Stone has never been an all-star general manager, but this past week he’s sunk to levels that are unimaginable. Something is abyss as it’s simply not his style to give away three promising firsts and KMJ for nothing. Remember he’s attached to each of those guys personally as they were his picks and nobody else’s. Last time he listened to his coach he traded Jarrett Allen and Caris Levert for basically Victor Oladipo. Looks like these horrendous moves are being orchestrated by more than likely Udoka. If so, not a good start and he needs to stay in his lane as a coach where he is hopefully much more skilled!
Getting involved in player personnel moves is how Bill O'Brien sank the Texans' ship. Udoka is the coach. He needs to focus on coaching. Ime, if you are reading this, I have two critical rules for you to follow at all times: 1. Stay out of the GM's kitchen 2. Stay out of your co-workers pants GOOD DAY
All I know is we are placing an awful a lot of trust in a sophomore head coach who has coached 0 games for the Rockets.
Stone was probably told by Fertitta to do whatever Udoka wants at any cost. This could turn into another Texans Bill O'Brien situation where Stone takes personal time away allowing Udoka to become coach and GM.
Udoka didn't tell Stone to trade 5 second round picks to clear Tyty and Garuba who only stay Rockets 1~2 years. Stone looks like horrible GM on trading. He basically overpays every ****ing trade.
Maybe I misunderstood Ime. I thought I heard him say that SHOOTING and rim protection were the priorities this off season. Maybe he changed his mind. Guess that's possible. So either IME switched his priorities or Stone is responsible for any questionable moves that were made. I actually think this team will be dramatically improved. I just wanted a shooter or 2. So maybe Stone comes out smelling like roses. It will take years before we find out. But if the choice is between Udoka and Stone as far as being a competent basketball mind, that's Ime. Not time to panic. Be happy that at least the team should take pretty big leap defensively. It's a foundation that we can build from.
Coach can tell GM what player/players he wants. It’s up to the GM to pay the right price to get them. Not overpay.
I disagree. He was brought in more to fix the culture than for his x's and o's and having the right roster with the right mindset is vital in building that culture. Bill O'Brian was a disaster not bc he got a say in Personal but when he got put in charge of how that Personal was acquired or gotten rid of
coaches will always want win now players because their job always depends on winning. stone has to pivot to winning now because that's what tilman wants. the whole organization is on the same page as to this direction. its not one persons fault. and its not necessarily the wrong direction. what was wrong was what happened after Lopez went back to the bucks. instead of just signing brooks to the exact same contract using the cap space held for Lopez, they dumped assets in a meaningless S&T. that's stone's fault. he threw out 3 recent FRPs and 5 future SRPs for objectively no reason. its his first egregious error... but there are a few other notable errors such as hiring/sticking with Silas too long to the detriment of your player development, waiting too long to trade wood, tucker, gordon, KJ, and subsequently netting less of a return... and insisting on basketball decisions such KPJ at PG, nix over tyty, speaking at film sessions and practices, all with no history of professional coaching or basketball strategy. all in all he's got some things right as well, but the losses are starting to pile up and the shine is wearing off. now that Silas is gone he can't blame the coach anymore. I think he should be squarely on the hot seat this year. he had a chance to bring in a new coach, spend more money than any team in the league on win-now vets, this is his roster and his coaching staff up and down. if we don't see drastic improvement I'm ready to move on at the end of this season.
I feel like Houston is still in that “I don’t wanna play in Houston” vibe that crops up every 2-3 years. This feeling has impacted all our teams the past few years. The Astros were hated for a minute and the Texans are turning the corner on that mentality. The Rockets won’t be a place to play until we develop or sign a legit star player. Still 2 years away from being a place players wanna come.
Udoka <<<< Stone <<<<< Tilman/Patrick Fertitta I'm guessing they (Stone and FO) asked if Udoka liked Fred VanVleet/Dillon... he responded yes. but it's Stone who negotiated $$$$.....Tilman/PF gave their ok to said dollar amounts. It's the team that, as a whole, let it be known that they had a lot of money to spend and they were going to spend it. "Come one come all" They let it be known they were enamored with FVv, Dillon, and Lopez. KlutchSports did what they do: they saw money, they saw desperation, they saw suckers. KlutchSports played Stone and crew like a bongo drum. You never let a woman know you are madly in love and you definitely don't show that you are desperate. You will get played. Udoka fault is saying get me defenders and former champions (FVv/Brook Lopez) for their pedigree. All of this works much better with Brook Lopez starting and protecting the backs of FVv and Dillon, others. I said it may take $30m....Rockets apparently were checking under the cushions for loose change to pay Lopez closer to $29m.....trade TyTy, JC, Garuba to do it. This will be an epic fail not getting Brook Lopez first.
