Rafael Stone shares logic behind Steven Adams trade
Roughly a week ahead of the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline, where there ultimately as much activity as we may have anticipated, the Houston Rockets acquired big man Steven Adams from the Memphis Grizzlies for Victor Oladipo and three second-round picks.
The trade marked the sixth trade of a deadline where just over two dozen moves were completed. For the first time since making the move, Rockets general manager Rafael Stone opened up to the media Monday on the acquisition.
Here’s what he had to say:
“I think we got a really high-level basketball player, a guy who’s been a dominant rebounding force in the NBA for the last five, six years, one of the best defenders in the NBA,” Stone said, according to Ben Dubose of Rockets Wire. “We obviously feel great with Alperen [Sengun], but I just think now we have truly two starter-level centers next year. Depth is just extraordinarily important. But on top of that, he’s just a very different player, and I think will be a good complement on and off the court for our group.”
Adams, 30, had not played this season after undergoing knee surgery ahead of the 2023-24 season, which was expected to sideline him for the entire campaign. That still appears to be the case, but Stone offered an optimistic update on his injury status.
“The surgery went really well. He’s ahead of schedule on the rehab,” Stone said. “We do expect he’ll be ready for camp. We’re not gonna rush him. If something happens and he’s a little late, that would be perfectly fine. But as of right now, I do anticipate he’ll be ready.”
Adams is one of the best rebounders and screeners in the sport, providing excellent insurance behind 21-year-old center Alperen Sengun. He’s ranked in the top-15 in rebounding percentage in three of the last four seasons and led the NBA in offensive rebounding rate (17.9) in 2021-22.
He will also be invaluable to freeing up Houston’s guards in Fred VanVleet and Jalen Green off-ball. Adams has never been an elite shot-blocker around the rim, but uses his sturdiness and width to make it harder to shoot over him near the rim. Adams is also an underrated playmaker and can supplement the playmaking chops lost by Sengun–a very skilled passer–when he heads to the bench.
By the time he is healthy, Adams will be 31-years-old and will be in the final year of a $25.2 million ($12.6M cap hit), per Spotrac. It was the only move that the Rockets made ahead of the deadline. Houston is currently on the outside-looking-in on the play-in race, currently at 24-29 and three games back of Golden State for the No. 10 seed.
“There were obviously things we were interested in doing, but by no means were we feeling like we had to do something,” Stone said Monday, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic. “We were exploring options that we thought made sense for us, both in the present and the future — and at the end of the day it just makes the most sense to stand pat.
“I do feel like we’ve obviously made a big jump in terms of being competitive this year. That was kind of goal one. Goal two is to take being competitive to winning more games. We’ve won more too. But the point being, we’ve left a bunch of wins on the table this year through all kinds of mistakes and you get better through experience. But we do expect and demand that as our guys get more experience, they learn and they don’t make the same mistakes twice.”
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