Is Rafael Stone on the Hotseat? Fixing the Houston Rockets Offense and Our Rockets Dream Starting 5!

Is Rafael Stone on the Hotseat? Fixing the Houston Rockets Offense and Our Rockets Dream Starting 5!

Oh What is up welcome to the second episode of not let’s talk Rockets we’re now Rockets talk because obviously if you guys look in the chat in the in the in the comments from our previous video there was a user on there that um basically said we we stole the name so

You know what I mean we’re we’re not going to be bullies or anything like that douche you know bro if you’re listening you could have just hit us up you know I mean you could have hit us up but we’re going to change the podcast name to Rockets talk okay so you know

What I mean and this was Ro’s idea right so y’ all the people big bad Roos you know he got a little heart in there so uh but what’s good with you bro how how you feeling man man I’m chilling um I’m good um just another day man what can I

Say I’m ready to get you know the NBA talk has been stale for a minute right all let a lot of people down and there’s been a lot of complaining which I agree with um because I’m nostalgic for the 990s and I’m an old head now but I I

Haven’t even had the energy to argue about the All-Star like I I Allstar has been trash to me for a long time it it’s been you know and I’m just it’s been bad I’m burnt out on on Adam Silver I just don’t like Adam Silver that’s me though

I don’t yeah yeah the league is heading in a direction that um I mean even me I was like I’m cool with it I’m not mad at the the NBA product but yeah that Allstar stuff they just need to baned like that was literally the worst

Basketball I’ve ever seen in my life and uh I didn’t even watch watch the rest and I might not watch until a rocket is actually involved in Saturday and I’m not even doing the rookie sophomore stuff anymore if it’s not a dunk contest or a three-point or All-Star game with a

Rocket in it I’m not watching I could not care less about the skills contest uh the dunk contest obviously everybody knows it’s falling off a cliff like bro we were growing up like VC you know Brent Barry from the free throw line like right I mean it was you know it was

There was always something cool happening um and now it’s like Steve Francis like now it’s just like M mcclun like he can dunk don’t get me wrong yeah but the the person doing the dunking also matters Right facts otherwise you could just go get those dudes that dunk

Off the internet to do the crazy dunks you know like I just I don’t know but maybe I’m hating they lost the narrative they lost the narrative I blame LeBron I think Stephen A was right about that but let’s let’s get to the business bro all right so today we got some

Things we want to chop it up about um you know what I mean and and we’re definitely going to get to one requested item a lot of the comments from the last podcast were talking about um that we need to take a moment and look at Rafel

Stone so we’ll get to that but first let’s let’s build our way to getting to Stone one of the key issues the Rockets have had coming into this uh this Allstar break is been the offense and uh the offense has been surprisingly the worst part of their team not their

Defense we’ve been a top 10 defense for almost this entire season uh pretty much the entire season and a bottom third offense and there was a tweet that was posted um I forgot who the user was basically it was like every team’s goto play um and

Uh the number one play for the Rockets was uh the pick and roll and I want to start there bro for me personally looking at our team with Fred Van vet Alin shenon having a pick and roll as your highest frequency play by a lot by a

Wide margin is a bit lazy in my opinion in my opinion and and the reason I think that is because one shanon is not a typical pick and roll big even though he is an elite role man y’all don’t get it twisted Shang when he gets the ball going downhill almost Unstoppable the

Problem with me with that twom man Dynamic is the Fred Van vet part now I’m a fan of Fred Van vet in you know in in in in you know big picture but when you can’t make a layup when you can’t really you’re not really using your gifts as a

Mid-range shooter you’re not your three-point coming off the screen is good but it’s not consistent and then the worst part of it is that he doesn’t make the skip passes the crosscourt passes he doesn’t uh hit all the trees in a pick and roll passing uh game that you would like he’s great

At the pocket pass he can get it to shenon occasionally He he’ll hit the wing or the slot area but he leaves a lot to be desired and I just feel like that is such a lazy action bro like is there uh uh anything that you think the

Rockets can do to improve that or or do you just like what they’re doing with the pick and roll I mean look I like the pick and roll I don’t like how often they use the pick and roll I don’t like that basically the only thing they

Really use like reliably is the pick and roll so there’s a lot you can get off a pick and roll like you said Fred cannot make layups and so because of that he has to go Steve the Steve Nash route right he keeps the dribble alive he

Weaves it back out if you if that’s the offense you got basically a defense is collapsing on the on the pick and roll and then when you bring it out you got to have Shooters to kick it to take advantage you got to have guys cutting

To the basket to take advantage of the defense being back to their Defender out of position and the rockets don’t really do either of those things tar een Cuts but tar E’s been hurt for a while amen Thompson will cut um but one guy can’t carry that burden and they just don’t

Have the shooters right they either don’t have one or the other or a bad mixture like when you get those you know Jon Tate and amen Thompson and um I don’t know a third Jeff Green lineups that just have no release valve nobody to kick it out to you can’t rely on on

That I would like to see the Rockets get into more pistol action I’ve been calling for this for a long time you get Alp on the elbow and then you get Jaylen rubbing off the shoulder you get Fred rubbing off dhos whatever and just action going because that’s one way you

Can manufacture Alp getting downhill and like you said as a rle man he does work because he’s getting downhill the momentum’s already created um and and like right now they don’t really take advantage of his passing they got two good passers Fred and Alp and they just

Kind of alp’s touches in terms of using him as a the passer are limited the other thing is offensively they have one player who can efficiently score more than 14 points a game and if you count Fred Van Ved at 55.7% TS as efficient then they have two players most people

Would say that’s like average efficiency at best so let’s include them right they got two players who can efficiently score over 14 a game it’s just not going to cut it today right so I don’t know I mean that’s that’s that’s a great Point um I I think even the location of

Their pick and rolls we don’t really run a lot of picking rolls into the empty Corner um so I mean like we just don’t don’t do a lot I don’t know if that’s udoka is that the players you look at the skill set like you said a lot of our

