{"id":21590,"date":"2025-05-09T17:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T17:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/21590\/"},"modified":"2025-05-09T17:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T17:36:10","slug":"rockets-gm-stone-talks-green-continuity-adams-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/21590\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets GM Stone Talks Green, Continuity, Adams, More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite a 38-point outing in Game 2, fourth-year guard Jalen Green<\/a> struggled mightily in the Rockets\u2018 first-round playoff series vs. Golden State, averaging 13.3 points per game with a .372\/.295\/.667 shooting line in the first seven postseason games of his career. Those numbers were well below his regular season marks of 21.0 PPG on .423\/.354\/.813 shooting.<\/p>\n

\"\"Speaking to reporters, including Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle<\/a> (subscription required), at an end-of-season press conference on Tuesday, general manager Rafael Stone defended Green, noting that \u201cone playoff series doesn\u2019t define a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJalen didn\u2019t have the series that he wanted to have, or we didn\u2019t,\u201d Stone said. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s a little bit of a double-edged sword in terms of trying to evaluate it, because their goal going into the series was to take him out, and that was obvious.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 We are not a team built around any one player offensively, whether Jalen or Alperen (Sengun)<\/a> or Amen (Thompson)<\/a> or Fred (VanVleet)<\/a>. And so if your goal is to take out one of our players, in theory, what should happen is that our other players should just punish it. And (head coach) Ime (Udoka) frequently talks to the guys about inviting double teams: hit the guy, and you\u2019re the sacrificial lamb. And so, you know, in some games we punished it. In some games we didn\u2019t, and one of the games we ended up with great spacing, and we were able to punish it with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Udoka acknowledged that Green went through some \u201cgrowing pains\u201d in the postseason as the Warriors focused more defensive attention on him and said he has talked to the 23-year-old about areas to focus on this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think physically getting stronger to absorb contact on some of his drives when he has the advantage, or finishing at the rim when he does get the driving lane, all those things are things we talked about with him going into the offseason,\u201d Udoka said, per Lerner. \u201cAnd (being) able to use him off ball a little bit more, and you got to get a little bit stronger as far as that because they took him out of some of those actions where they couldn\u2019t trap him.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Green was more effective during the regular season than in the playoffs, there were still some troubling trends evident over the larger 82-game sample. Most notably, Houston had a +9.4 net rating when he was off the court, the highest off-court mark for any player on the roster. The team was a modest +2.8 during Green\u2019s minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a really flawed question,\u201d Stone said when asked specifically about that on\/off-court data. \u201cI can make data say whatever I want it to say. And so, you know, I think we heavily use it but we\u2019re very careful to try and really parse it out. And I would say that some of our very best lineups include him and so that piece by itself, I just think that\u2019s just, yeah, that\u2019s just not correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three-year, $105MM+ rookie scale extension that Green signed last fall will go into effect this July, so his cap hit will increase from $12.5MM this past season to $33.3MM in 2025\/26.<\/p>\n

Here are a few more highlights from Tuesday\u2019s presser featuring Stone and Udoka:<\/p>\n

The most pressing question in Houston this offseason is whether the front office will be looking to pursue a star on the trade market. Addressing that subject on Tuesday, Stone didn\u2019t rule out the possibility, but suggested it\u2019s not Plan A for the front office. \u201cI will give you an inside betting tip that I think continuity is very, very likely,\u201d the Rockets\u2019 GM said, according to Lerner<\/a> (subscription required). \u201cLast summer, we didn\u2019t make changes because we were really comfortable with where we were, and we\u2019d seen really good things from our team in terms of kind of a good progression. And I think we saw more of the same this year. So I think the bar to make changes is very high.\u201d
\nStone did offer an important caveat to his comments about continuity:\u00a0\u201cI think continuity for continuity\u2019s sake isn\u2019t what we\u2019re trying to achieve. Continuity is great, but the goal ultimately is to build a championship team. And if we think that there\u2019s a move or a series of moves that make it more likely we will be that then, then we would ignore continuity, and we do those moves.\u201d
\nStone also observed that trading for an impact player doesn\u2019t guarantee he \u201cwill be the same player in our environment that (he was) in the last one,\u201d meaning the Rockets would proceed with caution and would be seeking the right fit if they go that route. As for whether or not Houston would target a player who fits the timeline of its young core in that hypothetical scenario, Stone confirmed that would be a consideration but not necessarily a deciding factor. \u201cIt\u2019s more important how good you are and what you can bring,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we do want to be very competitive for as long as we possibly can.\u201d
\nReferring to this year\u2019s Rockets as governor Tilman Fertitta\u2018s \u201cfavorite team he\u2019s ever had,\u201d Stone expressed confidence in the young core\u2019s ability to continue improving after taking a significant step forward in 2024\/25. \u201cI think we\u2019re on a very solid trajectory,\u201d Stone said, per ESPN\u2019s Michael C. Wright<\/a>. \u201cBut just because you\u2019ve done it in the past doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019re guaranteed to do it in the future. So, we have to continue to put in the work, which kind of starts on an individual basis, and not just with our players, (but) myself, my staff. We have to figure out around the edges, are there things we can do, including doing nothing. We have to do our jobs. Ime and his staff, they have to do theirs. We all have to come back a little better next year. But today, I\u2019m very comfortable with our progression.\u201d
\nVeteran center Steven Adams<\/a> will be an unrestricted free agent this summer after playing a key role off the bench \u2014 his +9.4 net rating during the regular season and +14.1 mark in the postseason were both team highs. According to Stone, bringing back Adams will be an offseason priority for the front office. \u201cHe\u2019s a really important part of the group, and kind of the continuity I talked about and the value earlier, he\u2019s an important part of that,\u201d Stone said, per Jonathan M. Alexander of The Houston Chronicle<\/a> (subscription required). \u201cIt\u2019s a two-way street. He has to want to be here. Every indication we have is that he does.\u201d
\nIn case you missed it, Stone also expressed optimism<\/a> on Tuesday that VanVleet will \u201cbe with us for the foreseeable future.\u201d The Rockets and VanVleet are reportedly exploring<\/a> pushing back the decision deadline for his $44.9MM team option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite a 38-point outing in Game 2, fourth-year guard Jalen Green struggled mightily in the Rockets\u2018 first-round playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,861,6,7473,211,962,7474],"class_list":{"0":"post-21590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-jalen-green","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-rafael-stone","15":"tag-rockets","16":"tag-steven-adams","17":"tag-tilman-fertitta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114479090041250253","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}