I think it's pretty clear from watching Houston owners in the nearly 30 years of being a sports fan, that they just need the team to not suck. I wouldn't be surprised if Fertitta is fine with having a stretch similar to the Yao/T-Mac era,, 50-wins followed by early playoff exit.
Nobody believes that the gap between 1st round exit team and championship team is a Fred. Stone is a moron.
This is exactly it. The only way to get Tito’s attention is through the pocketbook or public ridicule. With our p*ssy media and the NBA’s financial setup, neither is possible. Dallas fans got their GM fired after the Luka fiasco. Maybe the Rockets fans could help with game time chants, if they actually care to show up for games down this hopeless stretch.
I'd even go further and say nobody believes that the gap between 1st round exit team and conference champion teams is a Fred.
I think just running it back with Fred and Steveo is a mistake and I’ve heard that now from several folks. I worry that’s what this org is going to do.
I mean by mistake you mean they are outdated dinosaurs...both should have played in 2019 but not now. We should be playing with the Kon Knueppels, Dylan Harpers, Ajay Mitchells. Instead we play with old heads and turn back the hands of time.
This season should cost Stone his job. We traded for Durant with the argument of winning now, and then he got paralyzed by fear due to a couple of injuries! Stone is an incompetent who's just trying to buy time.
If they end up going the rest of the way with no changes, no adjustments, and just continue to do what they've been doing, then it's obvious that they didn't think this group had a chance. That's really not okay though. Nobody should accept that mindset from a team that traded for an aging superstar. Stone owes everyone his best, and if this is it, barring some miraculous playoff run, he should probably lose his job over it.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sp...ouston-2026-playoff-expectations-22202711.php About 90 minutes before his team’s last regular-season game, Houston Rockets general manager Rafael Stone sat in an office at Toyota Center to discuss the season in an interview with the Houston Chronicle. Q: Despite the injuries to Fred (VanVleet) and Steven (Adams), the Rockets won 50-plus games for the second straight season. What does that tell you? A: First, that Kevin (Durant) was the player that we hoped he would be and expected and we’re very happy with him. And secondly, that our young players have taken good steps. In the past, we’ve really struggled in games without Fred. Progress isn’t linear. We struggled at times, but to win 50-plus in the West is still the sign of a good team and so happy with the young players’ progress. Q: You said after the trade deadline that there were moments because of those injuries that you thought “is this just not our year” but that the team’s performance at that point made you think that wasn’t the case. A couple months after that, how do you feel about the comment and this team’s upside? A: I regret the comment because I’m aware enough to know that multiple people have taken it out of context and used it extraordinarily inappropriately. Used it in the opposite of the way it was meant. Shame on them. But so, because of that, I regret it. The concept behind it I still agree with, which is that this team has been super competitive all year, and I’m happy for them and happy with the overall group’s progress, and excited to see what we can do in the playoffs. Q: Is there anything you hope to learn about this year’s Rockets from the playoffs? A: I just think it’s really risky to decide that somewhere between four and seven games is indicative of something that you haven’t seen previously. So from that perspective, I would say no. I’m hoping that we see continued growth, both on an individual and on a team basis. One of the things that got lost a bit with the trades we had in the offseason and the new people we brought in and then the injuries, there was just no continuity for this group, like none. We’ve been changing our lineups and rotations from the first game to the 80th game — and I think that’s necessary and fine and the appropriate thing for us to be doing with this group this year. But I also think that continuity is your friend in terms of being able to win games. The more continuity you have, the easier it is for people to understand their roles, what they need to do and everything else. I think it was an impossibility for this group to have continuity coming off last year and then with the way the season played out and with just trying to integrate Reed (Sheppard) at such a young age, Amen (Thompson) changing the way he plays, adding such a significant presence as Kevin, it was just impossible. So, I think the hope for the playoffs is that this group continues to come together and figure itself out. Q: With the lack of continuity that this group had and the importance you place on it, do you think that the core of this team showed enough for you to say next year we want to see what we look like with Fred and Steven healthy? Or do you expect larger changes? A: I really like our team. When it’s fully healthy, I’d love to see it, but we didn’t. Someone in my shoes should never say I’m going to make huge changes or I’m not going to. There are teams I suppose that have run their course where players are older, maybe a reset is needed. I guess that was the first year of my tenure. But since then, you do what the market dictates and the opportunities presented to yourself. But I like this team. I think we’ve seen growth throughout the course of the year with individual players getting better. Summer is an opportunity, from an individual basis, it’s easier to take big jumps in the summer than it is in the (season). … The summer is the time to be in the lab, be like, ‘Boy, I really struggled with this last year. Let me just grind on this, on this one skill or this set of skills.’ One thing that gets lost about the NBA, as opposed to basketball in any other league, at any other level in the world — is there’s just nothing but games. And games are not the right time to work out new skills or to hone your weaker skills. You almost do the opposite. You’re trying to lean into the things over and over again that work and you’re not trying to hedge up the things that don’t work as well. Q: How will you measure success for the Rockets in the playoffs? A: I mean, do we play hard? Do we play well? I think it’s this iteration of this team and it’s just so hard to forecast how things play out. Saying you have to win X, it just seems silly, because there’s circumstances in which you win X, but not because you played well or did anything in your control. It’s because what the other team did. Similarly, there’s times where you don’t, but you take injuries, something unique happens to you, something unique happens with the other team. This game doesn’t lend itself to these ultimatums, notwithstanding the fact that social media loves to put those proclamations out there. For us internally and for me specifically, I think that’s the absolute wrong way to go about evaluating things. Q: Was the KD trade worth it? A: Yeah! We’re very happy with Kevin. I think he’s been the player we would expect, we hoped to get and very glad that he’s going to be here, that we have an extension. I think he’s happy here and we’re very happy with him. Q: Alperen Şengün was just OK for the first chunk of the season, but it seems like he’s really picked it up in recent games. What has looked different from him over the last two, three weeks? And what do you hope to see from him in the playoffs? A: I think Alperen has had an up-and-down year. I actually thought he was really good at the beginning of the season. And then the mid part there, it wasn’t as good. And I agree with you, he’s played good basketball towards the stretch. And I think he’s going to have to play that same way in the playoffs. I fully expect he will. I think Alpi shows up time and again in the biggest games and I expect he will again.
Q: Dorian Finney-Smith has played sparingly or not at all of late. He has struggled when he has played. What went wrong for him this season? A: He obviously had offseason surgery and the recovery took way longer than he wanted and we wanted. And I think he just really couldn’t get a rhythm. And one of the challenges with a team that is trying to win every game and is as deep as we are is it’s not easy to sacrifice for the individual. I just think the year got away from him a little bit but the postseason is a different animal. He’s played in tons of huge postseason games and been a significant player. The season is not over. He remains alive for us and somebody that we think, if we call his number, we think he’s capable of really contributing in a big way. And then we’ve got him under contract next year as well. He’ll have a good summer, no surgery, a chance to really get himself back into a groove. One of the big challenges with a surgery like he had is — even if his timeframe had been what we thought, he thought — he still would have missed all that offseason work and come in cold to the season. Because he always thought he was going to be ready around the beginning of the season and it lingered a couple extra months. But that’s really hard. In today’s era, everybody is fully ready to go at the start of training camp. No one does conditioning. There’s none of that. The expectation is you’re coming in as a nine out of 10. We spend camp worrying about integrating the team, not worried about getting guys in shape and all of that. I think for him, just coming in so late, it just was hard. It didn’t work out as well as we hoped, collectively, including him. Q: Does anything about how the move with Dorian played out lead you to re-evaluate your process moving forward? A: No. I mean, I would do that acquisition again. I think the player he was the last few years really fits our style of play and I expect he’s going to be a super contributing member next year. Everything is a calculated risk, and we were obviously not surprised that he had surgery, he’d had it months before we (signed) him and we understood that it takes time to come back and that there’s some risk when one comes back, that it’s not fluid, which in this case turned out to be the case. There’s risk in every single transaction you do. Q: More generally, has anything about this season led you to re-evaluate any parts of your process? A: I mean, I view this season as a good season and so I think, from a macro, I would say I view the season as evidence that our process is working. The big caveat is, we’re always trying to figure out, can we be