Rafael Stone: “Is this just not our year?”

Yes but that's like saying "I wonder if they would want the gold we're offering them over the assets that they leaked they didn't want?"

 

Real basketball minds like who???? The team isn't where we want it to be, but it will get better. The answer isn't always fire sale the franchise. Stone isn't a bad GM. I think he's better than Morey was. He uses analytics but doesn't bow to them like Morey did. If he did KD/Amen wouldn't be allowed to shoot middies. Sometimes the grass ain't always greener.

 

Finally, someone thinking logically and not emotionally. Well said.

 

I guess I'm a little ahead of you in that I already accepted this would be what we're trying this season and it's going better than I expected so I'm being fair and giving it a chance. It's not how I'd build the team and I think the tactics are stupid but whatever, let the dude take his shot. The fastest way to get rid of this tactical problem is to put it on full display and remove excuses.

No more Jalen to blame (and we're on the cusp of seeing Jalen in a spaced offense for the first extended period). No more kids to throw under the bus. No more balanced scoring required, he got his 1A scorer. Whatever happens in these playoffs, he gets all the blame or credit.

Put yourself in Stone and Udoka's shoes. They went with a very unorthodox strategy of extreme rebounding. They lost FVV for the season and Tari/DFS for a lot of the first half. Adams now gone a couple weeks. Amen and Sheppard struggled coming out of the gate. Injuries have made chemistry impossible since we've changed lineups so much. They're sitting on 2nd net rating despite all of that. This is simply not the time for "I told you so"'s from critics. They have a right to dig their heels in right now. It's not reasonable to expect them to panic or make a major change at this point. Their plan - so far - is going well.

Now, we both know when the playoffs arrive the halfcourt offense is going to be needed FAR more frequently for points and that's where the tent folds. But I'll at least leave open the possibility that some thought or injury or buyout signing between now and then could change the dynamics enough for us to be passable in half court.

Right now my expectation is: good job in the first half overall, better keep improving because we're certainly not there yet.

 

I would like to keep Sengün until he is 25-26 at the least, hand the reins to Amen and let KD just fizzle out, I don't really care about his objectives.

The team chemistry long term is more valuable than some glorified Ex GSW Mercenary.......whom I only liked his first year as a Super Sonic.

Get some shooters and ball handlers regardless whether KD is on the team or not. That is non-negotiable.

Udoka is probably gone (cannot see a future with him unless he changes which he won't)

Stone should be (but we all know he is just the Yes man for the Tilman regime or Patrick regime)

 

KD is one of the best shooters you can get. The problem is that he's not used as a shooter. He's used as a playmaker with two or more non-shooters on the floor.

 

This, and I say that as someone in the room. It's a mistake to take it at face value and assume that's all that's going on.

A lot of the criticism at this deadline is overblown (IMO), but the one fair pushback -- the reasons the Rockets were boxed in are on Rafael and the FO. Even if most of us liked DFS at the time, it's the Rockets who chose to sign him using the NT-MLE, which triggered the first-apron hard cap. His ankle surgery wasn't a secret. If that deal ages poorly, well, it's the FO's job to forecast his future production before signing him. And without the first-apron hard cap, the Rockets could've used the disabled player exception that they got for FVV ($12.5 million).

Similarly, the reason Fred has the implied no-trade clause is because we chose to give him the 1+1 (which triggers the clause). That was a choice we made to give up that short-term flexibility.

With all that said, and this is the part Rafael's not going to say in a presser: There is also value in mitigating the damage of your misses. With DFS, for example, the absolute worst-case scenario would be if you use him as negatively valued salary ballast (along with a future FRP) for someone like Coby White... only to have DFS return to form by the playoffs and Coby White not move the needle here. Then, you get to the offseason, and DFS will be at least a neutral contract for salary matching (due to expiring), while White can't even be used at all due to being an unrestricted FA.

In some ways, it's similar to Jalen Green last year. A lot of people were either upset at the terms of the contract or that the poison pill made it almost impossible to trade him during the season. But then, when he was one of the two salary pieces used in the KD trade, it made us all look back at that contract a bit more favorably. Similarly, if DFS becomes a very useful expiring that helps you make the math work on a big deal this offseason, that's real value.

Anyway, apologies for the length of this rant, just wanted to share my perspective. There are definitely fair criticisms, but overreacting and overcorrecting has its own consequences, which they're trying to avoid.

 

Fair yet never heard of ppl complaining about myriad shooters around best shooter Curry.

 

Spot on. That was basically the same problem last year, and we just upgraded JG with KD - a huge upgrade, but you cannot just rely on one guy and hope the entire offense will suddenly click. We had some improvement in the first 15/20 games of this season, but now we’re on a slump, and eventually by end of season we’ll probably just show a marginal improvement in our shooting % compared to last season.
I will claim that if fvv was available, we’d probably demonstrate much better offense, but it’s Stone mistake that he didn’t push to sign a legitimate pg backup even before Fred’s injury.