Outlet passes are are minus Shooters I put up a graph um a couple like a month ago on the rockets in the starting five the only uh positive Shooters on wide openen threes are Dylan Brooks and I think Fred Van has to be holiday had to

Be in there on the starters on the starters okay okay and no he was not maybe he is now he was uh and and the parameters for that graph were wideopen threes as defined by the NBA which is um six with the defender six feet away and

Then open threes which is I think is like two to six feet okay and I averaged out both of those averages and entire the across the team four players are above the league average it’s Fred it’s uh it’s Dylan Jabari and cam Whitmore everybody else is a negative now you

Take away cam because he doesn’t doesn’t play that much anymore so it’s Fred Jabari and Dylan and then um you start if you’re running a pick and roll it leaves Jabari and and uh and Dylan Brooks out there as the spacers for it and then Coach adoka my problem with

That knowing this a lot of the lineups feature guys like Jan Tate and Jeff Green out there as well yeah so I don’t know if they have an analytics department or I know they have an anals department but to me it doesn’t make sense um I don’t know if he sees this is

He like silent silent protesting against Rafel stone with these lineups that he throws out but it doesn’t make sense I’m going read off some uh this is from uh Center culture shout out to Rockets midi on Twitter or midi Rockets whatever his handle is um he he has a site and I’ll

Put this on the on the link for y’all to see right now the Rockets offensive uh efficiency ranks when it comes to the half court we’re ranked 20th which isn’t too bad uh the thing that sticks out to me uh the pick and roll we’re in dead

Middle 15th uh on spot up threes were 1.06 off screen uh we are 23rd which is terrible um dho and handoffs this is what you were just alluding to ninth in the NBA right but if you look at the frequency for dho and handoff for the

Houston Rockets um we are one of the worst teams at that in in that we rank uh 24th there you go so this to me looks like Silas ball yeah and and this is the exact same remedy we had last year a lot of pick and rolls not a lot of uh you

Know other types of sets and when I look at this team we don’t have a pick and roll guard so it’s a mismatch of a roster and a philosophy on offense that coach adoka is starting to do which has been something I’ve been like he’s talking about look in the mirror I’m

Looking at him in the mirror like what is something that he needs to change I think offensively they got to start there I agree with that um if I have a critique of him if I have two critiques of him so far as a coach it would be

What you what you mentioned some of these rotations sometimes I’m like what are we like it feels like the old school tough coach going with the tough players you know and it’s like yeah but Jeff Green is 37 and J shant Tate’s not very good so I mean you’re just hurting your

Team when you when you go through stretches of the game like that effectively those some sometimes that can lose you a game that’s that’s critique number one and critique number two is the offense it’s just stagnant it’s it’s not creative you know one way that you can you can compensate for not

Having you know the skill set like let’s be real the Rockets when they play other teams most of the time the Rockets are out talented and I know people are high on the talent that the Rockets have and I agree and that’s correct but as far as actual realized potential I’m not

Talking about future potential I’m talking about currently realized potential the Rockets you know pound-for-pound like I said they got two players that score more than 14 efficiently like we’re just not able to out tal other team so how do you overcome that you move off the ball you

Cut right when guys you take advantage of the gifts you have amen Thompson athlete Jaylen green athlete Kim Whitmore athlete uh tar een long can slash like you take ADV Jabari Jabari can shoot off Movement by the way we haven’t seen it enough to really know

But he like in terms of to get the statistical data on it or if it exists please tell me wrong but he can shoot off of movement and I would go so far as to say that my itz says that he shoots better off movement than as like a

Standstill spot up shooter and right now and pretty much for most of his career they primarily use him spotting up so they need to move off the ball more and figure out how to use those talents and just that’s one way to play harder than another team right um think Utah think

Sacramento like think Denver I want that type of offense guys are constantly screening moving creating like man we forget people talk about the most skilled era which we can dis we can argue about that another day but I disagree with that statement but learning how to move off of the ball is

A skill like make make no mistake about that if it wasn’t people would just do it and make it look easy but they don’t so yeah I mean I would I would like to see Oka get like like I said some pistol action run a pick and roll into an empty

Corner and let your guys go to work let Jaylen get comfortable whoever it is let cam go to work whatever it is screens off the ball run some curls for Jabari to come catch the ball or Jaylen to come catch the ball at the free throw line

Get into a triple threat rise up and shoot or just straight up catch and shoot mix it up you know so that that’s that’s what I would say but I don’t think we’re gonna get that I think you hit on something with the um one about the skill yeah I don’t

Think player I think there are certain players that are more skilled I definitely do not cuz back in the day most guards came out with postwork Y in the in their bags you know what I mean I think players were way more skills because they were demanded to do more

Now it’s really just shooting and attacking the basket can I just say on that point go ahead like I feel like the skill and this isn’t the whole argument but it’s just one piece of it I feel like the skill level shifted from interior players to Perimeter players

But make no mistake there were still the trell spr wells and Tim hardways and guys like that so Kenny Anderson the Stefon Marberry Ivers hon but but back in the day the big men had the footwork and they had the skill and they had the touch and now it

Shifted so like for whatever you gain whatever skills perimeter players gain you lose on another end of the floor and that’s a big part I think people forget but it’s s right yeah and and to like the what I’ve seen with Jabari is the movement shooting inside the three-point

Line um when him and Shang especially when they do big on big screens inside like inside the arc that’s a I mean he hits those shots very comfortably and I think that’s a range he needs to explore more um it it is just so much is left to

Be desired some of the things I I would love to see I don’t know if we can see it because you kind of pointed at something uh running a cohesive offense requires IQ and Collective IQ which if I’m not you know I’m not trying to down

The team I I don’t I don’t think these might be the like as a group some of the lowest IQ players aggregated in one team for the past three years like we’ve been subjected to some really really low IQ ball like let’s keep it a buck and just just to like somebody I

Think we talked about somebody said comment was like Jaylen needs to play like like a Reggie Miller I think uh not it wasn’t you said Reggie Miller somebody else said something like like Rip Hamilton I said both of those and let me clear I know but somebody before

