I just want to know if our local sportswriter mouthpieces are gonna have the guts to call out the miserable failure of character we’ve seen in our GM and owner. Can’t wait to read the inevitable Feigan puff piece. Don’t fans have a right to be proud of their franchise? Something stinks here. All those folks who couldn’t wait to be done with Les never knew how good they had it. This would have never happened under Les. The Fertittas have been a disaster for this franchise.
The KPJ Woj trade tweet is yet another instance of Stone using Woj to try and fool the market. It’s another piece of evidence that the guy thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room and everyone else is a sucker: -we have multiple first round pick offers for Oladipo -we have multiple first round pick offers for EG -we have multiple first round pick offers for EG Etc etc -Now it’s “we’ll give you a draft pick if you take on the contract of a criminal we have to cut anyways and give us a good player for that pick.” No dumbass GM in September after free agency is so desperate for your draft pick and so desperate to shed salary that they’ll send you a good player AND deal with the stink of having this monsters name on their roster this year even if they cut him the day after he arrives. Stone could be a good GM but his major flaw is his over inflated ego. The dude acts and publicity tries to make moves that so blatantly disrespect the intelligence of other GM’s and the fans.
I'm not really for blaming Stone or Tilman for what happened here, that's KPJ and KPJ alone who put his hands on a woman. Also almost every team shows extreme favoritism towards their best players, so I'm not even mad at that. After all, this is the same franchise that was fine with Harden's nightlife activities as long as he played well. What IS the problem is KPJ is no Harden, he's no Lebron, he's not even PG13. He's not even a fringe all-star player. That's honestly the biggest issue I've always had with KPJ. He seemed to be treated as if he was a young Luka Doncic, never lost minutes no matter what he did. Left the team in the middle of the game sat out a few games and here you go, here's your starting spot back. Here's your role back.
That’s true only if Tillman and Stone had no knowledge of domestic abuse. That’s where I draw a big red line. If they knew about the other instances the prosecutor spoke of and both hid it, AND told us fans how much he was maturing… that’s where they then take s big chunk of heat. Yes.. if they didn’t know and only were aware of the clownish behavior before… yeah it’s on KPJ alone. If they harbored and lied about his domestic violence… they are then complicit. We don’t know that for a fact yet though so we’ll just have to see. Either way though my respect level for both of these bums is in the dirt.
Tilman: Hey Raffy, I heard that you have to pay the guy even if he goes to jail? Stone: Yeah, boss. That's how guaranteed contracts work. Tilman: ****! Stone: No worries, boss. I'm gonna trade him. Some sucker GMs would bite. Tilman: Really? Someone would take a criminal and pay him 15M? Stone: Sure. We have a ton of picks in the next 10 years to spend. When you are giving out picks like Santa Claus does candies, you can trade anybody. Tilman: Okay. Make the phone calls. Quick. Stone: I already am. Did I tell you we could get a player back who would win a few more games. That'll put more butts in the arena. Tilman: You are a genius, Raffy! Stone: Can I get a raise?
They knew he was an ******* and toxic person to be sure. I guess they thought it was fine as long as he wasn't doing anything illegal. My whole thing, and people know how I felt about his abilities, he's not good enough for the headache. I really did want him off the team, the one saving grace I had was that maybe Udoka could find some better use for him on the team as some kind of scoring spark off the bench but before all this I would have happily traded him for whatever we could get. It is sad its come to this, when it happened I said I wasn't even surprised. You are right that if they covered and knew about it they are complicit. I doubt they would though, they knew about his past behavior certainly and that behavior is the reason they got him so cheaply. I don't really have a strong opinion on Tilman either way, by default I dislike most owners. For Stone though he seems very capable of drafting (thus far) but his team building skills seem to be bottom barrel, anyone with two eyes could see KPJ had no business being a PG and yet we ran that experiment for years.
I suspect the KPJ experiment was part of a scheme to tank for high draft picks. If it worked, great! If it didn't, oh well we have a shot at Wemby. There was no reason to sit Wall. If KPJ was worth a damn, he should've been able to easily surpass an aging vet for the starting role. That's mainly the reason I'm out on Stone and his imitation of the process Sixers with the Rockets. He tanked culture for high draft picks and didn't once get a #1 pick. He should've worked to at least attempt to piece together a competitive roster where players could be held accountable instead of fielding a G League level team full of inexperienced draft picks and fringe NBA players literally one cut away from being out of the league. Now this offseason, the organization is supposed to turn on a dime and start caring about winning because we're on phase 2. I find it silly.
Yep. I’m rooting for the rockets this year for the players, the city, and for this community here. But make no mistake I’m done with the Rockets as an organization from a leadership perspective. Tillman and Stone are just not people I want to root for. I understand that the league is prohibiting them to some level from speaking but how damn hard is it to at least put out some type of statement about caring about domestic abuse? They have time to put out statements via Woj to dangle draft picks for a trade, but can’t even muster a thought on the morality of the situation? It’s pathetic, and I don’t blame anyone outside of Houston that thinks this organization is a dumpster fire mostly because of the rot at the top. Our only potential short term saving grace is if Udoka comes in and immediately has a Doc Rivers/Clippers type of leadership role right out the gate where the coach can compartmentalize the culture of the actual team away from the jackassery of ownership and front office.
Apart from that, they have to be one of the not so smartest duo in franchise or league history. I swear, all their Rockets tenure, they are either at sweeping things under the rugs or they are trying to erase mistakes they have made..... Lol that is grotesque. I mean what else has to happen that shows them they are not good for the field of basketball.
It should dawn to us that is not just the Australian team or members of the Australian team thinking the Rockets are a joke. Uphill battle to just being not a joke.
It doesn't matter who we replace Stone with--the failson is still going to be in every meeting and on every phone call and we'll still have the same low-rent new-wealth owner who can't think outside of a restaurant business model. If only we could trade the owner. James Dolan, Robert Sarver, Ted Stepien, and Donald Sterling are having a great week thanks to our owner.
Nope - this is definitely on Stone. This was pure ego, he wanted getting and “fixing” KPJ to be his “see how smart and great a GM and person move” - and it shows an incredible level of entitlement and narcissism. He excused Porter’s behavior even as people inside and outside the organization warned him that the behavior by KPJ was beyond just partying or pouting or bullying. He went as far as to give KPJ a leadership role and encouraged him to mentor Green. Stone should lose his job for the incredible poor judgment he showed letting and in some cases encouraging KPJ to hijack the Rockets… from being a bully to the Rocket employees, to taking over and disrupting practices when people like Smith Jr. Complained about the lack of organization - to just walking out of practices and starting fights with the coaching staff …. To being late to games.. to leaving a game, pouting on the court… having arguments with women and “friends” and some fans… to physically abusing his girlfriend…. At any point Stone could have stopped it, but he didn’t… instead he gave him an extension and praised him and stepped in to discipline when his coaches were too harsh.
