July 8, 2025 • 12 mins
Rockets General Manager Rafael Stone Joins The Show To Talk Recent Trade Moves
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eleven o'clock Sports Talk seven ninety. It is a Matt
Thomas show with Ross and we are very happy to
be joined by a man who has given a lot
of energy to the city the last handful of days,
the last couple of weeks, in fact, with the acquisitions
of Kevin Durant during Finney Smith, my friend to Clint Capella.
All back in town. Rafel Stone, the Rockets general manager,
with us here on seven. Unty Rafel When I sit
(00:22):
with my family at the end of the season and
they're like, Dad, it's good to have you home. You've
been gone a lot. Wivee's like, now you can do
the honeydew list. I have never been more excited, and
this is God's honest truth, excited about a schedule release.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And the start of the season as we have right now.
I'm sure you feel the exact same way.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, I mean, I'm probably looking forward it next year.
I'm really excited for Summer League in like a month off.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
So, okay, I get it, I get it.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
So But having said that, yeah, no, I think you know,
I think it when when when we all get back
together kind of yeah, I don't know, probably end up
happening end of August, beginning of September. It'll it'll be
fun and by that time I'll definitely be recharged.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So is it like?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And you know, look, I could ask you, Hey, how's
cools that to have Kevin Durant.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Everybody knows he's great. He's one of the all time greats.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
So is it is it? Was it like in previous years?
More so the texting, the phone calls. You couldn't leave
your cell phone beside me. How rigid was this process
or were there days in between that you could kind
of let both sides, whether it's the sun's breathe, your
self breathe the agents. Where was it in terms of
the intensity of just having to be a part of
(01:36):
every single decision that was being made along the way?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
No, like you know it was you're talking about specifically
the trade with Phoenix.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
For yeah, any any of the problem.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I'm just because you did so much and I'm always
curious about you know, I always like to know how
the sausage made when it comes to this kind of stuff.
So was it just you hear from them, they hear
from you. You take a couple of days off, they
want more, You give them more that you want less,
they want less?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And where where?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Where?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Where was that in terms of communication process?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah? No, I mean, first, Phoenix was great to work with. Second,
I think, you know, I think we very early on
we kind of decided that the that the deal kind
of had to look a certain way, and so we
articulated that and then I don't want to say we
were kind of done, but but to a certain degree.
(02:27):
That's that's kind of where we were. And and if
that ended up being something that they wanted to pursue, great,
and if not, then we understood. And and so there
wasn't there wasn't a ton of back and forth. I
you know, I don't I don't know what it was
like on their end, but but from ours, yeah, it was.
It was just kind of you know, uh, you know,
(02:49):
making money work in the NBA is hard, and so
there are kind of very limited ways to do it,
and and so kind of once once we figured that
piece of it out, I think we knew from a
value position that that we were giving what we thought
was a lot. We thought that I think they did
great in the trade. I mean, we gave them a
tremendous amount of value, and so that that was kind
(03:12):
of it from our perspective. And then you know, like
they had to canvas the mart, they had to do
whatever they did on their end to get comfortable, and
eventually they did and then and then the kind of
deal happened. But it wasn't It wasn't one of those like,
you know, three weeks of negotiations or anything like that. Yeah,
it was not from my perspective.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
At least you resign Stephen, you get a new contract
for a Jabbari, You bring into Dorian Finney Smith, who
was a rocket killer. It felt like the last couple
of times we faced them, you bring back clin Cappella.
Were those easy fitting pieces because of the fact that
you had some money to spend, You weren't having to
give up a whole lot in terms of a little.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Bit of salary of flexibility.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Was that as easy as it came across or was
there a lot of puzzle fitting together to make all
those things work together at one time?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Puzzle fitting together? Yeah, and just because you don't you
have no idea going into free agency, who's gonna end
up doing what? And so we had a lot of
irons in the fire, and you know, and then you've
also got your priorities of like, Okay, this is the
thing we're most worried about. So maybe that's the first meeting,
you know, at I don't know whatever time it was,
(04:21):
three o'clock, five o'clock, I don't remember what time. You
can the first meeting is. But you've got that, and
then then you've got to wait for an answer. And
as much as you might tell somebody we need an
answer very quickly, they don't always give that to you.
In this case, we were lucky we got it, which
then allowed us to flip immediately to the next guy,
(04:42):
and and it just kind of worked out that way.
