I would have taken #2 without thinking twice, given the chance, and I was a big fan while Clyde was at UH. That '86 team was widely seen in the sports media as a dynasty in the making. Finals appearances and championships were seen as a lock in our future. I certainly believed so. Another mind blowing thing? The media loved the Rockets. Quite a change from what we've put up with during the last 25 years or so, in my opinion.
My favorite of all time has already been mentioned - trading Sampson for the #2 pick and Drexler, then drafting Olajuwon #1 and taking Jordan #2 (assuming we'd actually draft Jordan there). But there's another one that doesn't get talked about enough (probably because it was even more of a reach since it wasn't allowed) : Lebron James was drafted in the 2003 draft when he was a senior in high school. He actually petitioned to enter the 2002 draft as a junior. The NBA wouldn't allow him this exception. The Rockets had the first pick in the 2002 draft and chose Yao Ming. Had Lebron been in that draft, do we choose Lebron or Yao? I'm pretty sure it would be Lebron. Interesting what could've been, though.
I think it would be MF and Hakeem We would have taken YAO and no one would have complained I wish Steve and Cat had gotten at least one more year Rocket River
I don't know about no one would've complained. People complained about taking Yao ahead of Jay Williams. Half the population wanted one and the other half wanted the other from what I recall. Lebron would be another story. He was a phenom that dwarfed either of those guys popularity. With Yao, nobody really knew who he was until they heard about him. With Lebron, he was being pumped up and talked about since junior high. His highlights were everywhere.
Ralph doesn't get baited into a pointless fight with Celtics' Jerry Sichting, which means he doesn't injure his back, which means his knees don't get all f$%ked up... and he goes on to have the glorious NBA career that his glorious college career (three-time National Player of the Year) made everyone think he would. The Twin Towers take off and make the cocaine boyz years just a speed bump on the way to multiple titles.
Everyone on the 2008-09 Houston Rockets would have been healthy...Steve Francis would have went back to the "The Franchise" and we wouldn't have traded him...T-Mac, Yao, Artest, and Steve Francis would've been our Big-4 and would've taken down the Lakers that year with a healthy roster!
I think there's a kind of crazy obsession on this board since the Hakeem years that championships are won when you have that 1 big star and everything else is minor apparently. We dragged Harden through hell trying to recreate that model of 1 big star and 1 declining or non-star. That's a model Lebron James couldn't win with. If James Harden had Bosh/Wade or Kyrie/Love, we would have 1-2 more banners. You need a lot of things to win a title and yes the stars are most important, but nowhere near as much as it's made out to be. History is littered with failed teams that had the star. We're one of those teams (Harden). If you follow the patterns of championships, you need: - 2 guys who can score consistently big in the playoffs at their current age - Can put 4 shooters on the floor without a major drop in defense - A very good rim protector - 1 elite defensive wing and 1 good defensive wing (both of whom should be able to shoot) - 2 safe playmakers (can overlap with the scorers or not) - REAL depth that doesn't come only for the minimum and from buyouts - Coach that can coach both offense and defense - Luck with health/injuries That is the true picture of what you should AIM FOR to win a title. Doesn't mean you'll nail everything on first try, but if you have these things you're a true favorite for the title. Yes there are hail mary teams who are exceptions, but you don't build a project based on outliers. You build based on the most successful model and modern trends. Here's the real big problem that most teams run into: this list is expensive. You can be the most creative GM in the world, but you are not going to assemble that team even if you are the premier destination for FA's and your owners are rich. That's why LAL and NYK went through such troubles and are not again at their spending limit. The solution to this problem is in the Spurs, Warriors and Celtics: when you develop your own talent, this becomes a much more affordable list. You can develop stars, role players and still have assets to refill your coffers. When you have the championship team on paper, you STILL have to go try it out, see what works, ensure that the archetypes don't conflict and you often wish you had 1 more pick to finalize the roster. To now go and and overpay for a star defeats the whole purpose. The margin is SO thin on being able to build a champion. TRUST ME, you want to have a great pick in your back pocket at all times. Injuries happen to players with big contracts. Players some times should but don't mesh. Opponents sometimes make a big unexpected move that's unfair (Durant to Warriors). If there's one thing I could change, it would be for the front office to acknowledge there's a MASSIVE spacing and shooting problem on this team that affects everyone's ability to show you they're a star. That's not on the players who are going into these playoffs for their first time and it's an ambush: they factually have it harder than any other playoff scorers but Banchero and Wagner. I hope that they factor this into their decisions this summer and don't f*ck us by acquiring a star then pairing him with 2 non-shooters. That will deplete the surplus assets that we the whole point of going into super tank mode. We will be in a position 5 years later where we might as well have gone the FA route. That would be SO stunningly stupid. I KNOW I KNOW it's fun and nostalgic to some people's childhood to have lots of tall players and play rough and tough I swear I know, but there's no reason we should build that way if it's just harder, even if the reward is sweeter to you. You're not on the team. Amen, Sengun and Green are on the team. We should build around them. Not around the GM. Not around the coach. Not around me. Not around you. We should build around their specific strengths and weaknesses. We should build the way champions with homegrown talent built their rosters recently.
There is no other crazy as crazy as this. I mean, really PG: Whoever Wing: Jordan Wing: Drexler PF: Thorpe C : Hakeem
Here’s one of @Clutch favorites: While actively tanking due to injuries, JVG doesn’t win a meaningless game against playoff-bound Nuggets at end of the season in 2005. That allows us to draft Brandon Roy Do Rockets beat the Lakers and win the chip in 2008 with a 3rd Yr Roy in his peak (All-Star, 2nd Team All-NBA)
I say we just use our magic here and say "Brandon Roy has human knees" and we build a dynasty from there lol.
