I'm curios on how well he does in free agency/trades, can he get the targets we require or just wait 'til someone falls to us
Stone's return on the Harden trade has so far been nothing. Half the 20th pick in this year's draft with the brooklyn picks still to come (but who knows how valuable they will be). He's been slow to trade, slow to fix problems, and just plays it safe. Sengun was Eli's pick, not Stone's. Stone wanted Oladipo who turned out not only not to be very good, but didn't even want to be here. He brought in John Wall, and sat him then bought him out. He got lucky with Jalen Green - we had a 50% chance of getting nothing. Jabari fell into his lap - he didn't get Banchero like he wanted, but communicated that to everyone. Amen and Whitmore fell into his lap. Sengun and Tari is a credit to the Rocket's scouting dept - which Stone inherited. Has he made any trade or signings that turned out to be great? What trade did he do well with? Again the harden trade got you so far half a 20th pick? His best move so far has been to get KPJ which was the Cavs trash and still isn't certain to be a valuable asset. So no, he doesn't deserve much credit at all. It doesn't take a lot of skill to tank and get lucky.
How about some over the clothes stuff at least? Just curious what Stone could have done differently to be received better by fans? Draft Mobley over Jalen? NOT trade for Chris Wood? KEEP Jarret Allen and Levert? Draft Ivey over Jabari? Harden had him by the balls and the cap was royally F'd when he took over. He now has a glut of young talent and the most money to spend in free agency going into the "Accountable Era" of Ime Udoka. Coincidence or great planning and follow through? Stone may not be squeaky clean, but he's done as well a job as I could have expected.
Stone has done the easy part, now he will be judged on the hard part. Ime was not his hire it was Tillman's. DD
Lol. People said the same thing before last season...and then we won 22 games, the 2nd worst record in the league. I'll crown Stone when he produces a team that wins. There's no prize for building a team that is "promising and young." It's easy to be promising and young, it means you haven't done anything.
Not before free agency ends. He could throw FVV a horrible contract and we'd be stuck with him for awhile.
Credit: With Fertita, brought in Udoka Landed Whitmore from Clippers/Ego trade Debit: Team construction is/has been terrible when tanking was an open secret. No more Smilas to throw over for the bus. Player development shouldn't be Ime's main responsibility but there's 7+ raw talents that'll need to be managed...or traded in part. Culture is also a big thing he needs to take responsibility and fix Wall handled poorly. Aired dirty laundry while cashing in unearned checks (CP3 money...)
I'm not ready to call anything a success yet, like at all. For three years this team has been the s**ts and until that changes I'm not calling anything a success. I will say he has done the best job he could acquiring as much young talent as possible, but now there is a logjam in like every position with nobody a cut above anybody else, nothing fitting with anything else. He will have to get this next part right in talent purging and assembling a team with cohesion, .....and win some effing games.
Team aggressively and intentionally tries to be **** to get high picks. Fans angry that the team was **** and got the picks. We drafted NINE players. There are no GM's who nail 9 consecutive picks. Some will be busts. 1-2 should be All Stars at least. I don't know what you guys are expecting of Stone. You're not supposed to know how the picks pan out within Phase 1, so to withhold your opinion because we don't know yet is not reasonable at all. You learn how they pan out in Phase 2 when you're putting a presentable offense and defense and roster on the floor. The grade for phase 1 should obviously be based on whether we have enough cap space, future picks and young players. There was never a requirement for the picks to become proven stars on the day Phase 1 ends. That's imaginary thinking.
That's not true, it wasn't just the Gordon trade pick swap. It was Gordon plus part of what you got for Harden - for a 20th pick. Just because he lucked out and Cam fell to 20th doesn't get you credit. Winning the lottery doesn't make you good at financial managment.
Stone has done relatively well given the cards he was dealt, but definitely not the time to play the "I told you so" card either. No, I don't think he 100% nailed the Harden trade, but you can't deny that the franchise is in much better shape as a result of it then it was before it. He has drafted relatively well, regardless of your opinion on the Mobley vs. Green debate. And he's done OK at consolidating smaller assets and helping them become greater assets (moving those lesser picks to deal for the Sengun pick, dealing Gordon to move up Milwaukee's pick to the Clippers' pick, etc.). That being said, the team hasn't won anything yet and none of the young players have hit star status yet. He'd done fairly well with Phase 1, but if Phase 2 is a bust, he'll be seen as a failure. The grade is an "INC" until he can take this core and make them winners.
I’d say the question needs a bit more nuance. Rather have our roster for what purpose ? To be good in 5 years - maybe 1/3 to 2/3 would keep theirs . To be good right now . Def 2/3 keeping their roster . We tore down our roster for future assets with the harden trade . But we’ve already used some of those assets to get guys that are going and on our roster right now . We don’t know about the trade value of our guys because we haven’t traded them yet . Stony is smart , but right now I don’t think at least 15 teams would switch their situation with ours . Maybe after this year it’s only 10 teams wouldn’t maybe 20 wouldn’t . I think the realistic scenario for stone is tilman has given him a high bar for winning next year or he’s fired . Like 45 + stone will have to shoot for a more realistic number probably and then argue for his job
