All of the player manipulations since 1996 have not brought us any deeper into the playoffs much less another championship. What is the strategy here? Standing fairly pat may have been a better solution. How about this could-have-been Rocket Team (method of acquisition): (D)raft, (T)rade, (FA) Free Agent. I believe that, except for convoluded cap considerations, all of these guys could have been Rocket teammates (i.e. they weren't traded for one another). 1 -- Cassell (D), Drew (D) or Moochie (FA) 2 -- Dickerson (D), Mobeley (D) 3 -- Shandon (FA), Walt (T), Bullard (FA) 4 -- Horry (D), Othella (D), KT (D) 5 -- Hakeem (D), Cato (T) That's a good team and mostly comprised of Rocket draft picks, one trade, and a couple of free agents. At the 1: We aren't better at the point with Cassell, but didn't Milwaukee (led by Cassell) just get nipped by the Pacers who stretched the Lakers in almost all of the games of the championship series. He is a world-class player. At the 2: What a tandem of Dickerson and Mobes! At the 3: Shandon is a great and under-rated vet. Imagine if we had picked Rashard Lewis instead of Turcksan!!!!!! At the 4: The Committee of Power Forwards. Someone would be "in season" every game night depending on the opposition's 4 man. At the 5: The Dream and The Nightmare (will he ever wake up!). The Rockets are a team that drafts well. Where are our players, then? Is this just the state of the NBA? ------------------ There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count and those who can't.
you can certainly play "what if" games, but you have to consider that the rocket's record and therefore their draft position would have been different if the player manipulations weren't made...in addition, cato and williams were traded for pippen who they signed as a free agent... ------------------
The acquistion of Charles brought us much further in the playoffs. We went from being swept in the second round by Seattle to almost making the Finals except for a choke on our part at the end of Game 6. ------------------ Cheaters never win. Unless you play for LA that is.
I'm just saying that I think we would have been a stronger team over the years if we had kept our nucleus more intact. Bobrek: I know that Cato and Walt were acquired for Pippen. The point is that Pippen didn't cost us one or two of our young guys. Portland may soon regret the price they paid for Pippen-- even though they got to the conference semis. Who's going to remember in two years? Cat: That's not very close, really. And we are without the services of Cassell and Horry for that "near-miss?" I'm not buying it and I can't recommend that deal. ------------------ There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count and those who can't.
Yeah I know, we choked so bad in that game 6. WE had Barkley, Olajuwon, and Clyde... all 3 of whom were not too far past their prime, and still pretty good players. WE coulda given the bulls a tough time, might've even beat them. ------------------ treasurer of the moochie norris fan club
1 -- Cassell (D), Drew (D) or Moochie (FA) 2 -- Dickerson (D), Mobeley (D) 3 -- Shandon (FA), Walt (T), Bullard (FA) 4 -- Horry (D), Othella (D), KT (D) 5 -- Hakeem (D), Cato (T) Couple of problems here.... Cato and Williams would not have been on this team w/o Pippen. The reason Pippen was acquired by losing only Roy Rogers is b/c the Rockets had CAP ROOM. Had the Rockets kept Robert Horry and Sam Cassell they would have had to commit major cap room to them and could not have signed Pippen which means no Williams or Cato. Horry signed a 7 yr 35 mil contract after leaving the Rockets, and Cassell signed a 6 yr 21 mil deal. That would have eaten A LOT of the Rockets cap room. The team would have looked more like this: PG - Cassell, Drew, Norris SG - Dickerson, Mobley SF - Shandon, Bullard PF - Horry, Othella, KT C - Dream, ? One word to describe that team: MEDIOCRITY In conclusion, I applaud the Rockets for taking risks in deals such as the Barkley one and later the Francis one. Can you imagine how mediocre this team would be with Olajuwon winding down? There would be ZERO relief in sight with no young star to build around. Players like Dickerson are nice young talents but not ones to build around like Francis is. ------------------ Check out the Best Source for Draft Info Draftsource.net
How can the Lakers afford Shaq, Kobe, Horry, and all those vets while the Knicks can afford Patrick, Houston, LJ, and Sprewell but the Rockets COULDN'T AFFORD Olajuwan, Horry, and Cassell? Don't even get me going on the Blazers! Pippen was a FA agent acquisition; that is fine. My beef is with our penchant for shipping out our good young players after only brief stints here. The ballclub I've outlined above is an athletic, competitive one and, I dare say, would have served us better over the years. And the point is that they were mostly originally our property via the draft. Yes, I know that drafting patterns might have been different; they might have been better for the Rockets, although most of the picks of these roster guys occurred between 10 and 25. Only Olajuwon was a lottery.. ------------------ There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count and those who can't. [This message has been edited by RichRocket (edited June 21, 2000).]
your scenario requires the pippen trade. however, if i remember correctly, the pippen trade completely relied on barkley. (1) pippen came to "win a championship with charles and hakeem. (2) barkley took the minimum so we could fit pippen under the cap. without charles, there is no pippen and thus no cato, ww, etc. what if what if what if. we shoudl have accepted portland's offer of the 2nd pick and clyde drexler in 1984 for ralph sampson. jordan, drexler, hakeem, in 1984. what if what if what if. ------------------
How can the Lakers afford Shaq, Kobe, Horry, and all those vets while the Knicks can afford Patrick, Houston, LJ, and Sprewell but the Rockets COULDN'T AFFORD Olajuwan, Horry, and Cassell? Don't even get me going on the Blazers! Rich, you need to pay attention to the sequence these players were acquired in. There are ways to circumvent the salary cap. The Knicks signed Houston when they were under the cap, then traded for LJ and later Sprewell. They could exceed the cap to re-sign Ewing as their own FA. The Lakers signed Shaq into cap room but traded for Kobe and Rice. They were able to exceed the cap to re-sign Kobe since he was their own FA. In the Rockets scenario, they would have committed VALUABLE cap room to re-signing Cassell and Horry. They could have afforded Olajuwon, Cassell and Horry no problem, but that would have strapped their ability to sign a big name FA (Pippen). Keeping that past nucleus together and not moving for Barkley would have doomed the Rockets to the dreaded world of mediocrity that is ruled by the Pistons and Cavs. Instead, the Rockets have a young and talented team with a potential star to build around. ------------------ Check out the Best Source for Draft Info Draftsource.net
