Recently, the general manager of rockets, stone, was interviewed by the media and talked about the topics related to the talent show night and the rookie in the team.
When asked how it felt to choose Amen-Thompson on draft night, Stone replied, “We are very nervous. We don’t know who will be selected before. I can guess who the number one is, but we don’t know what will happen to the second and third rank. Most of our plans depend on the optional situation of Amen-Thompson, but we have indeed prepared many countermeasures for unexpected situations.”
Stone also talked about the rocket’s selection of Whitmore in the 20th order: “We have actually made a decision and tried to trade upward. We have several goals in the 20th order, but we didn’t expect Whitmore to fall down, so we actually talked up about the deal, and several times we thought it would work, because we had already finalized all the terms with the team ahead, they just need to let us know whether they want to do this when the picks are approaching. Generally speaking, when the transaction negotiation is so deep, you have the probability of five to five. I think we have three transaction negotiations almost to be reached, and we will definitely choose Whitmore, no matter which signing position we trade to, we are doing what we want to do. However, when we were negotiating, we didn’t expect that he would fall to the 20th place. We always thought that of course they wouldn’t let Whitmore fall into our hands, and the team ahead would choose him.”
When talking about the prospect of Amen-Thompson and Whitmore, Stone said, “We will wait and see. I just know them at this stage, I don’t think it is appropriate to require anyone to enter NBA and become a savior immediately. This league is very difficult to play. Some people can prepare to contribute to a winning team when they come in, but this is very rare. When you enter the league at the age of 18, 19, 20, it’s really hard, so, no matter what stage they are at now, we have accepted them, we are really comfortable with their long-term prospects and talents. The sooner they contribute, the happier we will be. I don’t think they will have pressure from the first day to play and exert their influence. If they can do it, that’s good, but if they can’t, we are also happy. Our goal is to wait for them to reach a certain level after three or four years.”
