Why do you think Rockets potential three peat and dyntasy died?

The Seattle Supersonics

 

agreed. The Seatte Supersonics, whether u liked it or not...had our number from 92 - 97 or something.

I'm just glad as a Rockets fan that Denver and LA trounced them in the 1st round in 94 and 95...or god knows what woulda happened.

 

I think that season was the first year of many, in which our defense faltered.

I'm not 100% sure on that though. But I do recall that in 94 and 95, we were easily one of the top 5 defensive teams.

 

I think trading for Barkley led to our demise, but thats just my opinion.

 

In addition to matching up poorly with the Sonics, it seemed to be Clyde was pretty satisfied after the 95 Title and didn't play with the same drive and intensity afterwards.

The trade for Barkley was also a killer. Lost 2 clutch, bigtime role players in Horry and Cassell and replaced them with an unclutch declining star who intentionally or unintentionally disrupted the teams chemistry. Having a dominant post player when you already had Hakeem was pretty pointless in retrospect and Charles was a defensive liability.

 

I still am wondering why some people feel the need to bash the Rockets trade of 3 backup PFs, and 1 good PG for a HOF PF.

You guys don't remember how disappointing the 95-96 season was, and that a change was needed to make one last run with an aging Olajuwon and Drexler.

Also, we desperately needed a PF to fill in. We had journeyman Chucky Brown as our starting PF since OT was traded for Drexler.

The 96-97 Rockets would have destroyed the 95-96 Rockets. So where is this idea that we got ripped off in the Barkley trade?

 

The Barkley deal was a good trade, just as the Randy Johnson deal was a good trade. In fact, the Barkley deal was better, since he actually stayed around for a while.

That team was probably the best in the Western Conference. They didn't win, but I can't believe they weren't as good as the Jazz that year. Barkley had a bad series, Kevin Willis had an awful series, and John Stockton got to cheat.

That team was really unreal:

C Hakeem - best in the game
PF Barkley - Top 3 PF /Willis Best back-up PF in the game
SF - Elie/Johnson - two good scorers, one could defend as well
SG - Clyde - top 5 SG
PG - Matt Maloney - ugh

Should have won it all...

 

The Barkley trade was not a good one??

(starts to hyperventilate)

No offense, but people who think that the Barkley trade was a bad one don't know what they are talking about.

So, if we didn't get Barkley, how many years would Seattle have been dominating us in a row? Like 10 maybe?

Yea, trading for Barkley was really bad.

I mean Robert Horry and Sam Cassell and company could have eventually beaten them, but only after like 20 tries or so.

 

I'd have to agree. As good as Barkley was, by the time the Rockets got him he was not worth what we traded him for.

 

If we are too EVER get back up there we are going to need a Center. A real GOOD center. One like Olajuwon, DRob, Ewing, Mourning, Shaq, or any of the others. We need to get a REAL franchise player. One that we draft and keep 15+years. It only makes sense. TANK THIS SEASON! WE NEED A CENTER!

 

Injuries, specifically the Elie injury in '95-'96, are what ended the run. I believe the Rockets were 23-5 when Elie went down. They ended up 48-34. Had the Rockets been healthy all year, they could've beaten Seattle. They should've had Game 2 of that series as it is, which would've completely turned the series around, but Seattle got lucky on the 3s.

As far as subsequent years, in '96-'97 the problem was no D and atrocious point guard play. Utah out-classed the Rockets because they were better (64 wins). The Rockets couldn't get any big stops that year. Again, point guard play was terrible -- a Derek Harper would've put them over the hump.

'97-'98: injuries.

'98-'99: ZERO guard play. At least one vet guard would've got us a home-court spot in the first round of the playoffs.

 

Injuries were a main reason why the Rox failed to post three. Another reaso was those DARN SONICS!!! We never faced them in our two championship years and when we did face them in 92-93 they knocked us out. With Payton, Perkins, Kemp, McMillan...they had a team of Rocket killers.

