(The Athletic) Rafael Stone: 'this is not a job anyone can do perfectly'

If he really want to be Super Agressive, he needs to think out of the box. Why throw good money to bad Free Agents?

I would start by looking for talent overseas. Dont mean you end there but the two things we need is length and shooters. Surely, there are a few players overseas who have talent.

 

He didn't say which year

 

So who will lead this team to a championship? Im not sure that player is even on the team right now. The hot topic of "culture" is not implemented by coaching especially a GLeague nobody with no track record of anything substantial in the sport. PLAYERS make the coaches not the other way around. I find it funny when you say you would do everything the opposite of Stone and yet you dont want vets? With that logic you would have held onto Allen and LeVert right? I dont understand why some of you think there were so many options available, Who do you sign with no cap space? Who do you draft with no picks? You are definitely entitled to your opinion, but it just doesnt make much sense.

Stone will sign veteran FAs this offseason. He will find a QUALIFIED coach. The team will look MUCH better next season. This was all easy to forecast with no flexibility while you were tanking. Now he has assets galore, most cap space in the league and James Harden talking about coming "home". Everything was based around the picks we need to send to OKC. EVERYTHING is going according to plan and on schedule.

 

This, to me, is what I have been seeing, feeling, saying: We need to be a better shooting team, that’s obvious. Some of that just feels like it’s just confidence, guys knowing when their shots are coming and everything else.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that many could do it. If you have been a high level executive and run corporations you could transition to NBA GM, especially if you have also been part of something that deals with the PR and public.

There is no special gene that says you can or can't do it, other than experience and confidence.

The only thing stopping many people in life in the middle of companies/careers is their lack of being willing to take a risk and belief they could do it. When opportunity knocks, answer the door.

DD

 

I can't imagine there is a high correlation between people who claim they can be the GM and high level executive corporate position experience. There may not be anything genetic required to be a GM, but there are absolutely knowledge requirements and confidence. In fact, the higher confidence reported here, the less confident I am in that person's ability to be the GM of a major sports franchise.

 

Well, when you get to be the decider - in situations like that - good luck.

Or when/if you move into a high level position in corporations you might see the similarities.....I see C level people switching companies/genres all the time and being successful, basketball is not unique....it is just another team based company - smart people can adapt.

DD

 

I've got a Master's in Coaching Education from Ohio University, 12 years of experience coaching middle school up to varsity basketball, and 4 years of experience being an Athletic Director as well as leadership positions in education. I can assure you I'm not qualified to be the GM of a pro sports team, and anyone with less experience than me in relevant fields is definitely not either.

 

So you have been in government - and education, but not in private business, where performance matters more than tenure.

And, your experience in basketball would be helpful but I agree, you would not be qualified to be the GM - you haven't done it in a private - job is on the line - accomplishment position.



You might however, be a great coach/assistant coach, we need those too.

BTW - one of the worst and most terrible people at their job I ever met was at AISD as an Athletic Director - the guy is an idiot and a football coach who is consistently outcoached, but you know....he is dug in .....government job and all....

But hey, summers off .......

DD

 

Completely disagree.

If you build the right atmosphere and the right culture those players may materialize.

I think people make statements like yours without even taking into account reality. It takes more than just superstar players to win.

For as great as Lebron and KD are they had to go join teams that already had winning cultures in place to crack the seal on their first titles.
Mike didn’t win a ring until he got Phil. Same with shaq and Kobe.

Dream was really good, but the Rockets took off when Rudy T came along.

Look at Golden State. When Mark Jackson was the coach they were just a “good team”. Steve Kerr comes in and in one season they are putting up all time great numbers and winning rings.

Harden was really good in Houston since he got here, but under Dantoni is when he had his best chance at winning a ring.

If this team thinks like you, they will go nowhere. Especially with a team this young. They absolutely need a coach to mold this group. You really don’t know who would be that player to step up and lead to a championship until you put those players in the proper environment. Even if they get lucky and land a guy like Victor, if they have a bad coach and a poor culture it will not matter.

 

I like working with kids so much better than adults. I don't think I could work with these guys man lol. I'll stick to what I'm doing right now in the classroom/gym for sure. I definitely don't have any interest in using my Business Administration degree anytime soon. I did a few corporate internships while I was at Ohio State for undergrad and that type of thing was just not for me.

I've worked under an AD who was garbage as well, that's for sure. Whoever has been there the longest is usually the AD for sure. I actually got my first job as an AD when I was 26 at a small school trying to innovate. Shame the pay wasn't as much as bigger schools or I'd have stayed.

 

Another eye roll comment from Stone who comes across as maybe the least humble person ever.

