He's a good defensive coach but if anyone isn't an amazing defender everything goes to ****..... lol defending Ime is absurd. How can the Lakers manage to have the best defense in the playoffs with Luke ****ing Kennard on the court all game? I guess that means JJ Reddick is a great defensive coach, right?
Ferttitta gets the blame. He forced a trade for Westbrook while everyone knew he wasn't as good or as good of a fit and we gave up future picks for it. Fast forward and the Rockets were finally ready to tank and they abruptly stopped midway through because they didn't own their 24/25/26 picks. That's a huge key people forget when they say Stone believed in a flawed roster. Based on the hand he was dealt there was no room to continue the tank so he stacked the team with vets to win enough games to keep his job. It's also possible Fertitta wouldn't have accepted tanking after 21/22/23 anyway. But, that only reinforces the point.
Yes, Stone is a puppet, but he isn't in charge of roster construction, IME is, otherwise Cam would still be here......instead of traded away for NOTHING. You don't trade assets for ZERO return. DD
I do blame Fert and Stone for the Westbrook trade. I would imagine Harden had a little bit of a hand and that as well. At the very least, I think we could’ve gotten him cheaper. I would imagine if Tillman had spent a little bit more money and kept Chris Paul around. We might’ve squeaked out a title as far as the last few years, a little bit of it is lady luck. as far as some of the draft positioning goes. Obviously, the assessments on Jalen Green were wrong. We wanted Cade, so that just sucked. Smith was the obvious pick but maybe in the alternate universe we end up with Chet. 1 digit keeping us off of Victor in the lottery was also unfortunate, although I do think a man will be a top 15 player in the league. about this season specifically I am definitely bothered by the inability for the coaching staff to adjust to the very obvious things in front of them. and the lack of doing anything at the trade deadline was very disappointing. in my mind I had always had next season as the one that we were most likely to win a title if everything goes the right way, and I still feel like that is possible, but these people must learn from their failures. Because the failures were so obvious, I am concerned for sure. if we do not win this series, I would like a new head coach and a GM.
I don't believe it's just dumb luck that the Rockets are in this situation. Sure, it would've been massive to get at least one #1 pick in a talented draft, but the draft is not the only way to build a competitive team. Stone leaned HEAVILY into being the worst team possible during phase 1 so that he could be in a position to get a player like Wemby (PRAY FOR VICTOR). He put all of his chips into the tanking basket so it's really his fault that we are in this position. Stone hasn't been able to bring in quality players by other means (player trades, free-agent signings, etc.). Here's a list of transactions I can remember. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things but I'm also 100% sure the things I'm forgetting are not worth remembering since they had no significant impact to putting us closer to winning a championship. Major Trades: James Harden to Brooklyn for those FRPs and Oladipo Russell Westbrook trade to Washington for John Wall Robert Covington trade to Portland for a FRP that was used on Usman Garuba Christian Wood trade from Detroit PJ Tucker traded to Milwaukee which helped Houston move up to select Josh Christopher in the 2021 draft. Daniel Theis sign-and-trade from Chicago. Later traded that year for Dennis Schroder, Enes Freedom, and Bruno Fernando with Freedom subsequently waived KPJ acquisition from Cleveland for a 2nd round pick (2023) Eric Gordon traded to Clippers for first round pick swap which resulted in drafting Cam Whitmore Draft Night Trades: Alperen Sengun traded to Houston for two future FRPs Josh Christopher selected after Houston moved up from the PJ Tucker deal Usman Garuba selected with the pick acquired in the Covington deal Cam Whitmore selected with the pick swap acquired from Eric Gordon trade Major Free Agent Signings Jae'Sean Tate Fred VanVleet Dillon Brooks Jock Landale Aaron Holiday Other Notable Signings: Garry Bird Mathews Dante Exum David Nwaba Armoni Brooks Kenyon Martin Jr Daishen Nix Other Two-Way or Exhibit 10 signings: Nate Hinton Trevor Hudgins Jermaine Samuels Jack McVeigh As you can see, Stone hasn't hit on any quality players outside of the draft. Our best trades were for FVV and Brooks, but it has been widely reported that they were acquired because of Udoka's influence. He did trade Green for KD, but as I've said repeatedly...the KD trade was a mistake since we had no stars among Stone's 'young core.' We were not a KD away from winning a championship so we would've been better off continuing to take shots in the draft. Stone only knows how to tank and sell hope to a fanbase. That's the easiest part of a rebuild and he couldn't even manage to get that right. Now that we're a 50+ win team in phase two (THE HARDEST PART OF A REBUILD - IMPROVING A GOOD TEAM TO CHAMPIONSHIP LEVEL) I have zero faith he can achieve that. We really need to start a mini-rebuild. When he realized he didn't get any star players, he went for KD because he knew that he could get rid of Jalen Green and create a buzz among the fanbase and national media. Before that, he was strongly considering going back to James Harden. He isn't capable of making underrated transactions that later turn out to have a massive benefit to the franchise.
