Did the Rockets Screw Up Rebuild? (PT 2) Rafael Stone on Trial!

1. Yes they did

2. Yall acting like VanFleet is Magic Johnson stop it! He gonna come back this year and be trash! They should have been traded him after the knee injury!

3. I don't blame Stone for not acquiring anybody at the deadline and here's why you guys shouldn't either

   Steven Adams got hurt before the trade deadline correct? FVV got her in training camp, but once Adams was gone I believe the coaching staff and front office decided to use this as an evaluation year.

   He would have had to give up valuable assets for a rental, the main two guys that people wanted both from the Bulls are entering free agency and they wouldn't have enough to sign them back and Eason.

   Keeping all the picks at the disposal was the right move given the circumstances. Stone has the 27 picks as something the organization has been looking forward to for years. I think they're going to give him a chance to make those picks.

   Regardless of what happens with Udoka, I think is Stone is safe for at least another year due to his relationship with ownership. He's been here for a long time.

4. Cason Wallace was a first round pick, in fact the Thunder trade up for him

   During the 2023 NBA Draft, the Dallas Mavericks selected Cason Wallace with the 10th overall pick and immediately traded him, along with Davis Bertans, to the Oklahoma City Thunder. In exchange, the Mavericks received the 12th overall pick (which they used to select Dereck Lively II) and a Traded Player Exception.

5. Appreciate you ending with the Ralph Sampson shot. I was only 10 years old at the time but still have fond memories of it. Hopefully we'll get back to the good times again (likely never to happen with Udoka though 😉

6. We can certainly give the Thunder credit for acquiring AJ Mitchell ( they traded the rights to Oso Ighoudoro 40th and for the 38th pick )

   But there are certainly not perfect either and have had their fair share of misses. Even that year that was the second trade they made with the New York Knicks, prior to that they traded 5 second round picks to acquire the 26th pick in what turn to be Dillon Jones who obviously didn't work out for them and is no longer on the team.

   So they pretty much got lucky there, but they had more bites at the Apple which is why trading second round picks is not the throw away your thinking.

   We're actually kind of light on second rounders as it is in future years. And it's possible that they decided to keep them to attach to DFS contract in a salary dump giving them more flexibility should Eason and receive a bigger offer and restricted free agency.

   Honestly I think the fans are way too hard on Raphael Stone, look how much longer other rebuilding teams stay in the gutter. Stone had only three losing seasons before the turnaround.

   The Spurs didn't win more than 34 games for six straight seasons prior to this year. It certainly helps getting lucky ( or rigged whichever it is ) but he never got the number one pick in any of those years.

   There's a bunch of other teams that stay bad for years and years. We are not one of those poverty franchises. Patience.

7. 🎧 LISTEN…
   *TeamGenius (the front office) must show-up!
   *Hello, PRO players making BIG 💰 and need a Coach too…?!
   Note: The answer is REAL talent…
   *Again, the Head Coach cannot coach talent, skill, toughness, and BBIQ into existence!!
   #The-BALL-doesn't-LIE!
   🚀🏀💥💯
   hlf uwon2

8. I also think it's way too early for you to say he messed up drafting Sheppard over Castle. Ironically I do think Coach Udoka holds this against him but it wasn't Castle that he wanted, it was Donovan Clingan.

   Stephon Castle has 20 turnovers in the Western conference finals and is 2-12 from 3 in two games.

   Context matters, do you guys not realize how bad he would have been here and most likely possibly howGood Shepherd would have looked with the Spurs with Wemby back there swatting everything?

   Wemby makes everybody's defense look possible to great.

   Castle has a 121.8 defensive rating for his career without Wemby!!! He's still a career 30% shooter from distance and is in the low 70s for free throws.

   He's not a point guard either, he wouldn't have Wemby covering his back he would have Sengun back there .. it most likely would have been a train wreck .

   He averages a whole three points more per game than Reed. But you guys keep pretending that we drafted Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan.

   These guys are not even 22 yet and they're far from developed. But I agree with you here ,Udoka is probably just not the guy to do that.

   Funny how Peyton Pritchard didn't turn into the player he is until Udoka was gone, and he was 26 years old by the time he started scoring and double figures.

   I think Reed's floor is a sixth Man of the Year candidate every year. Me and Rafael Stone are still believers

9. In my opinion, y'all are too hard on the head coaches and give Stone too much grace. Silas was thoroughly trashed but look at who he had on the roster (KPJ, Jalen Green, Bruno Fernando, Daishen Nix, etc.). Most of those guys aren't even in the NBA anymore. And y'all acknowledge the objective was to tank during that era. Now Udoka is catching all the heat because of the roster largely constructed by Stone. 

   It's time to admit the rebuild is a failure because Stone didn't draft a star player. After 5 years and multiple high lottery picks, 37 yr old KD is by far the best player on the roster. That's not good! This year was an indictment on Stone's rebuild because the young core couldn't uplift a team when FVV and Steven Adams got injured. It's frankly insane that y'all say Udoka stinks and he's had two 50+ win seasons but give cover for Stone who is hanging another coach out to dry. Stone needs to go before Ime does.

10. Oh yea stone is the worst gm in the nba. Agruba over Duran of Detroit start there.free agency pu are horrible. Draft bad.all trades are loses.

11. Rockets traded the only 2-way player Dillion.. (well FVV injured don't count)

12. You blew it when you repeated the same mistake Phx made and traded your heart away for KD.

13. We didn’t draft castle that was a big dagger

14. I'm a KD fan, so I was rooting for the best possible trade for the rockets.

    Not sure why the rockets traded green and brooks over reed, Tari and picks.

    In my opinion reed was an easy trade. Low ceiling because of his size and athleticism. Probably a really short prime.
    Tari is good but he seems limited by his mind.

    I even though trading just jababri and a pick was better than what they actually gave with brooks and green.

    The money had to work but I would have even thrown Fred with reed and Tari to make the money work and kept brooks and green.

    I hated the DFS signing form the beginning. Even before the surgery I wouldn't have like it. When I found out he had surgery I thought it was such a stupid move by the organization..
    Didn't like that they didn't go look for a shooting guard.

    That said, I think this team is 2 really good moves away from contending. That or one of según or amen needs to develop a jump shot and become all nba level players

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