Discerning Stone's Philosophy?
Long-time readers from the TrueHoop Network days may recall my running series from the early Morey days, even pre-Harden, assessing the Rockets’ general manager’s many moves in an attempt to decipher an over-arching philosophy. I’ve had an urge to do the same for Rafael Stone, particularly after the Josh Christopher selection last July (more on this later). The only problem is that I stopped paying attention mid-way through last season and have a bit of catch up to do. (Hey, I thought I was going into retirement, but they always find a way to suck me back in.)
What I’m mainly curious about is the extent to which Stone is influenced by his time in the Rockets’ organization with Morey at the helm. Recall that prior to transitioning over to basketball operations, Stone was the team’s General Counsel where he was responsible for in-house legal matters, as is the GC for any entity. Morey, Sam Hinkie, and the other deputies are long gone, and now Stone is the chief architect overseeing the rebuild of this basketball team.
On Christopher, upon news of his ties to Jalen Green and K.J. Martin, it seemed at first as if the selection was a “culture” pick, something I was perfectly fine with given the low rate of success for picks that low in the first round. My thought process was as such: if you can buy some goodwill with your future franchise player and the only cost is a low pick that would have likely flopped anyway, that’s likely a good use of resources. After just a few summer league games, Christopher appears to be the real deal, and worthy of the selection on his own merit. But the greater inquiry remains: to what extent is Stone cognizant of “culture” in the shaping of this team?
Recall that the chief criticism of Morey, driven by angered agents, was that he treated his players like assets and didn’t value chemistry. Through it all, I found that perspective asinine given that at the time such criticisms were lobbied, there was no foundation in place upon which to foment said chemistry.
I, of course, have some research to do in catching up with Stone’s moves. But this will be an ongoing discussion.
Time to ramp up the risk taking
Recall Daryl’s attempts to acquire every player in the 2009 NBA Draft, from Hasheem Thabeet, to Jonny Flynn, to Jordan Hill, to Terrence Williams, to lastly Omri Casspi. Ironically, Casspi, the lowest pick of the bunch, fared the best. Each of the other players from that group flopped hard and contributed little to nothing. The acquisitions were met with much mockery league-wide at the time it was happening, but the reasoning was sound: the team at the time didn’t have a star player (remember, this was before James Harden), and these were low risk fliers. It costed Houston close to nothing to swing for the fences on players that were previously appraised as lottery talents. It’s even more remarkable in hindsight that the media confused calculated risk-taking with a belief that the players acquired would all succeed.
Stone right now needs to be canvassing the league for these sorts of high-upside failed lottery prospects and diverting resources towards these sorts of acquisitions. Kevin Porter Jr. was a great start.
Business decisions…
I think the pick was always going to be Jalen Green with a businessman like Tilman Fertitta at the helm. When there is no clear advantage talent-wise between the two prospects being considered, always go with the outspoken, charismatic shooting guard. The likelihood of any one player ever winning a title for the franchise selecting him is so small that it would be foolish to operate in vacuo of business considerations. And already, just one week into his young NBA career, we’re seeing Jalen Green dominate the headlines with his brash proclamations regarding his worth as the top pick and comments about the desirability of Detroit as a place of domicile. Many, many sneakers and jerseys will be sold and sponsorships will be agreed upon.
On Cade Cunningham
Cade feels to me like a big Chris Paul. The comparison I threw out, about which I have given myself many pats on the back, is Brandon Roy. Just a huge, heady, point guard, seemingly wise beyond his years. I just don’t see any scenario where he isn’t immensely successful in the NBA, barring injuries (the likes of which derailed what should have been a Hall of Fame career for Roy.) What really stood out to me in summer league, of which I was already aware having watched highlights from college, was the change of pace. It seems inconceivable that this guy is 19 years old.