Rafael Stone Press Conference after Reed Sheppard pick

LOL @ this guy.



"reports we were fed" ..... you were guessing. You guessed wrong.

 

This was one of the better Stone press conferences. I’m happy tonight.

 

For all the talk of smokescreens and whatnot, I don’t recall seeing a mock for months that didn’t have us taking Sheppard. This seems like the most telegraphed pick ever.

 

I tend to agree.

Even the Jalen Green pick was the right pick at the time - I kinda think he's moving into bust territory, but he was still the right pick in that moment.

So were Amen & Jabari.

 

Other GMs laughing at the Stoner playing 4-D tiddlywinks with clutch, Iko, and gatlin. Oh and how can I forget coach roosh.

 

I just don't know what to tell you. Maybe some of these facts will help:

- If the GM of the Magic had his entire team run a process to determine who's best and it came to Jabari then he changed his mind because of a rumor, then every single one of his next-in-line staff will make sure to mention this to the owner and they would take his job. I don't know if you've ever managed a big department full of highly paid people, but this would not fly.

- Rafael Stone is not Jerry West. No one cares what he thinks. This is the NBA. The top 30 scouting departments on earth. The Magic have been one of the best at building an excellent young roster, they have picked well overall. There are no GM's who are thinking Stone is smarter than them, just like Clyde Drexler doesn't think Michael Jordan is better than him. I don't know what kind of whimpy personalities you're projecting onto the Magic front office, but I assure you everyone is confident in their process and if they are not they will not last.

- Do you know what NBA teams do to draft players? They pay INSANELY high salaries to scouts and analysts and cap experts. There are TEAMS of elite people who's salaries are millions upon millions of dollars. These people are snatched from the top organizations in the world. Do you know that drafting a player is the culmination of all that staff, all that work, all that data and one rumor is not going to mean anything to people within that process. It may prompt them to do further due dilligence on someone, but that has nothing to do with the Rockets. Banchero is going to be rumored to go SOMEWHERE and that would prompt them. It has nothing to do with Stone.

- If Jabari was the consensus as you're claiming, why did OKC - picking best player available - pick Chet Holmgren?

- Do you know that every year the draft doesn't go as predicted? Sarr was supposed to be the #1 pick for most of this year's draft process, this only changed less than a month ago. This happens all the time. Rumors mean nothing. Even if a team tells the truth, other GM's don't know if they're telling the truth.

- If the Magic told Jabari they'd draft him, then you're insinuating that they had their minds actually MADE UP and THEN ditched all their process because of a rumor? Don't you think it's more likely Orlando was engaging in disinformation in order to drum up a potential trade where they get Banchero at a lower pick and snag an additional asset?

I think dude you're not seeing the big picture of what's going on in the NBA. These are professional men and women who go to work every day and believe in their process and are competitive. The owners will F*CK someone up for wasting all that money and then picking based on a rumor. They WILL find out their GM did that, because the entire team is involved.

I feel like you're not differentiating between running a chicken shop and an NBA front office. Think about it logically. This is an actual business where major money is made and lost. Orlando had the #1 pick and want to get someone they want. Their goal is not to deny someone else their target. They are not going to value Stone's opinion over their own. If you can't see this and think ALLLLL of this would be overridden by a rumor which they can't distinguish from truth, I advise you to spend 10-15 minutes researching what happens in a team's draft process. You'll find that it's comical to think someone decided that Rafael Stone's opinion is everything. Even OUR organization doesn't believe that.

 

Why is it so hard to believe we would pick Reed Sheppard - a barely 6'2 guy who can shoot and defend and has to learn how to be a PG - over a 7'1 guy with a massive wingspan, elite interior and exterior defense, already shooting 25% from 3 and 71% from FT, soft touch around the rim, has a hook shot, excellent agility/athleticism, has professional basketball experience, has a relentless motor, has been coachable at every spot and was mocked ahead of Sheppard by 99% of the world?

If you don't understand why it's hard to believe, I can't help you. You sound like I'm dissing your dad.

 

"g league is so much better than college basketball" is a sad thing to hear. hopefully we can get the nba and nfl and ncaa and broadcasting companies to figure this out

 

The opinions of fans matter exactly zero. Your intelligence is insulted only if you let it be.

It's not the FO's job to give any of us special info about anything they're doing. I hope they never do.

 

With the report that the Hawks were considering Shepherd with the #1 pick, this proved one of two things.

1) the Hawks saw the analytics and know the there is something very Special about Reed. A lot of folks say Mark Price shooting, and that would be simply amazing. A PG that can shoot lights out and can defend.

2) The Hawks knew that Houston had Sheppard as their #1 in their draft board. And they tried to bluff Houston into giving up an asset so that it could get their target of Sheppard. Houston didn’t get spooked.

This all tells me, the Rocket probably feel they got the #1 pick in this draft.

 

I love it seems Jalen is maturing

 

You are giving nba front offices too much credit. The nba draft evaluation process is a crapshoot not a science. They make massive mistakes every year, like drafting drafting Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio over curry.

For whatever reason, Jabari was considered the top consensus pick to go 1. It is fair to say that influenced Orlando’s decision sticking with Jabari early in the draft process and not go against the grain, the same reason lakers drafted home town player lonzo ball over Tatum.

At the end of the day, Jackson Gatling seems to imply Rockets not holding their cards close to their chest ended up costing them Banchero and I trust his reporting over some random guy on an online forum.

 

I'm not giving any credit to front offices, I'm telling you exactly what happens there. You can research it yourself. If you think I'm exaggerating, you literally don't know and should go research it.

Uhh, there are better reporters than Gatlin who said the Magic wanted Banchero, so you're just cherry picking.

Anyways, this is so ridiculous I've already spent too much time on it. I can't believe someone has to be convinced that an NBA front office didn't ditch its entire drafting process for a rumor about RAFAEL STONE.

 

Yea its stupid. Banchero was the best pick from the beginning in that draft. Anyone at 1 not picking him would have been dumb.

 

I'm more disturbed we preferred Banchero. He's a losing nba player. He can't shoot 3s and his defense is limited.

Basically he's a better passer and has better court vision than Jabari. I would rather have the defense and 3pt shooting.

 

Considering he would be backing up our best player I don't see the value.

Jalen might be gone in a year. Reed would compliment Amen very well considering his weakness...

Like putting a great shooter next to Rondo.... we need 4 shooters with Amen like we did with Westbrook.

 

We're talking about BPA. I don't care about Sheppard or Sarr's position. I know both can fit.

If we tanked that long and rebuilt to end up with 1 guy who can collapse the defense and 4 shooters, I will set Toyota Centre on fire with Stone and Tilman in it. That's how much I like that idea.

 

Plenty of people who know what they are talking about had Sheppard at #1 overall in this class. Sarr is a solid prospect, but even if the Rockets were at #1 overall, Sheppard was the right pick.

 

Don’t forget. We leaked it through Woj, too

“Clingan is in play at 3 to Houston.”

And Windhorst, lulz. That was awesome.

 

Read the other threads, people on here 100% believed it and were talking about firing Stone. I mean, reporters were talking about drafting Clingan and trading Alphi. Just because its obvious now, doesn't mean people didn't fall for it.