Rafael Stone: “Is this just not our year?”

The type of rebuild stone inherited is unprecedented. It is common to tank a rebuilding team and get some consecutive high picks, but he got extremely lucky in getting #2, #3, #4, #3 in consecutive years, and then he also had a prime James Harden as a trade chip and got incredible return because the team he wanted to be on was a cluster of a franchise and the super team fell apart quickly therefore making the draft capital valuable, this doesnt happen often. Stone tried to sign guys like Oladipo to big money, and he declined, again he got lucky, but then he traded out of the Brooklyn picks, a team that would have been built around Bridges lol.

The position you are put in matters in evaluating him. Tillman let him tank 3 full seasons + let him trade prime harden for draft capital, he has been handed a lot to begin with, and has done a poor job getting an above avg return. I will give him credit for getting out of a Jalen Green contract after blowing that pick and then extending him to an absurd overpay. Look at his redrafts, he messed up every draft except 2023. Reed would go 5th in a 2024 redraft. He has bungled an incredible opportunity.

 

Selective memory. At the time, taking all those draft picks without a superstar was FROWNED upon. The consensus here was that Stone got robbed lol. Now it was a blessing taking back all those picks? Yall are professional goal post movers. Remember the John Wall contract yall were b****ing & whining about, Oladipo? Those were contracts Stone was able to flip. He gave us a master class in how to take on & move salary, collect draft capital while staying flexible. Dont forget you guys complained about Stone giving Dillon Brooks all that money only for Brook to be a culture change for this franchise.

Stone has done phenomenal. The ONLY gripe I have is not trading Sengun for Giannis if that was on the table. I hope he didn't let the Turkish fanbase scare him from shipping Sengun's azz outta here for the Greek Freak

 

Unfortunately Stone was never able to flip Oladipo or John Wall. Two guys with serious injury histories that couldn’t play at a high level anymore.

I don’t remember anyone whining about the picks part of the Harden trade. It was the Oladipo part. And we have to acknowledge that Stone tried to sign Oladipo to an overpriced extension, which he turned down. Oladipo turned out to be a complete waste of value in that trade.

The Wall for Russ trade was disappointing because Wall ended up being negative value, but at least the mediocre pick we got was packaged as part of the Sengun draft night trade. Still given what the Wizards got for Russ months later, it was clear we sold low. Taking on the rest of Wall’s contract also killed our cap space, so we couldn’t take on bad salary for draft picks while we were tanking. It wasn’t a catastrophe, but it wasn’t a good trade.

the Dillon signing ended up being one of the best moves Stone has made and many of us were very wrong about the contract at the time…including me.

 

Stone is confusing "not our year" with "not my year".