The age old adage says, don’t get high on your own supply. Seems Stone believes in his core so much, that it is disproportional around the league about how much they value the Rockets players. Rockets seem to believe that Smith, Tari, Reed, Amen will all be perennial all-stars eventually.
We don't have a franchise player. However, we drafted good enough pieces so we can attract said franchise player in free agency or via trade. We gotta shake up the roster, trade one of Amen or Sengun because of spacing issues and we should be in a good position for the next years. Of course we would be better of with Wemby or even Cade or Flagg, but our core is good enough so we have a chance to be contenders with the right moves. I'm just not sure Stone is the right person to make these moves.
They have no picks because (1)Russell Westbrook & (2)Traded the Nets picks for the Suns picks in which they intended to flip back to Phoenix for Booker but instead settled on 37 year old Durant. And just save it. … “ThE NeTs wErE NeVeR GoInG To tAnK If tHeY DiDn’t hAvE ThEiR PiCkS. tHeY WeRe gOnNa bE ExTrEmElY MeDiOcRe!” Great, let them build around Mikal Bridges. 2025 1st round pick (Danny Wolf) 2026 BRK 1st round pick TO BROOKLYN FOR 2025 1st round pick swap (Khaman Maluach) 2027 PHX 1st round pick 2029 1st round pick (two most favorable of DAL/PHX/HOU, BRK gets least favorable of the three) …or something like that. ____________________________ 2027 BRK 1st round pick swap 2027 PHX 1st round pick 2028 own?! 2029 PHX/DAL/HOU 1st round pick (two most favorable to HOU, least favorable to BRK) 2030 own?! 2031 own?! 2032 own?! and a few incoming/outgoing 2nd round picks
Can someone put up a poll for me as I have been banned, asking who’s hurt the organization more: Silas or Stone? Almost feel like Silas did more to at least get us nice lottery opportunities.
Let me simplify to you - he is not the right person. Like Silas was not the right coach for this team but eventually we upgraded to Ime, the same thing should happen in the gm role. True, Stone overall made decent draft picks, and he pulled off a good trade to get kd. But after the kd trade, he made a series of bad choices, that ultimately got us to the point where we have no room for other moves to cover for Fred’s injury or dfs redundant presence.
I mean I understand wanting to improve, and getting that jolt of new hope and adrenaline that comes from a promising trade with a reasonably big new name... but I also think our core still has a lot going for it. Our biggest issue has been wild inconsistency, including nonsense like missing an insane amount of wide open shots. But on paper, the team is very talented, deep, and capable. For as much as we mourn our hole at PG, Amen and Reed are really damn good, even if not quite prepared for this role. Putting Stone's silly @ss quote aside, anything is still possible this season... from championship to first round bounce. And I expect us to look better by playoff time than we do now.
I think we have suffered enough for being almost good enough ....it began with Old Chuck and Quitten, Yao and Grady, Artest, Scola, Adelman, Harden and CP3......and now this. There was always something, the last detail that did not fit.
Folks are a littttle out over their skis here. Stone isn’t perfect, and is a terrible speaker, but collectively our FO is very sharp relative to the other ones. You should ask yourself if you’re mad because NBA teambuilding is too much about luck, and we didn’t get lucky and other teams did. There is no team in a better position than the Rockets who did not either a) luck out on getting the #1 pick in a great year or b) luck out on a random prospect transforming into an all time great. Hasn’t happened for us, but realize if that’s ultimately the root of the frustration.
It didn’t have anything to do with luck to extend Ime Ufukitup and an aging diminutive PG after his worse season in the NBA. I used to support the way this guy built the team and maintained flexibility and then he blew it all in one off-season.
Right, the Westbrook trade is a gift that keeps on giving. According to @Nook, it has Stone's fingerprints on it. I was kind of neutral with the Nets picks --> Suns picks trade. I know they were targeting Booker. But it was an uncertain gamble. When the Suns started to implode, I thought the trade was bearing fruit. Somehow the Suns have righted their ship this season and we are looking at a diminished value. But my biggest beef with that trade at that time and even now is that Stone could have squeezed more from the Nets. The Nets had no leverage and they were desperate of getting their own picks back. We held all the cards. We could just walk away if they didn't comply to our demands. We were not desperate. We did not have to make that trade and still would be in great shape for the future because if the Nets couldn't rebuild quickly (which looked very likely) we would reap all the high picks from them.
He re-signed Tate, Green and Holidays for the minimum. He plucked Okogie for the minimum. He signed DFS for the MLE. So he used almost every other dollar available (sans a little wiggle room) to re-up FVV. Had he not given him $25M he would have been leaving millions of unusable dollars on the table. And he could only give that money to FVV. This doesn’t make him a great GM, it merely makes him competent. Once the Durant trade was done, there were only a few things he could do. Anyone who thinks they should have given FVV a penny less doesn't fully understand the economics. Granted, I wish they had gotten a better player for the MLE, but I think there might still be a chance DFS becomes serviceable and is a moveable contract in the future. They were also pretty limited on their choices there. And while I think we all would have liked to see a move to bolster the roster, when that opportunity did not present itself, credit to him and Tilman for not pulling off a salary dump just to save a luxury tax payment. Many teams would have.
Such a monumentally terrible move. Tilman hated CP3's contract so much he gave up 2 FRPs and 2 FRP swaps to acquire an equally bad contract and a player who didn't move the championship needle in the slightest. Was Harden behind part of it? Probably. But Ferntits was itching to dump CP3 and willing to do something stupid to see it through. Even without the FRPs (just CP3 straight up for W'brick), it would've been a bad trade.
Results matter. He inherited a mess from Morey then turned around the ship in 3 years. Stone has been great
He had a lot to do with WB trade so Stone is the reason we are in this mess. He had house money to play with on those picks. I have been one of moreys biggest critics and still am…but he is miles ahead of this ****ing dick looking head fraud
results matter and last yr’s regular season record certainly demonstrated that we are ahead of schedule. But we did have a 1st round exit. So we haven’t accomplished anything yet. This is season 6 under Stone. KD was supposed to be a big upgrade. If we continue progressing I think u have to give him credit. But if we take a step back, I think that’s a concern heading into our 7th season with a 38 yr old KD. Stone still hasn’t demonstrated he can put together a team that fits. If that continues into year 7 he deserves criticism.
