Rockets Media afraid to ask hard questions

this place will never be like NY with the Knicks or Philly with the Sixers

the media is soft here, and the fan pressure is weak

u will never see boos raining down at TC or fans showing their disgust at the state of the product…Tilman is sweating nothing

Rockets are able to tank and be absolute ass for 3 years running in peace

any Stone or Silas hit piece will come from a Dallas guy like Tim MacMahon after they’re fired

 

Crazy thing is Silas takes all the heat… Stone doesn’t do interviews .. you hear nothing from him outside what the Rockets supposedly looking to get for EG.

He’s Cal McNair as a GM

 

This makes me wonder if the Astros were asked "tough" questions when Bo Porter was a lame duck manager and the team was losing on purpose with a shared vision that it would work out in the end?

 

it’s as if Stone doesn’t even exist

Silas takes a lot of heat, but it mainly seems to be from fans online…I don’t see the local media on his ass, and most people in this city don’t give a damn about the Rockets to even have an opinion on Silas

I’ve been to many games at TC, and even there, I don’t see or hear Silas slander…I’ve heard Jabari hate or Daishen hate when he was still in the rotation

 

Rockets Media afraid to ask hard questions




Go Rockets!!!
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Ehh. Part of me thinks there's a mutual understanding between the primary core players, the staff, GM, owner and media that this is a tanking year. Some things I've seen lately in the offense (fast starts and subsequent "collapses") leads me to believe that Silas isn't as dumb as he seems to be and he's just going by a script laid out for him. We'll judge you by the 1st quarter or 1st half and then make sure to tank after that type of stuff.

Next year is going to be the first real expectation year.

 

One of my good friends knows Stone and when he was hired she was pissed - I have to go back and see if I can find what she said.

I told folks you have to look at the bottom 3 teams of the league and the Rockets are not going to separate themselves from them.

But also look at Suns without Booker CP3 Ayton .. they look worse than Rockets but is Monty in hot seat or fans understand they need their stars back

 

We were told you can't judge til 2030. They're sitting pretty, there's nothing to ask

 

I really detest this slogan. It sounds chickening out.

Okay, next year we win games.

Okay, maybe in two years, okay, a year after that we make the Play In, give us another year..... approach.

I mean fans aren't even paid to be this patient. It's a defeatist approach.

I can assure you that I will be coming into every season ready to be critical as ever.

 

That's silly - the Rockets aren't good enough to turn it on and then turn it off. They are trying not to tank, they just suck.

 

I touched on that..

He is private as it gets and shields his life and even work from the public.

 

Part of the angst is why does our team look bad. Is it because;

Nature: some have talent but may never pan out. If in current climate can only reach below NBA average. What are the milestones for incremental progress, what's the cut loss date, 3yrs, 4? Of the 22y age and above: Tate, KJ, KPJ are they close to their ceilings already. How are the Rooks/Sophomores progressing?

Nurture: how good is the development staff. A 12 yrs old chess prodigy, will no longer be that if he doesn't continue to improve by ways of coaching, playing better competition, adapting and learning.

Christopher out of rotation after Barbra Turner left. Green slumping 2nd yr. Scary thought: is Hornacek/Weaver/Diop actually better than our current Silas picked assistants. What happens to the supposed improvement on defense. Why can't we beat other teams's simple zone defense. Did the bar get lowered this year?

Are players slumping or are the coaches not good enough to put their players in the right places to succeed. Is it both? It's GM's job to know what to keep and what to gut.

Youth and inexperience, a lot of us are holding onto this. But the Shakey part is are things like defensive effort really a youth thing? Either you try hard on defense or you don't. Young or old, either you work hard or you don't. And if after-hours, the players only work hard on their individual game, instead of the team game; isn't that also bad?

Today, no Rockets game, while traveling, are they making best use of time going over preparation or playing cards on the plane.

Avoiding mediocrity treadmill is fine, but at current rate the youth only movement makes me think we may be into a bottom feeding treadmill. If coaches can't develop or our drafts only hit low/mid talent,. the cycling of non-impactful Vets Wall/Oladipo/Wood/Thies. A team doesn't just magically get better on its own.

 

I'm trying to keep my glass as half full as I can here, sir. I'm punting on the season and have gotten in the habit of watching the 1st half and then tuning out in the 2nd. Which has worked out quite well considering that's usually when things "fall apart". I guess I have a hard time believing that the staff is that stupid. I have a hard time believing the Kings of all teams can get Keegan Murray decent looks and the Rockets can't do the same with Jabari. Or that they can easily run through Sabonis but not through Sengun. It all just seems deliberate. At least that's why I'm choosing to believe at this current moment. But if next year this is still looking the same then we are in *dire* straits. At that point the coaching staff wouldn't be the only issue.

And if you don't think the Rockets are out right trying to tank you're fooling yourself. This group isn't trying to win games.

 

I mean it's really in the only way to explain it and it makes even a little bit of sense. This year is about "development" and yet TyTy gets no run. Sengun gets benched randomly. Jabari doesn't get a shot for 12-15 minutes on end. Again....it doesn't make sense unless Silas is being instructed to tank the season. Even he isn't dumb enough to not know what his best opportunities are for winning ball games. If you squint hard enough you can see something there with Sengun specifically. But Scoot/Wemby are just too tantalizing to pass up. At least that's what I'm choosing to believe.

Like I told above poster....next year is a totally different story. We cannot have this same approach next year. I'd stop being frustrated this year because they're just tanking. Silas isn't going to get fired. He's going to be here next year. He's been told to tank and that's what he's doing. Everyone has said it. From Jalen to Tillman. They've been saying it for years. And we're sitting here on CF flummoxed at rotations.

 

I know what the company line is but the thing is Stone as a leader isn't transparent, how should people trust him if he is unwilling to communicate in a world of heavy communication?

I think he wouldn't be misunderstood if he actually laid out some of his true thinking instead of doing a cold read, learning lines by heart as an actor.

If we fail we fail, at least you have tried to contact the public about it.

He just wants to be cheered on if he drafts Wemby or Scoot, the man is all about prestige.

This is too much of a critical time to shut yourself in.

 

While I don't think that Silas is a doing a good job, I will give him credit for answering 95% of the questions asked to him. Because he is so well liked and a nice person, I think the media in Houston sometimes is more respectful in asking him questions than someone like Bill O'Brien (who was a raging *******). As for Stone, he isn't really comfortable answering questions unless he knows the question ahead of time. He claims he has lots of confidence but he really doesn't and is afraid or making a mistake.

 

Reporter: Why is Silas still coach?
Fake Stone: We wouldn’t be able to find a coach that would agree to coach only to the end of the season.
Reporter: Can’t you find a coach that could stay longer?
Fake Stone: No one we want would purposefully want to add losses to their coaching record.
Reporter: Well, can’t you do anything to win now?
Fake Stone: All our moves this season is geared to win the next draft. So we are winning.
Reporter: Aren’t you afraid that your young players will accept a losing culture?
Fake Stone: I don’t think to harden about it.
Reporter: What about losing fan base?
Fake Stone: Winning makes fans forget. This path is the quickest way to championship contention for a city like Houston.
Reporter: Thanks for answering all my questions.

 

Did Bo Porter get asked a lot of tough questions from the media? A couple times he did, but not as often - then again the Astros had a GM that took accountability off of Porter and repeatedly said that the Astros record shouldn't be a reflection on Porter but a reflection on the GM, because Porter wasn't given much to work with.

Also, Porter was fired because he and Luhnow did NOT have a shared vision. They often clashed, especially in the 6 months before he was fired. Porter did not like that the Astros were putting so much emphasis on the minor leagues.