I don't hate the guy or anything, but he isn't as great as some of you are remembering. For example, here's his 1st round picks through the years: Michael Dickerson, Bryce Drew, Mirsad Turkcan, Kenny Thomas, traded for Jason Collier, traded for Eddie Griffin, Yao, Nachbar, 2 years in a row with no 1st round picks, and Luther Head. Those 2 missing 1st round picks were used to trade for Terrence Morris, and in a salary dump trade for Amaechi. That is a pretty shoddy list. We also went into a huge playoff drought under his watch. Someone earlier said we were in a salary hole, but a large part of that reason is the huge contracts he handed out to mediocre players like the ones listed earlier. Yeah he was great as an assistant coach for us during our city's greatest sports period, but that doesn't mean you can't admit he was a bad GM. Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas were bad GMs but that doesn't take away any of their accomplishments in other facets of the game.
Cmon man are you kidding?? CD proved without a doubt, that he was in over his head as a GM. The Rockets under his watch post-Hakeem was a perrenial lottery team. He made many questionable moves that were obvious at the time. No hindsight is needed. Their financial model was out of wack compared to the rest of the league. Every season was a fight for the bottom and a first round exit.
I partially agree with the OP. I don't know if this has been mentioned, but Dawson did not put together our championship teams. As much as I love Charles Barkley, I feel like that trade cost us a title. Had we retained our supporting cast around Olajuwon, I feel like we could have had a finals against the Bulls (and lets face it that is what we always wanted in the 90s). His two best moves in my opinion was acquiring Francis on draft day, and then trading for Tracy McGrady. His evaluation of talent, especially supporting cast, was atrocious. Had we had this current supporting cast with an McGrady from a few years back (and a healthy Yao), Yao Tmac would be talked about as the best big/little duo with Kobe Shaq. But coulda woulda shoulda In conclusion, I agree that Dawson wasn't the greatest GM. I still support him as a person and think he did contribute a lot to our franchise. I am in full support of Morey as our GM now.
Bravo YoYo, another Rockets historical fact that got twisted by people here on Clutchfans http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1993_1150656 Patterson chronology 1976-1983 -- Begins Rockets career as part-time worker in ticket sales and other areas. 1984 -- After earning a law degree from the University of Texas, joins his father, Rockets president and general manager Ray Patterson, in the front office as counsel to the president and marketing director. 1986 -- Takes control of the team's business operations, installing a computer system to handle ticketing, accounting and player personnel operations. Feb. 12, 1989 -- After accepting Houston's bid coordinated by Patterson, NBA holds its All-Star Game at The Summit. Sept. 11, 1989 -- Named at age 32 as the Rockets' general manager, succeeding his father in that role and becoming the youngest GM in the NBA. Sept. 27, 1990 -- Acquires point guard Kenny Smith from Atlanta along with Roy Marble for Tim McCormick and John Lucas. Feb. 21, 1990 -- Acquires starting guard Vernon Maxwell from San Antonio Spurs for an undisclosed amount of cash. June 27, 1990 -- Trades the rights to Alec Kessler to Miami for the rights to Dave Jamerson and Carl Herrera. July 2, 1990 -- Signs guard Sleepy Floyd to four-year contract; Floyd is released after the 1992-93 season. Sept. 3, 1991 -- Negotiates three-year contract with top draft choice John Turner, who fails to stick with the Rockets. Oct. 23, 1991 -- Signs Kenny Smith to five-year contract. Feb. 18, 1992 -- Fires Rockets coach Don Chaney and names Rudy Tomjanovich as interim head coach. March 23, 1992 -- Suspends center Hakeem Olajuwon without pay, claiming he has failed to play when physically able to do so. Olajuwon claims he is suffering from a hamstring injury and is unable to play, and suggests he is unsure if he wants to play for the Rockets if Patterson remains as general manager. May 20, 1992 -- Names Tomjanovich as head coach. June 24, 1992 -- Despite a chorus of boos from The Summit fans, makes the decision to draft forward Robert Horry, who goes on to become a productive forward in his rookie season. March 15, 1993 -- Olajuwon signs a four-year extension with the Rockets worth $25.4 million that places him under contract with the team through 1999. July 30, 1993 -- Rockets owner Charlie Thomas completes the sale of the team to businessman Les Alexander. Aug. 30, 1993 -- Alexander fires Patterson as Rockets general manager.
