Market Data 
It was a busy offseason in 2023 for Rockets general manager Rafael Stone. After his team finished with just 22 wins, Stone fired head coach Stephen Silas (who had been the team’s head coach since 2020), hired Ime Udoka, drafted point guard Amen Thompson and shooting guard Cam Whitmore in the draft, and signed veterans Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks to lucrative long term contracts in an attempt to remake the team’s culture. The result? 41 wins and a 19 win improvement over last season. Stone was rewarded with a contract extension by Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta. Stone’s peers voted him fifth in Executive of the Year Award voting.
Stone received two first place votes and one third place vote. Boston’s Brad Stevens took home the award with 101 total points. Oklahoma City’s Sam Presti finished second. Stone can hope to seriously contend for the award next season if his Rockets take a similar jump to the one Presti’s did this season with the Thunder finishing with 57 wins (and the top seed in the Western Conference) after going 40-42 last season.
Stone, previously the team’s general counsel, succeeded longtime team executive Daryl Morey following the 2019-2020 season. He immediately inherited tumultuous circumstances with All-Star guards Russell Westbrook and James Harden both requesting trades that same offseason. Ultimately, Harden was dealt to the Brooklyn Nets, a move which catapulted an outright tear-down for the Rockets franchise with three losing seasons ensuing.
Stone’s extension ensures that he will get an opportunity to oversee his rebuild through its next phase. Over the past three seasons, the team has drafted guards Jalen Green, Whitmore, and Thompson, along with center Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., and Tari Eason. Those six players make up the franchise’s “Core 6” prospects. Green, Smith, and Thompson were selected with the second, third, and fourth overall picks in their respective draft years.
Stone has critical decisions in front of him as he attempts to navigate the team deep into the post-Harden era. Most imminently, Sengun and Green are eligible as early as this offseason for lucrative long term extensions, under the league’s collective bargaining agreement. Similar decisions will be forthcoming for Smith and Eason the following summer. It’s unlikely that the Rockets will be able to retain all six of their core prospects without paying steep luxury tax penalties under the terms of the league’s new collective bargaining agreement. All six players have shown promise thus far early in their careers, to varying degrees.