After watching the replay a bit, I come away with several observations: 1. KD is great when doing his shooting thing. But, that's about it. Lots of mistakes as a play maker and ball handler. 2. The Alpi - KD pick and roll defense was okay at times, bad at others. Alpi is not able to make up for other's on defense. He's not that kind of big. Their success or failure during these actions came almost entirely from how well KD navigated the screen. If he did it well, Alpi had time to recover and put pressure on the rolling big. If KD did it poorly, Alpi had to step up just a bit more and then was unable to recover. 3. Tari and Bari and Reed missed a lot of shots. KD would get doubled and when we managed it well, we'd generate a 3 pointer that missed. Make or miss league. 4. Amen provided no vertical spacing. That's a real problem. On the short roll Alpi kept dishing to 3 point shooters who missed or simply failed to fire. The Amen alley-oop was simply not a factor. That's absolutely nuts and falls on Alpi's poor decision making. 5. Alpi kept rushing himself when he went for his own shot. He'd go for one move and try to shoot over their big instead of getting into their body and twirling around, going into his bag of great foot work. I think he was very aware of how much the Lakers were packing the paint because our shooters couldn't shoot. Its actually point 4 that bothers me most as it has been a real point of strength for the team. Over the past couple of seasons Alpi and Amen have successfully navigated the paint together despite the shooting woes. But here they didn't use Amen at all in these situations which meant he was just a road block out there causing traffic jams. So, who's fault is it? I have to say Ime's right now because the team is operating at less than the sum of its parts. That's a coaching thing. It would help if the Lakers cooled down a bit and our shooters remembered what the hoop looks like.
It's disingenuous to say, it would have been massive to get a #1 pick and then simultaneously dismiss it. Many teams lean heavily into tanking, it's not a Stone exclusive. This team, as constructed, should be better than it is. They are way more talented than the Lakers. By all accounts, they are underperforming. On paper, this was a good team that was well poised for the future. That was the narrative. Sometimes, ish happens. It's sports. The one massive problem was not addressing the PG position. It was clear early that Amen ain't it. The over reliance on switch-everything defensive wings was more of a commitment to Udoka's style than Stone. At this point, I think most reasonable people agree this roster construction and coaching style is flawed. So let's see what they do next.
