I think the current championship-level franchise players are: Wemby, Jokic, Shai, Luka, Giannis (maybe), Ant, Cade, Tatum, Hali, Flagg, Brunson (maybe). To Stone's credit - he did literally everything possible to get one of them. We had the joint highest lottery odds for Wemby and Cade. We had a shot at Flagg through the pick that Stone traded for. We would've been able to win the bidding war for Luka, except Nico only talked to the Lakers. Jokic, Shai, Ant, Tatum, Hali were never even possibly available. We could get Giannis this summer if we want (I don't want, personally). If the bar is "have a championship-level franchise player", what more could the guy have done? The replacement-level GM would not have given us as much equity in finding one as we have had. It's a stochastic process. You can't just "get us a franchise guy under the age of 28". You buy lottery tickets. We've been good at getting them. The Nuggets, Bucks, Knicks for example were bad at getting lottery tickets... but they got lucky with way fewer. That doesn't make their FO's better at the task; they were worse. I do believe that Stone/Witus understand the "find a franchise player" assignment and also are sharp at transactions / contracts / veteran pro personnel scouting. Tbh I care more about that part of the job than I do the "putting a roster together that has ideal basketball fit"; especially when the franchise player hasn't been found yet, so fit is not even what they are optimizing for. Would I prefer a FO that combines strengths in all those domains? Sure. But in reality there will always be trade-offs. I'll take ours.
you make some good points as always. I am okay saying Stone has been unlucky finding a franchise player in the draft, and i agree that fit is the last thing u focus on, but you can’t have it both ways. Either we are still focused on finding that franchise player or you are dealing for KD and trying to contend with a team that fits. What are we doing trying to contend with a team that doesn’t fit? We must think we are ready because we just traded for a 37 yr old, so why did we just waste a year with a team that doesn’t fit? You can’t sit out back to back drafts, especially this generational one, and claim you understand the franchise player assignment. The draft is an annual chance for that to happen. That’s my biggest gripe with Stone. You keep betting on the draft and/or you identify players on the come that have a chance to be franchise players, and try to trade for them like the Blazers did with Deni. Of course he’s not in the tier of the guys u mentioned but he’s a top 20 player. It’s how Indy got Halliburton. It’s how we got Harden. We haven’t employed that strategy at all. So I’d like to see a clear vision from the GM, and I’d like him to pick a direction rather than trying to have it both ways. And I’d like him to pursue both of the strategies I mentioned for the franchise assignment, which includes not ignoring the draft in back to back years.
Are Stone/Witus trying to contend? I don't think we are. I think we're just trying to have a competitive team in this interregnum between franchise players, in years we don't own our own pick because of the Westbrook trade. There is a minimum amount of "trying to win" that is probably required in the job of NBA GM in real-life, and pretty much I think they are just about skirting that line. Look at the uproar at Stone not trading assets for a placeholder PG at the deadline. I'm not a KD fan, and wouldn't have personally made the trade because it isn't fun to be a fan of a team with an aging superstar. But the only future franchise player equity we gave up in the KD trade was the #10 pick, which after the draft lottery isn't much equity at all. There's also only so many prospects you can develop at once - and I think it's not unreasonable to think we were at a limit last offseason. I agree with you of course, that getting new franchise player lottery tickets in the door is a priority this offseason and next; I've been saying that on this board for a while. But I don't think getting into the top of the '26 draft will be particularly easy, and also can't really critique the FO too much for '26 before the offseason has even happened.
Another Stone failure. Could’ve been Capella insurance and maybe help get Sengun out of his slump. Not that big of a deal, but it was worth a shot, the kind of shots GSW is willing to take.
Very true and I agree. My statement wasn't to put him on a pedestal, but to show that even him with his flaws still was aggressive and did make moves that were needed even if they were lateral moves at times as well. The guy in your profile pick or whatever was brought in by Morey for the team at that time to win. He couldn't move Mac and he couldn't lose Yao so he brought in Ron and that team had a very high chance of winning if Yao doesn't go down. Without Mac's 20 Mil sitting on the bench. He chose the Lakers too and everyone was on him about that, basically pulling a Stone and throwing in the towel while the fight was barely going on. You can tell Morey never hooped before because of his thing of not shooting mid range shots. He clearly didn't understand the concept of getting a bucket to get going(or get out of a slump) or having the game open up by being able to hit an elbow jumper and keep the defense honest. We all said Harden was more effective when he had mid game in his game when he first got here.
