I wasn't too worried. You had Kevin Willis backing up the 4/5 and Sam Mack had had a big year for us in '96. Anything Othella gave us was supposed to be a bonus. Eddie Johnson was huge down the stretch, of course. Point guard depth was a huge concern from the start. I felt comfortable with Price as the starter - he shot like 40% from 3 the year before. The only problem was that he tore his ACL. I loved Randy Livingston. Emanuel Davis too. Livingston was heralded as the next Magic Johnson before leg injuries limited him. Great court vision and penetration ability. Couldn't shoot worth a damn though and couldn't stay healthy. E-Mail went down too. That left us with an overweight Sedale Threatt and whipping boy Matt Maloney at the 1. Ugh. Had they agreed to include a 1st rounder along with Brent Price in a trade to Dallas for Derek Harper, I believe we would have made the Finals that year. Or signed KJ. Either one would have been able to prevent John Stockton to absolutely control the tempo of that game those last few minutes.
I can understand hating Barkley for not giving us respect now, but to turn that into a "we should never have traded for him" argument is pretty dumb. Cassell had a good NBA career... but we didn't trade away a HOFer or anything. Horry also had a great career... the perfect role-player to have on a championship team. He'll be remembered like John Salley, Kurt Rambis, Steve Kerr, or any other good player (but not a superstar) that won multiple championships. He'll also get some play for the clutch shots he hit... but I never regretted losing him, because once again we didn't lose a perennial all-star HOFer.
OK, all the comments concerning my hatred of that trade have been compelling and I have taken them to heart. However, I did not "turn this into a "we should never have traded for him" argument. Right or wrong, I felt that way from the start and just happened to mention it on this thread. To repeat myself, I never said any of the guys traded compared with Chuck. I said they traded all their bench depth. We're beating a dead horse now; the comments above were excellent. I just don't want anyone thinking I equated Cassell or Horry with a Hall of Famer--fat ass and all.
No matter how "great" Barkly's game is, I will always hold him in low regard. He's nothing but a classless clawn, never knows when to shut up. From the day Rockets drafted Yao Barkley has been having a verbal diareah against Rockets. He may be a "sir", but he's still a d******d.
I know this happened (it was in the papers), but now I don't know for certain if it was '97 or '99. I think people were talking about picking him up both years. I also remember some rumours about him and Barkley not getting along, and that being one of the reasons he wasn't signed.
First off, Barkley never came off the bench during his entire Houston career, save for his last game against the Grizzlies during the 1999-2000 season. He played like a man possessed during the 1998 playoffs where we would have beaten the Jazz in the first round. The Jazz that year ended up sweeping the next two rounds before losing out to the Bulls. We did not have a shot at KJ during the summer of 1996 when we picked up Barkley. We could have signed him before the 1999 season though, when he was a free agent. The guy who we really missed out on that year was Tim Hardaway. The guy came off major knee surgery the year before and teams got scared away. The Heat signed him to a paltry contract and he proceeded to make the All-NBA team that year. Instead we signed Brent Price to a bigger contract that Tim Hardaway received. The trade for Charles Barkley brought about one of my all time favorite Rockets' seasons. Beating Seattle that year was the great playoff win outside of the 2 NBA Finals wins. The Sonics beat us in 1987, 1989, 1993, and 1996 playoffs. Beating them in game 7 in 1997 was pure ecstacy. Eddie Johnson playing like the younger underappreciated, sharp shooter that he was in game 3 and 4 of the Western Conference Finals was magical. Those memories alone make the Barkley trade worthwhile, all day, every day. They wouldn't have been possible without the Chuckwagon.
Barkley came off the bench in 27 games in '97-98, twice in '98-99, and twice in '99-00. http://www.nba.com/history/players/barkley_stats.html
Freak - You're right in that I think there were rumors of signing KJ all 3 of those years. My memory escapes me on the details. I always was under the impression that they didn't pursue KJ because he didn't fit into the "dump it down" offense. He couldn't shoot the 3 and dominated the ball. You could be right though. Essentially, not having an experienced point guard cost us our shot in '97 and killed us in '99. Dickerson and Mobley were completely outclassed in that series. Da Man is right about Tim Hardaway. I remember reading an interview with him later in which he stated that he was literally sitting by his phone waiting for a call from the Rockets. I really can't blame them though - for a guy who relied on his quickness (who can forget the "Utep 2 step"?), a serious leg injury meant bad news. They should have gotten someone though. Management's refusal to acquire a veteran guard cost Hakeem a shot at his 3rd. You're also right about Barkley coming off the bench. When he went down, Willis and Hakeem dominated. Chuck came back and offered to come off the bench. He never saw the starting lineup again for the rest of that season.
Actually, the reason we beat the Sonics that year was because of Matt Maloney, who shot the ball like he was out of his mind. The problem was he cost us the next series against Utah by playing as bad as a point guard possibly could. Was I the only one thinking his play against the Sonics was a total fluke, never to be repeated again? I know the Rockets didn't think so and they proceeded to make one of their most infamous contract blunders ever.
That's my fault. I complete forgot about the Chuckster missing all that action. I'm officially getting old. I do remember vividly that Dream missed a lot of action that year too. Charles and Willis held down the fort nicely while he was out. Anyways, that year was just a complete disaster and a huge let down. Finishing as an 8th seed after making the conference finals the year before is pretty bad. Barkley leading us to a first round upset of Utah would have been the saving grace. We absolutely had game 4.
Actually, i think he loves the Rockets...he's just trying to get them angry so they play harder and tougher...
Don't put it all on Maloney. Remember how absolutely terrible Willis was that series? He was a black hole who somehow managed to miss every shot (or so it seemed). As well as he played all year, and as much as I appreciated him holding down the fort, we'd have been better off if Willis, along with Maloney, had gone down in the first game with a broken leg.
You are right. Shawn Kemp actually punched Willis during one game and wasn't even suspended because the films showed how he was abusing Kemp with dirty play. The league sent a message to the Rox. Willis wasn't the same after that and completely faded to zero during the Jazz series. I lost all respect for Willis after that and apparently so did the Rox.
Those guys on Cold Pizza just called Yao soft and Tracy selfish, and of course said the ad nauseum "Yao will never be the player that people expect him to be"...I forgot their names but I call them idiots that are a week late... The question presented to them was who is the better team right now, the Heat or the Rox...unfair question because the uninformed (re: those 2 guys commenting) will be instantly drawn to the Heat's better record and as usual slob the knob of Shaq. Oh they were Woody Paige and Skip Bayless...but I still call them idiots that are a week late.
