[ClutchFans] Heavy investment in Kevin Porter Jr raises serious questions about Rockets front office

I agree. I guess "stupid" is probably the wrong word, too strong. But my point was that picking up a "steal" by hindsight does not necessarily mean that it was a genius pick. I used Jokic as an extreme example. Kawhi Leonard is another well known example. Picking him after many teams having passed on him did not prove that the Spurs was very smart. They just seized the opportunity presented to them by the wrong choices of others.

For that matter, if Jabari turns out to be a much better player than Paolo, it will not mean that the Rockets were smart at picking Jabari. They just seized what was presented to them by Orlando's wrong choice.

Whitmore's drop was due to a rumored concern spread at the last days before the draft. We still don't know how he will turn out. So far, he is a fan favorite because of what he showed in the SL. We'll see.

 

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“However, I don’t believe this is the type of indictment that illustrates a greater problem with the front office. For the bulk of their rebuild, the Rockets have done a good job of managing assets, evaluating talent, and remaining financially flexible. They have a deep young core with a ton of upside, a respectable war chest of draft assets, and loads of financial flexibility.

Has Stone been as good as Sam Presti or Danny Ainge during their recent rebuilds in Oklahoma City and Utah respectively? Certainly not, but that’s an extremely high bar to clear. Presti and Ainge are arguably two of the best lead executives of our lifetime and have considerably more experience at the helm than Stone. On a recent podcast episode with Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale, I said that the Rockets should give Stone a reasonable contract extension and this recent misstep hasn’t changed my stance.

The Rockets certainly deserve criticism, but to imply that this incident should call into question the competence of Stone is, in my opinion, a gross overreaction.”

 

I wonder how much Stone had to pay Salman to write that...

 

Maybe when teams were calling Stone about moving up to #4, he made up a story about Whitmore saying he has changed his mind about moving down, so will stay put at #4.

Waiting on the irresistible “why?”, he would then let “slip” out “We were high on Cam, but no one really is anymore, right? I don’t know, maybe we’re all just being overly cautious, but this is too good of a draft to make a mistake.”

then word spread
Stone caused Cam’s drop!!

 

I would give Stone a hell of a lot more credit for the Sengun trade if he had actually recognized Sengun's talent and acted like it the last two seasons, and not prioritized KPJ over Sengun.

I do agree with you that it could one day be looked upon as one of the best trades any Rockets GM has ever made, but that would first require that the team actually trusts him and treats him like the Nuggets treated Jokic.

Sengun is the Franchise Player.

The sooner the GM recognizes that and acts accordingly, the sooner he will get credit from me for having gotten him in the first place.

 

his 'competence' will be evaluated based on future results in the w/l column...

so far i see very little to instill confidence - all we've done so far is prove we can lose and then draft bpa... lol

The parallel endeavor has been to 'build a culture' - and that aint looking impressive thus far...

and as far as an extension - lol, fk no... if its me, yer on a year to year contract, Stone... come talk to me when you're fielding a team over .500 - we'll see if i get fed up b4 u get there... lol

 

That is a fair opinion. Likewise, Stone didn’t bring Witus to the Rockets, but he did keep him and he listened to him. That is a fair take. While we all hear stories at West personally wanting someone like Kobe Bryant - but the majority of the time the GM relies on scouts and assistants largely when evaluating players.

As for Sengun being viewed as one of the best trades ever made - it is certainly possible

 

I mean he signed FVV to a max and drafted a pure PG, who wasn’t necessarily consensus. Stone did everything he could to fix that glaring problem, without worrying whether it would piss off KPj. Ofc, he also wanted Lopez, soooo…

I suppose in Stone’s mind he had made two of the top trades any Rockets GM has ever made (KPj and Sengun), and he couldn’t let go of hope in one, while it was disrupting the other.

I can’t help but think all the practice disruption and petulance was likely the coaches’ attempts to get Sengun more involved, and maybe Jabari, too. Sengun and Jabari both seem capable of calling out KPj; they they have attitude.

I was also very skeptical of how long KPj stayed out of the lineup in Jan/Feb, for a minor injury. That was 6 weeks. I always wondered if Stone stepped in at that point and did one of those quiet benchings, so he and Silas could get an unhindered look at Senhub.

 

I don't think it matters in the evaluation of Stone - while I think it SHOULD matter, I don't think it will.

Because, if the team takes off under Ime - he will get credit for drafting well and hiring IMe and supporting him the right way.

If the team tanks, or continues to tank he will be fired anyway because he promised Tillman 3 years of tanking and we rise.

I don't think KPJ will have an impact on either of those options - he might have had he stayed, but he can't stay and shouldn't....so it will be water under the bridge because the team was tanking anyway.

IMHO.

DD

 

Stone playing 5D chess.

 

Best trades:

1. For Moses
2. For Harden
3. For Drexler
4. For McGrady
5. For Francis

If Sengun comes in anywhere above Francis and McGrady, we'll be cooking.

 

This comment doesn't have to condemn Tilman (in regards to his conversations with Porter). I mean who doesn't enjoy talking to some crazy dude and hearing all these whacked out things he's done (or is thinking). Now knowing all of the stuff he's done over the years and signing him for millions of $$ is a completely different story and should be questioned.

 

Meth?

 

Still sounds preferable to KPJ's cooking

 

Crystal clear.

 

None of those teams went from having a franchise player to immediately having to tank and be done tanking within 2 & 1/2 seasons.

How long have the Magic, Pistons, and Hornets been bad? The real key, which a lot of y'all are overlooking is how fast we had to tank and then be ready to compete again due to the OKC trade.

 

It just may impact how hard you can tank if your team isn't bottom 3 because you wanted to instill development and culture....

Right.... you should care about losses and your draft position. We had ~2 & 1/2 seasons from when we traded Harden until the OKC trade was going to take away the incentives to tank....

We aren't the Magic, Pistons, etc.... where we can take our time, but we were under a fast deadline of bottoming out then pivoting.

Of course it is..... We put ourselves in the best possible position to get Wemby or Scoot which was the whole point.

Do you understand the whole point of tanking? Do you understand the time scale parameters we were under?

 

Again.... Stone, Silas, and KPJ proved to be great tank commanders when you only have 2 & 1/2 seasons to do so. Sucks we didn't get any #1 picks but we were in the best position to do so for 3 straight seasons. I just can't get behind "heavy investments into KPJ" when he was essentially benched the moment winning mattered.

Some of y'all act like we weren't under the gun to completely bottom out.... get as many high picks as possible...and then try and start competing because OKC owns a window of your future....

 

Stone didn't do nothing right. If the objective was the team to suck balls he should follow Silas. May I remind you it was Udoka, who was hired by Tilmans, who opposed to Harden too. And draft picks were basically collective decision. This brother almost ruined us a Sengun