I was gonna make a thread like this but I'm glad the OP did. Ok here are my 2 cents. I always thought CD got more credit then he deserved. A retired jersey? Inducted in the Texas sports hall of fame. You freaking kidding me? He was a assistant coach when they won the Championships. When he did start doing the gm gig, he started out 2 up and coming players that had 10 years ahead of them for a soon to be free agent 34 years old Charles Barley. He didn't want to rebuild when he had the chance too. Barkley, Dream and Clyde were all over the hill and what does he do? He signs another over the hill guy in Pippen instead of Antonio Mcdyess which imo would of sped up the rebuilding process back then. He did had t he knack of stock piling draft picks and would have like 3 first round picks in 2 drafts. But he wouldn't know what the hell to do with them. Everyone knows about the 98 R Lewis screw up. But the one draft that boils my blood then no other is the 2001 draft and we had 3 draft picks. We could of had Troy Murphy, Tony Parker and put Gilbert Arenas at the two, but who did we get instead, even though he had 2 quality Power forwards already.
I'm sure there are plenty of "our GM sucks" threads in various team's fan forum. The fact that the best we can scrounge up is a "our last GM sucked(but got two rings)" shows that we really shouldn't be complaining. Even the biggest Morey critics here mostly object to the fanboyism on this forum and less to the actual work he has done as a GM. Let's not dwell in the past just to look for something to complain about. Injuries aside(and that's a big aside), Houston has gotten just a little bit better each summer since we blew everything up and brought Stevie in as the new face of the franchise. We haven't had great playoff success in that timeframe, but I think in a historical context, we sure as cuss didn't get any worse and I don't know too many teams who can make that distinction. Eventually, we will rise to the top - it just won't happen overnight like it has in Boston, LA, and now Miami because frankly - star players don't just fall out of the sky like they have for those teams.
Please see other posts.....Carroll Dawson DID NOT WIN 2 RINGS, NOR did he assemble the teams that did.. That was the work of Patterson, Leiweke, and Weinhauer
Hey give credit where it is due. He invented the "big three" when he got Barkley. The idea that three superstars can get you to the big show. He tried for four but that back-fired.
I don't know tinman - he made a lot of questionable moves as well. He gets credit for Maxwell - getting him for basically $50k. Kenny Smith was a great pick-up. But Horry and Cassell...and finding Elie - I think a lot of that was Rudy T. Rudy T had a lot of say in the draft picks, and he loved Horry for his outside shooting which is why he wanted him.
CD did ALOT of great things for this franchise. Unfortunately GMing was not one of them. Still, he had a major impact on the two championships with his work with The Dream. He is going to continue helping Yao/Hill, hopefully Patterson. So what if he was a bust as a GM? Without him, this franchise would not be what it is. And the majority of you won't be supporting them.
I think CD was one of many GMs from that era (and perhaps many today as well) who hadn't really mastered the collective bargaining agreement and salary cap management. I mean, someone with a better handle on the CBA (like Morey) would not have traded Scottie Pippen for 6 players with variable length contracts; you have to work something out so you can either collect draft picks, trade exceptions, or players that get off the books and create cap space, and this is all assuming you can't actually work out a deal for talented players. There's other examples, too. He was a basketball guy who got an opportunity to manage a team ... besides it takes a team to really leverage the salary cap to your advantage and determine what contract lengths and salaries the team should be extending and it's only recently that teams have started to put more emphasis in this aspect of team management...
Carrol Dawson had nothing to do with the front office at the time of our championships. He was an assistant coach to Rudy T. He became GM in 1996, with the Barkley trade being his first SPLASH moment.
