The Stone is a Good Drafter Narrative Needs to Die

We drafted Amen to be the future PG and we brought in Fred for now, and KPJ is still here. So where does TyTy fit now? We drafted Cam at SF, we brought in Brooks for now. So where does KMJ fit now? I like KMJ but let’s be realistic here, he was not the SF of the future for us due to his limited playmaking and shooting. TyTy is a backup pg at best. Gotta stop falling in love with the backup role players. Maybe blame some of it on Silas, he was playing vets to try and get a few wins to keep his job. Gotta move on now…

 

KJ is a productive player who is going to get a second contract at probably pretty decent money. Regardless of trade return (which is in the last year of his existing deal and still turned one second round pick into a few years of a player and two second round picks) that’s much better than expected production for his draft slot.

I’d also bet that at least one of the other guys we dumped puts together a decent career.

 

What “ppl” you talking about? Us fans? Some of these super GMs on clutch fans? I’m sure the organization has seen plenty to evaluate them and how they fit in our future plans. We have a young team and more young talent added again. At some point you gotta let some of them go. Late 1st rounders are not that valuable. And we will have more 1st round picks still coming (nets picks).

 

People act like 90% or the league wasn’t a first round pick. We traded a bunch of end of roster players, and people are acting like we’re breaking up a championship core.

 

Stone is an abysmal manager of assets, his drafting has actually been pretty damn good

The vast majority of late first round picks are on the their way out of the league after their rookie deal, so even turning into a role player who hangs around the league for a while is a success.

KJ Martin was a late second rounder, so he's already a big success.

 

That’s completely wrong! He drafted extremely well, problem is these picks lost value in the organizational dysfunction of the past 3 years. The stench of losing rubbed on them.

You can’t say that Chris Braun for example is a better pick than Jaygup or KJM or TyTy? Is he more talented? No! But he came from a winning program and went into a winning program, and that’s the reason he’s a lot more valuable now.

Many posters here thought that just bringing-in talented kids and letting them run the asylum would somehow "develop" them and the team. Turns out the opposite happened, their value regressed. That’s the folly of building through tanking, you may find talent in the draft but the dysfunction makes that talent rot.

 

Stone sold low on first round picks regardless due to mismanagement of assets. For all we know tyty could have been an actual good player. Yet we would never know bc nix of all people was getting heavy mins.

On a rebuilding team, mismanagement of assets could delay the team even further

 

Projected starters:

LiAngelo Ball
Jarrett Culver
Drew Timme
Luka Garza
Thon Maker

 

I don’t have a problem with Stone’s draft picks. I praised several of them at the time. I have a big problem with how they were “developed.” I agree with those who say that Stone’s severe tanking strategy impacted both the development and the perception of some of Stone’s picks. The ones that were moved will sink or swim. I wish them well. The ones that seemed to shine, like Eason and Sengun, who were noticed in a positive way in the basketball media from time to time, still had to deal with Silas and his bizarre rotations.

We heard about Stone coming into practices and interfering with Silas and the staff, something Ime won’t put up with for a second. That’s another strange impact of Stone’s regime, as is the insistence of KPJ as our starting point guard. Stone never seemed to find a decent backup. Part of the tank? I don’t understand signing Brooks, and understand even less his contract, handed to him by Stone. I don’t understand it, but I’m just a fan.

 

If they drafted me and can't develop me into a good screener and hacker , then it's on the coaches not the GM ..

 

I mean he built one of the 10ish greatest teams ever from nothing, that’s gotta count for something. Do you view someone like Ujiri differently just because the warriors guys got injured against them and not us?

 

Drafting well means nothing if you don’t put in the effort to develop the player

 

Exactly. It’s the total mismanagement of their first round draft picks. How many times did we play Gordon and Tate as backup point guards when they’re not point guards? Then prioritizing undrafted players like Nix and Gary Matthews and the hopeless KPJ experiment instead of playing TyTy and seeing what you have with him? Then they end up dumping 3 of their first round draft picks for a salary dump.

 

nah, players could only be evaluated by watching they play (ENOUGH games), n check out their stats to figure things out…but tyty n uzi's stats close to null, bc we all know silas didn't allow tyty n uzi much PT to prove themselves.
If both Stone n Ime felt time's pressing, gotta smash the button right away to create more space n more roster spots, ok, i can fully understand - in that situation they drew a quick conclusion i.e. 'the best scenario is these two can grow into solid role players one day, but not enough!'
…yes, i agree, these two could never be franchise players! However that still could hardly hide one brutal fact, as future role players (worth 8mil - 15mil), how good they could be? Nobody knows! We trade them for nothing.
We threw away two 2022 first rounders, two possible solid role players for NOTHING!

Bingo!
yes, If Stone did think 'late 1st rounders' ain't that valuable, then wht decision he should have made? should've TRDE the two 2022 first round picks!
Stone didn't! He leave them to silas, let those two rotted our there without any intervention! THAT could only make Stone looks more incompetent right?…to a gm, wasting talent/picks equals to a waste of money, that's one of my key points in the post.

 

So you think we tanked for Garuba, Tyty and JC?

Ironically people calling Stone a bad drafter are mad he got rid of Garuba, Tyty and JC. If Stone is a bad drafter you wouldn't care about these guys.

 

Not really. Mobley is getting carreid having 3 all star teammates covering for him and Ivey is much older and less valuable than Jabari.

 

Another crying post by a Houston fan. Im just shocked.

 

What has that got to do with his drafting though which is the OP's point?

 

This comes from fans overvaluing their drafted players. Sometimes GMs do it too. But Im glad Stone isnt. Yeah sure they may be solid years down the road but we cant have a rebuild project that big for that long. In order to get through the past few years fans had to tell themselves that we not only had the next Westbrok, Durant and Harden and we were building a Superteam through the draft but it would be even bigger than the Warriors. In their minds we had 6 or 7 future all stars on the team. Now that its painfully evident that that isnt true they are lashing out lol Its really ****ing annoying I gotta say, we dont have the smartest fanbase.