How to evaluate the operation of Rockets General Manager S?

The Thunder just won the championship trophy for the 24-25 season, and the 23-24 season champion Celtics began a "demolition" action.

They first sent Holiday to the Trail Blazers to obtain Simmons and two future draft picks. Immediately afterwards, he reached a three-party deal with the Hawks and the Nets, sending Porzingis to the Hawks in exchange for Nian and a second round pick.

Transformed from a young head coach to general manager, Stevens completed the perfect role transformation. After getting Holiday and Porzingis, the Celtics successfully won the championship. Nowadays, through decisive trading, Stevens has demonstrated the decision-making ability of a professional manager.

The Celtics traded Holiday and Porzingis with just one second-round pick and won three second-round picks. And most importantly, the Celtics have saved $238 million in luxury taxes. This is what Stevens really aims to do.

Tatum is expected to return due to a ruptured Achilles tendon. Therefore, the decline in the Celtics' competitiveness is inevitable, but the team is currently facing the dilemma of excessive high contracts. Players such as Brown, White, Holiday, Porzingis may cause the Celtics to fall into a luxury tax vortex. In this case, the Celtics need to make difficult choices, leaving behind healthier, younger players like Brown and White, and waiting for Tatum to come back, the only way to deal with it.

So, although the Celtics are not outstanding in signings, they already have the foundation to form a good roster, but now they need to make decisions at critical moments. Everything Stevens did was to ensure the team's future success.

However, in the 2025 offseason, the operation of Rockets General Manager S is also worthy of recognition. The question of where Durant is going will be revealed soon: the Rockets will get Durant the Rockets will win Green, Dillon, the 10th pick in 2025 and the next five second round picks.

Since the chance of choosing excellent players in the second round draft pick is extremely low, the Rockets mainly sacrificed this transaction are Green, Dillon and the 10th pick in 2025, which is relatively small. Although Durant is getting older, he still has excellent combat effectiveness and his performance on the offensive end is undoubtedly better than Green and Dillon.

In addition, the Rockets' contract renewal on VanVleet is also very wise. They rejected VanVleet's $44.9 million team option for the 25-26 season, signing a two-year, $50 million contract extension with him, and the second year was the player option. This contract is extremely cost-effective, and the Rockets also received a full middle-class special case of 14.1 million due to VanVleet's salary cut.

In general, the Rockets successfully completed the reinforcement of the lineup and renewal of potential stocks through S's shrewd operation, showing their rapid improvement in strength. Compared with the situation where the Celtics were forced to sell players, the Rockets are currently in the rising stage and improving the team's strength at a reasonable price. This is really remarkable.