Can you guys believe its been 4 years since we acquired Tmac? Seems like that press conference was yesterday. It's also gotten to that point where I can't remember what season this or that happened. I get the 06-07 and 07-08 mixed up sometimes too. These are the only important things I can remember about each season. 04-05 : Tmac, Yao, new beginning, crushing defeat in playoffs, choke 05-06 : Addition of Stro, we were supposed to become contenders (HAHA) season was plagued by injuries 06-07 : Battier... Uhh...? Lost to Jazz in playoffs 07-08 : Adelman, Scola, Tmac going for 47 against Jazz, 22 game win streak, yadda yadda, Yao going down again and I laughed when I saw how bad our lineup was at the beggining of the 04-05 season... Also guys like Jim Jackson, Scott Padgett, Charlie Ward, Clarence Weatherspoon... Completely forgot about them. and finally, 14 years... yes 14 years since our first championship.
lol wanna go down memory lane.. who remembers we brought in an old, useless, washed-up, and dead ROD STRICKLAND to run the point? LOL he couldn't even run anymore and looked like he needed an oxygen tank after the first minute.. my mouth would drop open every time I saw him..
And JVG got that team to the playoffs??? I'm impressed. When did the Jon Barry's and Bobby Sura's of the world get traded onto the team?
bobby was on that team from the beginning he was signed as a FA i believe the MLE was split that year on Ward, Sura and Jimmy Jackson. Jackson and Boki were then traded to the Hornets for David Wesley sometime in mid-late December. Lue was also then traded to the Hawks for Barry around the same time. I dont remember which trade came first but I believe it was the wesley trade but both were in december because I was in india at the time both happened and could only check the internet every few days because access was limited and i remember shaking my head at giving up both jackson and boki for david wesley.
Whats sad is that with that sorry team we took a talented Dallas team to a 7 game series which was RIGGED!
As much as people like to hate on Howard, there isn't a person on this board don't believe the Rox wouldn't have beaten Dallas with him. When he went down, it hurt the team big time. Of course tracy and yao missing free throws in game 4 didn't help.
Or the refs sucking in front of David Stern. I have to give respect to JVG when he took the team to game 7 with Mavericks with flying bowen guarding Dirk most of the time.
what i've remembered about the t-mac era: 04 -05: T-Mac still considered one of the best scorers in the league. 13 in 35. Postered Shawn Bradley for all eternity. Bob Sura, Mike James, and Jon Barry made this my favorite Rockets team 05-06 and 06-07: Downfall of T-Mac. jumpshot starts becoming very unreliable, but that's ok since he's our new and improved "playmaker"
I had the same feeling about the David Wesley trade. I was actually a big fan of Jim Jackson. The guy was an absolute warrior for us, starting every game he was here and playing 39.5 minutes a night at age 34/35. His line of 13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal on %'s of 42/39/87 was pretty great at that point in his career. By the way, he was brought in the year before Sura and Ward.
I wish we've had fired JVG two years earlier and The Magic Morey has taken up his job three years earlier..... A waste of talent in Tmac and Yao for at least two years...... Totally wasted.
that is a poor roster to start the season, but you forgot to add a few things: 1. bob sura was also on that roster. 2. jackson/boki traded for wesley 3. lue traded for barry 4. reese gaines traded for who? mike james! so the roster wasn't as bad as it looks in the OP's table. plus, remember that it was after all of those trades that the rockets took off and had one of the best records in the league after all star break. still credit to JVG for overachieving. yao-deke howard-spoon-padgett tmac-bowen wesley-barry sura-james-ward a healthy sura and howard in the playoffs would've made a HUGE difference.
What is that suppose to mean? Looking back at the 04/05 season, Dawson did a great job finding the right players by trading in mid-season. Trading Lue for Barry, did wonders for us. I'm still questioning the Jackson/Bokie for Wesley trade. But the Gaines for Mike James was an absolute steal. I remember James scoring 20 points in one out of three games. Then you had Tracy and Yao at pure dominance, especially the pick and roll they had.
Wow. time really flies indeed. If there were some games i can't forget in the regular season of 2004 was the one against the Knicks at home. Where Jamal Crawford hit an impossible 3 to steal one away from us. Another one was at Minnesota, which we won at overtime. There was this fadeaway 3 pointer that Tracy hit over Sprewell that was just so beautiful! Albeit a low percentage shot, hehe.
Nostalgia, huh? Yes it seems like yesterday it flies so fast. I remember I was so high on last years team I was convinced that we would win it all. We got injury year again but I'm still optimistic. And I'm looking at Dikembe Mutombo, and I have seen that Houston has been a place for him since 05-06 so it makes a place where he has been the longest period. And Tracy McGrady's 13 in 35, I remember my cousin calling me and disbelieving while saying he's the best shooting guard since Michael Jordan. So long for the memories.
That's suppose to mean I never liked the way JVG coached this team or the the type of players he brought in. IMO he was here too long, try like four years, too long. Beating square pegs in round holes never bode well for me. Bringing in guys like Charlie Ward, Patrick Ewing, and all the NY crew made my stomach churn. Tracy he gave us hope a first, but honestly he's not the type of player I can embrace. He's talented but mentally weak, no passion to win, only to look pretty. Personally I'd have traded him when he had more value, now we might just be stuck with him. fool's gold
