[Confirmed] Rafael Stone involved in practices, coaches meetings, halftime discussions

Lol. So me and Stone are equally qualified lol

I think Felicia has a better shot at running this sh show than her man

 

JVG would put himself in an early grave coaching these guys. I LOVE the dude as a coach, one of my all-time favorites, but he would be an absolutely horrible hire for this roster, and I really do think it would be bad for his health. I wouldn’t wish it on him.

 

Youth is a challenge for any coach. Imagine that pressure plus a gm in your halftime huddle. Stephen has a lot to manage from an HR perspective.

 

You never played against the Brandeis Judges at their house. Stuff got real.

 

Raf must be giving the worst halftime speeches in the world for our guys to come out this flat this often.

We need to play harder *clap clap*

 

I'm supportive actually. The alternative to "less Stone" is "more Silas", which we have all concluded is not the answer. When things go wrong in a business, upper management gets involved since they are ultimately responsible. This is no different. Silas is dead man walking anyway... and Stonetitta want to ensure we A) Give the youth playing time to see what we've got; B) Showcase our trade bait; and C) Tank for Wemby. We are trying to ultimately develop a championship contender... and winning games (Silas' objective, possibly) is incongruent with that goal in 2022-2023...

 

If Wemby is the answer you are basically saying Stone has an 86% chance of getting the answer wrong? That is a powerful anti tank reply.

 

Stone thinks he is playing 2K franchise mode

 

This is what happens when you have a **** owner who hires a **** gm who then hires a **** coach.

You end up having a **** team where no1 is held accountable.

 

Did yall watch that CP3 interview where he tried to hold Harden accountable and the coaches told him to stop we dont do that here? This enabling culture goes back decades ago. This was with Les as the owner.

 

I know you guys are already up in arms, but can someone point me to any evidence that any of this is true other than a disgruntled basketball player saying it in a podcast?

 

morey wasnt so bad afterall, was he?

at least morey wouldve addressed a ton of this chatter, helped shape the narrative way before now

 

Yup.

FWIW some of this is very common for a GM. It isn’t unusual for a GM to attend some practices.

The problem is that Stone isn’t just watching practice every once in awhile. He is very involved, he is influencing decisions that he isn’t qualified to make.

 

lol exactly what I was thinking. Prior to this season so many people were gushing over Stone and how he “got it” in a way that Morey and his “asset driven” approach never did.

 

I’ll make it brief.

Stone was a college player.

He became a lawyer.

He was signed by Rockets to work on business side.

Morey and Stone became friends and would ask him his opinions on trades and the draft.

Stone would keep doing business stuff for team but also sit in on player discussions.

Stone was asked by Alexander to help get the sale to TF approved.

Stone and TF became close and TF liked Stone’s work getting sale approved.

Stone starts having more power after TF takes over.

Stone backs TF on Westbrook deal and other moves.

Morey not happy and leaves.

Stone is named GM and bonds with Patrick F.

 

SHOTS FIRED. Papafoxtrott in the cross hairs. I can see him f'ing stuff up, due to youth and inexperience. Absolutely.

 

Cobbler stick to your last.

 

Because nobody knew he making all this coaching dumbtakes

 

Halftime discussions? Maybe Stone's overinvolvement here offers an explanation for minute allotments and confusing rotations. It definitely explains why we can't make substitutions in a normal manner.

A perfect example comes from last night's game with Charlotte. Gary Mathews, who everyone likes to hate on, was at his worst in the 4th quarter--a traffic cone on D and bricklayer on offense. But the coaches left him on the court to "play through" the funk he was in. The coaches would have intervened if this were an AAU game, a high school game, a college game, or a regular NBA contest.

Mathews is the kind of player that add can add or spark every once in a while. You can tell if he can add something once he's been up and down the court three times. His first half +/- was +14 in 8 minutes. I know I'm being optimistic, but bear with me.

Last night in the 4th quarter, Mathews pressed and forced everything, including fouling a 3-point shooter.

Mathews was already -5 for the 4th quarter in his first 2 1/2 minutes when Jalen Green subbed back into the game. Any coach would know that placing Mathews on the court opposite Jalen Green's matador-like defense in the 4th quarter of any game is begging for trouble. But Mathews toiled through another 2 1/2 minutes (another -5 in the score). The game was over at that point. Why would anyone leave him that long?

The answer must be Stone.

 

We are ****ed