Revised slightly.... Major Trades: James Harden to Brooklyn for those FRPs and Oladipo. This ultimately ends up being Durant, Tari, Reed, 2027 Nets, 27 Suns swap, 29 Suns, and 29 Dallas swap. This right now is a combination of 3 trades Russell Westbrook trade to Washington for John Wall. This adds a protected FRP that was one of 2 picks sent for Sengun. Robert Covington trade to Portland for a FRP that was used on Usman Garuba, Christian Wood trade from Detroit These 2 deals are tied together. Rockets got 2 FRPs from Portland, sent one to Detroit, got one from Detroit, sent the one from Detroit later as part of Sengun deal, and got a FRP when they got rid of Wood in a 3rd deal. So + 3 FRPs (not counting Sengun deal) in the 3 deals that brought and sent out Woods. 2 busts with one sent as part of deal for Sengun. PJ Tucker traded to Milwaukee which helped Houston move up to select Josh Christopher in the 2021 draft. This was a weird trade. Received 2 FRPs for a SRP and a FRP. One of the FRPs was swapped for the Cam pick. Daniel Theis sign-and-trade from Chicago. Later traded that year for Dennis Schroder, Enes Freedom, and Bruno Fernando with Freedom subsequently waived KPJ acquisition from Cleveland for a 2nd round pick (2023) Eric Gordon traded to Clippers for first round pick swap which resulted in drafting Cam Whitmore Between Harden, Covington, Westbrook, and Tucker deals, the Rockets ultimately received a net of 10 FRPs (9 if including the Sengun deal that consolidated 2 of them) and Durant when including subsequent deals. Overall, Stone has acquired 3 more FRPs than he's had busts and traded away picks.
To me, the season was already a sunk cost when FVV went down. I think the Rockets decided to let it play out with hope, but the team was just not good enough that a PG would be enough. They would have needed to trade for a PG and someone else. If they had FVV, it would have only been traded for someone else.
Which has resulted in a team next year that will have a 38 year old starting KD, a 33 year old FVV and rotation players including a 33 year old Adams, 34 year old DFS. Sengun making - Smith making $24,000 next year and Sengun $36,000,000. Sheppard and Amen are still on their rookie contracts, and have positive value - especially Thompson. The Rockets are +1 in first round picks for the next 5 years. The Rockets have not won a playoff series under Stone and hope to come back from an 0-2 hole. I'll let you decide if that is a good outcome for having picks #2, #3, #4, #3, #10, #16, #17, #20, #22, #25 and around 70 million dollars in cap room. There is also Tari Eason, but he is a FA and I don't know what their plan is for him.
Good ****ING LORD - FVV wouldn't be making any difference on this team....marginal at best....he isn't a great shooter, he can't finish at the rim, and he isn't creative as a passer, he is a steady eddy, and ironically in comparison to Reed who played fewer minutes their stats are about equal. This is about a COACH who doesn't have a ****ING CLUE how to set up an offense, he is a FRAUD, and our org got conned into keeping him.....Ime won't win **** unless he has MJ and Lebron in their primes. DD
Getting ready to watch him get out coached (YET AGAIN) by a guy who was doing podcasts just 2 years ago...
Jalen Green was 100% on the front office, the consensus at #2 was Evan Mobley and that turned out to be a terrible pick. Jalen Green as the guard version of Michael Beasley isn't going to make top 10 bust lists, but that's a bust nonetheless. Jabari at 3 was painful, but nobody selected in the next 7 picks has amounted to much either so far. The only two players that have produced more WS than Jabari so far are Jalen Duren and Jalen Williams, selected at 12 and 13. I'll give Stone a pass there, as not even the Pistons thought Jalen Duren was worth a top 5 pick. Amen Thompson at 4 has produced the most win shares of any player in 2023, there is no replacing him so far at that draft position, even if you think his potential will be heavily limited by his jumper. Reed Sheppard at 3 is still a good pick if advanced stats are to be trusted. Hats off to anyone who predicted Clingan would become a monster, but both he and Castle wouldn't fit with the prior draft picks of Jabari/Sengun and Thompson respectively. I can't even say they drafted poorly except for the Jalen Green pick, but even a single bust can completely torpedo a rebuild unless you make up for it by selecting a top 10 player of all time.
Ime didn't hire Ime. If they retain him next season, is that Ime's fault? Look, they mishandled the PG situation in favor of wings. Period.
Zoom out a little and keep some context in mind. They have legit turned around the team, went through the rebuild, and now are one of the top teams in the WC the past two seasons. Plus they still have a bright future. You make it sound like they are bottom dwellers. They are not. The sky is not falling, despite how crazy disappointed we are right now.
