fwiw: he didn’t lie in response to Gatlin’s question. He saw an out and took it by saying “there weren’t any issues like this that I’m aware of.” But I agree, he didn’t need to do that. He wouldn’t have produced outrage by doing it another way 2 weeks ago when they banned him. He could have generated support and awareness for DV and forgiveness for the org,, while demonstrating integrity to the remaining players..
Connect him to a lie detector, breh....it is not that hard. Hire some good interrogators. Just say No Comment would have been better.
Stone needs to go. With the clown show that was KPJ, we’re approaching the Easterby level of ridiculousness.
No. You need to go lol. The season is around the corner & we have a great group of young guys & professionals this year. 3 seasons in & Stone's successfully rebuilt this team
Technically he didn't lie. But it's clear that he implied unawareness of the seriousness of KPJ's issues. I agree that it would have been much better had he said the same thing right after the incident happened. But it wouldn't have totally absolved him from how much he had harbored KPJ's bad behaviors. IMO, the only recourse he had was to play the compassion card. Even that would still taint him professionally. But at least he had a moral excuse.
Which makes him one of the worst GMs ........if true.... Just because it is your freakin job to establish a culture, to be aware of the things happening around you, admitting he does not know anything about the culture he has to be building .....ahahaha Ok, I have no idea, I just punch the card and clock out after work.......lmao. And putting on a shetty smirk in his f....face....
Yep, no one is talking about him not answering the question of whether KPJ might come back to the team in the future - that is what should be everyone's focus....as it is the most alarming. DD
He doesn't want to say he will never play because then it will make it harder to get out of paying KPJ his salary if the PA can claim that the Rockets were not going to let him play even if he wasn't suspended, and therefore should have to still pay him.
I mean... isn't it understandable though? You're talking about minor flare-ups after they have given him the contract. Any therapist will tell you that if you weren't ready to absorb minor setbacks in KPJ's situation, then you never should have committed. So when these things happened, if a conversation with KPJ seemed to fix the situation, you're not going to run to dump him. Further, with Udoka coming in there was probably a real optimism about the kind of mentor he can be for KPJ. I'm sure they thought it would be a summer of growing. It's really tough man, people like KPJ are usually intelligent and thoughtful sweethearts 99% of the time so if you are not around him 24/7 you may not even see relapses. Look I'm not saying he didn't screw up. I'm just saying you're going to make some mistakes building a team as fast as we did, and IF our young core is great then we can - and probably will - forget about this real quick. I wish it hadn't happened to the girl, but for us and KPJ the best thing happened at a fairly good time. We're clear of this now and have several avenues to dump him. He will HAVE to take his mental health more seriously now whatever happens with him legally. Just glad we're good and wish the best for her. Hope he gets help too. Stone's report card will majorly depend on how Sengun, Jabari, Tari, Green, Amen and Whitmore do. That's 90% of his report card as far as I'm concerned. If we secured two All stars plus cap space plus future picks in under 3 years, we can't ask for more from a rookie GM.
The question is, why would he even wanted to commit to that extension in the first place? And those aren't just "minor" flare ups. He had a history of those "flare ups" before he even came to the Rockets. And after he came, those "flare ups" continued. Most players would have been kicked out of the team unless he's a superstar type of guy. Because of that, Stone's professional judgment is clearly compromised. To me, the only saving grace he might get is to claim that he wanted to save a troubled kid from self-destruction. I don't know how this can be spun into "oh, everybody makes mistake" kind of thing. There are mistakes and the are MISTAKES. Not every mistake is created equal.
I think down the line Stone said something of .....that was when he was 21 and I hought he had star potential.
Yeah but the P Assoc is not making the move now, Silver is taking care of it right now..... The Assoc can only do so much. Then why not just begin to say 'No Comments'. This Stone dude is basically just moving an inch foward and an inch backwards. He is acting like a timid kid.
When this team plays close to .500 ball are we going to give Stone credit for KPJ getting arrested now? Because that's going to be one of the primary things that helped this team the most.
lol basically what he said during the presser. The contract was structured that way back then because he had potential as a player. 98% probably in slightly different words.
This matter is too complicated to just give anyone credit or not......season is long, there should be a lengthy narrative.
