If you trade a superstar for a huge package and tank for 3 years … the bar is a contending team he’s bought himself another year with the growth of some young guys and FVV and brooks being good use of the cap space but he’s still not passing yet
In no time in nba history does a team hard tank for 3 years and become a contender. You definitely made that up as you typed it. By NBA standards, Stone has done a phenomenal job turning this ship around
Stone has done a really good job so far with the drafting, especially with the late picks. Go look at the guys drafted right in front of Sengun, Eason, and Whitmore. He deserves major props for that. Same goes for hiring Udoka, I don't think I've ever been happier with a rockets coach than I am with Udoka. Having said that I definitely need to see more before I crown him for a successful rebuild. Part of our success was bought and anybody can build a mediocre team by overpaying guys in free agency. I don't want to overreact to our win total because a lot of that is due to FVV and Brooks. He also got really lucky missing on Brook Lopez. I also think he got lucky with the KPJ fiasco, I don't think he planned on dumping KPJ but that was a major addition by subtraction. But hey, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. So far it is looking really good and the future is bright.
Taking back bad contracts gave us the cap space to "buy" our success. Plus overpaying FVV & Brooks looks like it worked because both have been great vets to our young core. Stone is the only GM in the nba who's critics attribute his success to luck, but every mishap he's 100% responsible. Weird dynamic
How is striking out on Brook Lopez not luck? What would you call it? Stone wanted Brook Lopez, he went hard to get him, and he failed. The team is better off because of this failure, it worked out in our favor. I don't know how else to describe that other than luck. Same goes for KPJ...we're better off without KPJ. I don't think Stone wanted KPJ to get suspended for the entire year, but it happened, and it worked in our favor. I don't know how else to describe that other than luck. Stone certainly didn't ask KPJ to do what he did.
There is no such thing as luck as a GM. Instead of conjuring up hypotheticals, talk about the highly criticized moves he's made that his critics were wrong about. Harden trade, Wall contract, Silas etc..All of these moves were pivots to cap space, draft capital etc..You criticized them but want to celebrate our new found success like we got lucky lol. You were wrong just say it
What are you even talking about? I specifically called two things lucky - the Brook Lopez situation and the KPJ situation. I have never called anything else luck. I am not calling our overall success "lucky" - just the two things that I mentioned. I don't even see how you can argue that those are not luck. If it's not luck, what would you call it?
Luck doesn't exist because much like Dillon Brooks situation, what may be perceived as bad might turn out as a great move. Nobody knows. But the moves he has made so far have put us in great position as one of the up & coming young teams. Are you thankful?
I don't know what you're doing or why you're being so stubborn on this, it's very weird. But yes I'm thankful that he failed to acquire Brook Lopez. I'm also thankful that he was not given the opportunity to feature KPJ in our team this year. Both of those are lucky events. I would say the same thing about any GM - if you try and fail to acquire a player, and your team ends up being better as a result of this failure, that is the definition of luck. It doesn't matter if you believe in it or not. Also I've been generally positive about Stone overall. I've said numerous times that he's good at drafting (and repeated that in my post here), and also said that he won the Harden trade. You're acting like I'm his number one hater or someone that refuses to give him credit. Even my post from an hour ago in this very thread was almost entirely positive and complimentary. You're coming at me like I'm someone who refuses to give him credit for anything.
Stone gets credit for the John Wall move, but as a black mark against his record. To recap, both John Wall and Russell Westbrook had the exact same contract length; both expired last offseason. Absolutely ZERO tons of cap space were freed up by the 1-to-1 swap; all they got was a single heavily protected first rounder that is still yet to convey, and is top-8 protected from the Wizards through 2026. Washington was able to get a 22/11/11 season out of Westbrook and a playoff run, and then flipped him to the Lakers for Kuzma/KCP/Harrell/1st Rounder. Somehow, the Rockets managed to get hosed on Westbrook trades both bringing him in and sending him out. Stone does get his flowers from me for their success in the later parts of the draft. The pick that ended up being Cam Whitmore is a really interesting study of making moves on the margins, and trading a paperclip for a Ferrari (after starting with a Mercedes, TBF). 2020: Rockets trade Jarrett Allen to the Cavs for a 2022 Future Milwaukee 1st Rounder. 2021: Rockets trade PJ Tucker to the Bucks to swap #31 for #24 in the 2021 Draft (Josh Christopher), as well as push the MIL pick back to 2023. 2023: Rockets trade Eric Gordon to the Clippers to swap the 2023 Bucks pick #30 for #20 (SLAM! Whitmore). Both times, they did a nice job of creating some value out of expiring veteran contracts beyond multiple second rounders who likely couldn't even be rostered, to very promising wing prospects who both cracked the rotation in their rookie years. Obviously Christopher didn't end up working out, but whatever process led them to taking the gamble on him that also gave them the confidence to bet on Eason/Whitmore seems to be a massive success.
Stone did exactly what he should have. He traded Harden and got a bunch of draft capital for him. He got Jabari and has picked very well. He's done well with the cards that were dealt. He wasn't the one who traded most of our future for an aging Westbrook. I also don't blame him for thinking KPJ had the talent to be a star and trying to help a troubled individual. I also am not mad at him over the Jalen Green pick. What he does with the assets we have will now determine whether or not he has what it takes to build a winning team. No draft picks of our own and only Brooklyn picks. Two young Sg's sitting on the roster. Both will want to start and get paid. One will most likely go. Do you end up in a Presti Situation and end up trading our James Harden and keeping a Westbrook. Decisions will have to be made sooner than later.
Robert Horry for Sean Elliott is the classic example of this. On paper, it's a slam dunk; you're acquiring a 24-year old All-Star for a perceived draft disappointment who was losing minutes. Obviously in real life, Horry responded well to the slight and became Big Shot Bob, while Elliott dealt with health issues and fell off substantially after a second all-star season in 1996. The 2014 offseason was similarly "lucky"; based on the external reporting, the Rockets had a Lopez-style agreement with Chris Bosh as the Miami big three were breaking up, and also let Chandler Parsons out of his rookie deal as part of Dan Fegan delivering Dwight Howard. Bosh backs out, Parsons signs the offer sheet with Cuban, and the Rockets are left pivoting to Trevor Ariza and a severely depleted roster of ancient veterans and misfits like Pablo Prigioni/Jason Terry/Josh Smith/Corey Brewer. Less than 2 years later, both Parsons and Bosh are effectively medically retired while on albatross max deals, while Ariza turns into a cornerstone of the best regular-season Rockets team of all time. All great GMs are defined by a period where they get lucky multiple times in a row. Similarly, all GMs, even the best ones, are just a few unlucky decisions in a row from being fired. Mitch Kupchak is the perfect example of this to me; clearly a HOF-caliber GM, who built/maintained the cores of 5 championship teams, yet also assembled two different "dream teams" who crashed and burned in infamous fashion.
I have to agree. We have no idea what other avenues Stone pursued and whiffed on, for better or worse. We also don't know if the team would've somehow been even better with Lopez and Sengun both on the roster. All we can do is grade Stone on the moves he actually made, not the ones he wanted to.
A contending team? Most rebuilds don't end up with a contending team..... Logically that would be way above the bar...
The future is still unknown and he's still not a top 15 GM, but things are trending his way. What we do with a war chest of assets/players is what will ultimately decide it.
