It definitely isn’t the market for someone that was booted off the team and nobody else wanted. That’s Dillon brooks. He just happen to luck into a team that is desperate and the most cap room. It’s that simple
What is this obsession with 2nd round picks all of a sudden. You can basically buy then whenever you want if you ever need a 2nd but even if you don't, it's a nba 2nd round pick. I love this group it's like all of a sudden what we don't have is the most important thing we need. People want grant williams but have for years complained about rockets getting 6ft7 power forwards . I'm not saying stone is awesome , frankly I would not care if they fire him but I think sometimes it's important to assess what are we really complaining about.
This. Other than the 20m/ year contract for Brooks, the other losses are minimal imo: some bench players and shitty 2nd rounders. Meh We have drastically improved this offseason as far as I can see. That’s all that matters in the end.
Some good, some bad. He's not crushing it but things are ok, all things considered. I'm kind of miffed about the salary dump of Washington and Garuba. Getting Udoka was great, draft was A+, FVV is a good move, even getting Brooks in theory is good. Getting chumped by a 35 year old Lopez and just saying "welp, guess I gotta dump these guys anyway" is ridiculous. Seeing assets burned for nothing reminds me of how we got here, really don't want to see anymore of that. Pretty much the biggest reason I can give towards NOT firing Stone is that when he does get fired, Pattycakes Fertito takes over.
I just think stone is awful at FA. I don't trust his decision making. Maybe not the worst yet, but definitely bottom 10 GMs in the league.
I'm basically here. That said, it's worth noting that many of Stone's mistakes are the exact mistakes you'd expect from an attorney. For example, the first thing they teach you in legal negotiation is that your first offer should be completely unreasonable. So, if you're trading KMJ to the Clips you ask for something like Paul George and filler when you're hoping to get a top 20-protected pick. While this isn't a problem between attorneys, I suspect Stone makes offers like this and it offends more traditional basketball types. His risk aversion is another very lawyery thing. Would I fire him? No. Would I be testing the waters for better candidates? Yes. Why? Because there are probably equally good candidates that don't have to unlearn their previous career. That said, I'd let his contract play out unless a superstar is available. He's basically a 24 year old average starter in GM terms. Decent chance he improves a bit as he enters his prime but don't get wedded to him.
No disrespect to BimaThug but 2nd round picks are around the same value as pick swaps. "Historically, pick swaps have only been as valuable as the 36th overall pick" https://www.theringer.com/nba/2022/10/12/23399637/nba-draft-swap-picks So the trade was 3 future second rounders for 2 high second rounders.
Definitely going to be a make it or break season for Stone. I don't think he has done anything seriously wrong at this point, but the details are important and mismanaging minor trades/transactions will eventually add up or worse. His drafting and roster construction will either save him or sink home this season.
Maybe? However isn’t that a problem too? They were barely with the team. Also, what about KMart? They had a #1 offered for him last year and they basically dumped him for a #2. So the Rockets trade Garuba, Washington, Christopher and Martin and what did they get for trading them? They PAID a few draft picks. This is another miscalculation like Stone had with Oladipo, Gordon and Wood - he at one point had 5 firsts offered for that group of players and he walked with less than 2…. Stone is solid at the larger plan and seems to be at least okay at draft evaluations - but he isn’t very good at negotiating with other teams over trades and/or contracts. As a transactional lawyer you would think he would be good at it - but so far he hasn’t been. Stone deserves at least another year to see what happens - but that doesn’t mean some of his moves have been poor.
The only reason it isn’t worse is that the rest of the league is lined up to rape the sloppy drunk new girl at the party (Phoenix Suns) ….. right now Stone and the Timberwolves are the solid back up choices when a team decides they want sloppy seconds after the Suns call an Uber to get home from the party.
Tilman is too busy pounding Greek coeds on his billion dollar yacht in international waters to came whether Stone has dealt a bunch of picks away.
Can we get back the wasted #1 picks that Stone used on Garuba, Washington and Christoper? How about the #1’s he lost holding onto Wood and Gordon too long? The #1’s he lost taking Caris LaVert over Oladipo? That is 6-7 #1’s in less than 3 years that he lost or gave away. Every GM has miscalculations or draft picks that don’t work out - or trades that fall flat — but 6-7 in under 3 years?
Soooo if he makes second team all defense again. Still a bad deal? Giving some common sense for why a professional organization gave out a “big” deal that’s market value per Spotrac - 28th-32nd highest paid wing. This isn’t our money and it’s an Udoka decision. Are we picking an choosing which Ime decisions we like or are we riding?
It’s a terrible deal. There’s nothing picking and choosing about it. Overpaid for a mediocre player. Like I said he lucked out at the one desperate team in the league with cap room
Who are the Rockets spending those picks on? Those drafts were not good at all. Role player ceilings.
