Here's a stat where I think makes a difference. Cassell avg about 20pts and 8 assists in the 1997 season. With Horry, Sam Mack, Eddie Johnson, Harrington plus a Cassell penetrating and starting to bud, I still think the rox had a chance against the jazz and supersonics.
Did you watch Sam against the Sonics in the previous years? That team was done. We needed help in the worst way.
This is blasphemy as far as I'm concerned. Barkley is why I'm a Rockets fan. I was a Barkley super fan as a kid. I came over when he was traded. I rooted for the Suns prior to that. I became a fan of his when the Suns played the Bulls in the Finals and I wanted Jordan to get beat.
Barkley was a nightmare on defense - partially because he was low effort, but in large part because he was 6'4" with a bum back which kept him from being able to move. watching good power forwards go off against the Rockets got old real quickly. we gained the ability to beat the Sonics at the cost of allowing Karl Malone and the Jazz to walk all over us.
The Rockets were 32-8 when the big three played in 96-97. That's good for an .800 record (roughly a 65 win team). That team was taken down by injuries, not by the Barkley trade.
I know its been said but without Barkley we would have lost to the Sonics. We HAD to make the deal in order to have a chance. Lets not forget that team started 22-1 or something that year. We had some injuries and by year end the age caught up against the Jazz.
Oh..I thought Pippen played with Drexler. Couldn't remember. I know Drexler and Barkley had issues and there were a lot of talk about it then.
Yes..The years we won the 2 championships, we did not have to face the Seattle team. I remember Seattle was the #1 seed in our first championship year and they got upset by the Denver Nuggets team. Mutumbo was on the Denver team. First time a #1 seed got upset by a #8 seed in the NBA Playoffs. Second Championship, we played Utah in the first Round, Phoenix in the second round, San Antonio in the West Finals. We did not face the Seattle in both of those years. The one year we finally beat them, we got beat by Utah in the West Finals I believe (Stockton 3 in Game 6)
We did find a way to get a better pg Damon Stoudemire https://www.cbsnews.com/news/raptors-nix-stoudamire-trade/ ****ing Blazers swooped in and stole him from us.
When we got Barkley Suddenly we were on national tv All the time For the newbs this didn’t happen before him
I have no idea what happened in that era but you dont trade your key players after you win a championship
We had always dangled horry and in fact had a failed trade with sean elliott out there. Horry had been great but there was this sense he had peaked. His role player ness had peaked and i think people were ready for him to do more.underachiever. Horry felt a bit off. At the time I remember thinking it might be time for him to go. I think main point op and anyone involved in this thread is forgetting is what a big deal barkley was. And what he had been. Barkley was a star and carried suns for years. To finals no less. He helped rockets to western conference finals too btw and one shot away from finals. Barkley for just Cassell and horry was and still is a steal. Cassell was a career journeyman and horry has been fortunate role player. Charles barkley is charles barkley. Its not even close. Come to think of it this thread is absolutely turrible