But you know, but yeah, so it Yeah, things fell
fell into place a little bit for us, for us
this year. But obviously you have to be you have
to be ready for thirty five different scenarios.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
And we were ross of you as well here Roephelstone
rockets GM with us here on Sports Talk seven ninety
and you mentioned you gave up a lot, and I agree.
There are a lot of people saying, oh, it didn't
cost you anything, but what was it like for you
balancing what you did give up? The value of eighty
two games of Jalen Green and seventy five games of
Dylan Brooks and getting back what you did. But knowing,
(05:19):
you know, to succeed in the playoffs, you need somebody
like Kevin Durant who can beat great NBA defenses.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, I mean, you know, we were extremely fond of
Jalen and Dylan, and they weren't enormous. Yeah, you pointed out,
Jalen played eighty two this year, played eighty two last year.
Dylan plays every game that he possibly can, like set
foot on the court on and so and we were
coming off two very good years and so yeah, so
(05:51):
you know, we we we didn't give those you know,
in a vacuum, we would have never given those guys up.
It was only the opportunity to add somebody like Kevin
with his super unique skill set that you know that
that made us even consider it. And obviously we did it.
So so we wanted to do it, and uh, you know,
and we're happy about it. But but but it's but
(06:12):
it's always hard when when uh when really quality people
and really good players uh are part of it. You
know that it's it's part of this business. And and
it's not even a bad part because hopefully they go
on to two great opportunities too. But it but it's
it's not easy. It's what I would say, well, what.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Was the feeling for you when the deal was done
and you made it?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Was it just were you relieved?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Were you excited? Anxious a little bit all of that?
And and you and now that it's kind of been
done for a little bit, how are you feeling now?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Uh yeah, a little bit of all of that. And
but then it's like, okay, well, yeah, we need to backfill,
like like, like you pointed out, Jalen plays every game,
Dylan plays virtually every game, and and we want Kevin
to play as much as he's able, but we also
want to make sure that we don't we don't run
him into the ground. Plug. It's just we we we
gave up two guys and we only got one back.
(07:03):
So you know, immediately after, it's like, you know, you're
excited about it, You're excited about the possibilities, but then
it's also like, okay, how are we going to back
You know, now all of a sudden, we've got these
other things we want to accomplish that are that that
are you know that that are brand new and so,
uh so it's you know, it's a little bit of
it's a little bit of all of it.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Please never ask me, Rafel to try to quiz me
on the seven teams that were involved in the trade.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Uh, how did that come about?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
What got into the thoughts that we need to make
this the biggest trade literally in NBA history?
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Oh? You know, well, the vast folk of that was
Phoenix because because they they reflipped all those second round
picks and so so, yeah, I mean it definitely wasn't
uh yeah, I mean from my perspective, it was just
a three team trade. But you know, one of the
things about doing deals this way is that we kind
(07:59):
of had two weeks and before the deal could get
get consummated, and so it did give it gave everybody
time to explore possibly expanding expanding the trade, which is
which is what happened.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Far let's you run. You're going to be headed to Vegas
here shortly for a camp. The most recognizable name obviously
is Reed Shepherd. Assess what your thought of year one
and not that anything's going to get accomplished in Vegas.
But more importantly, there's a lot of folks that are
that are very bullish on Reid.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I'd be one of them. You certainly were.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I know that his name was being bantered about him
potential trades and whatnot. Whether that's true or not, and
who knows, But the point being is that he is
being given an opportunity to kind of say, hey, let's
do a read or not necessarily a red draft, but hey,
we're going to give you a spot here to get
some serious minutes in twenty twenty five, twenty six.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, no, I think I think read. You know, he
came into a very fully formed team and a super
deep team last year and we were able to like
kind of carve out a little niche for him the
first two thirds of the season, but you know, and
just to start playing great focus them. But yeah, no,
I mean, I I just think he he's gonna have
(09:04):
to be really good for us. He's we're we've penciled
him into to a big role and and everything we've
seen kind of in practice and everything else is he's
gonna be ready for it. But but you know, practice
aren't you know, practices aren't games, and he's gonna have
to transfer it. And he's really working on his physicality,
which I love and and uh, you know, and we'll
(09:26):
see in Summer League. You know, the great thing about
Summer League is you just get games. It's it's kind
of hard too to find uh NBA quality games that
they're and they're not actually NBA quality games, but they're
but it's the closest thing you can kind of find.
