Rafael Stone Press Conference after Reed Sheppard pick

It’s very annoying that he’s proudly saying he would pick Sheppard over Sarr. I hope he’s lying.

Stone’s trades and attempted trades recently are extremely alarming. Sheppard is a good pick at 3 but Stone is getting saved from himself a lot these days.

 

The only reason Sarr is considered in same tier as Reed is cause of potential… statistically Reed was significantly better player of what he did on the actual court

 

I think he says that every year that the guy we picked was the highest on our board
Its all total BS

 

He shouldn't be saying these kind of things. Stone still has a ways to go.

 

I knew it. This confirms what I felt all along. The rockets leaking their interest ended up costing us Banchero.

 

Jackson’s question …

 

How? The Magic wanted him anyway. You think the entire management and scouting department of another organization changed their mind because they heard Rafael Stone likes a particular player? They just threw all their own analysis in the bin?

 

Yes. The fact that Jabari was the heavy favorite to go 1 up until the night before the draft. Jabari even said Orlando told him they were going to draft him.

Orlando never even worked out Banchero. They knew how much the rockets wanted Banchero that it made them second guess drafting Jabari.

 

Why is that so hard to believe? WOJ reported that the Hawks seriously considered Reed at 1. Are you only looking to complain?

 

I'm glad he didn't screw this up.

 

He hasn’t screwed up a single premium draft pick.

 

This is the thing I hate the most about Stone tbh. He just constantly insults our intelligence. Like we're not stupid we know it's BS. Just like how they were leaking the Clingan **** through Iko. Do you seriously think anyone believes that? You're just ruining his credibility for no reason.

 

Good lord. I swear, even when we take the consensus pick, people on this board invent reasons to complain.

 

I'm not sure if it costs them Banchero, but it wasnt a good look. There's tons of reasons why you dont want everyone to know your intentions even if picking at one. I think that experience taught Stone for sure.

They went deep with the smoke screen too, even having folks talking about trading Sengun if we got Clingan.

 

The pick was good. Just stop lying already. Stop lying about trades that almost happened. Stop lying about your board. Stop lying through the media. It's not 1985.

 

Lol - no that's not what happened.

Orlando decided on banchero a couple of days before the draft. This was extensively reported by an ESPN article published a few days later - I think it was Windhorst. At no point was it mentioned that "oh we must take banchero because of the Rockets" - that's pure fantasy.

The "Jabari Smith is #1 " idea was just a bunch of big board attention jockeys dreamcasting what they thought - obviously they were wrong both on terms of draft position and in terms of his performance in the 2 years since which is not even close to franchise player level

Edit - here is an article about it https://sports.yahoo.com/the-inside...came-the-nb-as-no-1-draft-pick-150531265.html

but the Magic worked behind the scenes days earlier to alter the top of the draft without anyone picking up on it.

Two days before the draft, Orlando requested a Zoom interview with Banchero.​

 

Again, how do you know he’s lying? He didn’t say that about Bari. The Hawks seriously considered Reed at 1. Perhaps stop whining about nonsense?