You I remember somebody had said that to me prior to your thing right just we were just talking and I told him that running through screens bro you have to like have a level of understanding of the total offense and what other guys are doing while they’re

Doing it to be able to be in the right spot to get that pass from a guy that’s on the opposite end of the court so it’s not just running around randomly but like you really have to be a savant in a way because you got to know anticipate

Where the screens are coming from and knowing which spot you’re getting to three four screens in advance and and if if you if your dude can’t read a pick and roll one screen read why do I trust him to be able to run around and and do

Those things so and there’s a couple of players on our roster that fit into that category um and I think yeah uh I mean I don’t think cam Whitmore can do that I don’t think I’m not Jabari probably can’t do that right now I don’t think uh

Maybe maybe Dylan I think the Vets can probably do it um I think you can Reggie Bullocks obious the guy you love he he can I know he can do it for a fact he’s done that in his career uh but one who can do it he just can’t shoot don’t say

Aaron holl no I know you love to damn school’s out baby it’s holiday no uh a holiday season a Thompson men Thompson knows how to cut now he can’t he can’t cut to his face can’t do anything with it no but he knows how to cut to the basket and slip

Behind he know he knows his angles doing that but I agree with you right like when you’re coming off a screen like Rip Hamilton knew how to time it but that also you know you got to give chony bips credit right because he knew how to feed

Him it’s it’s it’s a symbiotic game it’s just just like the Spurs just like the Warriors you got to be on on a like one chain on offense and that does like beg the question as as we’re looking towards the future and we’re going to talk about

Like the type of um lineups we would like to see um for me with the lineup changes that the Rockets are are are supposedly making I don’t think they’re gonna make a change but if they did I would like to see that like more is the movement off ball and one of the

Prerequisites for me for that to happen honestly I I think that in order for a player a guard in this era to play like that it has to be some level of selflessness to it because it takes the ball out of your hands and it’s gonna

Put the ball in shanon’s hand more than anything and I think for me what I’ve seen one of the issues the rocket ha have is that they’re not addressing the main issue of setting a priority on offense and they’re letting Jaylen try to figure stuff out some nights it’s

Dylan trying to take over you have shenon when he’s on he’s going to be more aggressive sometimes he’s pass passive you have uh well Jabari never really gets his turn but it’s like different guys have the opportunity to do what they want and I for a team I I

Just don’t think that’s the best way to run offense because you get the variance from night to night we don’t know where our bread is buttered except with a pick and roll or a Shang gun wedge roll which teams are starting to load up on and defend and they become really really

Hard to score so a lineup for me I’m going to say my perfect lineup right now is GNA be Fred Van vet healthy uh and I’m I’m putting Fred as half on half off ball uh in this scenario as the point guard am man Thompson I’m going to put

Him at the two the reason I’m putting a man at the two is because what you just said I want him cutting I want him in a dunker spot I want him being a screener I want him just doing everything on the court and then if you look at the

Rockets rebounds rates when amen Thompson’s on the court he’s uh the best offensive rebounder we have he’s the best one of the like top two in defensive rebounds he’s a rebounding monster obviously the defense is improving it’s getting better um Dylan Brooks I ain’t going to lie bro if if if

I see a couple more of these games he has I’m ready for tar e to take that spot so if we’re doing this no politics No in fact you know what I’m benching Dylan bro put tar at the three okay he’s gonna come off the bench for me put

Jabari at the four and because I think tar for you know I don’t need to explain why he he’s a lead at what he does Jabar I still think needs the spacing he does even though he’s in a slump team still respect his shot and obviously Alp I

Think with that lineup you get cutting you get defense the wing defense I think those are some of our smarter Defenders and and you limit a lot of the the stuff that we shouldn’t be doing uh in you know in certain situations and then you get the bench with Jaylen with Aaron

Holiday Dylan Brooks and stuff coming in now I know this probably not gonna happen but that that’s what I think if I had a lineup that I would say this is the best lineup for the Rockets right now I’ll go with that okay yeah when you

Said that that two guard is going to have to be somebody that’s comfortable you know getting the the ball out of their hands first thought for me was amend Thompson because he’s able to cut um he can be like people think he’s a point guard and maybe he will become a

Point guard I think he’s like a jumbo playmaking Wing he’s a wing yeah do it all you know um so I don’t see him as like an every down back right um which is to which is totally fine and anyway so I just agree with that point now my

Lineup would go you gotta go Fred at the point guard uh period like I just don’t see an argument against that I think the Rockets are one and six without Fred this season and the one was they won on uh they beat New York when Aaron holiday

Got bailed out at the end right that game should have went to overtime could easily be 0 and7 without him so got to go Fred at the two now this question for me is if I can run my offense right so if I can run my offense and not oka’s

Offense or even oka’s offense actually because you need a kickout guy I’m gonna go cam Whitmore I love okay I love the tone he sets offensively um I just love how he attacks and he’s the be I think he’s the pure the best pure shooter on

The team team period and for a team that is desperately lacking uh I feel like you need that so I’m going to go Fred cam Whitmore it’s hard at the three like am I going Dylan Brooks or tar I’m kind of fed up with Dylan Brooks he’s

Been playing he’s been playing like the guy I thought we were gonna get right the guy I was afraid that they were gonna get he’s he’s been playing like that lately um but then he has those games where he goes off lately he’s been feeling himself too much he’s been

Shooting too much and he’s just been hijacking offensive possessions like Memphis Dylan Brooks is what I’ve seen lately the flip side of that is that I think he still shoots somewhere around 40% from three so it’s like man on this team that is desperate um for guys who

Can shoot and he will he’s not afraid to shoot and some of these guys seem kind of afraid to shoot so I’m hesitant because I think tar makes the rets their best team so I’m gonna go tar I’m gonna go tar tar because I think that he has

This effect on the team where it’s just it’s winning basketball the numbers can quantify the advanced numbers but I don’t know how to explain them when you watch it you just know he’s everywhere he’s the ultimate like connector glue piece right and he shoots well enough to

