I've been thinking a lot lately about the Championship team with Hakeem in terms of the makeup and chemistry which allowed the Dream to carry Houston to two championships. We all know that Dream was the anchor at C but he was surrounded with key players that made all the difference. Let's take a look at them and qualify the type of players they were. PG Kenny Smith, Sam Cassell: Offense: both new how to move the ball up the court and distribute inside to Dream, both minimal penetration inside but were excellent shooters outside particularly the trey, both were fearless with clutch shots Defense: decent at their position, weren't great against quicker guards, but held their own on the perimeter SG Vernon Maxwell, Clyde Drexler: Offense: fearless slashers, "Glide" to the bucket, you don't earn the name "Mad Max" for nothing, both quick on the dribble, great mid range shooters, could hit the treys, both had well rounded game Defense: Mad Max" applied to defense as well, Glide was also a very accomplished defender and never gave way to anyone except maybe Jordan SF Mario Elie, Robert Horry, Matt Bullard: Offense: the "Kiss of Death", "Clutch man", "Air Bullard", need we say more? Any of them could kill you with their treys, Elie brought great spark and motivation to team on and off court Defense: the "Junk Yard Dog" was one of the best there was and would take any player except other than the C and PF, Horry was only decent but his size gave him more advantages than he deserved, Bullard was only for offensive purposes only PF Otis Thorpe: Offense: never spectacular, but absolutely solid and would contribute night in and night out Defense: physical, hard nosed, dirty work guy, could always count on good rebounds and a block a game Of course there were other contributors to these two championship teams but I only wanted to revisit the key players. The whole purpose of me doing this is because like Dream, Yao will be the future of this team. I see him anchoring the Rockets much in the same way Dream did, so by association, we need to evaluate the makeup of today's team with those of the championship years. They had the right mix, the right chemistry, and the right attitude back then. They just plain had it right and I feel it's a precedence we shouldn't ignore.
Oh yes, Rudy definitely deserved some credit for keeping those guys playing the way they did. But I think he had an advantage in having veteran players and the leadership of someone like Dream and later Clyde as his on court generals. Rudy did not have anything like that when he retired. JVG was required to come in and teach these guys what RT couldn't.
It's a lot easier to get a 'cast' than it is to get an Hakeem. We should be trying to figure out the second part.
For the Rockets to follow the 90's Rockets' championship formula, they will need Yao to establish himself as one of the top 3 players in the league because those Rockets teams are one of the worst teams in the league without Hakeem and a bottom playoff seed with Hakeem being just another all star. When you have a Tim Duncan or a Shaquille O'Neal or a Michael Jordan, or a Hakeem Olajuwon all you need are some players that know their roles to surround the MVP-type player with. If you are not one of the two or three teams in the league fortunate enough to have this kind of player on board, you have to go with the Kings or the Mavericks formula of loading the team up with 4 to 6 all stars or borderline all stars.