So so he'll get a few games in, which is
great and and then you know, kind of it'll be
a little bit of a barometer where he's at and
(09:47):
and give him a chance to to get going going
into the kind of set you know, second half of
the summer. But he's been in the gym every day.
He works really hard. He's really smart, and I do
think he's absurdly talented.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
His name was being bandied about the summer, not because
of us, but because other teams wanted him. Right, we
were not very interested. We definitely want to want to
play this out and give read the chance.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
To develop as compared to previous year's final question, you're
going to go to Vegas, A general manager will pull
you aside, say hey, let's have a visit. With it
being as active as this offseason was, do you think
you'll get a lot of those kind of side visits
this upcoming next couple weeks, or do you think things
that will have cooled off a little bit.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
You know, Vegas tends to be pretty low key on
that front, just because so many deals get done around
the draft that that half the league at that point
is not tradable or three quarters of it isn't tradable
because because just because of the way the rules work,
when you kind of acquire people in late June, there's
(10:54):
there's you can't reflip them or reaggregate them. I'll definitely
talk to the GM and other owners or not other owners,
but to owners and coaches and everybody. It's it's kind
of like a big convention, but it's more of a
setting up the set up, like you know, it's more
kind of hey, directly where you guys going, Oh, we'll
keep our eye on you. And sometimes those conversations lead
(11:16):
to things in February or the next summer, But rarely
is it as immediate as as like you know, some
you know, as kind of a this summer type thing.
And for us, given what we've done, I think, like
I said, you know, we we have maybe a tiny
bit of flexibility with our fourteenth and fifteenth roster spots.
(11:37):
But for the most part, I think we're just gonna
gonna play it out for a bit, see how this
team can gel and and and hopefully, you know, hopefully
things turn out pretty good and you know, and we
have a successful season.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Sounds awesome, rapel thank you for the time. We appreciate
you coming on and safe travels the Las Vegas. We'll
talk to you soon.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Thanks guys, thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
You got rafel Stone joining his Rockets genteral manager here
on the radio program.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I'm serious. I cannot wait.
Eleven o'clock Sports Talk seven ninety. It is a Matt
Thomas show with Ross and we are very happy to
be joined by a man who has given a lot
of energy to the city the last handful of days,
the last couple of weeks, in fact, with the acquisitions
of Kevin Durant during Finney Smith, my friend to Clint Capella.
All back in town. Rafel Stone, the Rockets general manager,
with us here on seven. Unty Rafel When I sit
(00:22):
with my family at the end of the season and
they're like, Dad, it's good to have you home. You've
been gone a lot. Wivee's like, now you can do
the honeydew list. I have never been more excited, and
this is God's honest truth, excited about a schedule release.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
And the start of the season as we have right now.
I'm sure you feel the exact same way.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah, I mean, I'm probably looking forward it next year.
I'm really excited for Summer League in like a month off.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
So, okay, I get it, I get it.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
So But having said that, yeah, no, I think you know,
I think it when when when we all get back
together kind of yeah, I don't know, probably end up
happening end of August, beginning of September. It'll it'll be
fun and by that time I'll definitely be recharged.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So is it like?
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And you know, look, I could ask you, Hey, how's
cools that to have Kevin Durant.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Everybody knows he's great. He's one of the all time greats.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
So is it is it? Was it like in previous years?
More so the texting, the phone calls. You couldn't leave
your cell phone beside me. How rigid was this process
or were there days in between that you could kind
of let both sides, whether it's the sun's breathe, your
self breathe the agents. Where was it in terms of
the intensity of just having to be a part of
(01:36):
every single decision that was being made along the way?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
No, like you know it was you're talking about specifically
the trade with Phoenix.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
For yeah, any any of the problem.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I'm just because you did so much and I'm always
curious about you know, I always like to know how
the sausage made when it comes to this kind of stuff.
So was it just you hear from them, they hear
from you. You take a couple of days off, they
want more, You give them more that you want less,
they want less?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And where where?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Where?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Where was that in terms of communication process?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah? No, I mean, first, Phoenix was great to work with. Second,
I think, you know, I think we very early on
we kind of decided that the that the deal kind
of had to look a certain way, and so we
articulated that and then I don't want to say we
were kind of done, but but to a certain degree.
