Rockets Trade 4 Recent Draft Picks; GM Rafael Stone Failure?

The Houston Rockets are moving in a new direction, saying goodbye to four of the team's draft picks since 2020 over the weekend.

In three separate trades, general manager Rafael Stone found a new home for 2020 second-round pick K.J. Martin, 2021 first-round picks Josh Christopher, Usman Garuba and 2022 first-round pick TyTy Washington.

Christopher, Garuba and Washington were three of the nine first-round selections Stone has made in the past three drafts, while Martin came on a flier at the end of the 2020 draft, the final moments of the James Harden era.

Despite having promising outlooks coming into the NBA, these four never found their footing with the Rockets.

Martin was the closest out of the four to figure it out, starting 49 games this past season. Most of those starts came after the departure of Eric Gordon at the trade deadline, but Martin never found happiness with his role in Houston. After the Rockets drafted Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore, two players who could take minutes away from him, Houston dealt him to Los Angeles.

The surplus of young talent that the Rockets have brought in is a strategy that helped them build some semblance of a youth movement. And through the "organic learning," the Rockets have found potential franchise centerpieces in Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason, four of the team's draft picks in the past two years. Along with Thompson and Whitmore, that's six recent first-round picks who could all be key players for the Rockets when they are contending again.

But is trading away the other draft picks mean general manager Rafael Stone failed on those picks? No.

The Rockets were never going to hit on every single draft pick they made, simply because there wasn't enough playing time for everybody. Drafting four rookies in 2021 was the start of that, and by taking that many players, odds increase on one of those hitting.

It looks like two of those could hit in Green and Sengun, making that draft successful. Christopher and Garuba could still be successful NBA players, but the situation they were drafted into with the Rockets wasn't working in their favor.

The same can be said for Martin and Washington. When you aren't a top-20 pick, it takes a little luck to catch on to an NBA team. Martin had that good fortune in part because the Rockets traded away Harden two months after taking him in the draft and opportunity was there. Martin simply answered the door.

For Washington, he was unable to work his way up the depth chart with Kevin Porter Jr. and Daishen Nix ahead of him, and that resulted in a lack of playing time and opportunity for him. Perhaps the Hawks could give him that, but he'll play behind Trae Young and Dejounte Murray, among others.

If there is a failure here, it's simply the situation that the Rockets were in. They had too many young players and not enough minutes to help develop them.

Now, Houston is taking a different approach, and that requires some seasoned players to play along those rookies who have made the cut by circumstance (Thompson, Whitmore) and what they have shown so far (Green, Sengun, Smith, Eason).

You can follow Jeremy Brener on Twitter @JeremyBrener.

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