Here's the thing, sharp front offices in the NBA believe the optimal strategy is this: waiting. As a GM, you wait and you wait and you convince the world that you are NOT interested in trades, and that you LOVE every asset on your team, and that EVERYTHING is going according to plan, and that you don't believe you have made ANY mistakes that need to be corrected. And every once in a while some other team comes along who has more urgency than you, and you fleece them by forcing them to convince you to make a trade. (see: Mikal Bridges to NYK) Or a player comes available that you've been secretly coveting, and your assets have more value to acquire them because everyone really believes you love your own assets so much. This waiting takes time. Trade deadlines go by. That's what Stone is doing. He is obsessed with winning transactions, and this is how. Is he right? Idk. But this is the explanation.
If the season is over because of Mid VanVleet & Adams, that is ****ing pathetic. “Timberwolves season over due to loss of Mike Conley & Naz Reid” “Pistons season over due to loss of Tobias Harris & Isaiah Stewart” “Thunder season over due to loss of Isaiah Hartenstein & Ajay Mitchell” “Nuggets season over due to loss of Christian Braun & Jonas Valanciunas” “Spurs season over due to loss of Luke Kornet & Harrison Barnes” “Sixers season over due to loss of Andre Drummond & Kelly Oubre” And when Kevin Durant gets hurt in the following 12-18 months… (Then their season will really be over) “That’s ok. We still have our young core who can’t win/function without Mid VanVleet. Durant was never the all-in win now mode. We got him for nothing. We got him for vibes. Sell some tickets & jerseys. And mainly to get off Jalen. It was never meant to be an all-in move. Our real window with our fake core 7 players starts in 3-5 years. Not now.” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Steph Curry, Tyrese Maxey, Cade Cunningham, Jalen Brunson, Jamal Murray, Tyrese Haliburton, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, De’Aaron Fox, Keyonte George, Darius Garland, Payton Pritchard, Josh Giddey, Collin Gillespie, LaMelo Ball, Immanuel Quickley … “Mid VanVleet is out. Our season is over.” “The rebounding king who cleans up all our bricks is out. Our season is over.” Astros window closed & they don’t know it (trying to hold that window open with a broomstick) Bernard’s feelings >>>>> winning (running back the same **** too) Rockets future hopes rest on the legs of a 33 year old guard, 38 year old & Steven Adams
They basically wasted $60,000,000 a year in cap space and all they have to show for it is FV, Adams, Capela and FS. What makes all of this worse is that they have these guys signed during the time period that Smith, Eason, Sengun, Thompson and Reed are all very affordable. By the time that $60,000,000 all comes off the cap, the money will go directly to extensions for the younger guys. It is really overly conservative. The Rockets did not add another guard because they did not want to give up their "valuable" picks from the Suns, which really aren't all that great. So now this team is somewhat locked in and against the apron, with the only way to get out is trading some of their younger players OR having a young player like Reed or Thompson take another large leap in the next 12 months. So - it is starting to feel like either the Rockets pull a "NETS" and deal Sengun and picks for someone like Giannis and try to jam a title into a 2 year window with Giannis and KD (who will likely break down at some point), or the Rockets keep this group together and hope that one or two of the guys make massive strides.
Rebuilding is not tanking. You don't just trade for the heck of it to keep fans happy on a trade deadline. We are going alright. Have the best record in the past 10 games of any West team. With lots of home games left, we can make a charge.
Yes, or things don't end this well and KD forces his way to NY or wherever Giannis is traded to and the Rockets are left getting jettisoned contract filler and a heavily protected #1 pick that turns into a couple of second rounders. The Suns are 1.5 games behind the Rockets. Thank God we have their draft picks.
This team put too much faith in FVV like he was the leader or franchise player. We should’ve traded him last deadline for Durant and added another PG. Maybe we could’ve kept Dillon. but Ime and Stone put their love for Fred over the best interest of the team. His injury was their Karma and hopefully it leads to both of them getting fired. Stone has been blinded by Ime’s love for mediocre players(like himself) that he loss track of his responsibility to the organization. He works for the Rockets not Ime! Wasted all our picks, traded away the Nets pick in strong draft. All they had to do was scout high school players and align themselves with their draft, it’s too many incompetent idiots at the helm in Houston. Ime and Stone’s fascination with mediocre players has held back the development of young players, mismanaged all our assets/cap space and costed us seasons to compete. This is enough to get someone’s ass beat and fired, because it’s damn near self sabotage. Again trading the Nets pick was incredibly stupid, the Rockets were in no position to be doing anyone favors. If he would’ve taken one look at High School recruits aligned with that draft at the time, he wouldn’t have traded that Nets pick. Our rookie GM was just so desperate to build a relationship with the exact team that poached away our franchise player. The jokes write themselves.
The suns win total from vegas before the season was 30.5; they already beat it with 31 games remaining lol
I can go on and on about the mistakes stone has made over the years. When it was time to kick the can down the road he didn’t do it. He should’ve traded the Reed pick like most of us wanted and picked up more assets for future drafts. Some of these players on this team should have never been drafted. The Rockets should’ve been scouting the high school players and aligning themselves with their drafts, instead of letting the media dictate who they pick on draft night. Just because you have a high pick doesn’t mean you have to make the pick. I hate how bad this rebuild has been fumbled, Stone and Ime mismanaged all of our assets and cap space. The sad part is Houston media congratulated him as he did it. No one has the balls to question any sports organization in this city.
After all the outpouring of grief on this thread, I am left wondering. Where exactly is the problem? Is it really the players who lack talent, or chemistry, or cohesion, or, as some claim, the absence of a PG? Is it management that is not trigger-happy like Morey? Or is it that the coach and his staff are not maximizing the talents of the roster, and a misdirected focus on defense? I wonder.
Stone really limited himself. For a really smart guy he does some really dumb things. Never let a lawyer be your GM. LOL
Re-signing FVV and Adams didn't waste cap space because we're already well above the salary cap limit. Letting them walk would have given us $0 additional cap space to use. They were free agents so it's not like you could trade them for value without their consent either. Even of all four players were completely wiped off of the books, we'd have a whopping $13M in cap space. That's not getting us a needle mover at all. I'm curious what you moves you think Stone should have done with that "$60M in cap space". These players expiring when the young guys come up for extensions is by design. We are not locked into any path. We can keep all the draft picks we have. We can package those picks to go all in and maximize KD's window. Amen or Sengun can be traded, or even KD can be traded. We are far from locking ourselves into a 2 year window because of KD.
We were #2 last year and got beat by an old ass Warriors team in the playoffs. No one gives a **** about the regular season.
Stone is shy. Once he gets the other GMs phone #s, the flood gates will open. It might be a few years though.
The problem is lack of guards in a league geared towards guard play. We love stiff forwards that can't keep any legitimate guard in front of them. On offense we depend on rebounds to make up for the lack of half court sets and our desire to the fumble the ball away to the opposing team at the most inopportune times. Not too mention that we are over playing Sengun and Durant and their legs might be gone by the playoffs. Our only true rotational guard might be the worst defensive player in the NBA and unless he's scoring is unplayable. I give Eason credit for becoming an elite shooter, but he has no other skill on the basketball court that makes him an untouchable player, nor would I ever want him having the ball in his hands over Durant, Sengun, or Thompson. You have that threesome as your core for the next 3 years, and you should be maximizing the role players around them. Stone has done a piss poor job of that, just like Morey did a piss poor job maximizing the talent around Harden.
Why can we not have a player that has an elite dribble to run the team in the absence of FVV??? We can’t even get across half court sometimes. You have to give up something to get something. Take a chance Stone!!!
