Yeah the lack of context is a strong sign that Oda either intends for this to be an important death or that he just plans on sidelining Admiral Scissors....personally can't see it being the latter.
IMO it's probably like Luffy's WSG or Whitebeard's Island Breaker punch in MF, the Admiral might've got distracted and gave Rocks an opening during their fight that allowed him to land a single critical hit.
That would explain why Rocks was only bruised up and still had enough gas in his tank to match Harald.
Also do you think Scissors has any chance of being related to Koby instead of Akainu? I feel like Oda's been pushing a Koby/BB connection a lot since Hachinosu and IMO Koby helping avenge his relative's death is likely.
Actually now that I think about it even Kuzan's a possibility in that regard, he might have trained with Garp to avenge his Admiral relative, fought for the FA post so he could gain authority to focus on BB, and infiltrated BB's crew for vengeance.
Because I feel if it was Akainu then he and BB would have more of a connection, as it is they're depicted more as parallels. But still I could see it working out that way.
I agree on the dynamic. I also expect some hostage plot and so Xebec killing the Admiral "quickly" thanks to the usual cheapshot after which the Admiral was seriously wounded.
Not the he could have not, but surely not quickly and not without some major devastation, and possibly the Gorosei/HK getting in the way too.
About who he might we related with, Akainu feels the more natural date wise: Akainu is 55, the Admiral died 56 years ago --> It fits.
Kuzan though is too young. He is 49, so he cannot be the son of this unnamed Admiral. Sure, he coulde be his nephiew, but Oda usually goes for the direct bloodline route.
Also, if we go by the nephiew assumption, he could be bascially anybody's uncle tbh. Not impossible anyway.
Koby could be his grandkind, sure. I would have expected someone mentioning this, but Oda has done far worse things.
I agree though that even if it fits date wise, Akainu feels pretty random. There Is not really a plot connection outside
of giving Akainu "a father", which I am not really a fan of.