Shin Kyung is the core of the Rockets! Stone talked about the 21st draft and wanted to change to the No. 6 draw to pick him

This year's offseason, the Rockets exchanged Jaylen Green and Dillon for Durant. Although the team sent Green away, General Manager Stone was still sad about it. In a recent interview with ESPN, Stone talked about Jaylen Green and Shin Kyung and regarded them as their children. Stone said Jaylen Green is about the same age as his son, and they selected it with the second place and gave a lot of resources to cultivate it. The Rockets did not celebrate happily for using Green for Durant.

When talking about Shin Kyung, Stone revealed the inside story of the 21st draft. The Rockets showed their ambitions at that time. They not only wanted to win Green with the second place, but also wanted to win Shin Kyung. In fact, the Rockets have been actively involved in draft pick trading since the sixth pick in the first round. The Rockets had four first-round picks at the time. The team hoped to exchange for the 21-year sixth pick through multiple first-round picks, but unfortunately no team was willing to give the Rockets a draft pick.

But luck stood on the Rockets' side, and Shin Kyung fell to the 16th pick in the first round. At this time, the Thunder agreed to the Rockets, and they agreed to trade the 16th overall pick to the Rockets for the Wizards and the Pistons' future first round pick. This deal is like a robbery at present, and the Rockets are making a fortune. The Pistons and Wizards' draft picks were strictly protected at the time, and they both turned into second-round picks. In other words, the Rockets actually exchanged two first-round picks in openly, and they actually exchanged two second-round picks for Shen Jing.

Stone said: "In the 2021 draft, our goal is to win Jaylen Green and Shin Kyung. When we used the second pick to choose Green, we have been actively operating upward trading since the sixth pick, hoping to win Shin Kyung. Fortunately, Shin Kyung dropped to the 16th pick, and we got from the Thunder (16th pick). I have always said that if Shin Kyung is not strong, we would not be so active. He is the MVP of the Turkish League at the age of 18, which is the top five leagues in the world. He became the youngest number one player in that league, and now he was selected as the All-Star and has become one of our core players."

Shen Kyung averaged 19.1 points, 10.4 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.1 breaks and 0.8 caps per game in the regular season last season, and he already has the style of Jokic. Shin Kyung was not soft at all when facing the Warriors in the playoffs. He was very active on the defensive end and completed the backup defense for Green several times. Green is really hard to fight on the offensive end, and even strong eyebrows are very uncomfortable with chasing dreams. However, Shin Jing did not become timid when he was not successful in the offense. He was still aggressive and constantly attacked Zhu Meng, and even blew up trash with Zhu Meng.

From this point of view, Shin Kyung at least has the mentality of a superstar. And in terms of playing style, we have always said that Shin Kyung is Jokic. He must be a member of the Fire Dragon family. At least last season, Shin Kyung had evolved from a little Fire Dragon to a Fire Dinosaur. Now the gap between Jokic from Fire Dragon is in his outside projection and physical fitness. In addition, in terms of core strength and confrontation, Shin Kyoto is strengthening. He has been practicing three-pointers throughout the offseason, don't forget that he is only 23 years old.

In order to not drag down the team's sense of space with Durant, Shin Kyung regards projection as his first goal. The Rockets' starters in the new season are point guard Van Jordan, point guard Durant, Smith, Amen Daqian, and center Shin Kyung. When Amen and Shin Kyung are on the field, the projection will indeed be a bit bad. But it wouldn't be possible if it was properly arranged, because the three-pointers on both sides of Amen were quite accurate, with a shooting percentage of nearly 40%. Then as long as Shen Jing practiced the three-pointers, the Rockets' entire offense and defense would be full.