The team had called the Thunder and Magic about potentially moving up to No. 2 or even No. 1, but they were more so inquiries to gauge either team’s willingness to even consider trading down. Ultimately, the Rockets didn’t feel a sense of urgency to give up a substantial package or premium asset to make that jump, especially when they were fine picking any of the top three players. “We thought about it a lot,” Stone told The Athletic in a recent phone interview. “But it wasn’t clear who we’d be moving up to. You think about moving up in every spot of the draft. You always think about that, that’s part of the job. But one of the nice things — and we knew on lottery night — was that we were going to get somebody that we thought could be part of our organization for a long time and really help us take the next step in this process we’re trying to build. That doesn’t mean you foreclose conversations; you talk to everybody about everything, but we always felt comfortable picking where we were picking and we’re really excited.”