 

Also, one other thing on the "gotta go all-in with a 37-year-old KD" argument:

In the weeks leading up to the June 22 trade agreement, we all debated the various financial pathways to a deal. I was told at the time -- and I can show you from my podcast archives, if you don't believe me -- that including Fred was a non-starter because they didn't think they were good enough, without Fred, for a KD deal to be worth it. And ultimately, not only did they end up with KD without Fred, but KD without Fred and Jalen/Dillon. Bitter pill to swallow.

Now, once Fred went down right before training camp, they did try PR spin in the opposite direction. They certainly didn't want the narrative to be that they were cooked before the season even began, that's bad on many levels. But based on what I was told in June, I suspect they pretty much knew. They viewed Fred as the most valuable player on last season's team. So, in terms of the whole "add KD to the No. 2 seed" formula, it all erodes if you take out the best player from the No. 2 seed, and then two other starters, to boot.

With that said, can you disagree with them on Fred's value? Sure. To each their own. But this whole idea that it's "just" Fred VanVleet is misguided. To them, he was their best/most important player on that No. 2 seed. They don't remotely view it as a scenario where you can get, say, 90% his production by acquiring the warm body of a "traditional point guard," or whatever. If you disagree with that, fair enough, but that's where the disconnect comes from. To those acting like acquiring KD is incompatible with this deadline's approach, I can promise you that they wouldn't have acquired KD in the first place if Fred wasn't on the roster. Tough situation.

 

If they believe Fred is the best player on last year's team:

- How is Tillman/Patrick not firing Stone after 10+ draft picks and 4+ years investment in development?
- Why are they not using their future picks to upgrade Fred/Alpi/Amen?
- Why on earth would they not trade Amen and/or Sengun for Giannis?

This is really disturbing news. No wonder the players are losing motivation. You can hide that kind of thing in PR but you can't hide it from people you spend time with every day.

Last summer NBA GM's considered Amen the most likely breakout star in the NBA. Maybe it's time we find one of those GM's so that we're run by someone who believes in this thing.

 

A 6'0 defender who shot 39% from the field and 32% from 3 to go with 5 assists was our best player?

Are these people buffoons?

 

I think not expending any resources for this season was 100% the right move. Just because we got KD doesn't mean we have to squander assets this season.

I think folks are overblowing the FO's view on FVV.... he is clearly the best and only player who can and will run a consistent, competent offense. That does NOT mean they think he is our franchise player.

I think the team was setup in the offseason to give Sengun, Amen, and Reed opportunities to run the offense, regardless of FVV being injured, but they just haven't risen to the challenge.

 

I highly doubt they think FVV is our franchise player....... Just clearly he is the only player capable of running a competent NBA offense, which is after our roster had an offseason of training.

But you people always dismiss FVV's great 3 pt shooting his first season as a Rocket where he shot 39% on 8 3 pt attempts per game.....

 

What a sad sack - I mean - "this is not our year" is an excuse......

The guys missing literally make very little difference, it is our STRATEGY that is wrong.

Look at what happened to Man United when they got rid of Ruben Amorin - their overbearing coach who refuse to change his tactics to what his players were better suited to do......it is 4 games in a row in the win column and growing.

Ime is the problem the tactics suck, we are playing 90s basketball in 2026 - and teams play 3 guards, jam up the paint and shoot 3s, we have very little chance.

DD

 

People don't want to accept the fact that our young core just hasn't taken that next step after a very promising season. Ime certainly isn't a top 10 or maybe top 15 coach.... but it's completely insane to not see that this young core is incapable of playing anything other than "90s" ball.

I don't think we are Orlando Magic level existential crisis, but we may need to make some hard decisions about Amen and Sengun in the offseason with our additional 2033 pick that becomes available to trade (along with every other team).

 

Don't be crazy, 3 guards are smaller and weaker than 5 forwards. Next you'll want us to pass the ball or try a fancy crossover or something. Sounds like some p***y ****, better if we just play tough and call everyone b****es.

 

.

Everyone is blaming udoka, but if we were to get fired, he would be unemployed for five seconds and we would still be blaming the next coach they hire.

The truth is amen, sengun, Sheppard aren’t very good. They can’t shoot and no one on the team fits well together.

Mavs got flag, spurs got Wemby. Who do we have? No one. We have no franchise player, this rebuild has been a failure.

I think it’s best to trade everyone, including Durant, amen, sengun in the offseason.

 

If anybody needs confirmation not to have any high hopes on this dumbass team .


It sounded stupid when they decided to collect a bunch of non shooting forwards but Jesus this takes the cake

My biggest surprise is the cowardice of dudes like Ben Dubose not calling it out . They aren’t dumb and value their connections to the FO more than the fans

 

Some of us knew the second we gave him that second contract this rebuild was going downhill. I was begging for Ty Jerome over Fred. Memphis got him for 9mil a year scoring 20pts on 43% 3pt and 61% FG