Make it work but he creates extra possessions with his with his offensive rebounds also with his Steals and having a seven2 wingspan in huge hands is not is not a joke right there’s a reason that when he guards people he just has to stick his hand up and obviously

Creates a difficult shot and then on offense he’s just always shooting like crashing the boards on defense he’s shooting Lanes sometimes he gambles but a lot of times for a team that struggles to create Magic he can he can be that guy that does it so Fred cam tar Jabari

For the obvious reason defensive versatility hustle um spreads the floor if we can use him my way I’m moving him I’m I’m using him off of movement I’m doing backo Cuts uh Baseline for cam Whitmore the way that Russell Westbrook used to do when he catch those lobs just

A variety of looks movement catch and shoot type guys and then shenon um at the five although it’s tough because I could be persuaded into a men and I could be persuaded into Dylan Brooks I do think I don’t know if you saw I didn’t read the article but I I picked

Up some pieces from the article from um M Shapiro Is It Michael Shapiro I’m not sure what his first name is I think he writes yeah uh I just had it up yeah I did read a great I actually really enjoy about article to read uh his name Michael Shapiro correct as Rockets

Collapse you do get H into new lineup who will lead the bench yes so he the name of he covers the team he’s not you know I would imagine that his opinions are informed and I’m pretty sure you tell mean he hinted I think he hinted at a men potentially being the guy

Disappoint that’s the cover cover image and he goes through and breaks down a men’s thing um I think that if another candidate that we we didn’t talk about is Aaron holiday as much as I give this dude a lot of grief I ain’t gonna lie

But you go look at the numbers bro when he him and Fred and the starters are out there it’s they’re they’re I mean they’re beating teams a lot really what’s the and all yeah and it’s I was disappointed to see those numbers to be honest I was going through like damn

Like ah the guy you hate I’m telling you look there’s something about him listen early in the season the Rockets lose probably a few more games if Aaron holiday does not play in place of Jaylen and save some of those games he’s not great journeyman third Stringer six foot

Combo guard I get it sometimes he hijacks possessions as well and just like needs to fall back and be a catch and shoot guy I agree with all that but again same thing with Dylan you’re kind of in this weird place where you just need guys that aren’t

Afraid to shoot and who can actually hit a shot you know like at the end the day I bet udoka is sitting there like yo I’m not trying to go through the growing pains when we’re losing holiday get in there you know but I think that’s a

Lineup you can use as a change up lineup in the middle of the game and if you come out like that I think it’s tough to set a tone defensively too small exactly they’re they’re too small I was um I was on another pod with uh with James piery

And he brought up a point that I really liked the way I look at this lineup change especially with the when if you have to bench Jaylen green if they do bench J jayen green um the reason I wouldn’t want the evet to be there because I still think those reps are

Valuable to me one of the things that Jaylen is doing honestly it’s like if he’s not gonna use his reps he’s taking reps away from a guy that could possibly be a main stay for your team down the future so the only justifiable thing for me if they’re GNA

Bench him I want a young I want camera man in there because at least you’re killing two birds of one stone you’re bringing a productive player and you’re still prepping a player that may be a big part of your future and you’re getting data in the meantime to make an

Informed decision going down I think there’s zero chance I think I know it like for me we got to think right we gotta think there’s what we would do and then there’s what do we think eay would do right and I think eay would go with the man Thompson defensive versatility

Extra playmaker he’s already shown like he’ll play that kid 35 something minutes right he doesn’t he doesn’t care he seems to have more trust in him I think he does have more trust in him than Jaylen at this point um but to your point that’s that’s part

Of why I’ve been so focused by the way on Jaylen green this season is because it’s like how much more do you empty reps if you don’t think those reps will end up being productive for your team for your situation versus starting to dump those reps into hey we got Cen

Whitmore right there waiting in the wings hey we got a men Thompson who’s already starting to contribute you know so I think it’s a valid question but I think if they bench somebody it would be with udoka and Frank I’m sorry with udoka uh with a men and frankly I really

Don’t even see an argument to continue starting Jaylen other than if you want to say like yo you can’t lower his value um or you want to keep getting him the Reps but I would push back and say if he starts and doesn’t pick it up so it’s it

Maybe he does pick it up and none of this matters but if he doesn’t pick it up I think you’re I think that hurts his value because then it would confirm like hey the Rockets don’t win with Jaylen green we don’t want him on the trade market yeah and you know Scouts Scouts

In NBA they know what jayen is I don’t think you can trick anybody this even if he has a good run he is what he is um I think that the best to me the best upside a team would be thinking if is like okay change of scenery young guy

Talented maybe we can figure it out for him and let’s take a risk type deal instead of like oh yeah the Rockets are just they don’t know how to use them I think everybody kind of knows what his limitations are but to the point of trading Jaylen roster value we can pivot

On to uh the man of that hour Rafel Stone um and we were on the spaces today and we kind of brought up started the conversation about Stone uh um when you know different people fall on different sides of the fence about him some people think he’s done uh okay job I haven’t

Seen anybody say he’s done an excellent job most of people are either just he’s okay or he’s terrible I fall in between in between that because if I judge him man we we talked about this like the way I’m going to judge Stone I’m going to

Judge him based on what the Rockets uh goals are for their current situation the goal of uh of the tank era according to them is to develop players and to me if you’re going to tank you’re going to develop players and accumulate asset assets over that period

I think in the development and the accumulation they didn’t do a good job they didn’t do a good job we came out of that tank as acid poor as any team that has come out of a tank it’s like basically we came out of the tank like

We were a contender in those in that stretch of years the way we wasted assets so I can’t give him a pass on that the drafting the players A+ right we got a but that’s pending if Jaylen green is not good then what are we talking about um but we we’ll give I’ll

Give that I’ll give that because I know that’s what people always go to let’s say we give him A+ you didn’t accumulate assets by using your cap space yes the John wal thing was there but you were able to come off of that you overk players etc etc um late on deals all

Those things happen um but even coming out of that let’s you know blank slay for this season the Rockets goals were for them to make the playoffs they said it I didn’t say it coach dooka said it and uh tman fertita say it Stone wouldn’t say it because he’s a lawyer he

