Doesn’t matter who would have made the move. One person did, and he deserves the award. If Stone got traded sengun and a first for jokic, he would deserve it, wouldn’t you agree? The award is also only for this specific season. Stone made 2 moves. The draft pick trade with the nets, which looks decent now but we don’t know the actual outcome of it, and the drafting of Reed. I like Reed obviously but he contributed nothing this season. Every reason the rockets had a good season (Ime and all the players) were here before this past offseason.
Pretty sure Pelinka used Jedi mind trick to get the deal done. He and Harrison should win co-EOTY. Together, they made a futureless franchise relevant again.
The way I understood the story is Nico wanted to keep it quiet and only talked to Minnesota before speaking to LA. If the whole league would have known, he'd have gotten so much more. And if Minnesota had made that deal, Pelinka wouldn't have even heard Luka was on the market. Again, I think this fell into Pelinka's lap and he deserves zero credit. This isn't even one of those cases of "he had the assets to be in the position". He didn't. Had Luka been on the open market they'd have never been able to compete with the offers the Mavs would have received.
Presti (OKC), Pelinka (LAL), Gansey (CLE), Stone (HOU), Stevens (BOS) is the order I'd guess the average person would pick. Vegas odds and most pundits still think the Rockets' record is fool's gold, and they'll have to keep proving otherwise. My opinion after listening to a lot of NBA talking heads is that Pelinka probably abused some sort of under-the-table relationship he has with Harrison. He benefited from one of the most irrational derelictions of duty ever seen in sports.
lol. My premium opinion is that being GM of a contender is a different tier of being GM of a rebuilder. All signs are positive regarding drafting and FA signings, but he can't be graded until we see the team's first playoff performance, and how he reacts to it in the summer. Grade: TBD
First part - I wouldn't agree. I would agree if Jokic hit the open market and Stone managed to get Jokic for the pittance Dallas received for Luka, but if Stone just got gifted Jokic then no. No credit. No award. Second part - I think Stone has done an incredible job with the Rockets and I think he was a serious candidate for this award last year when he brought in Udoka, Fred and Dillon as well as drafted Amen and Tari. I don't think he did enough to deserve it this year. I just think Pelinka deserves it a whole lot less.
The Luka trade was an inside job, there's no way the NBA wasn't involved, there's no way that we don't see some sort of upside for the Mavs ownership down the road, like moving to Vegas. Granted, there's no 'clean' GM job in a fixed league like the NBA, but the Luka trade is at another level of dirty.
It's almost as if clutchfans is made up of different people with different thoughts and therefore each can convey different ideas from each other.
While I mostly agree that this is as close to a conspiracy of a trade as one can get, based on the criteria of Executive of the Year award, Rob Pelinka is the executive that publicly pulled off the trade. For instance, if a Rockets fan bought the Mavs and traded Luka to the Rockets for Sengun and a 1st round pick, would you not give Rafael Stone Executive of the Year award?
It's no comparison. That's a more realistic trade than AD. Sengun has the potential upside to at least be a perennial all-star for 10+ more years, and all-star big men don't grow on trees. It's dirty. Know who else knows that? NBA execs. Who vote on this award.
Why? All he did was field a phone call from a deranged GM. Pelinka just had to keep himself from sh!tting his pants long enough to say, "Well, Nico, if you insist."
What GM, if you are counting moves made between june 2024 and april 2025, improved their current and long term prospects as a team with the moves they made? To me it’s Pelinka by a mile
Of course I heard that story. Not sure if it's a damage control narrative or whatever. Nico has also said that Anthony Davis was what he wanted all along. That also cannot be confirmed. The thing is, there was such a huge immediate outcry (not only from Mavs fans) after the deal was publicized, confusing stories came out which all sounded like excuse making. The fact is, the stupidity of that trade is so unbelievable there has to be some kind of conspiracy. But I choose to believe in Jedi mind trick.
Its not that simple as Nico Harris and Pelinka are buddies without Pelinka gaslighting him into keeping it hush hush they wouldnt get Luka for just AD, a pick and Christie. Obviously from the outside looking in anybody would have made that trade but Nico Harris only called Pelinka and nobody else. If Pelinka was the Wolves GN you know who would have first crack at a Luka trade? The Wolves. Maybe Luka and Gafford would have been traded for Gobert and Randle or some other BS. Pelinka even hoodwinked Danny Ainge into making the trade possible and Ainge prob would have offered more for Luka had he known that was the trade going on. There are a lot of nuances in this trade if a lesser savvy dude than Pelinka handled it Luka would not be a laker rn.
i hope nico isn't fired anytime soon. He's gonna b desperate later down the line. Whoever is able to take advantage of him again should win executive of the year
Those are all setup moves. They're great but they didn't had literally no impact on the on court success this year. And I like Stone but the season awards are results based awards. He had a much stronger case last year.
Why would he? Despite his machinations the Mavs still made the ‘playoffs’. They’re going to keep him around long enough to drive that franchise into a chasm so deep that Dallas will be happy when they move to Vegas.
So when do you count a move if the moves he made this year are setup moves and dont count? Like trading for Adams for example, that was a setup move last offseason and now it showed results this year. Stone traded Harden for Nets picks back in 2021 so that was a setup move then and this offseason he drafted 3rd. Stone signed DB and FVV and those 2 had major impact in the court success this year. Stone hired Ime Udoka and he def had a major impact this year. If you are gonna argue Ime, DB and FVV were all signed last year then why do you say the moves Stone made this year are setup moves? When would you recognize the moves then next year you are gonna say these moves were done this year so they dont count? lol Rockets are 2nd seed when you talk about results they got more results than the Lakers. Lakers only improved a couple of wins from AD to Luka, Rockets went from 50% wr to 2nd seed. I think you are just confused you dont know when to count a move.
