Had the Rockets not won the lottery. Would you have been willing to trade the 6th pick and Griffin for the number one pick? Of course! Would that have been enough to get the number one pick? Or would it have been Francis and the #6 pick to get Yao. I'm even thinking that would not have been enough. Yao is such a bright spot that the Rockets decided to give up on the problem of Griffin. Poor Griffin. Isn't this reminiscent of the Sampson and Hakeem twin towers. Sampson came to Houston with all the hype. Well deserved I may add, but Sampson was only in Houston for about 6 years. However he was traded for Thorpe and Sleepy Floyd. (I think). Hakeem then matured and carried this team to two world championships. Griffin will get us nothing but headaches.
I would have traded steve and cat and whatever for #1 for Ming then draft Amare at #6. amare/ming > francis/ming. If the rockets were so enamoured with amare's workout they should have traded steve for him in the top 8.
Just to be accurate. Sampson played here 4 full seasons and then 19 games into his 5th season. He was traded for Sleepy Floyd and Joe Barry Carroll. Jim Peterson was traded for Thorpe.