better? Are there things, whether at the margins or at the core, that we are not doing consistently that we should be or things that we should be adding in. That’s ongoing. I’m a firm believer that if you’re not learning, you probably should stop doing whatever it is you’re doing. By no means do I think that we are perfect, that I am, that we shouldn’t always be grinding to be better. That’s 100% part of the goal, but I don’t know that there’s, a big specific thing from this season. The big thing that we would all change this season is injuries. I don’t know how to change that. If I figure that one out, I guarantee you we will change it. I think for the most part, we have healthy processes that that are working well for us. Q: Where’s Steven Adams at in his injury recovery? A: He’s doing great. Fred is doing great. They’re both on schedule, They should be fully cleared well in time to ramp up for the season. Q: How do you feel like Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard performed at point guard? A: Great. I think they did really, really well. Especially Amen, with respect to the "at point guard," when he was on the court, we were really an elite team all year. With Reed, I’m just incredibly happy with his progress. I think he’s just done exceptionally well. A lot of it though is he has room for more growth than Amen does. They both have a lot of room for growth. But I think Reed took really important steps and is becoming the dynamic player we thought we could see. We need more consistency. He’s got to really shore up his weaknesses but I think both had great years and I’m very happy for both of them, that they got the reps that they had. That to me is the silver lining of the injuries, is the fact that guys got a chance to really get pushed into situations. It probably doesn’t change where they are six years from now, but it changes the timeline and the arc and everything else. Under adverse circumstances, they both performed very well. Q: Do you have an idea of what their roles might look like with VanVleet back next season? A: They’re both going to play a lot and be really important to the team. One of the nice things, it’s a pet quote of mine: Great basketball players can play with great basketball players. Reed performed way better in his with-Fred minutes last year than he did without him and Amen, who had two years with (VanVleet), the same thing could be said. A lot of that is just because Fred is a really good basketball player. He knows how to help other players be better. But they’re both going to have big, important roles for us. This is not a situation where Fred coming back minimizes them, that’s not how we envision it. I don’t think that’s how Fred envisions it. I think of him as an enhancer, someone who makes people more comfortable, makes them better. And I think that’s how he sees himself as well. Q: How did you see the offensive scheme evolve throughout the season? A: Certainly with Kevin and Alperen, we knew that they had strengths that we could rely upon. We relied upon them all the way from game 1 to game 82. I think Jabari (Smith Jr.) took enormous strides in terms of his consistency and spreading the court, in his shot making and decision making offensively. I think Jabari is just having an outstanding year. On the whole, and this is a big part where we missed Fred, it was: OK, well Kevin has got his strength. Alperen has got his strength. How are they going to integrate them with each other? When do we go to one? When do we go the other. As Reed came on — OK, Reed is doing his special thing. Amen does like 25 things. Which of those is right at which moment and then how do we integrate the whole? I think (coach Ime Udoka) has done a very good job of trying various things, trying to make it all work, trying to fit it in. We have some singular players. The way Reed plays, there just aren’t very many people who play like that in the NBA. Same thing with Amen, same thing with Kevin, same thing with Alpy. When one of those guys goes out of the game, we can’t stylistically stay the same. When two of them go out, it’s even more so. So trying to figure out what that looks like and when to run what and how — it’s a puzzle. At the same time, especially with Reed and Amen and then Alpi was a little up and down this season, trying to figure out who’s going to do what in a given day with young players who aren’t consistent. Kevin is, but maybe consistent in a way that we didn’t fully understand when we got him. You can admire someone from afar and everything else but seeing them every day, seeing what they do well every day, seeing what causes them to struggle every day. There’s a learning process with that too. I think just the newness of it all meant that we were going to go through a bunch of options and we have. I do think these last 15 games or so, I think we’ve found a little bit of flow in terms of playing to everybody’s strengths at the appropriate times. People aren’t going to play great every day and it’s not going to work out every time but I think we’ve hit a little bit of a rhythm in terms of — Ime’s hit a bit of a rhythm in terms of managing through that. And the players have too. Ime can call something but they have to execute on it. I think it’s gotten a little bit better as we’ve gone on in terms of just offensive sets and so on and so forth.
