I am an attorney - 99% of attorneys would take being the general manager of an NBA franchise over being a lawyer. Lawyers (including myself) also are incredibly arrogant people and believe that they can do just about any job because they have a law degree. I know a number of lawyers that believe they know medicine better than physicians and surgeons. I think that it can work, but it requires having a very strong President of Basketball Operations that has a long back ground in coaching/film/Etc. The Rockets don't have that though.
Morey and Stone had lunch together when Stone was handling the business side of the organization. Morey started including Stone on the basketball operations side over time. As far as Stone being involved in the Harden deal, everyone in the room with Morey discussing possible trades/draft selections is "involved". He was always behind other assistant general managers in the organization. He was asked by Morey to help get the sale of the team to TF approved. That allowed Stone to ingratiate himself to TF and his family. Once Stone was talking to TF on his own, and influencing trades and undermining Stone - that was enough for Morey. As for Stone's management style -- Keep in mind that Morey was aggressively trying to rework the organizational structure and player development of the Rockets when Les sold the team. Also, remember that Morey had guys like Hinkie, Rosas, Lindsey, McNair and others as his top guys.
Enough with the...Boo Hoo, we didn't get the #1 pick. Stone HAS been lucky. He didn't have to fork over the pick to OKC. And, has been saved from himself concerning a couple of contracts. He better convert KD into quality youth.
Appreciate the information, I was not circling in on that actually. I have respect for that job, just think Stone is better equipped at doing that job rather than the strenuous GM job.
This. While being a big market is an advantage - the two top teams in the NBA are in San Antonio and Oklahoma City. I promise you those are not the markets that the NBA is concerned about. I don't know what (if anything) happened 45-50 years ago in the draft, but I promise you if the NBA was rigging the draft, the Knicks would have gotten a genuine franchise guy by now. Stone has had both good and bad luck concerning the draft. He was able to keep the #2 pick (Green draft), when statistically the odds were that it was going to go to OKC. He also got the #2,#3,#4 and #3 picks in the draft in a row, the odds of that are fairly remote that all of them would be in the top 4. He also got lucky on the lottery balls on the Sheppard pick (#3). Also, your point of taking the Rockets out of the last two drafts is a very good point. Both were/are lottery picks as well, that the Rockets did not get to use. Player development was not a priority for the Rockets. They brought in guys like Porter and Wood, and they brought in a weak coach that was often overruled by the front office on player discipline. The Rockets idea of player development was literally just having John Lucas work with the young players early in the morning while Porter caused distractions. Then magically Stone and the Rockets believed that they could hire a "real coach" and that would magically undo the younger players learning bad habits and poor preparation. This is why for years I have said that the Rockets front office lacks any real attention to detail or high level understanding -
Rockets young core consists of an inconsistent 3rd option that can’t shoot and has suspect defense in Sengun, a super role player that can’t shoot in Amen, a 4th or 5th option role player that excels at nothing in Jabari, a constantly injured bonehead with below average shooting in Tari Eason, and a streaky shooter that gets targeted on defense in Reed Sheppard
The best managers of organizations and people are really smart people with good communication skills and the ability to recognize strengths and weaknesses including their own. I think Stone obviously is pretty good at understanding the cap and contract negotiations, but his people skills and ability to surround himself with people that make up for his obvious weaknesses is a fatal flaw. Ime is a straight up Narcissist and will always be exactly what he is right now. The Rockets will never be able to compete for a championship until these guys are gone.
a year ago stone was a genius and had a great eye for talent. Now he’s trash bc we got unlucky and never got the #1 pick bc of a ping pong ball didn’t bounce right. It’s easy to blame stone when you’re angry that spurs have leapfrogged us so fast but we didn’t get lucky to get a once in a genera Talent and they did. He has his flaws but he did very well overall. Where he messed up was not trying to improve the team once FVV and then Adams went out.
And extending Ime, trading for a bad fit 38 year old child, giving MLE money to a backup center that gets injured every year, trading out of the best draft in decades, hiring Silas, drafting Jalen over Mobley and others, passing on NAW (most improved player) for DFS (most injured journeyman), signing FVV 10m above market and effectively with a no trade clause.
I dunno, what you’re saying may be true. I’m just regurgitating reports I read. A lot of them said Stone was involved day 1. Stone took much of Morey’s style regarding input and decision making and they were a team. Everyone has input and a “scout”. That’s how Stone was able to push his ideas and become a force. “He and Morey spent most of 72 hours locked in a conference room while completing the trade for James Harden.” “Stone and Witus put together much of the Rockets’ trade for Chris Paul and the series of trades that day that accompanied it.“ https://www.houstonchronicle.com/te...ew-GM-Rafael-Stone-a-passion-for-15651539.php
I don’t fault him for not making moves since those deals are temporary (Ayo etc). I think the 2 biggest mistakes he made was the Green and Sheppard draft where he should in my opinion have taken Scottie Barnes and Castle. People fault him for moves like the Olaidipo move that didn’t happen fortunately but that move was only a 2 year deal at 45 mil on a young rockets team with no vet leadership. That move would have given guidance to our young guards and players at the time. As in all of Stone’s deals he sought flexibility for the team and favorable deals with team interest in mind.
Our organization is so bad we feel hopeless with an all-time great in KD on our team. This is amazing in itself
It seems like the main issue with Stone & Ime is not getting a good supporting team around them. For stone he needs better scouts and player development staff For Ime he needs better offensive and in game adjustments and player development and schemes staff members
Right, but the problem is that Stone has shown no desire to bring on a President of Basketball Operations or better people to surround him with. Udoka has already said he isn't changing his coaching staff.
I actually just figured it out. Stone is the Jalen Green of GM's. Ime's the Jalen Green of Coaches. It's not that Stone hates us, it's that he only hires himself in duplicate over and over and over and over. Gives you just enough flashes of talent for you to buy in, but it's all smoke and mirrors in the end and doesn't have substance. Think about it. Kevin Porter Jr. Christian Wood. Jalen Green. Sengun. Bari. Amen with his athletic explosions (an even more min/maxed Jalen with D.) It applies to absolutely every single one of them. That's why we've got all the Franchise Player/X Factor etc threads because they'll each flash really good moments, but it always ****s us in the end. Jalen got more opportunity to show it than the rest of them. It's creepy man.
don't forget him gaslighting fans saying they were wrong on the "is this not our year" quote and then that awful conference with udoka at the end of the season
Well, considering that San Antonio and the surrounding areas all the way to Austin are turning into one big Super City with the population explosion there I think it is absolutely in the leagues best interest to have a star there. Same with DFW and the Plano area. Texas is the new California in terms of population density and wealth.
I was soooo angry when he did that. This fool tried to build around Wall, Oladipo and Wood and we wondered why Harden was so adamant on leaving like ofcourse he could see how over his head Stone is. His decent moves were all luck. Other gm's saying no and victor saying no really helped him.
