Rockets GM Rafael Stone Gives Surprising Answer to The Point Guard Situation

There are some prominent issues for the Houston Rockets to address over the offseason. The concerns remain on how the team can be constructed to improve on offense while maintaining the defensive and physical identity.

Injuries really hurt how the Rockets were planning to conduct their play style and none was as important as starting veteran point guard Fred VanVleet going down with a torn ACL before the season started. That created arguably the biggest problem for the 2025-26 Rockets. A lack of a true ball-handler who could confidently and consistently run the offense.

It created the higher number of turnovers and a lower amount of offensive production. The Rockets ended up relying on just their physicality and size on that end of the floor. That can win some games, but that's never enough in the NBA Playoffs where every single team plays hard.

At many points this season, the Rockets struggled with shot creation and shot selection. A experienced point guard would have helped. Rockets general manager Rafael Stone held an end-of-season press conference on Monday and dove into his past thinking regarding that situation. The answer has not been well received for the most part.

Stone Answers the Rockets Plan at Point Guard

Apr 26, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet (5) dribbles against the Golden State Warriors during the fourth quarter of game three of first round for the 2024 NBA Playoffs at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

There's no doubt that the Rockets hold VanVleet in the highest regard. So much so that Stone publicly thought about punting the season and mentioning it's not the Rockets' year. That injury hurt them a lot, 100 percent. Even with the issues it was causing the offense, the front office decided not to make a move. That surprised a lot of folks. Stone gave a lengthy answer to that.

Rafael Stone offered a lengthy explanation on why the Rockets didn’t aggressively pursue a point guard after Fred VanVleet’s season-ending injury:

“What I don't believe in philosophically is just going to get a point guard because they're a point guard.”

Full quote ⬇️

“Just… pic.twitter.com/ev41aCZXBu
— Michael Shapiro (@mshap2) May 4, 2026

“Just because somebody is a good ball-handler and good passer but they can't defend and they can't shoot, I'd rather just cobble it together rather than, ‘hey, we can get into our offense, but no one guards them after they make the initial pass and on the other end they're just a sieve," Stone said.

He obviously wants a complete player, but those aren't readily available on the trade market. Even then, the Rockets had plenty of time to figure this out given VanVleet's injury happened in the offseason.

Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard were the only two players who could run the point guard position, and they both are still quite new to that.

Thompson was thrust into the role, and he isn't a natural at it just yet. He had never done something like this before, but still grew immensely on the fly. Sheppard had some experience at Kentucky, but experienced the expected ups and downs his first season of playing time.

The Rockets leaned into those two young players in that role, without significantly addressing the need, and the results showed in the playoffs against an injured Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers locked in one-on-one and on the glass. Houston didn't have an answer.

Stone didn't want someone who could just run an offense, but that was the exact issue the Rockets had in a big way. While he publicly will say they didn't want to necessarily be just a championship contender this year, having a 37-year-old superstar in Kevin Durant on your team for just for a couple of seasons seems to point otherwise.

Stone believed that whoever was available wasn't suitable for the team in terms of defense and not being guarded after the pass.

"They're available. But I didn't think that would make us better on the whole. So I do think there's an opportunity cost," Stone said.

The two primary point guards that were available at the deadline were Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu, the latter of whom was considered a solid defender and also shot well overall. The Rockets may not have had as many assets as other teams to make the trade possible, but they did have plenty of draft picks. It was a tough situation to ultimately get a trade done.

"The timing of when Fred went down, I think that dictated our course more than anything because at that point and even at the trade deadline, it would be hard to make a short term deal that didn't hurt us in the long run and what we thought was an optimal trade offer," Stone said.

Basically, the Rockets were set on their plan and didn't want to take a risk. Stone also mentioned there's a trade-off with getting another point guard and how the team may get hurt in other areas. That's certainly debatable as there's never a perfect player. Even VanVleet isn't perfect. He shot 38 percent overall last season and was 34.5 percent from three.

He's now heading into the 10th year of his career and is a 32-year-old coming off a torn ACL. There is a lot of reliance on FVV going forward. The question remains what the plan is now. Stone remained open to the idea of adding another point guard behind VanVleet, but was still hesitant. That goes back to his original answer.

"If the opportunity comes in to get a good positive player who's also really skilled, then we'll jump on it," Stone said.

It seems like the Rockets will once again lean into what they have and the expectation is to improve significantly with VanVleet on the floor, who Stone believes is a great fit alongside Sheppard and Thompson.

The Rockets are also relying on internal improvement from Sheppard and Thompson to handle those roles, instead of going out and trying to get a more experienced option.

"We would like to be better in shooting, we'd like to do all that without giving up defensive rebounding. I hope we can do that. That's always the goal, but if we can't, we'll have to make some hard decisions around the margins," Stone said.

The organization seems to value rebounding far more than any improvement in offense execution and getting into sets. There will obviously be a trade-off like Stone said, but the Rockets don't seem willing to make that trade-off to help the offense. It's on VanVleet to prove them right in 2026-27.

Add us as a preferred source on Google