Knows better than that he’s not gonna say that yes phase two Tillman defined it for everybody y’all need to listen when when people talk the man said is making the playoffs and he said phase three is contending for a championship so there’s a clear distinction between

Being a lottery team in Phase One and being a team that is in the playoffs which we assume the play playin is included in phase two and not only is that the the charge from the head honcho of the of the franchise the owner then

You also have the assets to be able to utilize towards that goal and they were in a position to do that you you get one of the best coaches on the market you also bring in uh two vets with over $60 plus million dollar to address address

Those issues um the third vet riged on his contract which was Brook Lopez and then the pivot from that wasn’t a plan B C or D of like a actual like a tactician GM would have if Brook Lopez doesn’t work we’re going to blah blah blah blah

Blah the next plan was plan X which is just inflate contracts and give it to any Warm Bodies we could find and that’s how we end up with Jac landal Jeff greens of the world now Jeff Green I like him as as a as a pick the Kevin Porter thing

We all saw what happened with that to me like it would not never been an issue if his contract wasn’t a thing it was a thing it was it was set up the way it was set up because Stone gave him a contract um and maybe he would have had

A great year but he did what he did PIV out of that the Ola Debo trade you gave up assets to dump a player who you ended up flipping for a player that doesn’t play so those you could have just saved your your picks and just done nothing or

Cut them or whatever you would have saved five second round picks I look at the roster construction from the even the Christian Wood and Daniel tyon and all these guys we’ve had throughout these years up until now I haven’t seen this brother put together a functional roster that says if I look at

Him say yeah that makes sense what this GM is trying to do I have no idea what he’s trying to do the excuse of they’re figuring it out only works for so long because once again the Rockets are in the National Basketball Association where they compete against other

Basketball teams who have GMS who are collecting data like us and aggregating uh talent and salary and and and assets and they’re making moves to be competitive if we are in the state of limbo there’s no way you can go from that to just being like okay we’re here

We’re gonna win so for me I I personally is he on the hot seat I think you damn right bro like I personally if I was his boss like what what do you even say to tman like if you make the Lottery this year if you’re a lottery team like so I

Think for me like I think he’s on the hot te if if if they finish in the lottery and like legit in the lottery I think there’s really not not much else I want to see uh from his performance um and I think they should make a move to

Try to either find somebody else or move to a different position uh uh this uh this this offseason um I may I may be okay if they like finish with 30 five plus wins and they somehow don’t make the playoffs then maybe we can give them

A little bit of time to put together another another shot at roster but man I think the dude is either down to this summer or pretty much he’s gone that that’s what I view it as maybe you see it differ so man you you went in there

Um to finish with 35 wins by the way just to be for the record you’re 24 and 30 that means they have 28 games left they would have to go 11 and 17 to finish with 35 wins so let’s see if they do that’s doable that’s doable that’s do

Now um you went in it’s it’s I don’t really actually don’t disagree with anything you just said you know to add on on to that and to kind of elaborate on the main point I I can probably go down a rabbit Hall on all the moves I disagree with because I disagree with

Quite a bit Jared Allen they traded Jared Allen by the way um and they didn’t draft Evan Mobley and I don’t think Evan moble is all that personally um but his floor right now is a defensive player of the year candidate First Team all defense

Type guy or his floor I guess is you know potential all all team defense player but his ceiling clearly has been first team and he’s probably going to be in many DP as long as he stays healthy for the season in the future his floor is like 16 points 10 rebounds two blocks

A game right um both guys they gift wrapped and handed to Cleveland and both guys that they could have just had on their roster um but instead you gota you got to spend net plus five second round picks to get an injured Stephen Adams for one season just one example of like

Man that that feels mismanaged um and there’s so many rebuttal to that I know oh you’re going to win you wouldn’t be in the lottery with Jared Allen if you kept him well the Cavaliers were and they got Evan Moy so explain that to me

Um yeah you know what I’m saying uh the Spurs the next season sign they trade yaka Perle on an expiring deal for like a first round pick and I think another pick um and the rockets trade Jared Allen and torian Prince for the for a pick from the Cavs by way of Milwaukee

Who’s in the middle of like their Championship run and then they got a trade PJ Tucker uh for you know DJ Augustine and who was that other guy oh man um some Russian or something he was in the other not him it was a DJ something oh man he played center he was

Like 611 he’s not oh um yeah with the braids light Canin dud yeah yes not in the league anymore tra PJ Tucker for that and the right to like move their second round pick up you know six picks to basically take Josh Christopher who they had to

Dump right for nothing maybe even attach a second round pick I can’t remember it’s just strings of transactions like this also so in the deal they pushed the Bucs pick back one year and then they the pick they got for Jared Allen and torian Prince by the way two players one

Late ass pick and then they got to take that pick and use Eric Gordon plus that pick to flip just to swap not even get an extra not not get a separate first round pick which they had on the table multiple times for Eric Gordon and they

Refused and then they get uh they move up you know eight spots 10 spots whatever they take cam Whitmore everyone’s happy some people are happy with the result I’m criticizing the process though because if you look at it it looks like a lot lot of wasted potential wasted transactions

Transactions that were not thought out where the ending point the stopping point was kind of just yeah we’ll see we’ll see what happens we got a couple picks to throw [ __ ] it you know um and that’s just not that’s that’s Risky Business to me whereas when you see

These other teams they were actively selling certain guys off they were assessing Talent flipping it picking up just you know little deals the Rockets did did one like that I think when they got seu Dum booya from the Nets or the Pistons I can’t remember and they picked

Up like a random second round pick they’ve done a couple moves like that um but not near enough you would do for a tanking team right you sign Daniel tyon four years 36 then you flip him for nothing basically you get 26 games at Dennis Schroeder just pointless

Transactions right the best move they made is getting Alper and shenon they took those two you know middling first round picks which I think they were Lotto protected picks from both the Wizards which they got from the John Wall trade by the way they traded Russell Westbrook for John Wall and then

