As the Feb. 10 trade deadline nears for the NBA’s 2021-22 season, the Houston Rockets may make big moves, or they might not. But either way, general manager Rafael Stone doesn’t want the players on his current roster to be surprised by the ultimate outcome.
In an interview taped Monday with Matt Thomas of SportsTalk 790, the flagship radio station of the Rockets in Houston, Stone underscored the important role of communication with players.
Among his noteworthy comments:
I try to be somebody that people feel like A) they can talk to, and B) will tell them the truth. That is really, really important to me.
I think this is a repeat business. You frequently have players that you see more than once. A player that I traded, I actually had a great conversation with a couple days ago, because they were in town, and we hung out for 20 minutes and talked about their kids. You want this to be something that people understand is part of the business, but there’s a right way to do it and a wrong way. I try very hard to do it the right way.
We try and be pretty transparent, and not tell people for sure there’s no way (they’ll be traded), or that for sure they will be. This time of the year, there’s always some uncertainty. It’s part of the job. Try not to focus on it. If something looks likely, I try not to surprise guys.
Houston Rockets General Manager Rafael Stone Discusses State Of The Team Halfway Through The Season, And If They Might Make Any Midseason Moves. https://t.co/FsygTZ8cLl
— SportsTalk 790 (@SportsTalk790) January 31, 2022
Besides it being the right thing to do, there are also potential basketball benefits. For example, in November, powerful agent Rich Paul cited the non-playing agreement reached between the Rockets and John Wall as a template that he wanted to see used with disgruntled star Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers (who, ironically, are now run by longtime Houston general manager Daryl Morey, Stone’s former boss).
In the long run, building up a sort of “good will” between the Rockets and NBA players and agents could prove beneficial.
As for today, with this season’s trade deadline less than 10 days away, Stone says that no Houston player is currently on high alert. But if that changes, expect Stone to let them know.
“It feels right now like there’s nobody that I need to be saying, Hey, it looks like there’s something done, or this is going to happen.’ We are pretty happy with our roster,” he said. “We do like our current construct, and we think that there should be a decent amount of internal growth.”
“From the outside looking in, people may be perceiving that we’re going to do stuff that maybe we’re not going to do,” Stone told Thomas. “We want to get better, we want to do the right deals, and doing the right deal is very different from doing a deal.”
The complete interview can be listened to below.
