Time will tell for sure. And TBH, he could blow up and we could still win a ring with this team - both can be true. DD
They were slightly better than the Rockets on defense during the reguar season last year and Leonard barely played. Harden is pretty easy to hide on defense, just have him guard the corner 3 guy or the center. Everybody else is good or very good. Zubac, Jones Jr, Dunn are all reallly good. Batum & Brook are old but still decent. Leonard obv when he plays is good. It's basically just Beal or Collins who have somethgn to prove, but they're just depth pieces anyway. Not sure if Bogdanovich is even on the team after Beal. IMO they're just there to get them through the regular season when Kawhi is sitting.
What comes after that is Sengun, Amen, Jabari, Tari, and Reed Sheppard... just like before we had KD.
We'll see. While I understand the situation, Cam going for nada sucks. Sacrificed on the altar of win now. That said, there's still a happy medium to be struck here... If we play this right we can have our cake and eat it too. I'm just afraid there's more to follow.
Cam had nothing to do with win now, he was dumped because Ime hated him. Simple as that. They wanted to dump him on the Suns, but the Suns already had Jalen dumped on them so they wouldn't accept having Cam dumped on them too.
Stupid deal in my opinion that strengthens one position but lots of gaps and question marks in others. Not one of those deals you feel great and confident coming into the season. How will Amen perform as starting 2 guard? What will this offense look like? What will guard rotation look like? Will defense take a hit without Brooks? Can Rockets beat zones and traps?
I don't understand the situation at all, you give away a guy for nothing - that could be a very good player, even though you control him as an asset for 2-3 more years. What was the hurry, why the rush? This seems like a personal issue with the coach not being able to handle guys that are disgruntled - you still have an obligation as GM to keep the talent - because injuries happen, old players may not work out, so so much and two 2nd round picks are a joke. Why not keep him, find time to play him - and if at the end of NEXT year or just before he is a RFA and things are not going well, you THEN trade him. Seems we JUMP to decisions too early around the Rockets. We literally just GAVE talent away when we didn't have to.....that screams bad management. So far, I am impressed with Stone as a contract guy, but less so as a talent evaluator, outside of Amen, we have gotten less than what we should have from our top picks. DD
He isn’t a talent evaluator. That’s not his job. Bullard, Pickney and the rest of the scouts along with coaching staff are talent evaluators and make recommendations and decisions who to prioritize.
Recommendations are not what his job is, and if he hires poor people to recommend things, that is on him, he is the top dog. That is 100% his MAIN job, he is the top of the food chain the buck stops with him on these calls.....sometimes he has to tell the coach to STUFF it, to keep talent or trade away a coaches favorite players for the good of the team. The GM's main job is to keep this team able to compete by keeping talent and having a backup plan if Plan A fails...... Stone has been pretty good at most, but this and drafting Green over Mobley etc...are not his best work. DD
No it isnt. He does not evaluate talent. I did not say he recommends anything. You and most people make GM’s to be something more than what they are and often overstate or misconstrue what they do. Many GM’s never played the game and they aren’t experts at analyzing the game or the players themselves. They rely on scouts and coaches who are experts at evaluating players. It’s ultimately their decision but They base their decisions off what is recommended and like any good exec or boss they listen to their people. GM’s make deals and shape the roster while taking into account budget, owner priorities, coaching needs and recommendations etc. That’s what they’re paid to do. And even this isn’t in a bubble. Every decision has team input. Morey publicly said this. Stone was a big part of Morey’s decision makers from day 1.