The Wizards flip Russell Westbrook for contracts they could actually break down and do something with like it’s just um and then they took a pick from that was Lot protected I think from Detroit when they got Christian wood if I remember correctly yeah put those together traded against shenon Great move so deserves

Credit for like that’s probably the best move he’s made I think um everything else is just kind of you over they overpaid they’ve overpaid for almost everything that they’ve acquired um I like the Stephen Adams trade I’m not going to complain about the overpay but

It is an overpay and they only like they basically basically like you said wasted 5c round picks because they had to keep the Kevin Porter Jr contract slot alive because they had had to give him guaranteed money which was a mistake um could have seen it from a mile away they

Made the mistake Jaylen green was not the consensus guy to get drafted there so that’s if that pick doesn’t work out that’s another one of his signature moves that you know he went against the grain to make that move really high-profile move the highest draft pick in Rockets uh franchise history since

Yao Ming right two decades and like he went against the grain and if Jaylen doesn’t work out I think there’s a lot of subtext to that thing you know where like if he doesn’t work out there’s a lot of I think internal failure that that would have to be admitted but it

All brings me back back to what you said which is I think the most important point however you want to look at it if you want to hop in the comments and say oh but he’s killed it in the draft and give him check marks across the board call it whatever you want

Okay the team the the roster that was built just has has always had major holes in it major holes with no back stop no plan no mid-season way to actually adequately address it um um in the first couple years okay that was fine tanking team we were losing games

They were just trying to see what those kids could do I would argue that obviously and I think you might agree that that creates a terrible culture and it might be responsible for for some of the things we’ve seen and some of the difficulties we might be seeing among

Certain guys and also why certain other of those guys are out of the league now or are just at the very end of a bench and if it’s not the culture then it’s because they’re not good at basketball and the rockets drafted them so it’s really hard to you know either way

Um so okay they’re tanking the holes don’t matter fine this season no clear backup point guard Aaron holiday kind of emerged and became a thing um when he previously really wasn’t thought to be no backup center at all Jack landale at all at all yeah uh Jack landale was you

Know pretty much a bust of assigning right he’s not been able to be relied upon for 10 to 15 minutes a game which is what we kind of all thought we were going to get so they have have had to force 37y old Jeff Green to be the

Backup center even though he’s like 68 and he’s really not a center CER um and that’s a Fallout from having from Brook Lopez being plan a with with only a plan X behind that right Al Shang was supposed to be the backup center they didn’t know what to do basically once

Brook Lopez reneged on them so that’s the thing do you trust the Rockets to build a roster that actually works that is well thought out that evidences hey that person knew what like when darl Mur put those teams together and then you saw it play out once it hit once that

CIS Paul team hit you for me it was like whoa I okay I I see what you’re doing this is brilliant holy [ __ ] amazing right um and we had the magical season that the Rockets had you look at the great teams the Nuggets you’re like man that is such a beautifully built team

They they understand who their personnel is they understood what they needed to do to go supplement that personnel and bring it to life you look at the Kings even you can criticize them for trading tyes Halbert and that’s fine they built a pretty nice team they know what their

Identity is right whether they win a championship or not we can debate okay but there there is the team building there is it’s something to kind of enjoy Orlando really interesting team that’s being built over there in orlander you you could go down the list right do you

Get that same Confidence from the from the rockets and there are times where I see it right when Jabari and tar and Dylan Brooks are all out there together with Fred Van Ved and shenon and you’re like oh this is actually really cool these guys are defending across the board

They’re flying to the ball you have like perfect size across the board maybe not with Fred maybe not with shenon but those in the middle are just like 66 67 Jabari 611 and they all long and defensive and versatile you know all that you see it and then other times

You’re just like man what is this roster Jan Tate Jeff Green Aaron holiday playing big minutes like what am I watching right now so you take a lot of swings in the draft you get a lot of talent that’s great rockets have done that we can debate those picks the only

One of the lottery picks that was not the cons like when ESPN puts that little ticker at the bottom that says you know best available every time the Rockets had a l pick they took the best available except for Jaylen right so amen Thompson would have been the best

Available uh Jabari Smith best of they were just no-brainer picks and deserve credit give them credit that’s fine Jaylen was against the grain so they’ve got those six players cam tar um and obviously we can talk about cam falling to them but I’ll give them credit for it

Anyways cam tar uh shenon great move Jaylen will see amen Jabari right so if they don’t get a star out of that and then if they don’t actually know which of those guys can be moved which of those guys to extend at what price which I think might be

Stone’s plus side is structuring the contract yeah you know so that’s something that I I have decent faith in him in but I am worried that he might get a little too cute with certain extensions and and things might get heated we’ll see that’s just me thinking

But we’ll see what actually happens so all in all I say all that to say at the end of the day do you have confidence that they can really build a functional competitive good contending team so far I have a lot of questions and I and I think it’s a good rule of

Thumb to be very skeptical and very wary of somebody that keeps kicking the can down the road and like heyo just we need more time we need more time you know let these guys develop we need more time yes development is not linear I get it yes development takes time however as you

Said this is the National Basketball Association things move fast people strike people build Empires rise right to best get it done at the end of the day is a Cutthroat business you gota you got to be measured on a curve against who you’re going against just because I

Like how these players hoop and there’s a lot of potential if they don’t have if they are 24th in you know in potential they have the 21st best record at the end of the day all that potential if it’s not actualized and realized then then what is it so that’s where I’m at

I’m not you know it’s not like oh my God it’s doomsday but it’s like where is this what is the ultimate vision for the team who are we building around where does everyone fit what kind of piece are we looking for because I feel like right now it’s just been a lot

Of like yeah you know we’ll see what happens so yeah I think that and the indecision is a theme and I think I think people have to realize that stone even though he was in the front office there’s different there a different seat to be somebody that works with contracts

And and all those and working with paperwork and dealing with all that you know kind of legal stuff than actually being a executive that is in charge of like leadership in the sense of organizational Vision I work an admin on in in a hospital setting so I understand

That there are certain people that are good for the numbers and there are certain people that are trashed with the numbers but they can get you to run through a wall and they can sell a vision they can they can and to me the Visionary is is to me