 

GeorGe Karl's killer Zone Defense
and
the NBA lack of calling it

rocket river

 

Those who think that people who think the Barkley trade wasn't worth it don't know what they are talking about don't know what they are talking about.

Seattle had our number in '95-'96 no doubt. A change had to be made. However, did it have to be that change?

Trading Horry, Bryant and Brown is nothing, but when they threw Cassell in there, I knew at the time it was a mistake. Look at Cassell now, he's a stud. He was a stud when we traded him. He should have been a trade-killer. That was too much.

Also, Barkley was the wrong PF target. His rebounding was good. But what else did we need at PF? We needed good defense and jumpers to complement Olajuwon's low post play. Instead we got another lowpost player that forced one member of our frontcourt out of the offense on every play and a poor defender.

Finally, the Rockets are very careful in considering rookies' attitudes as well as their skills. They obviously pay that no mind in trading for vets: witness Barkley and Scottie Pippen. If they had worried about it, they'd have balked at Barkley's poor work ethic.

Could we not have traded for a different power forward? Someone who'd have given us the strengths we needed at a lower cost?

 

without Matt's treys, we don't win that series. (even if they were from the shortened line)

 

Just didn't match up well with the deeper, more athletic Sonics, and their ability to take Dream out of the game

I've always believed that if Cassell hadn't gotten injured (a bad shoulder, I believe), his ability to penetrate and score could've helped off-set Seattle's traps and zones.

If only they had had another player who could create his own shot,...oh well.

 

Injuries just destroyed us that season. Rockets seem like they're always injury-prone, but they usually recover in time for the playoffs (that is, when we used to make the playoffs). In 95/96, we didn't. Sure, Sammy and Clyde and Mario all played during the Seattle series, but they were banged up and couldn't contribute what they would have if they were healthy.

Yeah, its true that Seattle had our number. But, pre-trade we owned Utah - after the trade, we didn't. I think the 2-time championship team deserved another shot, a healthy shot, before being dismantled.

 

The trade for Barkley was made on the ASSUMPTION that the Rockets couldn't beat Seattle. This had been true, but I don't think it was true at the time of the trade.

The second championship was by a team that had jelled increasingly throughout the playoffs to dominate more and more with each series. The Rockets never gave the team a chance to match up with the Sonics with Hakeem in his prime, Drexler well integrated in the offense, and a fantastic penetrator in a young Cassell.

It seems to me they made the trade prematurely, and they destroyed a chemistry founded on excellent balance in both the front and back courts. If they needed better inside presence than Chucky Brown, it would have been better to get strong journeyman players to complement Hakeem by committee than to upend their successful unit.

 

Geez, Juan, that first sentence was like a triple negative - doesn't that cancel that statement out or something?

I see where you are coming from with Cassell and Barkley playing in the low post.

However, there is little question that Barkley relished the role of playing "Sonics killer". He was so good at passing out of the low post (not saying that Olajuwon wasn't), but this now gave the Rockets two guys who could pass out of their illegal double and triple teams. So, for Seattle, it was pretty much pick your poison.

Yea, the match-ups with the Jazz tended to, unfortunately, favor them over us, but I still say that if Barkley didn't have the misfortune of running into Bradley's knee, Drexler doesn't pull his hamstring (how in the hell do you pull a hamstring playing basketball?), and believe it or not, that Brent Price doesn't break his elbow in pre-season, we finish with the best record in the West - maybe in the league. Damn...here I give Juan a hard time about a triple negative and now I just completed the biggest run-on sentence of all-time! No more critiquing grammar for me - there's a reason why I majored in math!

So, I still think it was a good deal. Yes, giving Cassell might have been too much, but no one saw all the injuries that happened to the Rocks in '97. Using a best case scenario, a line-up of Barkley, Elie, Olajuwon, Drexler, and Brent Price with Willis as the 6th man plus Eddie Johnson (even though he came in mid-season) was definitely one of the best teams on paper in the NBA that season.