Lack of picks? He has had the #2, #3, #3, #4, #10, #16, #17, #20, #23, #24 ......... over the last 5 years. That is an average of one very high lottery pick and another first rounder in the 20's every year he has been the GM. First - Stone is a big part of why Westbrook was traded, but beyond that - he inherited a top 3-5 player in the league to deal and get a lot of assets. For all of those high draft picks, he has....... Amen Thompson Jabari Smith Reed Sheppard Alpren Sengun Tari Eason With all of his cap space .... most of the players he has signed have contracts under water. FVV - contract has negative value DFS - contract has negative value Capela - contract has negative value Adams - contract has negative value The one major exception is Durant, who has positive value as long as he is healthy. Most of the contracts luckily are not crippling, which at least is a real positive. This idea that Stone inherited a terrible situation just isn't accurate. The Westbrook trade certainly wasn't ideal --- but he was given the green light to gut the team and tank for multiple seasons, he inherited a superstar to trade and a fanbase willing to go through a rebuild..... his situation was pretty damn good for a GM that wants to rebuild. He also was very lucky to get a top 4 pick 4 straight years and to not lose the Green pick. I agree that the Rockets are a top 10 team - but after completely tearing the team to the studs, and with the draft picks and cap room they have had... it would take a lot of incompetence to not be a top 10 team, and I promise you that the expectation when they started this rebuild was not to be "top 10", with a team that's best player is 38 years old and that cannot get out of the first round of the playoffs.
Wallace is terrible - like imagine Chad Ford level bad when it comes to player evaluation. My favorite memory of Thabeet is after the Rockets got him as a throw in...... Rick Adelman was interviewed right after the first practice with Thabeet and was asked about Thabeet and Adelman looked disgusted at the reporter and said "What am I supposed to do with THAT? I don't know." and then dismissively walked away from the reporter.... I wish I could find the clip again.
Yeah, ofcourse there’s nuance. Nothing is all. When they had the capspace and signed FVV and Dillon Brooks i thought the mindset behind it was solid. Good defenders that can pass, dribble, and shoot. That should be 90% of the roster. In most other decisions they’ve gone off the deep end trying to fit together a bunch of specialist with glaring flaws. They have gone way in on the belief that height is a greater team advantage than speed and skill. If they had the same Dillon/fvv approach it wouldn’t have been difficult to grade out Stephon Castle or Jalen Williams higher. I just don’t agree with the ideas behind a lot of his moves.
What do you call being one pick away from the Stepien rule preventing trades along with 2 picks being the backside of a swap? I'd call that crippled. The Rockets had team with Harden about the same as the Rockets do now with Durant, except was crippled by a lack of draft capital and an aging roster. Harden requesting out was not crippling. On the trade offers in the media at the time, the Nets offer was by far the best at the time, and in hindsight. Though only about a third of Clutchfans were in support of that trade in polls. Stone won the Harden trade by a lot despite Stone haters still not giving him credit for it. Take out the Harden trade, Stone has probably acquired in the Top 5 of picks. Though, Ithe other teams with a lot picks got them typically got them from trading away guys like Harden. Not sure any team has acquired more FRPs from players of the quality of Covington, Westbrook, Wood, and Tucker.
LOL a little different than I remember it after all these years. Adelman wasn't as grump. Hell of a coach though.
Right --- he just had the assets to get all of those picks, and the organization knew they were tanking. It isn't even as if he maximized the first rounders he could have gotten, there were other picks that the Rockets did not go after that other teams did by taking on salary. The situation he inherited from a rebuild perspective wasn't perfect because of the Westbrook picks --- but it was pretty damn good. He had a superstar to trade, he had other pieces to move, an owner that was on board with tanking for years and a fan base that was supportive of it. He didn't "screw it up", but his performance was pretty mid overall....... especially when you consider the malcontents he brought in, the lack of any real structural improvements to the organization and the coach and coaching staff. He did not like hearing what Weaver and Hornacek had to say about the culture and quality of the organization.
The situation was horrible for a rebuild. The Harden trade only made the Rockets +2 in FRPs from the deficit he started without the other moves, and had no young player on the roster worth anything. On maximizing FRPs, which teams have traded for 6 or more FRPs since Stone has been GM using only vets or scrubs or accepting salary?
It's not that I think Stone is that good at being a GM, it's more that I think a lot of yall are far too negative about his performance and negative about the Rockets.
We will just have to agree to disagree -- because I think he had a pretty good situation. He had James Harden, Robert Covington, PJ Tucker, Eric Gordon to trade. Harden had a lot of value, and Covington, Tucker and Gordon all were valuable. He could have gotten more value for J. Allen as well, and there were chances to take on salary and get picks - or trade picks for future picks that were passed on. He wasted capital trading for Christian Wood as well. That doesn't even take into account that he ended up not really being hurt that much from the Westbrook trade. The Jalen Green pick did not convey, the 2025 swap did not convey either. The only pick lost was the pick that the Thunder used for Topic.
We can disagree that the Rockets' situation being pretty good. Stone traded a FRP for Durant. Stone should rot in hell. Stone turns Covington, Tucker, Gordon, and Westbrook into 5 FRPs (well, 4 after the Sengun trade or that one of the picks traded for Sengun didn't convey), Stone is mid. Stone would get Stoned if he traded 5 (or even 4 that it turned out to be) future FRPs for players as old and busted as Covington, Tucker, Gordon, and Westbrook. The Rockets were +3 FRPs in the Wood-related trades not counting consolidating one of the FRPs in the trade for Sengun. The only capital Stone wasted was in Fertita's wallet. This is not true. The Rockets 2026 pick is also lost. Plus, not being able to grow organically and keep their picks for 3 straight seasons has impacted the Rockets decisions. People have been whining about Stone ceasing the rebuild early, and you are saying it isn't a big deal. If the Westbrook trade didn't hurt much, one should not pretend that the Durant trade hurt much or that not trading him is a huge deal. Durant was better than Westbrook, involved half the picks that ultimately conveyed, and the trade did not involve uncertainty in picks going forward. You can disagree all you want, but the facts say Stone has added a ton of FRPs (pretty sure more than every other team during his tenure). Pretty sure, if we remove the Harden trade, but also trades for other teams with players better than Covington, Tucker, Gordon, and Westbrook using an objective measure like EPM, Stone will also have acquired more FRPs net than any other team or at least the vast majority. You can argue narrative about Stone doing this wrong or that wrong, but in a zero sum league, the Rockets are a Top 10 team, have a bunch of good young players, and draft situation going forward that is up 2 picks over what Morey him. Whatever you want to consider James Harden, Robert Covington, PJ Tucker, Eric Gordon, down 2 picks, and 2 swaps (even if Stone masterfully got them not to convey), this situation is currently better.
