Would you have preferred if he said we were competing for a championship this year, and every year. To me, that’s less candid.
I would have preferred he didn't sit there with a straight face and tell us that pulling the trigger on the Nets trade immediately after Harden's comments was a coincidence.
That is something every GM in the league would say, including Morey. The last thing he needs to do is stir the pot.
Not at all. Harden will win a title, Fertitta is going to make less profit than before, and we have a more economical solution to rebuilding (picks and swaps). It's not a good as Harden winning it here, but it ended up better than we could have hoped for. Especially when Harden lifts that title and I reply to this bookmarked post in the next year or two!
Makes so much sense. MDA Morey and Russ all new Hardens mind was made up and bolted. All the BS stories regarding lack of covid procedures, late flights/ team meetings, political affiliations, contracts or simply wanting time with family were not the reason these dudes left - they knew Harden was out... while these leaks may have been true, they were mainly attention grabbing headlines.
of all the things mentioned by stone, his last reply to Clutch at the very end was the most ludicrously unbelievable. no fuking way tilbitch let's him "get back up near the hard cap" lol
This Tilman conspiracy stuff is getting out of hand. Some folks here are reaching Qanon levels of "research"
I might entertain this idea that he's doing a bs cover-up had he not actually gotten a really good return for Harden ... wrt taking the route of maximum Picks, esp if he flips Oladipo for picks. you honestly don't think his phone was ringing off the hook, and the trade offers stepped up (including trade greasers like CLE/IND). He was closer to saying that, than he was to using the word "coincidence" or even implying that word. ie, maybe he had the LeVert/Allen and 3 FRP/4 Swaps offer whole time, but wasn't until the end that he got the trade-greasers to enter the picture -- 4th FRP and Oladipo swap/massive TPE to materialize ... then you have to jump, because something might unravel. maybe that whole trade was available for a long time, but he waited to end to apply pressure on Philly maybe whole trade was available, and he used fear of Philly to get Nets to drop protections [edit] h/t @Houston77 Did Kyrie's recent situation play into this "coincidence" of timing with Nets or maybe he did nothing. and the whole trade was available prior to harden's comment, and he waited for the situation to become untenable. is that the story you'd like him to confirm? what's the value of him saying that? is it merely to confirm the winning side of a fan debate? protect ppl's online insider brands? does it add to belief that Tilman is controlling Stone? how does that work? is it just a fan preference to have a GM who reveals more? does it make it easier to be mad at Harden, if the GM says he forced our hand, or are we actually bothered our GM would lie.
I think option 1 is pretty realistic. Another possibility is that Philly upped their offer and we used that to apply pressure to the Nets to drop all protections.
I don't care very much about how Stone talks or conveys himself to the media, or even if he lies on the podium. Looking at just his body of work during his short time in charge, while taking over a gigantic heap of a mess, I think he has done an incredible job.
good point .. and that too is what Stone alluded to "didn't affect me, but I don't know how it affected other teams" also want to add, it's healthy to be vague about other teams' roles in a trade, because you don't want to be branded in the league as a post-trade talker ,,, to the point it's kinda a job requirement
Given that the chatter out of Philly is that they very much thought they had a deal agreed upon, I think this scenario is most plausible. Stone had probably set the price to Morey early on, Morey hemmed and hawed for a while, Harden (knowing that in order to accelerate a trade, he needed to do something drastic) decides to say what he says, Morey then matches Stone's demands because he sees things coming to a head, and Stone says, "Ok great. Let me dot some i's and cross some t's and get back to you." Morey thinks they have a deal, but then receives the notification on his phone that Harden has been traded to the Nets. I'm 100% convinced Stone leveraged Morey's offer into getting Brooklyn to strip any and all protections on their picks.
look i hate tilman more than the next guy but his hiring of Stone could really save our ass. I mean we just picked up Wood, Tate, Brown, Jones, and KMjr all in one off season for peanuts on the dollar. That alone buys him 2 more years for me.
regarding the timing of that ... he just hired some new agents. i'm curious if that was their advice.
I thought about indicating that I was being serious. Perhaps I should have done that. I meant it honestly, I know you are a huge Harden fan. He might win a title, Durant in GS style, I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion.
i agree. but good chance the trade didn't get expanded to 4 teams, until very end. We've heard too much from Morey and other GMs about the fragility and difficulty of multi-team trades. I always took that to mean GMs merely say early on, "Hey, if you ever trade X-player, call us before it goes down. We might be able to sweeten it." meaning, my Option 1 combined with @Houston77 . Nets drop protections and trade gets expanded, all in last 24 hours.
