I know the Rockets had to let Yao play for China and I was going mention that in my thread, but still they might have been able to get him out of doing it after a few years. I'm pretty sure playing year round contributed to his problems. All athletes need to take a break during the year.
I like McCray, he wasn't Clyde but he was a real good player especially on defense. I forgot about the 2 picks for Cornbread, that was worst than Slick Watts, plus I hated Cornbread because of the finals against Boston. The cocaine thing was bad and I wanted to put it in there but it wasn't the teams' fault.
This is right, but they offered it for either center. According to Hakeem's book, the Rockets were going to give him up. So for all the ifs, it would have been Jordan and Drexler for Hakeem. For as great as Jordan was, would he have been as/more successful in Houston with Drexler? Would Hakeem have been better in Portland?
To be accurate, we actually gave a 1st and 3rd for Maxwell. http://articles.latimes.com/1987-01-17/sports/sp-4989_1_rockets-maxwell-trading
The Eddie Griffin trade was a pretty big disaster. A worthwhile gamble at the time, but one that obviously didn't pay off.
According to Hakeem's book, the deal was Sampson for Drexler + #2 pick (Jordan). Here's the quote from Hakeem's book: "From 1984 until today (1996), the Rockets could have had a lineup with me, Clyde Drexler and Michael Jordan, developing together, playing together, winning together. But the Rockets never made the move
I went to Elsik with Rashard and knew a couple of his close friends. Shard would have died if he stayed in Houston. Getting out of Houston was the best thing for his career at the time. Being that young with that much money in your home town is bad news for a variety of reasons.
Nyet. Howard ran himself off. Much like he did in Orlando, then LA. This was the perfect situation for him, the best opportunity for him to succeed and possibly compete for a title, if only he'd agree to adapt his game to fit the modern NBA style of play. Instead, he pouted through his only injury-free year because we weren't posting him up enough, despite his appalling lack of anything resembling a good post game. Dwight's a great community guy, but apart from that, his time here was a failure because he made little effort to fit in with that smaller community made up of his teammates and coaches. Bye Nae Nae. <BR>
Another good one was giving up a first-rounder for T-Will, back when Morey was trying to collect the entire set of '09 draft picks.