When are we going to start criticizing Rafael Stone?

NBA is a professional sports, things change quickly. There's no denying that Silas was hired to lead, and not rebuild. Nevertheless, The Rockets have given him more than enough time to adjust. Developing young players are one of the coach's job, isn't it? Outside basketball world, most people are doing a lot of extra jobs that are not written in the job description, and they don't get that much flexibility as Silas did. Silas is not a victim, period. If Silas did not perform his job well and Stone didn't fire him, Stone didn't perform his job, provided the owner agreed to hire another coach or promote a coach from within.

Putting the word "objective" does not make your statement objective you know. You can't say it is a success when your team has one of the worst records. If you want statistics, you can pick up Kanta for a minimum contract and let him run for 35 minutes. He'll give you over 25 points and 8 a night easy. It's cheaper but your team will be devastating. I'm using Kanta as an example but there are quite a lot of candidates out there.

Nix is a huge problem. He is taking minutes away from our lottery picks Josh and Tyty. Whenever lineup he was, they usually ended up in the worst point differential deficient. If that was Silas's decision, Stone has to force Silas to play the lottery picks and bench Nix. GM has a lot of power over coach. If he doesn't use the power or let the coach keeps wasting the rookies' time, he's not doing his job.

I don't care about Eric Gordon. He should be benched or traded long due.

Tate's contract is decent for a serviceable bench. KMJ we don't know what will happen to him next, but both Tate and KMJ are role players, nothing more, nothing less. I've been saying in another posts that his draft records appear to be good. Don't need to repeat it here.

In Summary, Stone has drafted some pretty good players but hired a coach that refuse to play them. I'm not sure if he forced Silas to play KPJ as PG but that just don't work, especially both players have a tendency to stop playing defense if they are not scoring on the other end. The thread title is "...start criticizing Stone" not "...firing..." so there's no need to overreact. People will be singing a prayer to Stone if he fried Silas.

 

Dude, how long you been holding on to that pic.

I really guffawed.

 

Has he done a good job in the draft?

It's amazing that on one hand we keep saying we need to give these 19-year-olds a chance, and then we claim Stone has done a good job.

The jury is still out on all of them if we are truthful with ourselves.

What exactly has he proven that he can accumulate the talent that can finish at the bottom of the NBA?

So who should we point the finger at? And for the record, I am not pointing a finger at anybody.

But missing out on getting Allen and offering Oladipo an extension is not great.

 

He certainly tried to, he got saved.

 

Smith is very limited as well and Mobley does everything else better, I am not saying Mobley should have been the pick but it's amazing how people keep saying Mobley is limited when the only thing he lacks is a consistent 3.

 

More and more national people, non-Houston fans, are starting to notice and voice their disbelief, critique and criticism of mainly that we look like a team without any structure and not showing some key habits you need at least to be consistent down the road. That is worrisome and ALL of the coaching staff should be worried about it and held accountable for it.

 

Sengun is doing great for a 16th pick, and is on pace for a great career if he continues his improvement.

Green is still inconsistent, but he's already shown why he was the second pick and continues to get better--I believe he has the highest upside on the team.

Garuba was terrible last year, but is now a useful rotation player and we picked him 18th.

JC is disappointing me immensely.

Smith is coming around after a disgusting start to the season, and in my opinion is probably the second or third best rookie in the league over the last five or so games.

Eason has trouble finishing layups but is an incredibly disruptive presence on the floor and is already by far outperforming his draft position.

TyTy hasn't really played yet but he did make Rockets Legend Bruno Caboclo look like he's still 4 years away from being 4 years away.

So I think we can say that Stone has done a solid job in the draft if nothing else.

I don't think there has ever been a team this young that has actually gotten a good record, though I think we would be better with better coaching. The players have a lot of improving to do, but they're on the right track.

 

Crazy part is , if we draft Wem or Scoot he'd be a genius to most..

 

Yeah the Jarrett Allen stuff is always a funny one for me. Great post overall

 

I don't disagree with any of this I don't think he has made any terrible picks, and he has some made some very good ones IMO I just don't think he has done anything spectacular as a gm and that's ok so far.

 

It shouldn't be. It's a valid point, especially when he's exactly the type of C the rockets could use and are looking for. And he's young enough to be part of a rebuilding team

 

I think Stone has been fine, it's only been two drafts.

Great picks:
Sengun, Tari both performing way better than their draft position, both are probably top 5 prospects in the draft

No brainer pick:
Green, just a coin flip between him and Mobley, remains to be seen whether he can be an all star, but we are seeing great things.

Remain to be seen picks
Jabari Smith, picked what's left of the "big 3". probably wanted Paolo. Most bust potential, but way too early

Meh picks/pickups
Garuba, JC, Nix.

 

He is clumsy around the basket.

 

If you say so, he really looked clumsy against Jokic and Gordon in the 1st 5 highlights.

If Mobley looks clumsy, Smith looks disabled.

 

especially considering his biggest haters on this site are NEVER in the game threads

 

I don't think this board waits to criticize anyone

In one respect, Stone reminds me of what Click was to the Astros. That is, a less ambitious but competent replacement of their predecessor.
That said, it is my opinion that Stone has made the right moves, but at the same time, hasn't orchestrated anything creative outside the box either.

Deserved or not, Stone's legacy is tied to that of Silas for the moment.
The worse Silas looks, the more pressure there will be for Stone to do something about it.

It might be that at some point, Stone may be judged more by how he handles the coaching than any particular player action or non-action.

 

im not sure what part you managed to misread but your gm being a dumbass is not a positive