Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. You, sir, must relinquish your Rockets fanboy card and delete your account on Clutchfans by the end of the day.
I don't know if it's franchise altering, but the Rockets passing on Rashard Lewis not once, but 3 times , in order to draft Michael Dickerson (talented but coudl never stay healthy, shipped off to Vancouver for Steve Francis within a year, where he was out of the league within 4 years) Bryce Drew (total & complete NBA bust who wasn't good enough; got drafted I guess due to 1 stupid buzzer beater? I don't know) Mirsad Turkcan (the most inexcusable of the 3, who played the same position & had same player archetype, and had 90 career NBA minutes) I can still remember Rudy's bullshit explanation of why they took Turkcan - the "shooting drill" and how they "would have drafted him if they had 4 first round picks" - Instead of taking a flyer on the HIGHLY RATED talented local guy at 18th selection, who ended up being the 4-5th best player in the draft and 2x All Star, you got 3 hardcore first round busts who were all out of the league within a few seasons. The late Rudy/Carroll Dawson era was, sheesh, questionable at best.
2005: The lack of Instant Replay in Game 5 WCF Rockets/Mavericks. Michael Finnley (wayyyyy) out of bounds. Rockets lost Game 5. Rockets lost series 4-3.
Such a good question. Selfishly, I really want to say CP3's hamstring. Those Rockets beating the dynastic Warriors and finishing off the title by beating Lebron would be among the greatest titles in this city's history. However, in that alternate reality, I actually think there's a downside to that happening, too. In that world, Morey probably stays and they double down on Harden and Paul. We could be sitting here right now paying $100 million a year for that aging back court instead of sitting where we are with all this young talent, future cap flexibility in the No. 2 seed in the West. The only real answer for me is that the 80s aren't a dumpster fire for Dream because they either drafted Clyde instead of Ralph and/or Ralph stays healthy and drugs don't derail the rest of the supporting cast. I didn't start watching the Rockets until the 94 finals (I was only 7 at the time), but imagine a world where the Rockets were as good or better than the Celtics, Lakers, Pistons and Bulls from the mid-80s to mid-90s? What if the Rockets had a 10-year peak in Hakeem's prime instead of a 2-year peak at the tail end of it? We could have had 4-5 titles in that timeframe instead of two. The Rockets could be talked about in the same breath as the 90s Bulls, the Duncan/Pop Spurs and the Curry Warriors. Hakeem could be seen as a locked-in top 5 all-time guy. This whole city might actually appreciate them more and be a stronger basketball city than it is. That reality would have been so dope.
Would there be enough scoring opportunities for Jordan, Olajuwon AND Drexler? All of them had reputations as ball hogs when they were young kids in the league... https://www.basketballnetwork.net/o...h-clyde-drexler-and-michael-jordan-in-houston I will also add ... Jeff Van Gundy. Biggest coaching mistake in Rockets history.
Portland had the #2 pick in the '84 draft. They offered the pick AND Cylde Drexler to Houston in exchange for Ralph Sampson. The Rockets declined. They could have drafted Jordan or Barkley at #2 and paired him with Hakeem and Drexler.
Wow, I love your whole Everything Everywhere All At Once universe. lol. So which is it? So you only get to wave your wand once. 1. Rockets drafted Clyde 2. 86 Rockets didn't implode due to injuries and drugs (which is really 2 things in one. )
Really this is the craziest possible alternate reality out of any I've heard of from any team in any sports. still blows my mind to think about it
Yao doesn't get hurt against the Lakers in '09. He got hurt in Game 3 and we still took them to 7 games. Karl Malone gets called for the bearhug in Game 6 against the Jazz in 97 Barkley doesn't injure his arm against the Jazz in 98 playoffs (this was the official end of that era's championship window) CP3 doesn't tear his hammy and/or Scott Foster get Gilooley'd in 2018 Rockets accept Drexler and #2 pick for Ralph Sampson, draft Hakeem and Jordan...minimum 8 peat Michael Finley gets called out of bounds in 2005 Greinke deosn't get pulled in the 7th....whoops wrong sport. Sorry.
Well, they had to do the drug suspensions for "Basketball Reasons". Speaking of that, do we want to include the almost trade when the Rockets dumped Kevin Martin and Luis Scola for Pau Gasol (via the Chris Paul to the Lakers).
Crap. Starting lineup. 1. You 2. Jordan 3. Drexler 4. Me 5. Dream >5 championships /thread But they still could have drafted Drexler outright in 83 at #3 instead of Rodney Mcray. They passed on their hometown guy. Sorta like, but not as bad, as when they passed on Rashard Lewis.
We never make the trade for Barkley and roll with the squad that we all loved. Sam becomes our best player and we draft the next mainstay allowing the torch to be passed rather than endless reboots with no HTown backstory.
Clyde. Because if they'd drafted him, Sampson's injuries either don't matter (if they take him first) or matter significantly less (if they take him instead of McCray). Also, if you have Clyde, losing guys like Lloyd and Lucas (who was already 32 by that point) aren't as much of a problem. If you add a top 50 all-time player next to Dream, on top of the fact that they already had so much chemistry from their UH days, just those two guys would have made them contenders. And that's a super easy duo to add a supporting cast to back then. It's hard to know how things would have worked out in that scenario, but I have to think it would have led the Rockets to more than just two titles in Dream's career.
I think a pretty big one is the recent “what if we landed a #1 pick at any point in this rebuild”? Even to say you can’t cherry pick the rest of the drafts… landing a #1 and continuing to tank would’ve been crazy right?
Very minor one, but what if Aaron Brooks never injured his ankle against Ginobili. Aaron was coming off an MIP award and was playing great. I don’t think he would have become a superstar, but I would have loved to see a few more years of his prime.
True, but maybe if the Rockets drafted Drexler instead of McCray in '83 they win a few more games that season. Then, they likely lose their chance at Dream or Jordan.