(02:27):
That's that's kind of where we were. And and if
that ended up being something that they wanted to pursue, great,
and if not, then we understood. And and so there
wasn't there wasn't a ton of back and forth. I
you know, I don't I don't know what it was
like on their end, but but from ours, yeah, it was.
It was just kind of you know, uh, you know,
(02:49):
making money work in the NBA is hard, and so
there are kind of very limited ways to do it,
and and so kind of once once we figured that
piece of it out, I think we knew from a
value position that that we were giving what we thought
was a lot. We thought that I think they did
great in the trade. I mean, we gave them a
tremendous amount of value, and so that that was kind
(03:12):
of it from our perspective. And then you know, like
they had to canvas the mart, they had to do
whatever they did on their end to get comfortable, and
eventually they did and then and then the kind of
deal happened. But it wasn't It wasn't one of those like,
you know, three weeks of negotiations or anything like that. Yeah,
it was not from my perspective.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
At least you resign Stephen, you get a new contract
for a Jabbari, You bring into Dorian Finney Smith, who
was a rocket killer. It felt like the last couple
of times we faced them, you bring back clin Cappella.
Were those easy fitting pieces because of the fact that
you had some money to spend, You weren't having to
give up a whole lot in terms of a little.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Bit of salary of flexibility.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Was that as easy as it came across or was
there a lot of puzzle fitting together to make all
those things work together at one time?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Puzzle fitting together? Yeah, and just because you don't you
have no idea going into free agency, who's gonna end
up doing what? And so we had a lot of
irons in the fire, and you know, and then you've
also got your priorities of like, Okay, this is the
thing we're most worried about. So maybe that's the first meeting,
you know, at I don't know whatever time it was,
(04:21):
three o'clock, five o'clock, I don't remember what time. You
can the first meeting is. But you've got that, and
then then you've got to wait for an answer. And
as much as you might tell somebody we need an
answer very quickly, they don't always give that to you.
In this case, we were lucky we got it, which
then allowed us to flip immediately to the next guy,
(04:42):
and and it just kind of worked out that way.
But you know, but yeah, so it Yeah, things fell
fell into place a little bit for us, for us
this year. But obviously you have to be you have
to be ready for thirty five different scenarios.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
And we were ross of you as well here Roephelstone
rockets GM with us here on Sports Talk seven ninety
and you mentioned you gave up a lot, and I agree.
There are a lot of people saying, oh, it didn't
cost you anything, but what was it like for you
balancing what you did give up? The value of eighty
two games of Jalen Green and seventy five games of
Dylan Brooks and getting back what you did. But knowing,
(05:19):
you know, to succeed in the playoffs, you need somebody
like Kevin Durant who can beat great NBA defenses.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, I mean, you know, we were extremely fond of
Jalen and Dylan, and they weren't enormous. Yeah, you pointed out,
Jalen played eighty two this year, played eighty two last year.
Dylan plays every game that he possibly can, like set
foot on the court on and so and we were
coming off two very good years and so yeah, so
(05:51):
you know, we we we didn't give those you know,
in a vacuum, we would have never given those guys up.
It was only the opportunity to add somebody like Kevin
with his super unique skill set that you know that
that made us even consider it. And obviously we did it.
So so we wanted to do it, and uh, you know,
and we're happy about it. But but but it's but
(06:12):
it's always hard when when uh when really quality people
and really good players uh are part of it. You
know that it's it's part of this business. And and
it's not even a bad part because hopefully they go
on to two great opportunities too. But it but it's
it's not easy. It's what I would say, well, what.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Was the feeling for you when the deal was done
and you made it?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Was it just were you relieved?
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Were you excited? Anxious a little bit all of that?
And and you and now that it's kind of been
done for a little bit, how are you feeling now?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Uh yeah, a little bit of all of that. And
but then it's like, okay, well, yeah, we need to backfill,
like like, like you pointed out, Jalen plays every game,
Dylan plays virtually every game, and and we want Kevin
to play as much as he's able, but we also
want to make sure that we don't we don't run
him into the ground. Plug. It's just we we we
gave up two guys and we only got one back.
