thanks deckard. i def. like your team, but i think if i was coach of that team id consider starting mario and bringing clyde of the bench just to balance things out. that would get a guy whose primary focus is dirty work/defense in the starting lineup and also give clyde more touches on offense. Clyde would be on the floor to finish game most of the time though.
PG: Mark Jackson SG: Glen Rice SF: Scottie Pippen PF: Charles Oakley C : Kelvin Cato 2nd Unit: PG: Bobby Sura SG: Bostjan Nachbar SF: Pete Chilcutt PF: Juwan Howard C: Terrence Morris
Let me fill them in for you: PG Moochie Norris SG Rick Brunson SF Ryan Bowen PF Clarence Weatherspoon C Hakeem Olajuwon That's a hell of a team!
Pg - Calvin Murphy, Steve Francis Sg - Clyde Drexler, Ron Artest Sf - T-Mac, Robert Horry Pf - Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley C - Moses Malone, Ralph Sampson Roster spots 11 -15 11) Mario Elie - Sg 12) Scottie Pippen - Sf 13) Otis Thorpe - Pf 14) Sam Cassell - Pg 15) Rudy T. - PF/SF
lol. That's why I said starters. Other than Weatherspoon I don't really remember any of those guys starting.
Edit: I'm aware that they DID start a game or two, but I don't consider them 'starters'. Speaking of that.. how the hell did Ryan Bowen ever start on an NBA team? The shame.
Sorry, but Sam Cassel was a volume chucker who only shot 45% over his career while still scoring less than Calvin Murphy. Even during some of his prime years he had some years near 40%. Calvin Murphy hit around 49% in his prime and averaged 48% over his entire career. That's the difference between a Hall of Fame pg like Calvin Murphy, and an average to slightly above average journeyman pg who doesn't have a chance in hell of making the hall. Murphy was also the better free throw shooter and much stronger defensively. Sam Cassel has never even averaged 20 ppg in a season, whereas Murphy has put on borderline superstar type performances (25.5 ppg). Your only chance is to make vague arguments that Calvin Murphy played against weaker/less athletic competition because the stats are not in your favor. Your bias is pretty evident. Come back when Cassel is inducted into the Hall of Fame (ROFL) and then we can talk.
Pg Steve Francis Sg Cutino Mobley Sf Tracy Mcgrady Pf lol i kno he's not a PF, but Hakim the Dream C Yao Ming Sorry I was a fan of the rockets when they had Cat and Franchise were there =P notables: Pippen, Clyde Drexler, Mario Elie, Robert Horry, Sam Cassell, Kenny Smith, Deke, Charles Barkley, the list keeps going but yea
You are right. I was just joking anyway. Btw, I recalled Moochie started a few games when Stevie was out. And Ryan Bowen started in the PLAYOFF as the Dirk "stopper"...haha At least I am happy that our team has much more talents nowadays when compared to JVG's era. Guys like Juwan Howard, David Wesley, Charlie Ward all disappeared after leaving the Rockets.
This is hard. If I had to pick the best team on the court even if they had to play slightly outta position it would be- PG- Calvin Murphy SG- Clyde Drexler SF- Tracy McGrady PF/C- Hakeem, Yao, Moses and Ralph
A little harsh for a Rockets hero, isn't it? Let's break that down. Murph in his best season got 25.5 ppg... on a team that went 28-54. In fact, Calvin played on a bunch of losing teams. In his 13 years as a Rocket, we were above .500 only 3 times. In that great season for Murph, Rudy T, our leading scorer the previous season, missed almost the whole year. Does the name Kermit Washington ring a bell? So the team as a whole dropped from 49 to 28 wins, while Murphy got all of Rudy's shots to go with his own and scored a lot of points. That was his only season scoring more than 21.0. Sam? He had 4 losing seasons in his career. In two of those seasons, he was hurt most of the year. In one, he bounced from Phx to Dal to NJ. The only other one had him on the Clippers, going 40-42. Sam never averaged 20? I guess not, but dude, he had one season at 19.8, two at 19.7, one at 19.6... seems like that's pretty close. In his best scoring season, by the way, he shot .488. Murphy was a better career scorer? Murph also played his last season at 34, Sam played til he was 38. If you discount Cassell's seasons over age 34 and his seasons off the bench in Houston, his scoring average rockets to 18.8... better than Murphy's career averages. Murphy was an efficient scorer while Sam was a chucker? Murphy played his first 9 seasons before the 3 point shot, and 4 seasons with that shot in place. He hit at most 4 threes in any of those seasons and shot .139 from the arc overall. Let's discount him having deep range or of being robbed of the extra points, then. Cassell played with the 3, of course, and shot them frequently. If you look at just 2 point attempts, Sam shot 47.7% from 2 from his career, almost identical to Murphy. Cassell has a higher career points per shot (1.24 vs. 1.19). He has a higher TS% (taking into account 2s, 3s, and FT). And none of that looks at winning titles, which I thought was the point in the NBA, or assists, which I thought was pretty important for PGs. And to say that Murphy was a Hall of Famer while Sam is just an "average journeyman with no chance in hell at making the Hall" overlooks the fact that it is the basketball hall of fame, not the NBA hall of fame, and thus includes Murphy's dazzling career at Niagra, where he averaged 33 ppg and was a 3 time All-American. In fact there are guys in the Hall who never played in the NBA (or ABA). He certainly wasn't inducted just on his NBA credentials, which include all of one trip to the All Star game (same as Sam).
Once Olajuwon was drafted, Sampson played power forward. The vast amount of his playing time with Houston was at power forward.
We've had some very good PG's, Murphy, Francis, Lucas, Cassell, Smith, Dickerson, Alston and now Brooks. All of these guys in their prime played very well and have been All Stars and / or put up All Star numbers. Other than a during the Francis era this team has never been a guard oriented team.
Yes, that's a little harsh on a Rockets hero, SC, by the name of Calvin Murphy. Murph was on a lot of losing Rockets teams and some winning ones, too. He didn't trade Elvin Hayes, like Tex Winter did. He didn't crush his roommate's face in... he just had his best scoring season in response. Frankly, I don't know why so many around here think that you have to tear down one great Rockets player in order to build up another. I had both on my list. Clearly, the league has its own opinion about Calvin. He's in the Hall. If Sam somehow made it in, I'd applaud him, as well.
If it looked like I was trying to tear down Calvin, Deckard, I wasn't. The OP nominated Cassell, and the 2nd poster said he should be banned for suggesting him instead of Murphy. I defended the OP and drew statistical comparisons. Another poster took offense and called Cassell an "average journeyman" in comparison to a HOFer like Murphy. So I brought more statistics to bear on the discussion. I didn't make the original comparison, I was just defending my guy. I think they both had great careers. I'm a big fan of Calvin, too. I'm proud both guys played for my Rockets. I went back through to see if I'd used any disparaging terms about the guy, and I did not. I was happy he made the Hall, I was rooting for him. (And it's not the league's opinion, it's the voters to the Basketball Hall of Fame).
