Rafael Stone: “Is this just not our year?”

(Many of your players are young but Durant is 37. How does that impact your urgency for this season and belief in Kevin to maintain that play in the last few years of his career?) I signed him to a 2-year extension so I believe he can maintain this. If not, I was wrong. Ime made this point to me earlier. We think we’ll be better because of synergy. There should be synergy, there should be people learning to play with each other. That should help this group. Given the age of 5 of guys who play the most minutes, they need to be improving monthly and yearly and should be real improvement between now and the end of the season. He made the point to me he didn’t want to use the word development because we’re not a developmental team. When people think development, you’re just rolling the ball out and whatever or it’s ok to lose. We’re not ok when we lose. We do not feel ok when we lose. The expectation is we’re going to be a winning basketball team. We’re not trying to develop. But just because we’re not trying to develop doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be improving. Going to Kevin with this group, we’ve been top 5 on offense and defense. We’re right in the mix with everyone else. We’re still learning how to play with one another, still learning stylistically how to execute. It’s been a good fit. I’m happy with him. I think he’s happy with the group. I’m excited about the way we move forward for the remainder of this year, the playoffs and next couple years.

Ime: The loss of Fred this year and Dillon and Jalen and so there’s not a lot of continuity but the competing phase was when I got here 2 years ago. Whether we won or lost, we had that mentality shift but that’s not where we’re at anymore. We expect to win now. You also expect to take a few lumps with new guys in different roles, foolish not to think there won’t be ups and downs but when we compete and lose or don’t play up to our standards, that’s not a great feeling and need to get over that. Kevin is in the building and everyone has to grow. We see our ceiling being much higher than it is right now.

(Open roster spot) The team has been pretty successful and our current rotation have been big contributors to our record to date. Fred hasn’t played at all and Steven did play a significant role and we miss him but why we signed Clint. We’re happy with Clint and where he’s at. We don’t play defense the way most other teams do. Clint’s never played this style before. Even though he’s not at an age where he’s improving the way a 23 year old is, I do think there’s meat on the bone for him to figure it out, get better, get efficient within our system. I don’t think we look at our team and oh there’s someone being waived that’ll come impact us. It’s my job to do all the work. We’ll take a hard look at the buyout market. No one has been bought out yet. … I don’t know what players will be bought out. We’ll be aggressive in looking but generally people only want to come if there’s a role. That’s a pretty high bar with us. We’ll see. We’ll monitor it. There’s definitely players 100% we’d bring in if bought out. They’re not likely but you never know. We’ll check it out.

(Tari) Every player playing big minutes for us, somebody wants. They reach out about every player on our team. Tari’s a good young player. Lots of people want him. If you think it through, we’re in an enviable position. We’re playing 5 guys huge minutes, none over 24 and winning most of our games. All of those players are wanted by other teams and the entire league would love to have Kevin Durant. Everyone wants our players. Tari is in that boat. He’s starting and doing great. Even if he’s not, he’s an enormous contributor. He has since he got here. We look forward to having a great future with him. Big part of our plans.

(Ime said last night the team doesn’t have the same edge as last year. Have you noticed that as well?) We’re a different group than last year. I do agree with that. I think I said to you Jackson there are no style points. That’s a style point the two of us really like. I don’t care if our offense is pretty. I do like teams that play with an edge and physicality. Having said that, to correct myself, the goal is to win. Not to win in any certain way. We want that edge. I think we’ll grow it over time. I think we’ve had it at times. We haven’t had it as consistently. Stylistically, it is something I would like to see. It’s part of my identity and part of his. We’d like them to reflect that.

Ime: It’s more of a consistent edge. We were known for that. You add skillful players and have different looks. Fred & Dillon bring that every night and rubs off on the guys. Ups and downs like always. We’ve had halves and quarters. Durant doesn’t get to where he’s at in his career without having that edge although it looks different than Dillon. Getting back to that consistently.

(You pushed back on being a developmental team. When you have younger guys who need that runway to learn from mistakes, how do you prioritize winning on a night to night basis vs. guys learning through mistakes even if it cost you quarters or stretches of the game you need) Ime: No different than 2 years ago. If guys played well, you played more. If they defend, they finish. … You want to see growth and not repeated mistakes. It’s not much different than the past. Reed would be the one guy you’d say in his 2nd year and didn’t play a ton last year so you’d expect certain things but the standard is the standard. Not a lot different. Play well, play more. Play well, finish.

 

I want to dislike Stone.

But then I realise he's a puppet for lil Patty Fertitta so I can't really be too annoyed at him.

 

All I want is one more competent guard, maybe we can find one in the g-league. We'd win at least 6 or 7 games with that minimal add.

 

This is BS.

We have room to make a trade.

 

It isn't

 

so many lame excuses. Anyone want to count how many times they said “Fred”? You want to bet the franchise on an often injured 32 yr old knee coming off surgery and coming off his worst yr? Stupid pathetic excuses

 

Stone talking like a farmer in a drought


doomed

 

If you have any understanding of NBA trade rules, the salaries of the Rockets players, and the players traded this deadline, then you know full well you are spewing pure BS. If you are simply ignorant of these rules, then I suggest you spend some time familiarizing with them, so you don't make such mistakes in the future.

 

We had no salary room to make deals,........................how is that not hard to understand?

 

Lmfao

Dafaq why would he say that out loud

 

Stone with the most logical take. We aren’t good enough an no possible move could make us Championship contenders. There will be more flexibility to make moves this summer. We just tried coping after losing Fred and we just don’t have the horses

 

Even Kamala wouldn't have traded Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green.... But if she had to have taken over as GM she would have landed some point guard....

 

All this while not playing Reed Sheppard 30 minutes a game is malpractice

 

Its not just about them improving JESUS CHRIST. The players have to fit. The team and system have to fit the players you have. He's dumber than I thought. He thought " I can just plug kd in instead of dillion and green and we should be better". BASKETBALL DOESNT WORK LIKE THAT. You play a style based on your players and bringing KD in changed your style. This guy is a ****tard

 

Stone and Ime don’t seem aligned.

 

Alpi is not a top 15 player

 

Little Patty Ferntits sounds like a vaudeville burlesque performer

 

I would not trust this sleazeball to represent me in the court of law, let alone manage a basketball franchise. The man simply does not know ball and behaves just like any other self serving serving lawyer.

 

kamported

 

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