When are we going to start criticizing Rafael Stone?

There's a few people around here who drive the narrative and the vast majority falls in line with that - OMG the culture! or the idea that no FA's will sign here .... the entire league knows what's happening here - they are losing on purpose and that ends on the final day of this season.
This team has the most cap space, multiple open roster spots and a ton of draft assets that are better than what just about any other team can offer in terms of quality - only OKC can top the quantity.

There's only 450 roster spots in the league and cap space is limited, top players aren't going to play for less somewhere else just because the Rockets tanked.

The Rockets are probably the best positioned team in the league to create a super team with their cap space, draft assets and young players. This really can't be understated .... any players who decide they want to team up, this is the place to do it.

Even if the FA market is underwhelming, the potential is endless because they can literally add any player in the league via trade.

We knew the moment Harden walked out the door what the timeline was - the expiration of John Wall & Eric Gordon's contracts which coincided with the draft obligations to OKC for Westbrook. In the mean time, being worst guaranteed them the best chances at high draft picks - worst falling no further than 5.


What I find comical is that those same people driving the negativity now will be the same people saying they knew all along that Stone was a miracle worker and that they were gonna turn it around...

 

If he turns this around, obviously yes, we'd have to give him credit for it.

Until then, folks can post whatever they want...

Houston has always been a good market in the past as well with the last big FA who also signed here was Dwight Howard.

And Chris Paul wanting a ring here.

It was nothing spectacular or crazy.

 

Maybe. Doesnt really mean you are qualified to construct a "sports team" though does it? That pesky ego is what offers this site so many Junior GMs. Nothing new really in the world of sports or within all the different fanbases, but this type of rebuild is a completely new process for most of us in ROXNATION and quite a few were not ready for the rough terrain. The team has been pretty obvious with what they are doing regardless of fan expectation. Stone was getting out of cap hell and built this thing the only way you could. Whether it comes together or not is up for debate, but there wasnt a lot of options.

 

Correct

 

I am pretty sure every fan knew that tanking was the plan. No one is upset about losing games as the vast majority of us expected to lose games. The problem is the lack of accountability (unless you are Sengun or Jaygup) and total absence of any semblance of team culture that really bothers me. Tanking does not mean letting (most) players do whatever the **** they want, playing players that aren't part of your future plans, and having a complete absence of any scheme on either side of the ball.

 

Team culture can be reset. That's often lost in the conversation.

To be the one of the worst teams in the league you have to be one of the worst at offense and one of the worst at defense. If you do ANYTHING really well - other than rebounding - you'll climb up those standings.

Think about this if it were your job, Other teams are fielding rosters worth $80-$100m and we are fielding a roster worth like $50m or something? Plus you know your employer is tanking. For a player, this is the worst environment as far as motivation goes. We know that.

However, we can fix all that with a coaching change and signing 2-3 tone-setting veterans. The team clearly wants the best odds. Wembenyama is highly likely to transform a team's future if he stays healthy. I'm not a fan of tanking this hard, but a case can be made it's worth it IF YOU BELIEVE (like the FO and ownership does) that Wembenyama is a Lebron or Durant-like talent. If you believe that's what he is, then maybe you believe it's worth it; taking a risk-free approach to getting the best odds whatever they are.

We were always going to tank for 3 straight seasons. We're exactly 87% of the way there with only 30-40 games remaining. I think it's time to stop feeling sorry about the team culture and start focusing on what steps we can take to improve it in the summer. The rest of this season is going to tell us a lot about what we have and the players are going to very slowly improve at playing winning basketball.

There's a very exciting summer ahead, we're going to have a top 4 pick and 2 max cap slots for sure plus some of these players will be headed into the pivotal year 3 where players tend to distinguish themselves from the heard. They're all way too weak, so even just continuing to add strength is so important. Aiming to win all the games as a top priority is going to be fun and weed out the winners from the losers.

 

Glad to hear some optimism for a change. Thanks.

 

Glad to hear some optimism for a change. Thanks.

 

The reason most people don't focus on resetting team culture is due to the fact that we do not know at all what will happen this offseason. For example...

• If we don't get Wemby or Scoot, what happens next? Who do we get? Does the FO even have a Plan C here?
• If we do get Wemby, we still need to address our PG situation which is still up in the air due to Silas's insistence on playing Nix over TyTy so often. Who will that be?
• If we get Scoot, where does that leave KPJ? Does he replace Green in the starting lineup, slot to the 3, or go to the bench as a 6th man?
  • Can the self-proclaimed "head honcho" even tolerate that?
• While we all agree that Silas needs to go, what if he has an under-the-table deal to stay on as a chance to "prove what he has" outside of a rebuild?
  • If we do let Silas go, who is replacing him? What type of culture and schemes will he bring? How much will the FO meddle?

There are simply too many "What if's" for the upcoming offseason and next season to even begin to have any worthwhile discussion IMO as opposed to the current where everyone can see and compose their own opinions of our present state. Just my 2 cents.

 

running every organization/department/team has common things. I may not know what it takes to build successful sports team in terms of the actual ins and outs on the highest level of basketball, but:

• No one in this organization knows either. Hell, it's filled with historical losers.
  
• I know how to build proper culture, and responsibility on a micro level of organization, and for sure know what things you should not do if you want to have a proper working culture.
  
• When I hear the current general manager got his job by backstabbing the previous one and yes-saying to the owner, I know that's not ideal
• When I hear that the said general manager, who has NO EXPERIENCE in the field, goes down to the basement to screw in light bulbs, interfering with every-day decisions of the professionals he hired - I know it is toxic work culture, no trust, and set up for the flop.
• When I hear all of the ex-workers complain about the working environment - I know it's a big red flag.
  