This quotation would have gotten any normal GM fired...but we all know he is best bud with the Ferntittas. A lifelong Comrade.
Ron proved to be the right type of guy but yes his love for Bean Bryant determined his path. No homo. He helped them win a championship.
I just believe it’s too soon to judge Stone. we would have a clearer picture of his legacy after this offseason. I am very interested to see what he will do since this roster isn’t working.
I like the KD trade. We moved on from Jalen's contract, he barley played this year and we got the better player - by far. I liked most of the draft picks - Green, Jabari, Amen and Reed were consensus picks, I might not be satisfied with how they turned out but other than Jalen (Scottie Barnes), I'd have made those same picks. He did pick a 2 time allstar in Alpi. He just doesn't fit well with Amen because neither can shoot - Amen is far and away more culpable there being a guard who can't shoot. Big men don't necessarily need to, it's just helpful.
Guards are supposed to shoot. Centers are supposed to defend the rim. I've been disappointed in Amen this season (mostly, I think his defense is not as dominating as it was last season), but don't see the Sengun is not close to as culpable as Amen when he's having a really bad year. Adams was outplaying Sengun, and he can't shoot either. Capela, though in limited minutes, is outplaying Sengun lately, and he can't shoot either. I'd probably be for a total rebuild (trade Amen and Sengun), than thinking just trading Amen would fix things.
He stopped doing this after the initial 3 tank years. If he truly believes in the franchise player rule, he'd have skipped the KD trade and just used the 10th pick or traded to the Pelicans for their 2026 unprotected 1st. The fact that he made the KD trade meant he either doesn't believe we need a franchise player to win, or he thinks KD is that player, or he's just content with 1st/2nd round playoff exit every year. I don't know which one it is. But he certainly did not do "literally everything possible to get one of them" as you states.
I think you guys are giving up on Amen too soon. He is a shot away from being SGA with better defense. Your premise is he will never get one based on a year and half as a starter and not even a full year as a part-time guard. I understand the disappointment, just not the impatience. I have lost patience with Sengun, although he could, and I hope, prove me wrong. His shot has regressed 2 straight years and his defense has been exposed. I don't see how he will ever become a plus defender and rim protector, because of physical limitations. That is my reasoning behind trading Sengun as opposed to Amen. I do think Amen would get more trade capital back than Sengun, who has really hurt his value this year.
Re-read the post. Stone did do literally everything possible to get *those* players. The current championship-level franchise players in the NBA. The 2025 #10 pick did not have a championship level franchise player available to it. The FO waited until after the lottery to trade it because it had ~10% equity at one (Flagg, maybe Harper/Knueppel), but it missed. The Pels pick looks like it will end up in the 8th slot, so will eventually be at ~10% too in 2026. But it is pretty ridiculous to blame Stone for not predicting the Pels would offer around the dumbest draft day trade we've seen in 25 years. Everyone who follows the league closely knows that was a black swan trade. And I didn't/don't even like the KD trade. I wouldn't have made it. I have been probably the biggest anti-KD trade account on here, since way before the trade was even made. Hell, the 2026 draft hasn't even happened yet; we don't know for certain we won't end up with a pick in it. But the reason the Rockets are in the position we are in is far and away one thing: we put ourselves in a better position than literally any other team to land one of the recently available franchise players: Wemby/Cade/Flagg/Luka, and we got unlucky from a better position while other teams got lucky from worse positions. Blaming Stone for that is disordered thinking or a misunderstanding of the league.
Stone sucks big time and is a lawyer…not a GM. He is good at the math, not the player coordination. Corrosion, Herrera, and others were always fighting me stating the need for another year of Silas. Action needs to be taken to fix this disaster and starts with getting rid of our horrible GM.
Third of the players you listed in your original list came after the 10th pick of a draft. Haliburton, Brunson, Giannis, and Jokic were not top-5 picks. Daryl Morey never had a pick 10 or higher and he built the 2nd best team in the NBA during the KD-Warriors era. You are just making excuses for Stone by saying "well it can't happen" when other teams and even his predecessor has done it. Also, if he had taken Mobley instead of Jalen and either traded down or up for JDub in the Jabari draft, this team actually would have enough talent to compete this year. Stone is also not that good of a talent evaluator in addition to having some questionable GM strategies.
Does Fertitta even care??? Haven’t heard a peep and his team is garbage with Stone as the garbageman.
