Led by general manager Rafael Stone, assistant general manager Eli Witus, and ownership representative Patrick Fertitta, the Houston Rockets clearly have a well-functioning front office.

That’s evident in the success of Houston’s recent rebuild, which led to a 52-30 season in 2024-25 (No. 2 record in the Western Conference) and the offseason trade addition of All-Star forward Kevin Durant.

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But having a productive front office doesn’t necessarily require more people.

In fact, Stone contends that Houston’s current setup is the smallest one in professional sports. In Friday’s interview with Houston’s ESPN Radio affiliate (97.5 FM), Stone said:

We have a really small front office, the Rockets do. We’re the smallest in sports, because I just can’t talk to a hundred different people, and I don’t see the point of having a bunch of people that don’t have input. I want everybody who works with us to matter.

One benefit to this structure is that it minimizes potential leaks (or valid ones, at least) regarding player transactions. Stone elaborated:

Someone will say, ‘I talked to a Rockets executive and they’re thinking this.’ And I know what I’m thinking, and I’m definitely not thinking that.

The odds that they somehow randomly talk to one of the three other people who are in discussions on this — who, like, don’t talk to the media, at all — no, they didn’t talk to them. They just went out there and lied. Or maybe they talked to somebody in season-ticket sales, I don’t know.

While not specifically identifying the story or topic, Stone then shared one example of a story from the 2025 offseason that he says was untrue.

Somebody wrote this summer, it wasn’t a bad one, but they wrote this extensive thing sayng they talked to a Rockets executive. They said they also talked to a Rockets coach. But it was a verbatim quote, and I was like, ‘There’s no chance one of my guys said that.’ And they didn’t. They didn’t say it. So, that person just wrote it.

I don’t know if they talked to a coach or not, in fairness, but I know 100% they didn’t talk to an executive. So, if you’re going to give a diatribe on a player, which this was, then let’s talk. Let’s make sure that we’re aligned on it. But again, it didn’t happen.

“There are no consequences for the media members who do this,” Stone concluded.

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The complete conversation can be listened to or watched here.

More: Rockets GM Rafael Stone: Bucks were ‘very clear’ that a big trade wasn’t happening

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Rafael Stone: Rockets have smallest front office structure in sports