• When I see all of the most talented professionals seeking a way out of the organization- starting from Harden, through Wall, Tucker, and Gordon on Holiday and Kaminsky ending - I for sure know this is a **** place to work in
• Stone can say the **** he wants, and I do not believe him looking at the above points - he will sugarcoat everything because it's his first run at this position, and if he fails, he won't get another shot. I will judge him by results only, which say it's a ****ing mess.

Miss me with the 'casuals' label - I can see a badly run organization from a mile away.

Does the company make more money? No way. Does the company have a good reputation? Hell no, it's the opposite. Maybe they hate on the company because we play foul but win? Don't make me laugh. We play foul(tanking) and still are the worst.

Not getting any good players via trades/free agency for three years, still holding on to hope that we land a franchise player from the draft or/and Harden will want to get paid on his retirement and go clubbing around in Houston is your plan while ignoring everything else - you are not good GM for me.

 

You're mad about being tabbed a casual because you are. All that fairy tale BS about backstabbing and being butthurt about it tells me you're way down the totem pole in terms of high level management. Backstabbing IS the norm in those environments not that its good or bad. Morey was clocked out way before any of that finger pointing occurred. Do you really think Tilman would have chosen Stone over Morey if Darry still wanted to be here? Using Harden as an example of bad culture and management and yet how many reports are out there of him wanting to return? Why do veterans chasing a ring want to stick around for a rebuild? You're not really making much common sense let alone some insight into upper management tendencies.

So what else was Stone to do with no cap space? Hold onto Allen and LeVert as if those guys are going to change the trajectory of this team? You're looking right through the obvious in order to inject some personal opinion to the situation, but hey whatever helps you cope. When this team returns to glory under Stone you will just hold a grudge that he didnt turn out the way you expected - this fanbase is now a mirror image of what the New York Knicks fanbase is so it should be a connect the dots exercise in what comes next for our "fans".

Being the worst was always the plan.

 

I've still yet to discover the ends to the need to criticize. Okay, so you go to a fan page to discuss your favorite team. You point out every flaw in everyone's game. You say the GM sucks, the coach needs to be fired, our draft picks are busts... and... then...? Is there some kind of expectation or hope that somehow the owner will read ClutchFans/Twitter/Reddit and have an epiphany that will alter the course of things?

Tanking isn't fun, but neither is being a middling team with no real potential to contend or bring in a high level asset in the near future. We've got our 28% chance and we have a few guys who could breakout in the future. Other than contending for a title, that's the best place to be. Others have already mentioned the cap space and roster spots we have open to make moves if they become available.

In the meantime, we can find some things to be positive about and enjoy our favorite team or... do whatever the hell is going on around CF right now. I know what I'll choose.

 

Post of the year.

 

Yeah but like no one knows that stuff. No fan of a team knows if their team has a plan in place and how good that plan is.

Yes we have some decisions to make but nothing more important than adding and developing young talent. If we don't get the top pick and we strike out in the FA market, then we will just wait to acquire someone good.

The team is not going to care so much about KPJ from next season onwards. He has one of the worst (i.e. team friendly) contracts in the league and they will simply not prioritize him if he doesn't contribute to winning. They can waive or trade him so easily. The team will want to win, every human wants to win when there's no incentive to lose. The entire culture and mindset around the team is going to be different.

I don't think Silas is going anywhere. I think he agreed to tank as long as his shot at a competitive season was guaranteed in advance. He will get to coach the team next season and hopefully we discover he's better at coaching a competitive team with more veteran experience than he is with keeping sh*t together during one of the most brutal tanking rebuilds we've ever seen. Who knows.

 

Excellent post bmelo. 100% agree.

 

Do you really want a coach who doesn’t put winning first??? What a great role model for kids.

 

No but I'm not sure that's who he is. I think he just agreed to tank to get a shot at coaching rather than resigning and betting on getting another job.

If he's not the guy we just replace him after he's had his shot. Whatever it is, we can fix it pretty easily.

 

Here is how the rebuild is going for me.

When Harden was traded, I said to myself,
- okay, this is probably going to be a 4 or 5 year process and I should not worry about what I see on the court, because it is going to be a terrible product for years.
- I was going to look for positives, and what guys could be elite at a few years in.
- I said they will experiment with a lot of guys, a lot of rotations, and at times it may look absolutely abysmal, but that was part of the process and shouldn't worry about it.
- I set zero expectations for a coach, because they were put in an impossible situation.
- More than anything, luck is the most important factor, but the one place you can control you luck is ensuring your best odds in the lottery. I said it was critical to make sure we had the worst record while we were bottoming out.
- I looked at the draft ledger and the cap sheet and determined it was a no brainer to bottom out for 3 years and then start building / ascending in year 4.

Bottom line, I set my expectations correctly, and have not had an issue with how things are transpiring.

Seems like most people were not prepared for what a rebuild actually is. To think people thought they would actually see a good product on the court, but just one that never won games....downright laughable.

Regarding "the culture", this is a collection of assets that will be used to get the the ACTUAL team in place here. I really don't give a **** about what the culture is right now, because this is a situation not designed to win. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the next competitive team we field only has 2-3 guys from the current roster.

 

Maybe. But corporate culture takes a lot more to reset.

 

It's all the same. You get a new leader and tone setters if necessary.

All of those things take less time than finding a generational talent, if Wemby is in fact that kind of talent.