Pointlessly trading the Nets top pick for a Suns future pick is a fire able offense

Simmons contract expired this offseason. If they had still traded Bridges that means they have a bunch of picks and all that capspace to rebuild and field a competitive team. The only reason they didnt is because they wanna tank and get a high pick in 2026 draft.

Arguing otherwise is just wrong.

 

The Luka trade and Flagg should not be in the same paragraph. Mavs got stupidly lucky

 

Totally agree with most of what you said, although I think dumping Green was addition by subtraction and he needed to be moved for this team to improve.

Personally, I would have preferred to keep the 10th pick (roll the dice on Coward) and trade Green without losing Brooks - although that might be easier said than done

Regardless, I can't shake the feeling that TF runs the Rockets like he does his restaurants... lots of flash and glitter on the outside, but everything behind the scenes is done as cheaply as possible. Ultimately, that may be the Rockets biggest Achilles heel.

Hopefully, I'm wrong

 

Great and very true post OP! We’ll go from a top three pick in the upcoming greaest draft of all time to a mid to late non-lottery pick in a weaker 2027 draft. Stone is the Silas of GMs and from what I hear Fertitta loves the guy and quietly signed him to a five year extension this past offseason.

 

I think the goal of the Nets-Suns picks trade was Booker. The Suns needed their own picks back to rebuild. But they insisted on keeping Booker. So we only got a consolation prize in Durant.

What I think Stone didn't do well in that trade was that he should have squeezed more from the Nets. We had all the cards. The Nets had no leverage.

 

lol oh the vaunted Jalen green end of season burst that gives everyone hope until he goes right back to being hot garbage…

 

I mean, I guess Brooklyn is a destination but having a bunch of cap space doesn’t mean what it used to. And it seems like they did an OK job with their 41st round picks, but those players are still years away.

again, I probably would’ve just kept the 2026 and 2027 assets but God knows maybe they would’ve been stupid enough to try to compete knowing that they didn’t have a first rounder for the next two years.

maybe we could’ve tried to give them the 2027 pick back but hindsight is 20/20.

personally, I am thoroughly enjoying having Durant and we have plenty of assets. I still believe the Mavericks and Suns picks could have a lot of value.

 

The guy’s 22 years old dude….give him a break!

 

Remember when you said the Nets pick was gonna be Cooper Flagg and we just traded a top 1 pick?

 

They werent a top 5 bottom thats why they traded Mikal, Cam Johnson and that pg that always gets traded.

Arent you the one being disengenuous?

Secondly Ben Simmons contract expired in the 2025 offseason they could have signed someone.

 

This is the ultimate hind site thread, that doesn’t even start with a good theory. No doubt Stone was aiming for Booker, but there is no way to know what Brooklyn would have done without the trade. Tanking would’ve made no sense without their first round picks. I guess the op has no clue at all on what tanking is.

 

not if the league orchestrated all of it, which was what i was insinuating

 

Jalen Green was on the Rockets roster for 4 seasons. That is is 328 possible games and 1,312 quarters of basketball.

In 1,312 quarters of basketball - Jalen Green scored 20 or more points in a quarter 4 times, and none in the fourth quarter.

That comes out to less than once every 75 damn games. So approximately once a season.

Jalen Green overall was not a good player with the Rockets. He was inefficient - be that FG or EFG or any other measure. He didn’t draw fouls - he didn’t shoot well from the perimeter and he didn’t shoot well at the rim.

I have nothing against Jalen as a man. I hope he improves and becomes efficient enough to warrant the shots he takes.

 

The swap was made for the purposes of liquidity and kicking the asset down the road so they would be able to utilize it later.

I didn’t like the deal at the time - the Rockets did not get enough and the Nets were not passing up the Knick offer for Bridges regardless of a deal with the Rockets.

I don’t agree with the idea that the Nets would be good if not for the Rockets trade. They were moving guys anyway. However we also don’t know what the Suns will be like in the near future.

Like most of the Stone years - this isn’t a good or bad move, it’s meh. He has had some terrible luck (no #1 pick) and has had some tremendous luck Oladipo turning down an insane contract.

Stone isn’t exactly inspiring but he also is cautious an hedges his bets so we most likely won’t be terrible or make a major mistake.

 

I would have done the deal 4 out of 5 times. Nets not going to suck without the deal. And the fans are benefiting from a massive look ahead bias. Not much issue with the deal even in hindsight.