But nothing here really tells us anything if we are being honest. We know the Rockets are going to be active this Summer because they don't own their 2024 draft pick, and don't have incentive to be terrible. What Stone does with that capspace and in trades is anyone's guess, and largely out of his control if we are being honest. Players, their agents, and other GM's have the cards to play... not Stone.

We also know that Stone needs to try and save face for some bad draft picks so he's trying to throw himself a lifeboat on the fact that some prospects aren't going to pan out, etc.

On that last point...

The fact is VERY FEW GM's get the privilege of being able to draft #2 and #3 (with the 3rd pick being the consensus #1 talent) two years in a row. If you are fortunate enough as a GM to get what other GM's dream of and you don't show your fanbase a future to be excited about after those two drafts... Yeah... you have already failed.

Why Stone is acting like he's special as a GM and should be expected to have endless hands to play here is kind of ridiculous if he actually believes that which I dont. I think he's speaking to an audience of 1 in Tillman to try and buy himself another year or two in order to get lucky with Wemby or whatnot. It would be like me betting 5 thousand a hand on black on Roulette with our family savings, hitting red two times in a row, and then going to my wife and saying "what... you didn't know that I'm supposed to lose twice???.... Give me another 5K babe.

Not saying Tillman should fire Stone just yet, but I mean the fact is Stone has failed... pretty bad actually.

 

Look - I admire that happiness and knowing who you are - that is just as important as someone that wants/desires/needs to be a CEO.

People just don't have growth mindsets they get stuck in a place- but who am I or who is anyone to say anything about that if they are happy.

I am happy you are happy !

High risk/high reward jobs are hard, sure you can make a lot of money, but when you bust you get nothing - it takes discipline to not go nuts when you are on top, and save for when/if you crash. It is a roller coaster for sure.

DD

 

Think of talents teams wanna DUMP. Trae? OG? Ayton? Tobias? Collins? Lowry? Fournier? Holmes? Cade for 3-5 pick? Turner/Buddy Buckets? Hayward?

Taking any of above + draft capital + another player?

Roster improvements, perhaps, with more upside picks in, without strangling future cap?

Mebbe there’s real upside in any/some of these?

So many roads to traverse while getting better not worse?

 

Sure! Then people here should take the steps like Mike Schmitz did and actually prove that they are competent well outside of a fan space. All we have here are outdated egos.

 

Harden or bust in free agency

because if not him, I already know what being very aggressive in free agency will entail for blockhead Stone

y’all give it up for our prize free agent signing D’angelo Russell…

 

damage control has started. he's on the watch

 

Mooore excuses for poor stone

Every time I see something about stone its him trying to cover his own ass

 

You are entitled to your opinions as everyone else here. So how do you build that atmosphere with a team that is even younger than the UH Cougars? What else was to be done? What EXACTLY could Stone have done differently that would have made an iota of a difference? Players make the coaches AND the culture. Always have always will. Too many examples of "the next big thing in coaching" available when rosters are full of + players and then all of a sudden the coaches cant coach when those players are not around?

You guys love taking a sht on Silas and talking about "reality" when the man was brought here to coach a veteran team, not one that is wet behind the ears. This team took the tank approach. Nothing mattered besides accumulating high draft picks and hoping one of them is a hit. So far that is not happening. Coach Silas is not the reason Jabari Smith is a terrible outside shooter. Coach Silas is not the reason Jalen Green looks like Kobe one night and Kevin Martin the next.

Wasnt this a 50 win team for McHale? All he did was clap. Same for Jackson that team also won 50 games under him. Kerr implemented a cutting edge system that maximized the players he had - and then when some of them are hurt he doesnt seem to be such a good coach. That team made Luke Walton appear to be a "good coach" too.

True generational players dont need a system - they are the system. When this team has the requisite experience and REAL veteran leadership it will take the next step and there will be a coach that will get the credit.

 

I'm kind of in the middle of both of you. I do think these kids need a strong system. If one of them was already a generational talent ala Bron or Kobe, they could probably get away with having an inexperienced coach. The exact youth you're talking about though does pretty much require leadership to come from somewhere else. Real veteran leadership can help, but they need a system at the very least an established pecking order the players can buy into, even if they're not running rigid plays or anything like that. Too much free flowing offense has been a detriment, and I'm not even in the fire Silas camp necessarily. I think he's okay in a better situation. There aren't any coaches I could think of that would have this team contending right now, but maybe the play in.

That goes back to the point of... we don't want to be in the play in. If we had Spo, maybe we would be that good, but then we have no shot at Wemby/Scoot, so we're middling again.

I think Silas has a lot to do with Green and everyone else's inconsistency, but he doesn't get the total blame. The guys still have to execute what they're being asked to do, and I can see they're not always doing that because you see so many breakdowns that it couldn't possibly have been the scheme as it was designed.