Chuck's comments on what it will take for Rockets to get back to the top

I know that others have posted some of this information, but I thought it was interesting to string together a couple of his quotes in the last few days about the Rockets future.

BobFinn pointed us to Chuck's new <a href="http://www.athletenow.com/charles_barkley_journ1.shtml">Athletenow.com journal</a>, in which Barkley said:

I've been keeping close tabs on the Rockets. That organization has treated me just phenomenally. They've got a real good building block in Steve Francis. They've also got some good, young role players in Cuttino Mobley and Kenny Thomas. But they're going to need more than that to go forward, especially when Hakeem retires. You look at teams like the Celtics when Larry retired, and the Lakers when Magic left, and they went through some rough times. You need more than one superstar to get back. But I really like Steve. He's a great kid, and I spent a lot of time with him. He's willing to learn, and that's a good sign in a young player.

And then <a href="http://bbs.clutchcity.net/ubb/Forum3/HTML/005861.html">4Chuckie's quote</a> of what Barkley said during the halftime of the Minnesota game ...

During halftime of last nights game they asked Charles about the future of the Rockets and as a brief recap he said the cornerstones of the team were Stevie & Mobley. He also said KT may be the answer at PF. He cut to the chase on Cato and said he was a good shot-blocker but until he could score he wasn't too sure about him, only that he is making alot of money!

Conclusions from these 2 quotes:

(1) Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobely, and Kenny Thomas are the building blocks of the future.
(2) Steve Francis will be a superstar.
(3) Cuttino will be a role player starter, which means he'll probably get signed this summer.
(4) Thomas might be a role player starter, but needs to develop.
(5) The biggest challenge is replacing Dream at center when he leaves, and Cato could be a backup, but not the starter.
(6) We need another superstar, I assume at either small forward or center.
(7) Anderson and Rogers aren't our building blocks for our future.

I assume we will focus on getting a 3 in this year's draft, and hopefully Morris comes out and we can get him somehow. Otherwise, I assume we'll try to get the "best athlete" available, like Kenyon Martin, Stromile Swift, Chris Porter, or Dermarr Johnson.

But that doesn't solve our center problem, which I think will have to be solved via trade (using our exception, Drew, TMass and Williams) instead of the draft. Does anyone else wish that the Dream had a chance to mentor Olowakandi? If he was properly groomed and had the right attitude in a different environment, he could be that other building block, with Cato to back him up. Who else could we get? We've been real spoiled with the Dream.

[This message has been edited by Sherlock (edited March 13, 2000).]