In last few years signing of Dikembe Mutombo was sweet, he's playing one more year dough. Last year we signed Francis, if he works out this year and becomes a veteran support it'll be good but Houston has really good trades not signings.
IIRC, we acquired Moses Malone for two #1 draft choices. Here's one from the dustbin of history; anyone remember Alex English? If you recall, we signed him to a FA contract in the late 70s (?) but Denver matched it to retain him. He then became the prolific scoring SF that we have always coveted. He was a machine.
I know it's a joke, but didn't Cato come from the Pippen deal with Portland? Does anybody know who all came in from that deal? Because the way I remember it was that the fodder we got for Pippen was used as part of trade for Francis. The two we kept were Walt Williams and Cato - but that's just my memory of it. Any encyclopedic minds out there?
Actually, Francis was acquired before Pippen was shipped out. Michael Dickerson, Brent Price, and Othella Harrington were sent to Vancouver for Francis. Pippen was traded for Walt Williams, Kelvin Cato, Carlos Rogers, Brian Shaw, and Stacey Augmon.
the main reason for us not getting a big named FA is because of salary cap hell the CD has put us in for the last few years.
IIRC, didn't NBA used to have a rule where if you sign a FA, you have to give up a player as compensation? So really, all FA signings back then were basically trades. I thought of Elie when I saw this thread. And then realized that Elie came through trade too. Anyway, in modern times, I can't remember a significant signing that turned out well for the Rockets. But I can remember a lot that DIDN'T turn out well: Shandon Anderson, Mo Taylor, Pippen, Swift, Bonzi, Brent Price, and I'm sure I missed some. So I guess the answer is... Chucky Brown?
mutombo came through a trade for erick pifdsafljaksfja... you know, the white guy you always see standing up for the suns bench at crunch time. your thinking, hey is that the white guy with the hot girl friend, (casey jacobson) but then you realize that's not the one.
Big FA signings are less common now than the old days, because the resigning team can offer longer and larger contracts. Instead, you get these huge deals that match salaries. Unless, your max contract player is retiring.
Actually Taylor and Anderson turned out well. They were both signed for 1 year, for the minimum salary, and had good years. Wasn't Kenny Smith a free agent? I don't feel like looking it up.
We got Dikembe Mutumbo from a trade with Chicago. Didn't we send them Piatkowski? I honestly don't remember any big free agent signings that panned out. Seriously, Maurice Taylor is probably the most coveted free agent signing I can recall in my 20+ years of being a Rockets fan. How sad is that?
Didn't someone once have a signature at the bottom of their posts that said something like CD used to spray himself down with a ***** scented aerosol before talking with free agents. Might have something to do with it.
I've been watching the Rockets since the early 80's and I can't think of a Free Agent signing that I ever thought "WOW" I liked when Pippen came, but I thought he was a S & T deal with Chicago since we didn't have the money. Every great player I can remember the Rockets having were either through the draft or trade. On top of that, I don't remember the Rockets ever having the salary cap space to sign a big free agent.
It seemed pretty obvious that both Taylor and Anderson had "wink wink" deals when they signed. Just that the Rockets weren't stupid enough to put it in writing and get caught like the stupid wolves. Mo signed a huge extension despite being very mediocre for us. Anderson was given a large contract too, although we thankfully found a sucker to give him to in the Knicks. As for Kenny, I'm pretty sure he came through trade. And even so, I'm not sure how "significant" a piece he is. I mean, Rafer Alston's teardrop look like a freaking work of art compared to Smith's attempts to shoot in traffic.
