First Evan Mobley's camp took issue with the Rockets due to their commitment to Kevin Porter Jr. Now this about Stephon Castle because of the Rockets commitment to Fred VanVleet & Jalen Green. Man.

I see a lot of Rockets fans deluding themselves into thinking this team has a chance due to this imminent Knicks title. Parity doesn’t negate the need for an elite front office and head coach and unfortunately, neither Rafael Stone or Ime Udoka are going anywhere anytime soon.

I’ve thought about it and I think the Knicks winning the title with THIS team that they built brick by brick without the benefit of lottery picks, with someone as maligned as KAT playing a prominent role, has to be the most amazing thing to happen in the last 45 years of the NBA.

This feels more relevant now with the Knicks on the verge of winning the title with KAT at center. KAT can shoot of course, but there are few centers as skilled and overall talented as Alpi in the league. And he may still end up learning how to shoot. The point is that smart front offices figure out a way to amplify their strengths and mask their weaknesses. Amen Thompson is a pretty damn good start in terms of having the type of wing defense needed on a Sengun team.

It's hard to articulate how funny it is that Rafael Stone wasn't even responsible for the only draft pick from the rebuild that has outperformed expectations (Alperen Sengun). I'm relieved that this seems to finally be public knowledge because it's such a damning indictment upon Stone's talent evaluation abilities in the context of his overall record (which I outlined just last week). (Is Tilman himself even aware of this? Can we just make Eli Whitus the GM?) You can pretty easily connect the dots then on why Sengun faced the internal obstacles he did (Bruno-gate, Brook Lopez pursuit) juxtaposed against the red carpet treatment the other early prospects (Jalen, Jabari) received despite being far less productive their rookie seasons. Sengun was never part of the original vision but he forced his way through. Credit to Stone for leaning in (and, naturally, accepting credit publicly) and locking up the big man on an excellent contract. But now he can finally revert to his original vision, (or some variation of it since, of course, Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr., and Christian Wood each flamed out in his own respective way). If the Rockets had traded Sengun last summer, there probably would have been a fan revolt. After the Lakers series, public sentiment seems to have completely flipped. To be sure, Alpi needed to dominate Ayton. And he absolutely has to become a true floor spacer. But I'd urge everyone to be careful what you wish for in the hopes of being rid of him. Removing Sengun may open up driving lanes but it won't suddenly make Amen Thompson be able to dribble or shoot. (If the plan is to build around Amen, shouldn't he have been able to punish Luke Kennard and Austin Reeves even without spacing?) It won't make Jabari Smith Jr. suddenly be able to shoot over 36%, average more than 0.9 blocks per game, or defend in space. It won't make Reed Sheppard tall enough for Ime Udoka to actually play him in crunch time. And if any of those things do end up happening, having Sengun won’t be an obstacle to their coming to fruition. I personally would be curious to see what the only homegrown All-Star on the team looks like with a summer off and when not playing in a completely dysfunctional system. What would he look like next to an actual guard and when not isolating every play from the three point line? We know the answer as to whether Sengun would have put up more of a fight against Wemby than Chet just did. I've resigned myself to what feels like the inevitability of a trade, though I’d prefer if it were someone other than Stone making that assessment. And I'm worried about some of the assumptions underlying what comes next. Maybe none of this even matters anyway.

Here is a list of all of Rafael Stone's draft picks: 2021 - Jalen Green (2) 2021 - Alperen Sengun (16) 2021 - Usman Garuba (23) 2021 - Josh Christopher (24) 2022 - Jabari Smith Jr. (3) 2022- Tari Eason (17) 2022 - TyTy Washington (29) 2023 - Amen Thompson (4) 2023 - Cam Whitmore (20) 2024 - Reed Sheppard (3) 2024 - Pelle Larsson (44)* [picked by Heat] 1. Taking Jalen Green at #2 was obviously the original sin and biggest misstep of the rebuild. 2. Trading for Alperen Sengun at #16 was probably the best move of the rebuild, which is ironic for reasons I've touched on recently. 3. I personally think that the jury is still out, but I think that 99% of people outside of Houston at this point would say that Reed Sheppard over Castle was a huge mistake. 4. Despite Jabari being incredibly underwhelming for a #3 pick, Amen, Jabari, and Tari were all good picks, but they were all also just a case of taking best player available. You could also probably argue, with the benefit of hindsight, that trading down from #3 might have been better value than taking Jabari outright. 5. Garuba, Christopher, TyTy, and Cam were all complete busts and wasted picks. The 44th pick in 2024 (which became Pelle Larson) was also traded to Miami for A.J. Griffin who subsequently left basketball before ever even suiting up for the Rockets. Another wasted pick. 6. To unload Garuba and TyTy, Stone traded second round picks in 2025 and 2028 to Atlanta to clear cap space for Brook Lopez who ultimately played the Rockets and returned to Milwaukee. Those of us who expressed concern over this train of events at the time were mocked as "asset management Twitter." Meanwhile, guys like Ajay Mitchell and Jaylin Williams are making major contributions on a contender while the Rockets fill their rotation with glorified cheerleaders like Jeff Green and Jae'Sean Tate. 7. Some notables picked after the Rockets' picks: 2021 - Quentin Grimes (25) 2021 - Herb Jones (35) 2021 - Miles McBride (36) 2021 - Ayo Dosunmu (38) 2022 - Andrew Nembhard (31) 2022 - Jaylin Williams (34) 2024 - Jamal Shead (45) And unless you're a Jae'Sean Tate or Daishen Nix fan, the Rockets also haven't had any notable undrafted free agents. (Yes, the same Daishen Nix that Stone infamously called a "lottery pick talent.") Once the Rockets' season unraveled, most of the discussion centered around the team's bad luck with respect to landing top tier talent. And it's true - they had historically bad luck missing out on Wemby and Cade. But what has been more concerning to me has been Stone's inability to find talent at the margins - talent evaluation at the cheap end is something an organization can actually control and not subject to lottery luck. Even if the Rockets are eventually able to land top end talent, either through a panicked trade this offseason (Giannis? Jaylen Brown?) or from lottery luck in 2027, I'm curious how anyone can look at the list above and have any confidence that Stone can build out a roster to compete with the league's elite teams.

Can’t believe James Harden is going to have a real shot at going to the Finals at age 36. So happy for him right now. Rough game for him tonight, but the Cavs aren’t even here without his Game 3 and Game 5 heroics. Also, so funny that this Cavs team has a starting lineup 3/5 comprised of guys Rafael Stone said “no thanks” to during this rebuild. 1. Victor Oladipo over Jarrett Allen in the Harden trade when Allen was considered Brooklyn’s best young asset. Stone was killed for this at the time by the national media but the leaked rationale was that having Allen would make it hard to tank not wanting his extension on the books. I never thought having Allen alone would lead to wins and I also wouldn’t mind having him right now at what is a pretty reasonable salary for his production. 2. Reaching on Jalen Green over Evan Mobley, when Mobley was the consensus second best prospect in the draft. This has been relitigated to death but the angle I still can’t believe there hasn’t been any reporting done upon are the rumblings that Mobley’s family didn’t want him here because of the presence of Kevin Porter Jr. If that was really the case and it impacted Stone’s decision on how to use the most important lottery pick of the rebuild. . . huge yikes. 3. Fred VanVleet over Harden, twice. Enough said there.