I will never forgive Stone for his KPJ obsession. Ironic that it's KPJ that saved Stone from KPJ by beating up his girl.
There was an MVP caliber player on the roster in Philly. I can almost guarantee the owner didn’t say …feel free to trade Embiid, tear it all down and rebuild if you want.
You think most GMs wouldn’t pair Harden and Howard if given the opportunity in FREE AGENCY? You think Morey was the only GM who believed in needing a star to compete for a championship? Taking chances on head case players with late FRP? I think Morey had some negatives but you are just talking about normal GM stuff which comes off as throwing crap at a wall.
What are you talking about?! He walked into a situation in which he had Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris all on max contracts, with Al Horford also on a near-max deal. The Sixers' cap situation was a hellhole when he got there. And there was no freaking way he was going to be able to rebuild with Embiid on the roster.
IIRC Harris was the only bad contract team when he got there, Embiid was still MVP Embiid and Simmons just coming off that Atlanta fiasco but was still considered a top star, lots of people on the board even wanted a Simmons centric package saying he was a 25 yr old 3 time all star. He could have traded Simmons for a youth package and then Embiid later on for a King's ransom if he wanted to. If you just wanna talk results I dont think Morey has done a good job outside James Harden trade. Like the Sixers right now have 3 super maxes and they still went to the lottery. Both Embiid and PG seem like they are on the decline but have long max contracts.
How do you know that? He had complete control and trust of the ownership. They specifically hired him as they realized backing off "the Process" was wrong. Got him after firing Hinkey and hiring a couple bad GMs to replace him. Wasnt Presti in the same situation? Still had an all star WB and PG when he traded PG to the Clippers.
Ya that was very fortunate. Olidipo turning down an insane contract saved him also, and being able to dump jalen’s horrid contract. Luck is part of the game though, and if luck is constantly on his side, great.
Presti was there before russ, let alone pg. That team was a total lost cause and completely hopeless as well as insanely expensive.
I can get over it. You have to look at it from the perspective of they really had nothing to lose in giving a young and very talented player a chance, they were at the time a 20 win team. If he works out, you have a star, or at least a good player, if not .... you have something between that and nothing. The problem was that KPJ was his own worst enemy. Then you look at the contract he gave KPJ .... he had to earn it both on and off the court and he blew it and the contract was void. Stone took the chance on that potential but also protected the team financially .... What else does a 20 win team do? I don't think any of us expected the ultimate ending ... crazy part is the dude is still in the league, that should quantify the talent and Stone taking the financial risk.
People make mistakes. OKC isn't going to fire Presti for trading Sengun (much less Harden) away for peanuts. One needs to judge a GM by a total of actions. Stone has taken a dying team and rebuilt it, and still to have plenty of draft capital.
My biggest Morey gripe was the layups, freethrows, and 3 pointer dogma that permeated through the organization. I think we could have still beaten GSW without CP3 if we would have just had Harden take a few midrange shots since GSW was packing the paint and covering the 3 pt line well. The "analytics" doesn't always apply to every game, especially something like a game 7 of a WCF. I'm still a Morey fan and harbor no ill will since I think Tilman just waited too long to trade Harden which led to a series of events that resulted in his departure. I like Stone so far and he seems to have built a good infrastructure, which will be important as opposing teams start to take notice and begin poaching staff. Not going to lie... I enjoyed the fanfare that came with peak Morey but it's also nice having a GM that says little.
My problem with the KPJ thing isn't that they gave him a chance. It's how they bent over to accommodate his bad behaviors. You don't rebuild a team with that kind of culture setting. Jalen Green might have been a better player if he didn't spent his first two seasons with Stephen Silas and KPJ. Maybe Udoka would be able to handle him the right way. We'll never find out how it would work out if he wasn't kicked out of the team.
Not forgiving one sin doesn't mean I'll put him in the purgatory for eternity. If I were an OKC fan, I wouldn't forgive Presti for those errors. But I'd still think he's a good GM.
Where did you get the information that Alexander never let Morey rebuild? Morey had several opportunities to rebuild since 2012. His philosophy was trading players and assets for stars or serviceable players and he has never shown any interest in building a team through the draft. “Until you have your foundational players, your franchise should be in a state of flux. You need to keep trading and moving players until you get to that point,” he said. The Harden deal was orchestrated by him and Stone let’s not forget that. He even tried to bring in Gasol in 2012. In 13 seasons as general manager, Morey completed 77 trades. In those deals, Morey acquired 27 draft picks and sent 37 out. The guy believed in the multiple stars theory. He failed.
https://www.papercitymag.com/culture/sporting-life/les-alexander-two-billion-dollar-houston-rockets-sale-shocking-announcment/#:~:text=There is no doubting how,of sport's all-time paydays. “There is no doubting how much Alexander cared for the Rockets over the years — or how competitive he is. This owner would never stand for the full-scale teardown rebuilding that the Houston Astros have done to great success under Jim Crane or the Philadelphia 76ers have done to great Process fanfare in the NBA.”
He did say "Morey had several opportunities to rebuild since 2012" which means he thought that Morey should've tanked either with Harden on the roster, or presumably the Rockets should've traded Harden during an 8-year period when he was Top-3 in MVP voting 5 times and the Rockets went to the Conference Semi-Finals or the WCFs 5 times. Thinking any owner would've let his GM rebuild and tank during any of those 8 years is... certainly an opinion.
Stone's job is to recognize talent and there was zero wrong with trying to let him mature..... We were rebuilding, he took a shot, didn't harm anyone. DD
Development time is currency. Shots are currency. Minutes are currency. All that was wasted with KPJ, as opposed to trying to develop someone else.
