Got to hand it to Stone. He makes the harden trade and says it will take 10 yrs to know if it was good, setting up job security. Then he builds the team around KPJ, and when he beats his girl and gets kicked out of the league, he says no one could have seen this coming. Then after making a major move for KD it looks like we are punting, and he says it’s just not our year. I’ve never seen a GM so adept at escaping accountability. But I’ll say this: after Jalen and Jabari, if Reed doesn’t work out he should be fired.
Pretty silly thing to say publicly, but it's honest. The team basically has lost their most important starter in FVV and their most important bench player in Adams. You can't tweak the roster to recover from those two losses. Either those players come back (not happening) or you have very significant trades and additions (a near-complete remake). Who's available this off-season?
but those guys have a history of injuries the last few years and they are older players. Why is it so hard to have backup plans when u know there’s a high probability of injury? Seriously. You don’t have to be Nostradamus. But it sure is a convenient excuse. If they’re so important maybe don’t build your season around false hope that they’ll stay healthy. Come on. That’s either stupid or negligent.
This post does absolutely nothing but further make Stone and Ime out to be even more delusional. Thinking FVV is the key to a championship is incredibly wild. He was an average, aging and short PG that shot 37% from the field and 34% from 3 with little defense. This is not a guy you look at and think oh man this guy is the key. FVV does nothing different than what we already have out there. Isn’t a true PG so doesn’t really elevate his teammates or give them easy scoring opportunities. Certainly isn’t a floor spacer as he’s got no jump shot you need to respect. I mean he fits exactly what Ime and Stone seem to want I guess zero shooting. FVV wasn’t the key to turning this team into a contender or not. The young guys and Ime were always the keys. Both have disappointed and that’s why they look the way they look. Do people really not remember how ****ing awful FVV was? Like Jesus.
FVV has a history of injury? He's older, but I don't think he has a history and no one expected a season-ending injury - that is just super bad luck. Adams was still limited and is also old, and that's why they got Capela. The issue is Capela was a poor choice. Kornet, IIRC, was cheaper and is a much better backup.
I hate excuses, especially when it is clear our roster is better than our record but our coach is not. Last night - even though the Thunder were hurt, showed a much better balance on the floor and the Rox looked different, everyone touching it, KD getting his 20, and the team more engaged. Players NEED touches to stay engaged....Ime needs to stop force feeding an old Durant. There is no need to stand up for guys that have done a poor job. DD
The thing is, it's almost impossible to replace the production of a guy you're counting on for that much from. Even if you have a backup to Kevin Durant that's theoretically capable of putting up 20 points per game (and on occasion, 30), you're not going to be able to survive a season-ending injury to KD. I'm not saying that Fred is KD, but the point is, there are some guys you just aren't going to be able to fully replace and still expect to contend for a championship (i.e. be the best team out of 30). I think the root of the disconnect is the Rockets internally view Fred as a far better player than a lot of fans do. You can certainly disagree with them, but I think that's what it all traces back to. And as far as injury risk, he had played in 60+ games in four consecutive seasons and had never experienced a serious injury in his life (prior to the ACL). The point on handcuffing themselves is absolutely valid, because yeah... the NBA does have a system in place (disabled player exceptions) to help teams out in situations like this. The Rockets just made it to where they couldn't use it due to the first-apron hard cap (using NT-MLE for DFS). With benefit of hindsight, that is 100% a reasonable criticism, though there is an argument to be made that perhaps the best way to dig out of it is to wait until DFS is an expiring contract this summer (should his play not improve).
Seeing how the team played like headless chickens 25% of the time, and how Durant struggled mightily to get the ball in his spot, and how Sengun's PnR with a PG, where he gets the ball in a much better position, disappeared this season, I think he WAS the most important piece to THIS team as constructed. (his defense wasn't shabby either )
GOING ALL IN - was stupid. Believing a tiny guard who is slower than dirt will magically make us a contender is also stupid. This org is stupid. DD
Yup they failed with FVV. I don’t mind the KD trade but FVV was not the guy to pair him with if your intentions are to go all in with KD. Just stupidity all around.
All I’m saying is have a good backup plan when u are relying on old players. Or don’t rely on old players.
While true hes absolutely nails from the mid range. Within 16 feet every shot may as well be a layup. This is what we want Reed and Jabari to eventually turn into. Just need to ****ing chill.
choosing fvv over harden was stupid. Letting kpj role play as pg is stupid. Its stupid that we still haven't found a pg after harden, cp3 and wb
It’s not necessarily honest, Pacers were a Tyrese injury in game 7 of finals away from winning a title last year. **** happens. You can go on a run and have a chance at a title. Other teams can also get injuries. It wasn’t a “silly” thing to say, it was an absolutely idiotic thing to say out loud as a GM. That’s not how you lead and you also sort of lower the expectations to your own players. Now we have some guys on the team thinking oh well they don’t even expect to go to far this year. Comment was idiotic.
Yeah, KPJ was Stone's greatest sin IMO. It was inexcusable even at that time. Stone is an okay GM. There are worse GMs out there and I pity the fans of those teams. I don't blame him (or give him credit) for the draft picks. Except for Sengun, those were all consensus picks. He's generally a risk-aversion guy. He'd rather make a mistake of not doing something right than a mistake of doing something wrong. In reality, not doing something right can be as damaging as doing something wrong.
Why are we still pretending Amen's a sure thing when his best shooting day is worse than Jalen and Jabari's worst shooting days? All four of the picks have been massively suspect when you look at them objectively. 4 top 4 picks and nothing remotely resembling a star from any of them.
I think that’s fair although I still think Amen has a chance to be great. We don’t know what Reed is yet. But on Jalen and Bari I think it’s clear they were not worth the #2 and #3 picks. despite Bari’s youth I think it’s fair to say his ceiling is a lot lower than we thought when we drafted him.
