Tari, Amen and Whitmore should account for something in his grade. Those 3 are a HUGE part of the future.
If the young bloods continue developing at the current trajectory, by Udoka's 3rd year the Rockets should be rolling out: P.G. - Amen Thompson (6-7) S.G. - Cam Whitmore (6-7) S.F. - Tari Eason (6-8) P.F. - Jabari Smith Jr. (6-11) ..C - Alperen Sengun (6-11) That is a very long switchable team. I think the Rockets will be a 50 win team by that point and Stone will get his credit
He should also get credit for Jabari because he was active in making sure the Rox tank games, even telling Silas to play scrubs like Nix so they lose more games. Silas even told Wall this right? Not sure why everyone is saying what Stone did is easy, if it was easy to tank 3 yrs straight then lots of teams would do it most GMs don't have that kind of gall to put their career on the line by tanking and rebuilding look at the Nets.
The 3 yr time-line should also factor in this grade rebuild was so fast the kids didn't even have time to grow up and show their skills.
I would say that objectively you can’t take any A votes seriously. One could claim the same about the F votes but that would probably be some false equivalency. None-the-less if you throw out the A & F votes Stone is sitting at a C/C-
I still can't comprehend how the same GM drafts Sengun, Amen, Bari, Tari, Reed all good character, hard working guys and runs wood, kpj, silas for 3 years and offers kpj a contract. Seems like two extreme ends of the spectrum.
I think Silas was the designated tank commander / fall guy. I hated that tactic. It slowed down the developmental trajectory. And in a way, it was unfair to Silas. KPJ was probably an ego trip. It would have been a homerun if the reclamation worked. Stone could take all the credit. I will never forgive Stone for those two things no matter how successful the rebuild turns out.
This franchise had their fair share of McHales, Silasses, the reclamation project coaches. And ventured into knuckleheads named TSquid, Joyce White and Kevin Porter.
Stone is overrated as hell..made the obvious picks..lucked in whitmore and Eason , only thing he did well was sengun and now he wants to trade him smh
The KPJ thing was not just making a mistake of getting a knucklehead. It's okay to take a flyer on the guy who did have some talent. It's the length it took to harbor him, letting it fester and pollute the whole team culture.
Royce White did have size, speed, strength and prototypical skills. What he lacked was the love for the game. KPJ is a tad better in that department but also think bball just a mean to make dollars, dude is not totally into it. The Rockets always get lucky, Harden followed Royce, and Sheppard and FVV followed KPJ. Mistakes were easily undone but it could have gone worse.
lol C/C- for building one of the most exciting teams in the league in just 3 yrs? Any grade below B+ is wrong. CF even had the over/under last year at 37 games but Stone deserves a C/C-? LOL just ridiculous. If you want a normal rebuild timeline look at the Spurs or the Pistons. Spurs even lucked into Wemby and Pistons got the very coveted Cade Cunningham and they still suck. The only rebuild thats been better than Rockets is OKC.
His next move will mark his career. I understand the need for him to make a move. Just a little to early on the grading. All that said, I don’t have much faith in him.
Idiot lol. A is the only grade you can give Rafael Stone. This is one of the quickest rebuilds I've seen & the whole culture has changed.
not because of Stone. Because of Ime. Culture and winning were in the toilet before last season. Ime and Fred turned things around. Given the success of the young players and the cap mgmt, I’d be willing to go as high as a B, but that’s it. Remember, if it was up to Stone we’d have Frank Vogel and Harden instead of Ime and Fred.
You are right. I do have chicken little tendencies when it comes to rocket matters. Some much dumbassery by the team and myself over the years.
