OK I know it's the off season and our minds wonder...but after watching Robert Horry last night, what do you think would have happed if the Rockets had not traded Cassel and Horry for Barkley? I remember at the time I was happy, not to see those guys traded, but to get Barkley. But in hindsight...I think Willis could have played the part of PF and we would have had our point guard and forward spots looking good all this time. I just hate to think Horry making great defensive plays and great shots time and time again...and we let him go for the fat man!
Well that's going back even farther, but I've thought about the Jordan for Sampson trade too. You know the Rockets had that chance, to wind up with Hakeem and Jordan, but I'm over that one...but the Horry one still haunts me (a little)
The only guy I really hated losing at the time was Cassell. Here was this 2nd yr pint guard with 2 rings under his belt and he had played a fairly big part in getting both of them. Horry was more replacable IMO. I didnt mind because I really thought we could win it all with Barkley.
Losing those 2 guys, they were the youth and future of the team, "but we can win it now while Hakeem is still here" was the way to go. I understand that...but Horry has become such a clutch performer...we was bound to make a difference
What was it about Horry that Rudy/CD didn't see. They tried to ship him to Detroit first and then off to Phoenix. It is just plain stupid to trade your good young players (who were championship players) for a guy with 2-3 years left
The 97 Rox were one Scott Qitten turnover from beating the Lakers and returning to the finals. It isn't like the Rox were a failure. In 98 and 99 the Rox were still a playoff caliber team until the final straw when Barkley blew out his knee. Barkley was the best player on the team at that point. Dream was still servicable but Barkley was really carrying the team at that point.
I think what did Horry in was his lazy attitude during the regular season and the fact he knocked up Calvin's daughter. I think Horry has matured some with marriage and the difficulties with his child.
Pippen was only on the Rockets in the lockout shortened season of 1999, if memory serves me. I am sure it wasn't 1997. In 1997 we played the Utah Jazz in the WCF...we lost on one of the most painful plays in Rockets history.
They weren't going to be able to resign both Cassell and Horry for the type of money they were looking for (in those days' standards). Willis wouldn't have been there - he only signed because of Barkley. Not signing Kevin Johnson/giving up a 1st for Derek Harper is what killed them in the end, ultimately preventing Star Wars '97.
In 1997 we would have lost to Seattle in the second round of the playoffs. In 1998 we might have gotten past the Jazz, but we'd probably lose to San Antonio in the 2nd round. Trading for Barkely didn't really hurt us directly. But the Barkley trade was probably the reason Clyde retired prematurely, which prompted us to trade for Pippen... And that's what screwed us up. I don't think keeping Horry and Sammy around really would have made us that much better, in the short term or the long run.
Not only that, it was the first round of the playoffs, and I believe we lost in 4... We wouldn't have made the Finals that year.
I still don't mind trading away Horry. As many great things he did in his career, his career is still a disappointment. But, I was against the trade when I found out Cassell was a part of it -- and I still think I was right on that one. Losing Cassell hurt a lot. And, I'm not so sure about Willis following Barkley aboard. My memory is foggy, but I've always thought I knew he'd be here either way.
Hakeem was on the downslope of his career. There is no way that the team as constituted in '96 was going to win another title. After the trade they had a couple of legitimate shots, one ruined by Malone's cheating, bear-hugging, ass and one ruined by an injury to Sir Charles. When you have an opportunity to go after a title, you don't pass because if means trading away a pretty good PG and a F who has never averaged more than 12 points or 7.5 rebounds per game, despite getting significant minutes. That would be about as stupid as turning down the TMac for Fancy trade.
http://www.basketballreference.com/teams/teamscores.htm?tm=HOU&lg=n&yr=1996 everybody forgets that we won 57 games that year. We dominated the league with 3 aging superstars and a bunch of scrubs and had injury issues with all 3 of our superstars. We went 57-25 and started out 21-3 and I think our record with all 3 playing was something like 30-9. Compared to the Suns and Sonics this year, Suns went 21-3 and Sonics went 19-6. But, Stockton and his recently retired sidekick had to ruin our season. Looking back at that one season, the Barkley trade was well worth it for me.
Crap, not my best Rocket posting effort today. All I remember (clearly) was that Quitten turned the ball over with about 20 seconds left when we were down by 1 point. I guess blocked the rest of that out of memory. But to rehash, Barkey wasn't the cause of our decline...he was our savior at the time.
Exactly. That trade worked out well for the Rockets. We probably would've played the Bulls in the finals if Malone hadnt bearhugged Drexler leaving Stockton open for that 3. I hate bringing that up.
And I was thinking about a Rockets/Bulls Finals again today... If Houston had made it there in '97 or '98, what were the real chances of the team getting past Chicago? Sure it would've been the best Finals series of the decade (based on the circumstances of Jordan FINALLY having to deal with a dominate big man), but I still wonder. Hakeem was considerably slow(er) at that point of his career than '94 and '95 when he was already 'old'. I would have to imagine that the second-coming-of-Jordan-Bulls would still have prevailed considering how absolutely dominate they were (69-13, 62-20) but my guess is such a series would be a definite 7 games.
"what do you think would have happed if the Rockets had not traded Cassel and Horry for Barkley?" We would have lost to Seattle in 1997, and in 1998, with Hakeem's injuries during the regular season that year, we probably would've been in the lottery. With Cassell on the roster, there is no trade for Steve Francis in 1999, and in the end, the rockets would've never had the firepower to pull off a deal for Tracy McGrady. I love how people continue to bash the Barkley trade as if it ruined the Rockets future. They were gonna be bad once Hakeem started to decline and Clyde left, it's part of rebuilding and being in the lottery for 4 years shouldn't have shocked anyone. And it didn't help the rockets dished out so many bad contracts during that time.
Its exactly what Jordan DIDNT want. As quoted in the recent Chron article with the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the '95 Championship http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/3221857 He didnt want any part of the Rockets. Hakeem was a tad bit slower than in '95 but he was still putting up numbers that season (96-97 season 23pts/9rbs playoffs 23pts/11rbs | 97-98 season 16/9 and playoffs 20/11 ) Would have been MIGHTY interesting to see how it would have been the outcome to this day.