As a leader that’s one of the most important skill sets to have and I I don’t like you I I I do not know what his vision is and I think I don’t know if he knows what his vision is I think the fact that there he is a new at that

Position of general manager shouldn’t be underplay in the in the sense the way that shanon and jayen and Jabari are new to the NBA because he’s competing against vets like Danny a like Sam presty out there in the world you know like the Pat Riley’s out there and and

These are the the these are the guys he has to line up against and when you ask the question of do I basically do I trust him to beat them in in this game my answer is no because I don’t think he has the experience I don’t think he has

The like the wherewithal the knowhow um he do you know Daryl was a prodigy as a general manager I think Daryl was somebody that is like uh he he was special at what he does so I’m not even comparing him to Daryl but to me you got

To be able to take risk and you got to do everything we’ve done has has been either very safe or very late and you just can’t win like that in this League I’m willing to give him personally to me I’m going to give him this off season I

I think they shouldn’t fire him just yet but one thing the jayen green situation to me if Jaylen green is moved it’s going to be such a massive failure on the rockets for multiple reasons development structure all these things for the gambles that to me if Jaylen green is

Moved I think it almost requires that as soon as feasible they should move on from Stone because if I’m Tillman fatita I drugg this franchise through a mud for three seasons with the promise of yielding something tangible and valuable out of it and maybe shenon is that yield

But that number two pick I’m not a guy that if let’s say if we get Cam Whitmore with the pick swap hell why don’t we have two picks we gonna got another player and cam I’m I want more because more is what wins more in the NBA like

Okay see those those teams that get the extra nah we want SGA we’re not moving to a get SGA we won SGA we want all them picks and SGA we’re get those are the teams that come out on top so all this like marginal you know we’re going to

Win here that that’s not going to get it but like I’m not I think this off season they’ve backed themselves so far into a corner this year that if they don’t strike out on something and this team comes back the same way it is next year

Man I I probably think that they are going to like have to blow up um at least the front office aspect of it with some of the basketball people in there yeah I mean look I’m gonna hold them to what they said was playoffs right Tillman said that in the in the whatever

The preseason right so that’s what I I said before the season I was like I’m GNA Judge Stone on what happens this season and if they don’t meet their expectations then I’m just going to hold them to their word I think that’s the most fair thing to do um when you say

Jaylen green failing would be huge I I agree with that it’s like yo I have to imagine Tom fertita sitting there going hey we you know stained our name for this kid right like that we don’t even isn’t hasn’t proven himself is kind of we’re thinking about moving on from

We’re questioning if we’re going to extend like I’m worried about extending Jaylen out of Pride because of that attachment um you know Patrick fertita makes decisions um at some level for sure like for example you know the imodoka thing right like the the fertitas were involved with with that um

And so they deserve credit for that but you know we’ll see I I I’ve been a fan of getting somebody who is like a seasoned Bonafide been there done that GM I think that’s what you need for a rebuild personally right and I don’t think that should be a hot take I don’t

Think that should be controversial I just want someone my dog just got surgery and I had to make the decision about in it’s a serious surgery and it was an emergency surgery I had to make the decision about doing it at an emergency 247 animal hospital or waiting until the morning and risking

Potentially valuable time to have it done in trusted hands right I didn’t know who I I didn’t know who I was about to hand my dog to you know what I mean I didn’t want Mr upand comeer I don’t know I wanted Mr I know certified right and

So you take that analogy this rebuild should probably should have been overseen by somebody who’s done a rebuild right not by somebody and I’m I am a lawyer I am a dealmaking transactional la and we can be unimaginative people sometimes we can be bu the book we can be uh we’re all about

Miate mitigating and managing risk right and that’s not necessarily what gets you the big hit the the SGA the Harden trade guys like Mor are like you know big boor like okay this is the vision this is we’re Consulting this is how we fix your business you know here here’s the data

Here are the analytics this is how we make it happen lawyers are like um okay well what are the risks and let’s make sure we can avoid all those risks or what’s your tolerance for risk you know what I mean it’s like really nerdy [ __ ] obviously but just I guess one is

Restrictive and like hey well let’s put the bars on this and make sure we’re good and laced up and the other one is ambitious and like no we we think that this calculation we put together is going to yield us this badass thing let’s go get it right and so I think

That is a philosophical way to kind of describe and Define the contrast at least between those two eras not longing for Daryl Mory there’s life after Mor I believe obviously um but yeah there the name a name that was floated multiple times was Dennis Lindsay um who I think

Is with the Utah Jazz someone like that would would make me feel good about okay you know because at this point man when the trade deadline comes the last three years we just been like what the [ __ ] gonna happen I don’t even know and they’ve wait till the last minute you

Said indecision is a theme I think that’s a great encapsulation of it indecision is a theme and they just wait until the last second Christian Wood you know you don’t have to believe me don’t care I have word that Christian Wood was traded because the Rockets thought they

Were going to get Paulo banero and Paulo B Caro’s agent I believe it’s Mike Miller was like yeah we ain’t playing with Christian Wood so like why do I bring that up because they didn’t they weren’t proactive about trading Christian Wood they were reactive to a situation that didn’t even end up

Happening right and that and hey even if that’s not true take it or leave it I don’t care the point is Eric Gordon they waited until the last second James Harden I mean if they were proactive if if they had the vision to be like you

Know what there is no way James Harden’s coming back right which I think James Harden made pretty clear so I have to imagine that people that were closest to the situation if they had any sense of intuition that they would have known like yo James ain’t coming back dude

Once Daryl leaves once Mike leaves you know this thing is is blowing up um they could have been proactive about that and and fished offers out instead they ended up getting what they got and I like the picks they got I’ve defended the picks that they got um but the back half of

That deal the whole Jared Allen all that Depot stuff that we’ve already discussed they came up empty-handed and when you look at franchises that make those Blockbuster like hey this is going to change the trajectory of our franchise type Deals they come out with something what’s that Denzel mean I’m leaving here

