Who/What was the most disappointing: 1) Player; 2) Coach; 3) GM; 4) Move by a GM; 5) Season? I'm a relatively new guy here, so would like to know some of this background stuff
1) Player; Stromile Swift/Bonzi Wells/Derek Anderson 2) Coach; None really 3) GM; CD 4) Move by a GM; Mo Taylor 5) Season? 05-06 (after taking mavs to 7 games, injuries destroyed this season) 08-09..took lakers to 7 in 2nd round w/o yao/tmac. with them, we would've won a damn ring.
The Stockton shot was my #1 most disappointing moment until the Yao/T-Mac era. Too many what if scenarios. Even if Stockton missed that shot, the Rockets would have to win that game and the next to take a swing at the Bulls, which is 1 championship. Yao/T-Mac gave us hope for multiple championships .
1) Scottie Pippen/Eddie Griffin/Kelvin Cato 2) Kevin McHale 3) None 4) Trading for David Wesley 5) Big 3 (Olajuwon/Drexler/Barkley) didn't pan out
? that was a good move..it made us play faster, moved tmac to the 3..and we turned it around after this move.
1) Scottie Pippen. Honorable mention: Eddie Griffin 2) N/A. Been a fan from '92-present and I think we've been blessed with good coaches. 3) CD (Carroll Dawson) is the only answer here. Gave out lots of bad contracts - Mo Taylor, Kelvin Cato, Moochie Norris, Shandon Anderson, Matt Maloney 4) Off the top of my head, the Barkley trade even though it was probably worth the risk. 5) '05 loss to Mavs and '08 injury decimation
Who/What was the most disappointing: 1) Player -- Steve Francis. It's unfair to him that he was dubbed The Franchise on the heels of the Rockets two titles and the end of the Hakeem era....but that was the expectation. It was a letdown. I know there are many here that loved the guy, but I was disappointed with him. 2) Coach -- Probably Don Chaney. 3) GM -- I'd have to think more about this...no one comes to mind for me instantly. 4) Move by a GM -- I think the Mo Taylor vote is repeated already for a reason 5) Season - early exit with Pippen, Barkley and Dream
1) Player Eddie Griffin. The Rockets traded three first round picks to get him (picks that could have been used on really good players, like Ricjard Jefferson, Zach Randolph and Tony Parker -- for instance). He was billed as someone who could be the next Rasheed Wallace and he ended up being the first Royce White. 2) Coach There have not been a lot of coaches and GM's since I was a Rockets fan (early 90's), but I guess I'll go with Don Chaney. I don't remember him too well, but the team just was not as good as it should have been when he was the coach, and Dream was playing so well. 3) GM I love CD, but I am going to go with Dawson anyway. He took over a team that was an elite roster and consistently darfted badly and gave out terrible contracts until the team was a mid market train wreck. Sorry CD, but you can't give huge deals to Glenn Rice, Mo Taylor, Cato, the Mooch, Shandon Anderson and not get some flak. 4) Move by a GM The Summer of 2001. The Rockets were a young and promising team with an exciting and developing back court and three first round picks, plus hey had bunches of cap space. They were in fact in a very similar spot they are in now. But then Dawson spent all of that cap money on long term contracts with Glen Rice, Mo Taylor, Moochie Norris and Kelvin Cato. And they let Olajuwon walk away. And they traded all three picks for Eddie Griffin. Yeah. It sucked. And it set the team up to suck for years, even handcuffing from a salary cap perspective the early years of Yao and TMac. 5) Season 96-97. Barkley's first season. The Rockets on the precipice of going to a showdown with the Bulls in the NBA finals. Dream vs. Jordan. Barkley rebounding (and likely fighting) Rodman. Drexler trying to get revenge on the Bulls, the Rockets shutting up everyone who put a mental asterisks on their two titles. But instead Stockton hit that stupid three pointer. That shot killed a part of adolescent HamJam
1) Player: Spanoulis (was one of the worst NBA players I've ever seen); Lin (mostly for his contract); Wells (was out of shape) 2) Coach: Can't think of one. Started watching mid-90s so none since then. 3) GM: Dawson at times, I guess. 4) Move by a GM: Quite a few. Hated trading Landry for Martin. Hated trading for Bobby Jackson. Hated how we handled the Dragic/Lin contract situation. 5) Season? 08-09, despite it being my favorite team. That Yao injury hurt me so deeply.
1) Player; Eddie Griffin came to mind immediately. The Rockets trade multiple picks for him. Richard Jefferson was a solid player for a long time. I really thought Eddie had #1 pick talent... and it just didn't work out and sadly ended horrible for Eddie. But you could certainly vote Scottie Pippen easily. 2) Coach; Maybe Don Chaney? He had one ok year there, but was horrible in the playoffs. 3) GM; CD? Liked the guy, but all his moves ultimately seemed to fail. 4) Move by a GM; Letting Moses Malone go? I guess it was good move at the time, and Hakeem is a direct result of that decisions, but still, it would be akin to today Cleveland having told Lebron you're great, but we're not getting anywhere with you so go ahead and sign with another team. I guess in retrospect getting rid of Horry/Cassell did not turn out that well. The 98 draft stands out, too. 3 picks, multiple opportunities to select Rashard. It's one thing to pass, it's another to pass and end up with Dickerson (ok player before injuries), Bryce Drew (what!?) and Mirsad Turkan. 5) Season? Every year they don't win a championship. 92-93 was heartbreaking the way it ended
Everyone talks about the Stockton shot (understandably so) but no one talks about Game 7 against the Sonics. Had we won that game, we would have bulldozed the Suns and played the Bulls in the Finals. Who knows....we might be talking about our 3 straight championships in the 90's instead of 2. The thing about that game was that it should have been played in Houston, not Seattle. We were the higher seed.