You are high if you think the GM doesn't evaluate talent, they travel to Europe to evaluate talent, no GM relies on other people that is BAD management - you hire folks to suggest and to tell you there thoughts but you make the calls. DD
no dude they don’t. That’s not their job and not required. As I said many aren’t former players or coaches. Some guys do especially forner players But even then it’s a team of individuals that support the GM. Traveling to watch someone play isn’t necessarily evaluation. It could be numerous reasons. I think you need to read up on what GM’s and scouts do. People rely on each other in every profession. Decisions are made collectively. It wasn’t just Morey and it isn’t just Stone. Here’s some reading material for you: https://work.chron.com/role-general-manager-nba-9874.html “An effective GM will surrounded himself with a strong staff who will take care of all but the most important decisions, and make sure he has all the information he needs to make a decision.” https://www.nba.com/lakers/120821_behindlalscoutingstaff “Buss: With the Lakers, my role is to watch prospects, send reports in to (Executive VP of Player Personnel) Jim (Buss), (GM) Mitch (Kupchak) and (Director of Scouting/Consultant) Bill Bertka and so on. It's also a job of mine to help schedule our scouting staff, and make sure we see all the prospects we hope to see. There's a group of about 10-11 people in basketball ops who scout college and international games regularly — and are in the war room for the Draft — so I help organize the schedules for our college scouts in addition to scouting players myself.” https://www.si.com/nba/hornets/news...tte-hornets-assistant-gm-on-evaluating-talent “And then on top of that you have Mitch, who oversees the whole department of ops. He’s asking Larry a lot of questions and Larry’s got to get those questions answered from the scouts. And so those two guys, they are on top of it. I mean, they are checking every box, asking a lot of questions. And if you don’t have the answer they are like, ‘Well, get back and watch more tape.’ Or, 'Get back on the phone and find out. I need an answer. I don’t want an I’m not sure. I need a yes or no.' And those two are pretty adamant about it, that they are staying on top of the scouts and holding everybody accountable for that choice we are going to make.” https://doansportsmanagement.com/nba/nba-scouts/ An NBA Basketball Scout travels across the whole country and occasionally even goes abroad in order to find the most promising and talented players. Each scout looks at the previous level of play to determine if the player is right for the team the scout represents at the next level. To put it another way, an NBA Scout for the Celtics will go to colleges and universities to find new recruits; a scout from Boston University will go to private and public high schools to find new players, and so forth.
One more for you: Rockets’ new GM Rafael Stone: a passion for basketball and a mind for deals This 2020 Feigan article talks about this: “Morey quickly made Stone part of the Rockets’ decision-making, even in trade calls — unusual for a member of a team’s legal department — along with his role with negotiations and contracts.” “Though Morey long has been the face of the Rockets’ front office, over the years he has kept his assistants heavily involved not just in decision-making, but in the negotiations themselves.” “Stone, who has been known within the Rockets’ hierarchy for being able to move easily from the most traditional basketball minds to the most cutting edge members of the analytics department, often has been on the forefront of moves for role players such as Ben McLemore or, most recently, David Nwaba.” “But he also has been involved in some the biggest moves in the NBA.” “He and Morey spent most of 72 hours locked in a conference room while completing the trade for James Harden. Witus handled much of the negotiations with the Timberwolves on the Robert Covington portion of this season’s three-team trade before the deadline.” “Stone and Witus put together much of the Rockets’ trade for Chris Paul and the series of trades that day that accompanied it.”
I forget where I heard it but the other day it was explained that the trade started when Cam’s agent went to the Rockets and they ended up working together to get him somewhere he can for sure get playing time even if the Rockets got less in the deal. So I read into that (obviously as bad asset mgmt but yeah…) as a situation where Stone was likely dealing with the agent in hopes or an agreement that the agent will make it worth their while on a future trade or signing. Not trying to excuse the trade but it does make sense especially given the fact that it is Bill Duffy and we all that have been following the NBA for awhile know that he does have the power to make things happen for Stone and the Rockets given how much pull he has in deals. Bill Duffy more than anything in the deal wanted Cam to be able to get a huge rookie extension which would cost Cam tens of millions which costs Duffy hundreds of thousands if not north of a million dollars himself… if Cam didn’t get somewhere he could play starters minutes and put up starter numbers asap. So it’s likely that Duffy had the incentive to promise the moon to Stone to make it happen and for Stone to see value in doing him a favor. What the rockets get by making Bill Duffy happy is anyone’s guess. I’m sure there are folks here who know enough about his portfolio to speculate better than I can.
Likely. Agents look to maximize their clients' value. Some GM's do them a favor for something in return or they do right by the players and get them to a place where they can showcase their talent and hopefully become something.
They are going to Europe but for another gig. https://basketnews.com/news-223382-...ging Director of,with La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Their main focus is business for their teams. Building a product that is attractive and sustains profitability. This includes shaping a roster to fulfill this goal
