He's still very much TBD. All this "KPJ was an ego project" just seems biased. In putting the Rockets in the best position to land #1 picks and overall tankiness... he succeed. The odds weren't in our favor with any #1 picks but feels like we drafted well. You can quibble about all the micromanagement... lack of culture.... this and that.... but we had an historically bad 3 consecutive seasons which was the goal. Still TBD. Under Stone we turned those 3 miserable seasons into some pretty good draft picks and maintained our war chest of assets. We have a decent market and have a lot of flexibility. No rule stating we develop our top picks instead of package them. Still TBD. Will the lack of culture rear it's head now that we are trying to win? Absolutely. However, the FO brought in a culture and x's & o's guy in Ime so maybe Stone knew what he was doing? TBD Unless there's a scandal, I feel like Stone is going to get another 2 seasons to prove it. I'm at a B- but could easily be talked into a C+.
So basically the argument to undercut Stone/GMs is that CF or reddit is better at crowd sourcing it. Now that's an ego Actually going back in looking at drafts 2 years later, you'll see drafting is still very much a dark art.
For what it's worth, one consideration that is worth bringing up is although KPJ is clearly the golden boy in the last few seasons, the Rockets did ultimately bring in players that would force KPJ onto the bench.
If you don’t think it was ego - then it was a complete lack of judgment. You can make the call on that, as it doesn’t matter which it is because either way it demonstrates a real personality failing on the part of the GM. You cannot cater and have an entirely different set of rules for a high risk player. As for the draft - Stone hasn’t had to make any tough calls at the top of the draft. The choice was Green or Mobley and Mobley wanted no part of the Rockets. Jabari Smith was a no brainer and Amen was as well for where they were drafted. I know that Eli wanted Sengun, but Stone gets credit for taking him and also taking Eason… he has wasted some picks as well. His free agency was mediocre at best but he did actually get a good coach. He is a middling GM so far. I would personally hire a President of Basketball Operations because Stone lacks leadership abilities but time will tell how it works out.
Do you have any insight as to who was behind the brooks fiasco? If it was udoka and he pushed it through, that's a problem that's really only fixable if stone gets fired and a top guy comes in that will have full authority. If it was stone......fire him yesterday
If those are really the words of John Lucas, then that’s all you need to know. He deserved to be heard but Stone just disregarded him and let KPJ do what he wanted.
Or as @flamingdts pointed out.... the Rockets ultimately brought in players via draft and FA that put KPJ on the bench. Doesn't seem to add up. We've had 9 picks in 3 years, I'd say Stone has done an overall good job of drafting with the picks he had. Whitmore is unknown, but Green, Sengun, Bari, Tari, and Thompson have a lot of potential. Three FRPs are gone for nothing, which is a knock on Stone's asset management, but we were never going to develop 9 FRP. Mediocre at best and training camp hasn't even started? A bit biased, eh? You may end up being correct, but seems a bit early. FVV says a lot about what the Rockets thought of KPJ btw..... Folks seem a bit miffed that Brooks did well in FIBA. Maybe, in a rising cap environment they just turn to be good and not great. FVV shoots closer to his career 3pt and Brooks shoots less than 10 FGA. Like I said, he's very much TBD. He succeeded in putting the Rockets in the best spot to get #1 picks, he generally drafted well, he has maintained our war chest of assets, and has kept the books pretty clean for the future. That's no small feat. Now comes the harder part when winning matters. I wouldn't be surprised if he was gone in two years.
You are grasping at straws on KPJ. Whether he would have started or been the 6th man has nothing to do with the fact that KPJ was given preferential treatment, his poor attitude and actions were over looked by the GM. Porter is as terrible to Rockets employees. He missed practices more than any other player, he wouldn’t even go to the coach to get them excused - he would go to GM and then there would be no communication with Silas. When Porter would go to practice, he was disruptive, would bully coaches and players. He had run ins with people off the court and it was covered up… he attacked Lucas at halftime of a game and had shouting matches with Lucas in practice. He left a game at halftime and got a slap on the hand… there was a different set of rules for Porter and the culture on the Rockets was toxic as was pointed out by numerous media people car the time and now you even have Lucas making comments alluding to it. Not to mention Porter was rewarded with a contract. As for free agency. Yeah, I am comfortable calling it mediocre when you look at who Stone added and the cost involved. He certainly didn’t pull a rabbit out of his hat. Im sure Stone will try to downplay the entire situation but he created a toxic culture unnecessarily and showed some really poor judgment in handling KPJ.
And you are overstating the situation to where KPJ went from "preferential treatment" under the context of the 3 worst consecutive seasons in Rocket's history to 6th man when we actually want to win. He got a "we don't trust you, so we are going to have to guarantee every year as it arises" contract which only sucks for this season. Doesn't add up, sorry. Stone clearly saw the culture issue and brought in a head coach to alleviate those sort of issues. Or maybe Stone simply wanted to create a situation to where we'd be in the running for #1 picks. Who knows. Either way, the Rockets pivoted and KPJ was going to be on the bench under the new coaching regime before the unpleasant situation arose. The KPJ situation is done. He served the franchise as a tank commander head honcho.
I don't disagree on that at all, KPJ clearly had unearned preferential treatment. However, the fact that the Rockets ultimately brought in people that would push KPJ to the bench leads me to think that the organization had probably already began changing their mind on him, or at least have started to realize that this KPJ experiment isn't worth continuing any further if they wanted to start winning games. I personally would not be surprised if KPJ blowing up is partly because of him being relegated to the bench role. His leash was uncomfortably long for a player of his history and character.
They decided they no longer wanted to be the worst team in the league. As much as Tilly and Rafa loved them some KPJ they love money more and KPJ led team maxes out at 20 wins. Udoka is one lucky mf, for not having to deal everyday with KPJ project. Unlike Silas he would probably have him under more control, but still having a psycho coddled by the GM on a team is not an easy situation to navigate.
it's very situational, and it just happens this past three drafts has had that consensus view at Stone's top picks (Green #2, whoever of the 3-big men leftover at #3, and Amen #4). i mean, Pop got his credit for finding Tony Parker/Dejounte Murray/Derrick White likes late in the draft, but i won't call him a genius for taking Wemby or Duncan #1. no matter how good (or bad) the Wemby kid turns out to be, i'll give Pop an "average job" for selecting Wemby #1. To be fair, if Jabari somehow turns out to be bust of the draft, Rafael won't get burned for the selection, he still graded "Average" for the selection because 99% everyone else would had do the same. personally, i won't say Stone should be fired for the i called "average" performance job at draft, because average is not bad. it's his trade/asset management/signing that put him on the hot seat.
