[interview]Sam Cassell

Ill never forget the NBA Finals games 4 in 1994 and game 2 in 1995 Sam. Our savior those games

 

That's what this team needs "Riders". Those stupid NBA commercials with the words Hero ball... unselfish team ball is how we won. Watch the interview Les because you've completely forgotten what it takes to win a championship. Oh wait Les never built a championship team he just inherited it like a lucky trust fund baby.

 

Too bad alien's clutchness can't be cloned.

 

Sam is one of my all-time favorites and he's dead right about how special those teams were. Was do hard watching Sam give his best years to the Nets; I wanted him back so bad; damn those Maloney years.

 

I guess it depends on how you define "unselfish team ball".

In the championship years the ball ran through Hakeem just as it does now through Harden. In fact, Hakeem took more shots and had a higher usage rate than Harden has the last two playoffs.

'94 playoffs - Olajuwon 22.3 FGA/game , 31.4% usage.
'95 playoffs - Olajuwon 26.2 FGA/game, 35.9% usage.

'14 playoffs - Harden 22.2 FGA/game, 28.5% usage.
'15 playoffs - Harden 17.3 FGA/game 29.5% usage.

 

Next Rockets coach when McHale hangs 'em up.

 

Game 3 not game 4 of 1994 NBA Finals.

Sam was great in Game 2 of the NBA Finals but his even bigger contributions that playoffs came in Game 5 against the Spurs. That game was essential to clinch it in Houston in game 6.

Also he was huge in Game 7 in the 1994 series against the Suns.

 

The difference is that the entire Rockets offense was designed on the philosophy that Hakeem could not be stopped one on one by anyone in the league.

Harden is not there yet and honestly I dont think he ever will be. His game to game intensity is not there either.

The team needs another initiator on offense.

 

It's interesting how people forget about how different the two championship teams were.

The 94 team had a pretty average offense but was 2nd in the league in defense. I believe the best defensive team was the knicks which is why the finals was grind it out affair.

The 95 team was pretty average defensively ranking 12th in league, but offensively we were 7th and we caught fire in the finals. During the playoffs, the poorest 3 point shooter on the team was drexler at 30 percent, but the second lowest was Pete Chilcut at 39 percent. The rest of the team shot over 40 percent from 3's including Dream who went 2 of 4.

I tell you this much. If our whole team shot over 40 percent for 3's during the playoffs outside of Harden, we would still be playing right now and looking for a sweep.

 

^^ The defensive rating of the 95 team during the regular season was misleading because Hakeem missed most of the second half of the season.

 

Completely agree.

He trying to give all that knowledge to CP3
Nash gives him a nice bit of credit too

Rocket River

 

They were even worse in 96 which was their first full year with Drexler. Losing Thorpe was a big deal because he was a borderline all-star and one of the best defensive 4's in the league.

 

While I would argue that nobody can stop Harden one on one either, it's totally irrelevant to the point that I was responding to.

The current Rocket team is unselfish and does share the ball. You can argue about the effectiveness but saying that they don't play unselfish or share the ball is simply incorrect. Hakeem dominated the ball more than Harden, he was hugely successful doing it, but you can't say that the championship teams were more unselfish or shared the ball more.

That was my point...nothing more.

 

Agree 100%. I wished they would have found a way to get OT back. To this day, I still think OT was a better frontcourt pairing with Dream than Barkley.