yet he's the 5th highest paid player in the nba. making more than even durant himself. the suns are screwed
Picking up Steven Adams for the corpse of Victor Oladipo and 2nd round picks on the back of sending out KPJ for the ammo required doesnt do it for you? How about sending out TyTy and Uzi for Dilly B? How about turning Eric Gordon into Cam Whitmore? Picking up Sengun for picks that may never translate was also pretty savvy.
People under estimate what Stone has done but gettiing 7 prrospects in just 3 years is insane. I really disagree with you about Morey/Stone. Look at Morey's track record in drafting. Dude passed on Kawhi for Morris, passed on Batum for Donte Greene and Joey Dorsey. Wasted our time with busts like Squid and Hasheem Thabeet. Got scammed by Royce White and got scrubs like Sam Dekker, Chase Budinger and Joe Chee. Stone got more prospects in 3 yrs than Morey in 13 yrs. No way Morey is better than Stone for thiis rebuild. Morey had the chance to rebuild when we lost Yao and Mac. And we sucked ass, if Prestii didn't get scammme by Jeremy Lamb (another BUST) Rox would be dead in the water.
I would give him an A at this point. Now though is when expectations start. Which means ever year the Rockets should be increasing their win total and or going further in the playoffs. 2021 - 17 wins no playoffs 2022 - 20 wins ...... 2023 - 22 wins ...... 2024 - 41 wins ...... 2025 - ? ? 2026 - ? ? etc He has performed in my opinion exceptionally given draft positions (with some luck with that as well) With a ton TON of flexibility next offseason. This is where things become much more complicated with other variables mixing into other decisions. I do hope some of these players will be flexible with their first contracts and see these next several seasons out together before success makes the team too expensive and players have to leave to make money on the 2nd contract.
Stone had a ridiculous amount of high draft picks to work with ---- he had the #2 pick, the #3 pick, the #4 pick, then the #2 pick again and also two picks at the end of the lottery. For contrast, the Rockets under Morey never even had a single pick in that range. As for Morey's track record for drafting, what was the highest pick in the draft he ever had? Like #12 or #13? He passed on Leonard just like half the league did. Also - Morey never got to rebuild, ownership never let him - and he turned a few bum picks into James Harden. There really isn't any comparison.
Stone picks between 14 - 20: Sengun, Eason, Whitmore Morey picks between 14 - 20: Patrick Patterson, Marcus Morris, Royce White, Sam Dekker
I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- Morey is overrated. He has had a top 5 player for the majority of his career between the Rockets and Sixers and has never made the Finals. He has some terrific aspects -- he's made some amazing trades, manages the cap well, and sticks well to visions. But he's also a very poor drafter, too entrenched in analytics, and refuses to budge from the "3 star" dynamic. Stone, in many respects, is TBA. His primary responsibility to date has been to assemble talent through the draft, and I could easily make the argument that the Rockets have been the best drafting team under Stone. However, now comes the next steps -- identifying a core, retaining the core, and surrounded the core with complementary players while handling the cap well.
Over half of the minutes played last year for the Rockets were by someone age 28 or older. The Rockets had a bunch of youngsters but that doesn't mean they got a lot of playing time. By comparison, Morey's team after 2009 had Brooks, Landry, Budinger, Lowry, Ariza all playing big minutes. If you watched those Rockets teams, it's not a veteran laden one at all. And Aaron Brooks in 2010 played better than Jalen Green did last year.
Just for reference, I brought up Morey because the person I responded to said Stone should not have any low grades. I was just saying people here give Morey low grades all the time despite objectively having done more with less during his first few seasons as a GM. The only GM in the NBA right now that's good enough to be exempt from criticism is really just Pat Riley.
...and yet Stone is viewed as bad at draft pick asset management by many. Only 2 of those picks were likely Rockets picks when Morey left as GM. On the Morey versus Stone debate, I don't think Stone has enought track record to judge if he's that good (I don't think it is decided one way or another, but would give Morey edge based on he's been good for a long time). I think Stone has enough track record to suggest he's probably not in the bottom half of GMs (though he could still prove me wrong). I just have a hard time seeing a below average GM putting the Rockets in this favorable of a position even with having a little lottery luck.
If there's no luck involved, does this mean Stone actively chose Green over Barnes and Jabari over trading down for Jalen Williams? Cause if he did both of those things I mentioned because he's really good at his job, the Rockets would've made the playoffs this year.
To me, GMs have three primary functions: Drafting; Free Agency / Cap Management; Trading. We know that Morey excels at two of those functions and is awful at one. Stone, on the other hand, is excellent at one (drafting) and it's too early to tell with respect to the others. So I agree that Stone has done enough to show he's in the top-half of GMs, but the next several years will determine where in that half he falls.
Meh. Barnes is a little overrated, and saying he should have traded down for Williams is an absurd stretch, not to mention radically premature given Bari improved in virtually every respect last season. To date, Stone has had one questionable pick in the top 20: Green. And this is a make or break year for him.
Nobody can question Stone's draft results, regardless of how luck may have played into some players falling, his overall record is exceptional to this point. However theres the whole aspect of actually turning players into a title contending team. We'll see how good Stone is at actual roster building. The Morey comps aren't really fair because Morey took over with zero significant assets (just soon to be done Yao and the soon to be corpse of T-Mac), no high picks and wasn't allowed to tank. The roster overhaul he was able to create from virtually nothing was impressive AF. We also had a few brutal injuries (CP3 doesn't get hurt legacies are different everywhere, Yao in 09, who knows) We know Morey wasn't able to get us to the playoff finish line so it's easy to look back and say he wasn't good. Stone hasn't even gotten us to the starting line yet
Both Morey and Stone's success you could attribute to luck. Did Morey invision Harden as some perennial MVP candidate leading elite offenses year in and year out? Harden was Morey's lucky break and for Stone it was the fact the ownership was open to a complete rebuild with a departing Harden giving us draft capital.
Morey is better. Rockets would’ve won two championships if it wasn’t for injuries in 2009 and 2018 playoffs.
