Sam Cassell and Robert Horry admit they were furious about their trade to Phoenix

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/raptors-nix-stoudamire-trade/#app

If the Stoudamire trade had gone down things would have looked a lot different about the 97/98 Barkley Rockets. Not to mention the following year instead of drafting garbage like Bryce Drew maybe Dawson would have taken Rashard Lewis who was crying in the green room basically begging the Rockets to draft him.

 

Man can you imagine if they had access at practices and could show us those battles that they keep talking about? Always involving Vernon somehow haha wonder why he went at Carl, good to hear Amigo didn’t back down.

 

I missed Cassell and Horry (and Chucky) after the trade. As a kid seeing that crew win two championships, I didn't want that team to ever change.

But the Barkley trade was a good one in my opinion, especially combined with the Willis signing. Seattle smoked our ass in '96, and after the Barkley trade we beat them in 7 games in '97. It made a difference. Don't forget Seattle also beat us in 93. It takes good timing and some luck to win trophies. We were able to dodge Seattle in 94 (thanks Denver!) and 95, but without that trade, we don't ever get past Seattle. There a lot of Maloney knocking going on but remember he was nails in that 97 series against Seattle...Utah series not so much.

Also, in addition to the Utah/Stockton illegal ass game winner in the WCF, we DOMINATED Utah in the first round the next year before Barkley tore his triceps and everything immediately changed....damn.

 

This Sonics nonsense again, look in 1993 they got lucky on some bogus calls and who says they beat the Jazz in 1994? Nuggets almost beat them too and quite frankly, had we faced the Nuggets in the WCF, I’m not even sure we beat them since they had our number too. We barely beat them 3 times.
And who knows what team we could’ve had with Sam, Horry still in the fold. You don’t break up the core of a team that’s won 2 championships like that.

 

I think it was Karl Malone who had a bear hug on Clyde.

 

I think they damn near went to the Western Conference Finals

IMO
EVERYTHING GOOD ABOUT THE CLIPPERS STARTED WITH SAM CASSELL AND CUTINNO MOBLEY!!!!!!

Rocket River

 

Cassell was the lucky rabbit's foot during the 90s and early 2000s

Houston: 2 championships
Milwaukee: teamed up with Big Dog and Shuttlesworth to make the Bucks elite
Minnesota: teamed up with Spreewell and KG to make the Wolves elite
Clippers: teamed up with Brand and Mobley to get them to the West semis
Boston: championship

I omitted his time in Phoenix, Jersey and Dallas to make a better narrative lol

 

He was CP3 before CP3

He never gets enough credit

Rocket River

 

Nobody asked Chuck Brown how he felt?

 

Wolves had a legit shot at the Finals if Cassell didn't hurt his hip which is saying a lot considering they went up against the Lakers in the WCF.

 

That was really interesting.

@MadMax @Carl Herrera

 

I brought him into this topic because several threads bring him into the topic even if its not about him, In one of the Cade threads someone actually blamed Tilman in the event that they traded up to draft Cade as if Tilman was actually hurting The Rockets by trading up for one of the best prospects not just in this draft but quite a while.

I see Tilman hate in nearly every thread regardless of topic, so why not expect someone to blame him for this trade that Tilman had nothing to do with. Just like tons of unwarranted hate Tilman gets. Defending an actual current Rocket is not nut hugging, grabbing on to Harden's nuts as tight as possible even as he walked away as a coward is....

 

That's something I cant figure out, its hypocrisy at its finest. Les Alexander was actually the true cheap owner that would rather keep a mediocre team on the court than to bring people in and do it right. Tilman much like Les also almost walked into a finals/championship except Harden is not built like Hakeem... But at least Tilman shook things up, no he has not been perfect. Far from it, but I think he has the right idea and intentions. Its crazy how much of the things being said about Tilman are actually true for Les.... The man took the damn trophies for crying out loud and no one even blinks...

 

Would have been interesting if we would have kept those guys together, but also one has to remember they all wanted to get paid!
Sam was a starting point guard.
We had to pay Mario, then he left that following year to San Antonio.
Horry was going to demand a good chunk of change.