Rafael Stone: In 2023 offseason, Rockets to prioritize best player available, fit with Ime Udoka

In the 2023 draft and free agency, #Rockets GM Rafael Stone plans to utilize a “best available player” approach, as long as it meshes with Ime Udoka’s vision for the team and its growth.

In various 2023 mock drafts, Houston’s rumored interest in a reunion with NBA assists leader James Harden has led many analysts to wonder if that might steer the Rockets in a different direction when it comes to young point guards (such as Scoot Henderson or Amen Thompson) potentially available with the No. 4 pick.

Most of those mock drafts, however, are being published by sources that aren’t particularly close to Houston.

At Friday’s Rockets community service day at Freedmen’s Town in Houston’s historic Fourth Ward, Rockets general manager Rafael Stone shook his head and said “no, best available” when asked if there was a connection between what the team might do in the draft and its reportedly aggressive plans for free agency.

Stone, however, offered one qualifier. Whoever the Rockets add to the roster needs to mesh with the vision of new head coach Ime Udoka, which lends credence to previous reports that have suggested Udoka will have a fairly large say in personnel moves.

“We need to understand his vision,” Stone said. “We need a lot of help from Ime in terms of the direction he wants the team to go. Then, it’s on us to do the work to get the right guy to fit that. It doesn’t make any sense to go get a great player whose strengths lay in a style of basketball that Ime doesn’t particularly want to play.”

“We’re spending a lot of time together to make sure we’re completely on the same page,” Stone concluded. “I’m just trying to understand how we’re going to play, and how he envisions the growth going forward. That’s on both of us to make sure we’re on the same page.”

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