Rockets' Rafael Stone's Trade History Places Him Outside of Top-Ten GMs

Rafael Stone has generally drawn positive reviews since taking over as General Manager for the Houston Rockets.

It's hard not to view him favorably, considering the state of affairs within the organization when he first took over and where the franchise sits today, as one of the leagues better young teams.

Not to mention the roster depth and embarrassment of riches on the roster.

Just last week, Stone was ranked as the best front office executive when it comes to drafting players.

The same writer, Yahoo Sports' Ben Rohrbach, rated Stone much lower at making trades .

Stone came in at 11th, which isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a noticeable dip.

"We'll see what becomes of the Kevin Durant deal.

For now we will conservatively rate it as a double, as we know he will be a mainstay in Houston's lineup going forward.

How much the soon-to-be 37-year-old has left in the tank, and whether he can be the leader this young team needs him to be, is in question.

In advance of acquiring Durant, Stone built a No.

2-seeded upstart that was upset in the opening round of the playoffs by a more seasoned Warriors team.

He has built well from every which way, including in the trade market, where Durant is in theory the final piece to a championship puzzle a home run." Stone hasn't made a ton of trades, to be fair.

At least not a lot of big trades.

He's done quite well when he has, though.

The James Harden deal drew a historic haul of draft capital.

In fact, Kevin Durant arrived by way of that trade, as the Rockets dealt the Brooklyn Nets their original picks back, in exchange for the Phoenix Suns' picks, which were the linchpin of the deal.

The Russell Westbrook trade was fine.

John Wall's salary was easiest to slot in, and the Rockets nabbed a first-round pick in the deal.

The Eric Gordon trade was good, as it helped the Rockets land Cam Whitmore, who was viewed as a top-ten talent in his draft class (although the Rockets held on to Gordon much longer than they probably should have).

The Kevin Porter Jr.

experiment failed in the end, as his personal issues eventually led to his ouster, but the Rockets didn't give up much of anything to acquire him (late-round draft capital that didn't convey).

Sometimes that happens.

All told, Stone hasn't necessarily made any horrible trades.

Most of them have been fair and reasonable, outside of the Harden and Durant deals, which were stellar..

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