Can I also just say that I’m troubled by the org’s willingness to invest in bad character guys. All of the ridiculous enabling of KPJ aside, we know they were desperate to bring back Harden before Ime finally put a stop to it. We heard Kyrie was actually in consideration this offseason. I’m okay giving Ime a 2nd chance (because it does appear to be an actual 2nd chance), but there are teams that wouldn’t have hired him. Even Christian Wood was known to have character issues before we brought him in. I’m not comparing these guys to KPJ but they all have known character issues. It’s much easier to give a guy a 2nd chance when you’ve established a culture of good character. We simply haven’t done that in the Stone era. We’ve actually done the opposite; prioritizing talent over character. I’m not trying to get moralistic, but investing in bad character becomes bad organizational culture. Character still matters. It has really caught up to us. This rockets regime need to go.
fwiw (probably not too much lol), I'm not really here for the blaming of the Rockets for KPJ's behavior. In my eyes, they tried to help the dude, give him a shot at success in the NBA, based surely on his talent (trying to leverage an advantage out of a free asset -- not some Mother Teresa-like love of humanity, of course), but still. I feel like working with a dude despite behavioral issues is a very defensible position, up to the point that KPJ has now crossed over. I can't assume that it should have been clear to anyone that he was likely to do something like this. The question of how well they did at trying to help him is another thing...
There are already articles coming out questioning the Rockets owner and front office over this. If it comes clear the Rockets knew about other instances of domestic violence with KPJ, heads will roll.
If we want an organization we can be proud of, the best thing we can do right now as fans is reign fire on ownership and management. Then maybe Tilman will hire some people with good judgement instead of sticking with people who get played by KPJ and Brook Lopez.
It’s pretty clear here that Adam Silver is likely to take serious action against the Rockets if he finds out that Stone and Tillman had knowledge of these other acts of violence and hid them. It could be that they were in the dark but all signs point towards them knowing, and I expect that this is going to be a big deal in the coming weeks. Since Tillman cannot fire himself I suspect you’ll see a huge house cleaning soon in order to try and save face. Of course Adam Silver seems to have looked the other way on the Miles Bridges situation but I have a feeling this time it’ll be different.
KPJ's true value as a player will be known when the punishments are handed out. In the NBA, the better you are as a player, the more things you are forgiven for. Miles Bridges is a good recent example of this. As bad as this is, this is the reality of the NBA. If KPJ gets a very heavy handed punishment, then it means he is not valued much at all as a basketball player in this league. That would be worrying considering how much the organization invested into him.
You could argue that the Udoka hire was also a bad character move as well in all honesty. When you put everything together, move by move, it doesn't paint this front office in a very good light. And now, doesn't Tilman vouching for KPJ out of the blue during the Udoka introductory presser look even more ridiculous?? All the babying and dismissing of his childish, downright shitty behavior looks absolutely ****ing stupid, and I'd say Stone (and Tilman) need to be taken to task for it.
Stone - while not perfect has done a great job of drafting and building this team. Silas was a mistake for sure - but Ime was a winner. Some of the players didn't work out, but he ran through tons of them trying to find the right fit, and now it looks like we have a solid 6-8 to build around. I give him a solid B overall. DD
I’m actually hoping that Silver brings the hammer down on Tilman for this. He needs to fire Stone and focus a bit more on team culture with the next GM.
I kinda felt the same way about those years as you do about the tank - basketball purgatory. Sure, they had a chance to win on any given night but when the playoffs started they weren't really a threat to advance. Picking 14th every year you never felt they had a chance to land a franchise type player, it always felt like baby steps - incremental improvement. Sure, Morey lucked into Harden being an all time great offensive player that carried a franchise nearly to the promised land. It took him 5 years churning the roster to acquire the assets. Lucking into a Harden type transformation from pretty good 6th man to MVP won't happen again any time soon. It's like catching lightning in a bottle. At least with the past 3 drafts, some of us felt / feel like the team drafted several players who have star potential, three of those you wouldn't have without the poor record. I'll take Green, Jabari & Amen along with Sengun, Tari & Cam over picking 14th over and over again or getting bounced from the playoffs in the opening round. We have some hope after 3 years .... not basketball purgatory picking Pat Patterson, Nikola Mirotic, Marcus Morris, TJones, Be Well, Lamb Of's, Clint Capela or Sam Dekker.... even if some of those guys were "decent NBA players" - None had franchise potential. I'm glad the tank is over .... and it did suck but it feels like the way to rebuild rather than hope you find an MVP hiding under a rock.
By coming down on the Rockets, you mean firing Stone and forcing Tillman to sell the team that’s ok by me. Tearing down the team’s ability to compete is something altogether different (maybe taking away future draft picks, etc.).
As bad as this looks for Stone, the fact is Tillman Fertitta is ultimately the senior decision maker on things like this. There’s just no way that Stone withheld information about him slamming his car into someone’s car or the other situations where he put his hands on his girlfriend. Tillman is who we need to be pointing the finger at in this case. Stone deserves blame for more of the head scratching day to day decisions.
I don't entirely blame Stone for the KPJ debacle, but **** it, fire him anyway. I'm still pissed about all the other stuff!
Should have cut both Wood and KPJ. You can’t let walking out on the team in the middle of a game go relatively unpunished.
hmmm let’s take a look: 2021 jalen over Mobley - the verdict is out. But we do know Mobley wouldn’t work out for us because of KPJ Sengun is an absolute win. we got absolutely nothing for both our late 1st rounders Garuba and Christopher. 2022 Jabari - hard to give Stone too much credit for the obvious choice after blabbing on about Paolo. Tari is an absolute win. we got absolutely nothing for our late 1st TyTy Washington (so basically we got nothing for Christian Wood - there was a time we could have gotten a mid-1st rounder) 2023 Amen - again the obvious pick. Hard to give him too much credit Cam - again we lucked into the obvious pick. we’ve blown 3 late 1st rounders. We’ve hit on 2 mid-1st rounders. And our early lotto picks look promising. I’d agree that he’s drafted well, but certainly not Uber amazing and let’s be honest that the draft is heavily influenced by scouting and Eli. I think the lack of player development, poor culture, poor free agent signings, Silas, KPJ, poor asset mgmt, the Wall & Oladipo debacle, passing on Jarrett Allen, the foiled attempt to bring harden back, getting played by Brook Lopez, the disastrous reputation of our organization ….nah bro. We can do much better. We deserve better.
hmmm let’s take a look: 2021 jalen over Mobley - the verdict is out. But we do know Mobley wouldn’t work out for us because of KPJ Sengun is an absolute win. we got absolutely nothing for both our late 1st rounders Garuba and Christopher. 2022 Jabari - hard to give Stone too much credit for the obvious choice after blabbing on about Paolo. Tari is an absolute win. we got absolutely nothing for our late 1st TyTy Washington (so basically we got nothing for Christian Wood - there was a time we could have gotten a mid-1st rounder) 2023 Amen - again the obvious pick. Hard to give him too much credit Cam - again we lucked into the obvious pick. we’ve blown 3 late 1st rounders. We’ve hit on 2 mid-1st rounders. And our early lotto picks look promising. I’d agree that he’s drafted well, but certainly not Uber amazing and let’s be honest that the draft is heavily influenced by scouting and Eli. I think the lack of player development, poor culture, poor free agent signings, Silas, KPJ, poor asset mgmt, the Wall & Oladipo debacle, passing on Jarrett Allen, the foiled attempt to bring harden back, getting played by Brook Lopez, the disastrous reputation of our organization ….nah bro. We can do much better. We deserve better. you can’t hang everything on the draft.
