Absolutely was his fault. In DC he got $100 million dollars and he was paired with his pal Webber, they both stunk of the joint. Juwan continued to ball hog and short arm jumpered his way to crappy seasons with every team. Juwan believed he was still the 100 million dollar man, until JVG figured out he was just a bench role player. Season Team Lg Salary 1994-95 Washington Bullets NBA $1,309,000 1995-96 Washington Bullets NBA $1,702,000 1996-97 Washington Bullets NBA $9,750,000 1997-98 Washington Wizards NBA $11,250,000 1998-99 Washington Wizards NBA $13,125,000 1999-00 Washington Wizards NBA $15,000,000 2000-01 Total NBA $16,875,000 2001-02 Total NBA $18,750,000 2002-03 Denver Nuggets NBA $20,152,000 2003-04 Orlando Magic NBA $4,917,000 2004-05 Houston Rockets NBA $5,408,700 2005-06 Houston Rockets NBA $5,900,400 2006-07 Houston Rockets NBA $6,392,100 2007-08 Total NBA $1,211,197 Career (may be incomplete) $137,415,000
Damn...I forgot how big his contract was...its partly his fault or his agent's for demanding that type of $...in terms of the team's success. but at the same time WHAT THE HELL WERE THE WIZARDS/BULLETS THINKING??? Its not as if Juwan and his agent put a gun up to their head like the Godfather, and demanded them to give him that outrageous contract. Escpecially when he and Webber were around the same size, similar atheticism, and similar skill set...but clearly Howard was the less diverse and less talented of the 2. Washington didn't have to give him that much $...can't fault Howard for asking for that much $...if Washington was dumb enough to do it, then so be it...he probably knew he wasn't even the best player on his team, but Washington didn't seem to think so.
They said the best thing Michael Jordan did as a GM besides play for them was getting rid of Juwan Howard and his massive contract. I think this was also Pat Riley's fault too cause the Heat were willing to pay him that much too, so the Wizards like a bunch of suckers matched it or exceeded it. There's no way Juwan would go bankrupt, he's so filthy rich!
I do think CD was a nice person and a hard worker and he did know basketball...he was an assistant head coach. However, that does not always equate to knowing basketball talent. Add along to that, the Rockets made a drastic move in acquiring Barkley for one last title run...the ultimate win now type of move. It had to be done, but if the Rockets didn't win, they had to know the consequences. We didn't win, the next year was injury plagued....but to our luck, GM CD is able to get another future hall of famer...Scottie Pippen. We also signed Shandon Anderson, a decent role player at best, to a long term, expensive contract...in a weak free agent class...Too bad Pippen's back had limited him, and he didn't fit our system at all. We had to trade him. Anderson was just an overrated system player, and we fell for it to try to improve the overall talent...atleast they tried. Then we get another break by acquiring the #2 overall pick, Steve Francis who was a good NBA player, but not great. He was young, so was Mobley, so was Taylor, and Kenny Thomas. THey were surrounded by Dream and Chuck for a couple of years...but they were old and breaking down. We had to give the ball to our younger guys in hopes of getting into the playoffs. It was once again fool's gold. That little success (winning 45 games) did nothing but encourage Franchise and Cat to play 1-on-1 street ball, and play no defense. We also give guys like Kelvin Kato, Moochi Norris, Kenny Thomas, Maurice Taylor, Francis and Cat long term, and not exactly cheap contracts which limits our flexibility...this is after not making the playoffs, and to players who were all pure scorers or specialists. Not great all around talents (Steve was the closest thing to that) We also trade Richard Jefferson and 2 other picks for Eddie Griffin (RIP) who just wasn't mature enough and had many personal demons to be productive in the NBA. Then, Dream and Chuck were both gone, and things got ugly really fast. We win 28 games, have roster full of overpaid scrubs Luckily, we made the right choice in drafting Yao with the #1. Rudy T. did a great job with him, by bringing him along slowly and letting him absorb the NBA instead of just throwing him out there to the lions. However, with all that young talent that doesn't know how to play and surely doesn't know how to win around Yao, with a coach who gave his players too much freedom, it wasn't a winning combination. Unfortunately, after RUdy had to resign for medical reasons, the team completely fell apart. The Rockets absolutely hired the best coach for our situation: JVG. He toughened up the Rockets and taught them that it was teamball and defense, bball IQ that won titles...Rudy could manage veteran stars and players and egos, but he wasn't hte greatest of teachers. JVG took on the challenge, and was willing to challenge Steve Francis to play his style of ball. They got the 7th seed, and had a top 5 defense, and Yao became the focal point of the offense. However, Francis became exposed when he had to play in a real system, and his skills weren't as useful in a winning style of basketball. He was still turnover prone, he wasn't a great decision maker, and he had a hard time adjusting to playing off of Yao, when he was allowed to do his own thing for 3 years under Rudy T. Then CD makes a great trade by acquiring a dynamic, scorer and playmaker to compliment Yao to be the next Shaq and Kobe...but they weren't as good as Shaq and Kobe. Neither were the players that CD brought in, and JVG made sure it was players he could trust (old knick players or old vets that play D ...didn't go after length, athleticism and a creator on offense). I hate to say it, but those bad contracts to scrub role players were the demise of our supporting cast...it affected us until Morey was able to get us solid talent, draft well, and those old contracts expired. Maybe he was pressured to win another title, and was desperate to find hidden talent, but whatever the reason was....the Rockets trying to rush the winning process with 2 young stars was a mistake But who knows, maybe there wasn't much talent available at the time...but Morey was able to find international talent (Scola) and got him from a division rival...he drafted well (Landry, Brooks), and he was able to trade for a 3rd scoring option (Artest). He did that in his 1st 2 years...CD had 11 years to make the team better, and he didn't...I would give him a C as a grade for a GM in Houston... He got us Barkley and Pippen, Francis, and Yao, and even Battier was a good move for that system...but he got us trapped in many horrible contracts to players who didn't deserve them. He was aggressive in getting big names, but didn't manage the supporting casts well, and ultimately couldn't improve it in 2005 because of previous bad management. great assistant coach though...helped us win 2 titles and worked with Hakeem and Yao A LOT. A+ here
I've gotta say you are very knowledgeable. I only started following the Rox heavily at the 06-07. I first was a Rox fan though because of Hakeem. After Pippen left, I kinda stopped paying attention. So its nice to know all the in betweens from 1999-2005. Thanks for the informatic post.
