I was a fan of the trade when it happened. Now I think it was the biggest mistake Carroll Dawson ever made as a general manager. Pre-Trade August 1996 Roster: SF/PF Robert Horry SF Chucky Brown C Hakeem Olajuwon SG Clyde Drexler PG Brent Price PG Sam Cassell PF Mark Bryant SG/SG Mario Elie PF Othella Harrington SG Sam Mack PF Charles Jones SG Randy Livingston Bullard was signed after the Barkley trade... add him in... you got a prototypical team that can emphasize 3 pt shooting with enough dominance in the post to avoid being one dimensional and to open up the offense. Opening night roster for 1996 with the Barkley trade: PF Kevin Willis SF Mario Elie C Hakeem Olajuwon SG Clyde Drexler PG Matt Maloney PF Othella Harrington SG Randy Livingston SF Matt Bullard SG Sam Mack SG Tracy Moore PG Emanual Davis PF Charles Barkley (suspended) PG Brent Price (injured) Lots of depth lost ... with Price going down... and Maloney... let's leave it at that.
We never needed Barkley. We needed power forward to deal with Kemp and to ease the burden Dream defensively. We really only needed Kevin Willis. However Kevin Willis came to the rocket because of lobbying from Barkley.
Why was Kevin Willis basically not played at all towards the end of the playoffs? Was he still injured? In the end, the late 90's Rockets were only going to go as far as Hakeem could take them. He was still elite, but had lost a step. Cassell/Horry were not going to be the focal point of any team that Hakeem was still on. Rudy would still emphasize running the ball through the post (whether it be Hakeem/Willis/Barkley)... and/or isolating Drexler on the wing. Cassell's career takes off after getting on a team without a dominant low-post presence, or a coach that doesn't rely on dominant low-post basketball. There was also lobbying to sign Gary Payton that summer, but they were only offering the MLE. Not sure what their cap situation was, but Payton would have been a much more impactful player vs. anything that Barkley/Willis/Cassell/Horry provided.
They were what, 21-2 before Drexler/Barkley started missing games? Then they beat Seattle. It's easy to look back and say - don't do the trade - because that team didn't win a title, but don't kid yourself into thinking Robert Horry was anything more than a role player. Big shot taker, big shot maker, but never met expectations. Pete Chilcutt wasn't good. By the time Sam Cassell would become a stud, Hakeem & Clyde's windows were closed. Bullard was signed, though? BULLARD? Lulz. News flash, Matt Bullard wasn't that good and that team was playing in the late 90's not the 2020's... Barkley, even when he'd come in overweight, would play with as much passion and heart as Hakeem (if not more so). That team had some offensive issues that emerged down the road and needed a better point guard. But they were CLOSE. Closer than the Horry & Cassell team, even with Willis (hypothetically) would have gotten us, in my opinion.
I think we wouldve been better mainly because we had a rookie PG starting in 97. Barkley wasn't in his prime either. Cassell was growing into a bigger role. And we would've had a more rounded rotation.
We had no answer for the Sonics and Barkley fixed that, but it also eliminated our advantage we had over the Jazz. You have to do the trade because Horry and Cassell were about to get paid and neither were going to be the bell cow to build the team around.
The answer to the Sonics was find an upgrade to neutralize Shawn Kemp or Gary Payton. Would Othella and/or Kevin Willis been enough? Perhaps. I would have rather paid them over Scottie two years later.
Should have traded for Rodman instead and kept Horry/Cassell. Spurs practically gave him to the Bulls for nothing. Will Perdue?????
Barkley wouldnt be b****in about Les owing him money and running down our team at every turn nowadays?
I’ve been in the minority here for a long time but I said it the day the trade went down and will say it until I die... the Barkley trade was the worst trade of that era. Dream started to defer to Charles and lost the killer instinct that he had before when he was the lone post up player. Drexler never liked Charles and would have stayed on for at least a few more years had we never gotten Charles. Couple these with the fact that we lost Sam and “Big Shot” and the rest is history. People hold onto the fact that we finally beat the Sonics because of Charles but people forget that the year before when we got swept that was a team that limped into the playoffs with Sam Cassell, Drexler, and Elie being injured the entire second half of the season. Our starting lineup was a joke for most of that season. People remember the sweep but they don’t remember how it was basically a lost season. When we finally beat the Seattle Zone cheaters it took crazy games from Matt Maloney to punch our ticket through.
Interesting... when we got eliminated by Seattle in 1993... Maxwell was recovering from a broken bone in the hand.... ...and Robert Horry was not Big Shot Rob yet...
We’d never be on national tv if we never got Barkley Suddenly we were on national tv newbs are so spoiled we had two championship teams that nobody saw nationally until the playoffs
The Barkley trade helped cuttino mobley more than anything else. Mobley fine tuned his post play under veteran leadership of Barkley for sure. Basically If mobley didn't develop Barkley like post moves, then mobley would have ended up like Luther head.
After the trade was announced one of the Houston sports writers (maybe Dale Robertson) called the Philly beat writer to see what was in store. Beat said your job just got easier and you will be surprised by how unselfish he is. Visits sick kids in hospitals and doesn't announce it, doesn't bring a camera crew and doesn't have a posse. Just shares time with kids who need a boost. Summed it up with "most athletes are assholes trying to convince you they are nice guys. Barkley is a nice guy trying to convince you he is an *******!".
Here is how i remember it. At my brother's watching the game when we finally beat Seattle. Don't remember the exact set up, but at the end of the game Seattle comes up court with the ball and has to score. I don't remember if it was one point down or maybe two possessions, but it was tight, the clock was ticking and a stop wins the game. Somebody shoots, somebody defends, ball bounces off the back board, Barkley corrals the somewhat meaningless rebound, buzzer goes off, Rocket fans cheer. Later I ask my brother what the final play was and he says 'Hakeem stops Kemp' (just a guess) and I say no. Last play is Barkley gets the board. That is exactly the sort of play we were not making before and giving up second chance points.
Robert Horry and Sam Cassell were two of my favorite Rockets ever, so part of me hated the trade. But I understand why they did it. The Seattle sweep was pretty demoralizing. It was clear we weren't even close (injuries or no). Olajuwon and Drexler were already aging, and frankly they probably didn't have quite the same motivation after already winning titles. I suppose if the Rockets had known how quickly Kemp's career would nosedive after 1997, maybe they would have waited, but by 1998 Clyde and Dream were no longer the Clyde and Dream of 1995. Sam and Horry were great, but they weren't foundational superstars. Barkley opened the window of true contention at least one more year, so it's hard to be mad about it. Pippen on the other hand....