Rod Strickland was signed as a free agent (for the minimum IIRC). While he certainly didn't produce for us, it is hard to consider him a bust.
We gave up Richard Jefferson and two other guys to get Eddie Griffen. Richard Jefferson is an pretty good player in my book.
i don't know, but this is a good place to look http://www.nba.com/rockets/dance/0405dancers_index.html
Charles Barkley. We traded away Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, and more for him. Imagin if we still have Sam and Horry on this team.
We would probably not have Yao or Tracy if that trade had not happened, because all the draft orders after that trade would have been different. The fact is that Hakeem and Clyde were getting older and Sam and Bob were not going to bring them to another title, the Rox decided to take a shot at the title, which any good team would do, and they didn't quite make it, because of some cheating by Karl Malone and some unfortunate injuries. That doesn't make the trade bad or Sir Charles a bust, because when you have a chance to take a shot at a title, you have to take it, you don't play it safe and float around in the middle of the pack.
Pippen - we got nothing for him because he could not work out an exit plan with Rudy and CD quietly. He took it to the media and we got nothing for him. Every GM -hell everyone that read the sports page knew he wanted to leave. I will always remember his complaints about Barkley after Barkley had signed for the league min. of 1 mil so we could sign Pippen. We made a major financial commitment to Pippen and got very little in return..... Glen Rice should at least be considered. I love Rudy and am sick of hearing about Rashard, but we did a sign and trade with Shandon Anderson and got stuck with Glen Rice for 2 years at 9mil+ per season. The guy was done. Brent Price had 2 ACL injuries- not his fault. We needed a point guard so badly we later signed the stupid Matt Maloney contract. So much in resources expended on point guards that were ineffective or should not have been in the NBA. Moochie being in the trade to banish Mo Taylor brought baak a NBDL qualified Point, after 2 seasons of the broke down Charlie Ward. My goodness the Rockets have been in search of a true point guard since we traded Sam Cassell for a wore out - over weight Charles BArkley.
Gotta be Eddie Griffin. Trading away 3 first round picks, one of which was Richard Jefferson was just too much to forget about. It always lurks in my mind that we could have drafted Rashard Lewis, and everyone in Houston knew we were going to (and should have) except for the Rockets. Instead we wasted the picks on guys that aren't even in the nba anymore.... Snottie Quitten would definitely be next on my list. I can't rate Swift yet, it hasn't even been 1/2 a season yet, give him some time. I'm dissapointed, but sometimes a little patience is necessary. Pugs
Barkley I didn't put in the poll because the Rockets seem to be stuck in neutral when they traded for him, and with him they were able to advance further in the playoffs (at least for one year). In retrospect, it would've been better to keep Sam and Rob, but I don't think you can rank Charles as a huge failure when compared to the other guys listed in the poll. Matt Maloney is a guy we overpaid, but at least he hit some big shots for us. He was a bust, no doubt, but he gave you a lot more than Brent Price did. On Glen Rice, he was a disappointment, but everyone knew he didn't have much left when we got him. No one was really shocked. On the poll options, I didn't make an effort to include every bust or disappointment the Rockets ever had, just the top ones.
That was a spectacular failure, to be sure. Dickerson looked like a player and ended up suffering a freak injury, but the other two looked like losers all the way. I'd say they were all big busts except that (A) Drew and Turckan were late picks and Lewis wasn't that obvious of a choice given that every team in the NBA passed on him in the 1st round and (B) Dickerson was the centerpiece of the Francis deal, and Francis became the centerpiece of the TMac deal, who is better than Lewis.
As has been stated several times, we had to do the Barkley deal. I'm a big fan of both Horry and Sam, but Horry still waits to turn it on until his team needs a killer shot and/or the playoffs. And Sam is crazy...he likes to do his own thing...as a back-up for Kenny Smith, he was great because he provided a completely different look at point. If Barkley didn't have that freak tendon break thing in the first round, I don't think we'd even be mentioning him in this thread. I gotta go with Eddie Griffin as the biggest bust. We gave up 3 1st rounders for him. IIRC, however, we would not have chosen Richard Jefferson with any of those picks. We had made the deal with New Jersey and they determined who we picked. Quitten is a close second. He forced the hand that fed him BIG and we didn't get anywhere near what we should have in trade. And the crap he put on Barkley during all of that was just wrong. Barkley took the veteran's minimum to make room for the Quitten signing and then had his back through the drunk driving incident and in just about every other article written during that season. Never mind that Houston treated his arrival like the Second Coming.
