Many valid positions in the thread. You can’t compare apples to oranges. One GM in a complete rebuild. The other made his big splash move (James) and kept it consistent bordering on championship in those last few years. The issue I had with Daryl was in the end it was a house of cards and when James finally forced his way out it was a complete gut. For me Stone gets 3 years before we can start this comparison. He still has some bad contracts and things to clean up.
The jury is out on Stone but let’s not forget Morey fled when things got tough and blatantly lied about it.
Not sure why but below is a reason for Morey bailing that doesn't get talked about enough, IMHO. Basically, by leaving he was able to get paid two salaries instead of one. Same went for Tad Brown. https://sports.yahoo.com/report-rockets-agreed-pay-daryl-230004468.html#:~:text=The Rockets' agreement with Morey,knowledge of the agreements said. There were of course other factors, but the money must have been a massive incentive for them to leave. Oh, and I'm in the Morey is Better camp for now, by a mile. Stone gets an incomplete grade for another season or two, but so far, he hasn't impressed me too much.
You guys are idiots....how can Stone be better than Morey with less than 2 years under his belt when he had already committed two blatant and sinful mistakes- 1) daniel theis contract, 2) overlooking Evan Mobley- and i don't mean by simply passing him on the draft, but rather not doing enough diligence on the guy and assumed he is a worse player. From the accounts on the cleveland side, they were stoked by how we approached the draft and had only really targeted cade and green.
Morey really left for the Hong Kong tweet guys....the Fertits couldn't fire his ass during the year and had to negotiate and let him go at the end of the season, and feel butthurt after when they found out Morey had already lined hinself up for another job.
as long as running errands for ferntits, this two fundamentally makes no difference - gotta act like yes-man, gotta do dirty work, gotta cut down costs n find the cheapest coach to give a try.
I think it was talked about at that time. The double dipping should be outlawed. It makes no sense to financially incentivize jumping ship. If you quit a job, you shouldn't continue to get paid.
The entire coaching staff and GM left because of Tillman dicking around with their work........never blame a player or coach for improving their situation. DD
We had a great thing with Morey - unfortunately, didn't have an owner that could pay the luxury tax go along with him. However, I think it is fair to criticize Morey and some of his public remarks that he made. Whether it was Hong Kong, soundbites in regards to beating the Warriors - ideally talk after we win a championship or two. Our constant attempt to convince the NBA and the media that James Harden is the MVP every year did not help with how we were perceived by the refs as well.
Honestly he never tried, he did not strike me as a coward but I would say he wasn't an avid drafter either. Alexander at that time also impeded him.
Three things to grade Stone on: 1). The Harden deal. This was a trade too important to screw up. Harden hurt our leverage going public, I’m not gonna blame Stone for the narrow list of suitors he had to work with. I think he got the draft pick compensation right but made a big mistake passing on Allen or another 1st round pick to take on Olidipo. He then almost compounded the mistake by offering Dipo a multi yr deal which fortunately Dipo was greedy enough to turn down. Then stone desperately moved him to Miami last minute at the deadline for virtually zero compensation. So let’s say the Harden trade was mostly good but he left something significant on the table. 2). The draft it’s too early to know if Stone nailed the draft, but so far there are legitimate 10 rookies that look better than our draft picks. Stone needs to get a bonifide young star out of our 4 draft picks or this draft will have been a failure. There’s obvious talent there, but So far our draft picks have a long way to go. 3). Coaching Stone didn’t hire Silas, but it will be up to him to make the right call on his coaching future. We’ve got two disastrous years under our belt with Silas. It’s not unreasonable to give him a 3rd yr to turn things around, but how long do u wait? It’s not just wins and losses that are at stake; it’s also player development -absolutely critical for a young team. If we don’t see significant improve by next yr, Stone will need to take action and find a good coach? Will he be decisive and will he find the right fit, or will he stick with Silas even during another bad season? This one is unknowable but no doubt rockets fans are getting restless, and with good reason. so Stone get’s a B for the Harden trade, an incomplete on the draft (with a little “needs improvement”), and we’ll see if he gets the coaching right. So Not terrible but not very good so far. I will give him a few brownie points for unearthing diamonds in the rough like Gary Bird, Tate, KJ Martin; all guys that will be impactful future rotation/role players in the nba.
It's way too early to judge Stone. If his picks hit 3-4 years from now, when they should ACTUALLY be graded, then he'll look like a genius. We'll (hopefully) have some trades to judge him on next week too.
