like those tampering? Probably insignificant stuff As a Raptor fan said, "FVv falls down 90% of his drives trying to draw a foul by flopping. Noticed the NBA is getting stricter on flopping? FVv is not going to be the same player he was with Toronto. All his points from free throws will be diminished because, well now he will be a Rocket. Just like when CP3 became a Rocket....pull, pinch, hold, grab was allowed before joining the Rockets....no pulling, no pinching, no holding, no grabbing allowed as a Rocket...pulling. pinching, holding, grabbing has been allowed since CP3 left the Rockets. The league became more lenient since. NBA getting tougher on flopping https://www.nba.com/news/nba-approves-in-game-flopping-penalty-for-2023-24-season
Sengun and Tari were great picks. Cam fell to us and for all we know he could go the way of Garuba/TyTy/JC. Green was the only sensible option since Mobley hated us. Jabari fell to us although credit to him wanting Banchero instead I guess. Amen was consensus 4th pick too. Would any other GM have made different picks?
I think hitting on Sengun and Tari in the mid-late first round is enough to draft "above average". Ya the top picks are "default" picks as most GMs would make those decisions. But when Stone has a 15-20 pick, he almost always nails it. I don't think every GM would have hit on Tari and Sengun.
Under the current CBA, as long as teams reached the salary-cap floor by the last day of the regular season, they were considered to have spent enough. In the new CBA, they’ll need to hit that threshold by the first day of the regular season. Any team under the cap floor will have the difference between its team salary and the floor added to its payroll, so it can’t use that amount as available cap space anymore. It also won’t be allowed to perform any transactions after the first day of the regular season that would further decrease its team salary. The amount a team is under the floor will also be dispersed among all NBA players, not just the ones on the roster. Next season, a team that doesn’t reach the floor will receive half of the money paid out to each non-taxpaying team. Beginning in 2024-25, teams that don’t hit the floor won’t receive any of the money paid out to non-taxpaying teams. ...I would say that's fairly significant - if you are a cap floor team waiting for the handout of redistributed money from tax paying teams, then you won't get any AND you would still be forced to cough up enough money to make the cap floor regardless so there is really only unnecessary limitations placed on your team for staying under the new cap floor.
no team wanted to sign Ime Udoka. Just like no team wants to sign Miles Bridges despite how talented he is This is the only place trashy and desperate enough to do so
Fire Stone for what, giving us a great coach & one of the best young cores in the nba? That's such a horrible situation after 3 years
Pfffft there were plenty of suitors for ime idk where u are getting your stories from Your bias against men who cheat on their partner is showing
Just what I thought nothing Like I said, going for Monte Morris expiring $9.8M (he was traded x a 2nd rd pick. Give them TyTy/ 2nd. Jevon Carter overpay of a modest $10M Cam Johnson overpay of $30M (Nets paid him $25M) Landale overpay of a modest $10M, $11M......$12M = $59.9M......add Seth Curry x $10M Take away: Fred VanVleet $40M Dillon Brooks $22M Aaron Holiday $2.3M Landale $8M Jeff Green $9.6M = $81.9 Rockets could have added a floor spacer in Seth Curry to fill the cap. One year deals for some of these would have been better. Trade for Capela ($22M) or someone as teams were cutting payroll and taking our scrubs Kenyon, Garuba, TyTy, Tate. Josh Christopher
Tari and Sengun were home run picks. I don't see players picked after them that I'd rather have instead. I liked Trey Murphy a lot but still would rather have Sengun. Walker Kessler seems to be a monster pick, but outside of that Tari was the best selection at his spot. Garuba and Christopher's careers are not yet written either, although their performance hasn't been promising so far.
one of the strangest posts ive seen on here. And also completely wrong The nets even doubled back and stuck with garbage ass jacque vaugn over udoka
dude legit got 3 straight top 4 picks in the new lotto system. The odds of that happening are less than winning the number one pick. nothing but luck
I do think we raised our floor but our ceiling has gotten higher too. The young guys ceiling with Silas was never going to be realized. We kept all of our high upside players and now have a good blend of vets to show them the way, a great coach, and a system that will allow the guys to learn how to win, nit just depend on 1 guy to win.
Raptors wanted ime but he chose us over them. Like there were teams vying for ime this offseason saying no one wanted him is just flat out wrong
....there is a functional difference in what you are doing with signing Brooks and VanVleet than Cam Johnson and Seth Curry - what Stone did is more about signing mentors/role models and culture setters for our young guys than it is about starting to build our future competitive team. Take FVV - I don't think Houston sees him as a part of our future but they are frankly overpaying him to help us get our future squad to a better place developmentally. Frankly they SHOULD have done something like this before but regardless - I think this is a positive step because FVV can show the guys how to run an offense and Brooks is going to do the same thing for the defensive side of the ball. I don't disagree that a Cam or Seth would satisfy real needs for this team in the short term...but I don't think that was the focus of this year's FA signings and if I would venture to guess - FVV and Brooks is probably more in line with what Udoka was pulling for as a coach trying to make a splash by setting a solid foundation of blue collar workers and not skipping steps just because you have the talent to. I think it will mean we are not going to be as good this year, but I think it will be a better move in the long term....but people are going to complain a lot this year no doubt.
It does feel like Stone has a mandate this year. Play-in or he's gone. The upside's all gotta come from our six young prospects. The good news is that, there's tons of talent there for the molding, and we probably have the right guy to draw it out of them in Ime Udoka.
