Listen, I know that I can list a player and we can nitpick at his age, contract, consistency, whatever. But just take a step back for a second. We're one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA and we have known this for months. The deadline is just a moment of time, we have had 3 months to find someone. You and I both know the NBA is full of players who can shoot well enough for our purposes. No matter how much we nitpick, it's not going to be a convincing argument that the Houston Rockets couldn't find a bench shooter at one of their positions with less depth for months. I've watched like 26 trade deadlines and summers bro. I understand the complexities of trades and I understand what's possible. I understand the CBA better than all but cap experts here. I get it there are things you should be careful about. That's not an excuse to not upgrade your shooting while we watch the team SUFFER from trying to outrebound everyone all season without the benefit of limited minutes like the Grizzlies do for their team. Something I predicted one month in advance last season and this season in case you think it's just bad luck. We're exhausted and injured early, we still need shooting badly, Ime is going to act like it's an effort issue for way too long. We've maximized everything Ime you're a liar if you say this is not a hardworking team, no one in the NBA would believe you. You can gain space through pace or shooting. We've pushed pace as far as we can. There's nothing but shooting or a whole system change. If I'm Green/Amen/Sengun's agent, I'm so let down by Stone right now. FFS why do your scorers have to be more suffocated than other young scorers putting downward pressure on their efficiency? It's a big disadvantage, we haven't even tasted average spacing in the starting lineup, nevermind great spacing which we dream of. Not a good idea and I don't think Stone/Udoka understand it's going to deflate their assets and is putting a ton of noise into any assessment they're making. Just overall, very poor choice to not make a bench trade given our skills and our opponent's skills and how little it would cost.
Reed is a good shooter? At Kentucky and RGV sure. In the NBA, not so far. FVV hasn't been a good shooter this year. I don't really care that he didn't sign anybody this year if the cost was too expensive. He better do some serious shopping this off-season or Fertita is going to start losing his patience. This fanbase has now had a taste of success, we won't be nearly as patient next year.
Too late…..wish the Rockets would fire Stone. He’s awful. Gets credit for one lucky move (Sengun) but the rest have been subpar.
Does anyone remember him cutting/trading his horrible draft picks Josh, TyTy, KJm, KPJ, & Garuba. John Wall disaster. This year Sheppard. Horrible trader….gave away Jarrett Allen and LaVert. Never makes deadline deals. HE ROYALLY SUCKS!!!
Rockets best shooters are borderline average or worse. Jalen: 35 3P%, 55 TS% Fred: 34 3P%, 52 TS% Aaron: 37 3P%, 57 TS% Dillon: 38 3P%, 54 TS% Cam: 32 3P%, 53 TS% Tari: 34 3P%, 54 TS% Tate: 28 3P%, 56 TS% Amen: 23 3P%, 60 TS% Alp: 23 3P%, 54 TS% Stevo: 0 3P%, 56 TS% Jock: 50 3P%, 49 TS% And Bari is not going to fix the shooting issues when he returns from his hand injury. Bari: 35 3P%, 56 TS% NBA average TS% is 58 + 3P% is 36.
Rockets don’t care about efficiency - I’ve became pretty certain of this when Ime will sit JG to rest then with 2-4 seconds in qtr or shotclock put him in game to shoot a grenade and then take him right out to continue his rest I think Ime trying to established a next man up mentality is keeping anyone from developing into a Alpha, it just causes players to press more, and then he throws a tantrum and benches them
Stone needs to apologize to this exhausted and under manned Rockets team. At minimum, not having a legit 2nd PG + backup 5 (platoon of Stevo + Jock not cutting it) going into 2nd half as top 3 seed is criminal mismanagement. Rockets players + coaches overperformance should not be an excuse for FO to do absolutely nothing. Championships are won by contribution from backroom to supplememt + enhance what is happening on the court.
One thing Morey was good at was picking up the phone and kicking tires with every single team. He was always looking to incrementally improve the roster, his eyes would be bloodshot after each trade deadline noting he hadn't slept in days. Stone is an above average GM, but wished he had some of these qualities.
Haha my bad I'm just disappointed with the outcome and tired of going in circles with others. Misunderstood you. Star player wise, I was only really interested in Durant. I'm interested in a late career star. Not dead like CP3, younger than that. Actually a healthy 2017 CP3 would probably be perfect. I don't believe we should target a 1A star as most do. If one becomes available great but I need a realistic executable strategy in the next couple of years. I think given what this young core can do without a star, we just really need an experienced closer and high volume sniper. Everything else we've got in spades. Role players all depends. If we're getting a C you can afford a lesser shooter and get great spacing so I was thinking a killer like Vucevic or a two-way slightly longer term project in Isaiah Stewart. On the cheaper side maybe Olynyk. Second option Robert Williams, that would have been a great lob threat that brings dimensionality to our offense and a monster on defense when our interior defense is lagging. Would have made life much easier for the slashers on the team. For guards I really liked Marcus Beasley, Monte Morris, Coby White, if semi-healthy Lonzo Ball - basically a backup PG who can shoot and defend and safely give the ball to Sengun/Amen/Green. This was a lower priority for me.
That’s fine if you didn’t want to go all in or no deal was available for a star player, but there are cheaper players who have that closer ability/mentality you can get. Maybe stone tried and failed or maybe he was too scared to let go of any of the core 7. Either way I was definitely disappointed this deadline the most I’ve been in a long time.
Stone is only good at contracts. All his trades have sucked. & all the draft picks were no brainers except getting Alpi @ 16th.
The fact that he tried to make KPJ the franchise player shows his incompetence. He stunted Jalen’s development by prioritizing a bum. The same player that made us a toxic destination to free agents and draft prospects. I will never forget that **** & you’re right he literally gave away Jarret Allen for nothing, someone that could’ve been a day one starter
Exactly….you reward the overachievement and have a keen eye of seeing when it is becoming back to the norm and you strike and make a move.
My fav part about this entire losing streak is that Stone supporters kept pointing to how he built a team of young players that are winning. In reality and those who had any sense knew that this teams success was mostly because of Fred.