(07:03):
So you know, immediately after, it's like, you know, you're
excited about it, You're excited about the possibilities, but then
it's also like, okay, how are we going to back
You know, now all of a sudden, we've got these
other things we want to accomplish that are that that
are you know that that are brand new and so,
uh so it's you know, it's a little bit of
it's a little bit of all of it.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Please never ask me, Rafel to try to quiz me
on the seven teams that were involved in the trade.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Uh, how did that come about?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
What got into the thoughts that we need to make
this the biggest trade literally in NBA history?
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Oh? You know, well, the vast folk of that was
Phoenix because because they they reflipped all those second round
picks and so so, yeah, I mean it definitely wasn't
uh yeah, I mean from my perspective, it was just
a three team trade. But you know, one of the
things about doing deals this way is that we kind
(07:59):
of had two weeks and before the deal could get
get consummated, and so it did give it gave everybody
time to explore possibly expanding expanding the trade, which is
which is what happened.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Far let's you run. You're going to be headed to Vegas
here shortly for a camp. The most recognizable name obviously
is Reed Shepherd. Assess what your thought of year one
and not that anything's going to get accomplished in Vegas.
But more importantly, there's a lot of folks that are
that are very bullish on Reid.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I'd be one of them. You certainly were.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I know that his name was being bantered about him
potential trades and whatnot. Whether that's true or not, and
who knows, But the point being is that he is
being given an opportunity to kind of say, hey, let's
do a read or not necessarily a red draft, but hey,
we're going to give you a spot here to get
some serious minutes in twenty twenty five, twenty six.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, no, I think I think read. You know, he
came into a very fully formed team and a super
deep team last year and we were able to like
kind of carve out a little niche for him the
first two thirds of the season, but you know, and
just to start playing great focus them. But yeah, no,
I mean, I I just think he he's gonna have
(09:04):
to be really good for us. He's we're we've penciled
him into to a big role and and everything we've
seen kind of in practice and everything else is he's
gonna be ready for it. But but you know, practice
aren't you know, practices aren't games, and he's gonna have
to transfer it. And he's really working on his physicality,
which I love and and uh, you know, and we'll
(09:26):
see in Summer League. You know, the great thing about
Summer League is you just get games. It's it's kind
of hard too to find uh NBA quality games that
they're and they're not actually NBA quality games, but they're
but it's the closest thing you can kind of find.
So so he'll get a few games in, which is
great and and then you know, kind of it'll be
a little bit of a barometer where he's at and
(09:47):
and give him a chance to to get going going
into the kind of set you know, second half of
the summer. But he's been in the gym every day.
He works really hard. He's really smart, and I do
think he's absurdly talented.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
His name was being bandied about the summer, not because
of us, but because other teams wanted him. Right, we
were not very interested. We definitely want to want to
play this out and give read the chance.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
To develop as compared to previous year's final question, you're
going to go to Vegas, A general manager will pull
you aside, say hey, let's have a visit. With it
being as active as this offseason was, do you think
you'll get a lot of those kind of side visits
this upcoming next couple weeks, or do you think things
that will have cooled off a little bit.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
You know, Vegas tends to be pretty low key on
that front, just because so many deals get done around
the draft that that half the league at that point
is not tradable or three quarters of it isn't tradable
because because just because of the way the rules work,
when you kind of acquire people in late June, there's
(10:54):
there's you can't reflip them or reaggregate them. I'll definitely
talk to the GM and other owners or not other owners,
but to owners and coaches and everybody. It's it's kind
of like a big convention, but it's more of a
setting up the set up, like you know, it's more
kind of hey, directly where you guys going, Oh, we'll
keep our eye on you. And sometimes those conversations lead
(11:16):
to things in February or the next summer, But rarely
is it as immediate as as like you know, some
you know, as kind of a this summer type thing.
And for us, given what we've done, I think, like
I said, you know, we we have maybe a tiny
bit of flexibility with our fourteenth and fifteenth roster spots.
(11:37):
But for the most part, I think we're just gonna
gonna play it out for a bit, see how this
team can gel and and and hopefully, you know, hopefully
things turn out pretty good and you know, and we
have a successful season.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Sounds awesome, rapel thank you for the time. We appreciate
you coming on and safe travels the Las Vegas. We'll
talk to you soon.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Thanks guys, thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
You got rafel Stone joining his Rockets genteral manager here
on the radio program.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I'm serious. I cannot wait.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.