Houston Rockets General Manager Rafael Stone entered the season ranked as one of the best front office executives in the league, based on a survey that graded the league's GMs. The survey assessed three different facets: trade history, draft history and free agency history.

However, the 2025-26 NBA season saw Stone fall out of favor with many, largely due to the Rockets' inability to replace Fred VanVleet, not to mention the botched Dorian Finney-Smith acquisition, as he essentially spent the entire season rehabbing an injury and trying to get himself back to the pre-injury version of himself -- a process that took much longer than the Rockets anticipated, by their own admission.

As it pertains to VanVleet, he suffered a season-ending knee injury before the season even started.…