With something right I’m leaving you know so like they come out of it with something right the Pelicans got uh the pick that became Zion and they got Lonzo and Brandon Ingram and Josh har and then they make moves from there and they lose some of those guys and whatever they do

They do but but that’s a hall right uh the C uh the Thunder sgaa I mean come on SGA like that they could throw all the picks away they got SGA they’re good right and and the Clippers did not want to give up SGA like that I I listened to

Zack lot about that and like demanding that extra because you know it even like you look at David Griffin on the P he’s built a championship roster before so I do agree with you there’s to me there’s two things to me you can’t have a new GM

Start a rebuild and you can’t have a uh a new coach start a contender uh it’s rare that new coaches coach contenders into victories and and having a new GM with a team that’s going to tank because there’s no security there the moves are going to be based on

Self-preservation at some point because all we know stone for is losing um as if you look at his NBA record as a general manager is probably what the worst one of the worst uh in history right now and so that’s all he’s known for so at least

A season GM could say I’ve won a ring before so if we want to take this long route with Jaylen everybody would just shut the hell up and just yeah he’s won a ring before but when you have a newerk guy it’s really hard to Envision what they can do

Because all we know them for is losing and and they haven’t really shown to the NBA that they can put together a winner I think that’s where he’s at right now I’d be curious man to see because I also think there’s a little dynamic between him and udoka that’s that’s Brewing up

All yeah yeah he mentioned then they took the gloves off pre preseason right and he was like have some tough conversations it’s like okay I’m sure you had some tough ones at the trade deadline too because I feel like udoka was like yo go get me somebody and he was probably like I

Think he’s he’s a little pissed I I can I don’t know I’m just maybe I’m just gossiping at this point but I feel like I’m gonna use my my uh my S guy looking outside just like reading Vibes I I feel like maybe they had a like a a spat over

The deadline and they made an organizational decision to stand stand where they are and I think everybody agreed to it at some point but personally from here in newa postgame and in the preseason and everything in throughout the season he wanted shooting and a big man like that’s what he stated

For off rip he wanted to add shooting to the team and I think that we did not deliver that to him and he is suffering for that as a coach who seems very prideful in what he puts out on the court I think he is his image is being

Tarnished by the roster so another little side thing that may come up as time goes on between his authority on the team in his fingerprint Stones Authority on the team you got the jayen thing going on you got uh you know who’s going to start exciting times coming up

For the Rockets bro exciting times we got you uh what we playing Pelicans on Thursday it’s I think pelicans and the Suns maybe two or three times and the Thunder two times let me pull it up but look another thing I want to talk about is so it goes Pelican Suns thunder

Thunder Suns yesh that’s tough that’s how we end February and then we go straight into the Suns to start March so it goes Pelicans Suns thunder thunder suns suns that’s tough Dam they could go 0 and six but or 0 and five no it could go

On six one thing though I want to mention another thing that I don’t think is talked about enough and I I don’t we don’t know this this is just you know speculating gossiping whatever you want to call it um personal relations is a big deal in

In these settings right who do you have relationships with what do people think about you how do you communicate with the other gmss is there anyone like it’s a it’s a tight-knit type Club thing you know what I mean or and if you’re not in the club I would imagine I’m just

Guessing here but I would imagine it’s a little harder to make deals right you don’t have any inroads you don’t have relationships you know you don’t have like hey man like we’ll build some Goodwill here you’ll get it down the line that kind of thing I I guess they tried to do that

With the Hawks and they ended up just giving up a couple second round picks because they promise to do it but that’s not what I’m talking about right I’m talking about like having relationships having the skill of deal making right um because it if you’ve ever been in a

Transaction things can go south pretty quickly if if pride gets into the room and if you got the wrong people at the table that don’t know how to table that pun intended and you know get get to an agreement right I would question um because we’ve seen these press

Conferences right where it’s like I don’t know sometimes he just seems to say something that maybe gets taken the wrong way maybe he doesn’t mean it a certain way but people overanalyze it but it’s one of those things where you’re like why’ you even say that to

Begin with you know like like Jaylen on paper you know it’s like why did you say why’ you say that why don’t you just lie with this yeah you know what I mean it’s I just wonder if there are times where yeah you know they’re on the phone and

He might say something and another GM’s like [ __ ] you know what I mean on paper this is a great deal for you guys like you should take it on paper like so I don’t know it’s just you know when we think about these things I wonder um and yeah maybe I’m being uh

Maybe I’m unnecessarily wondering but it is something no I know I know exactly what you’re saying he’s a bit awkward but um I think he is so technical like he to a to a fa like he says very like specific things that don’t say anything

It was just a great skill I wish I could do that like I probably do on some of these podcasts just say a lot and don’t say anything at all but um all right let’s we could we could we could cut it there for this week man y’all let us

Know first of all let us know what is your starting five uh for the team that you what is your dream star in five put it in the comments also do you think Stone has been doing a great job now I already know some of these comments bro

Just get ready people are gonna come out and basically say why are you guys so negative on it bro I do not care I’m I’m just telling you right now I do not care if I gave it damn it is is what it is last thing I’ll

Say fandom is a funny thing Twitter has really really really driven that home for me I understand the fans who are like hey man can you just gas this [ __ ] up so we can just throw a because I’m just trying to have fun this is my getaway why are y’all so goddamn

Negative I get it and I understand it’s just that I’m I feel like I’m too old at this [ __ ] to have like that unbridled positivity and optimism I’ve seen the circus before I know what a clown show looks like when I see one I just it is

What it is and that’s just how I fan I don’t you know sit there and go like rah rah cheer cheer I’m always trying to think critically about how we can be better how the team can be better how we can win more games because I remember

Being a kid when when we won a championship and what happened in 2018 was heartbreaking I want to get back there I don’t want to just win 35 games and be like cool you know so anyways no man on that note man if you’re new to the channel hit the

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In this episode of Rockets Talk Roosh and Frank discuss: Why the Rockets struggle on offense, each of our dream starting 5 and whether Rafael Stone is on the hot seat! #houstonrockets #nba #podcast #alperensengun

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