well we can wax theoretical all we want. if Tmac truly is a small forward, that is a front line player, then Drexler has to be included in this poll. if the Rockets had a very good shooting guard or a very poor small forward during 95-98, Drexler would have played the three. it still would have been too late by at least two years though. all three players (Dream, Barkley, Drexler) were a couple years removed from their prime when they finally were teamed together. however, at one point the Rockets had three former franchise players. not just three all-stars. that has been done numerous times. not even three hall-of-famers or three of the 50 greatest players ever. but three franchise players; players that you build a team around and who can carry their team on their back every now and then. the last team i can think of is the lakers with Wilt, West, and Baylor. of course they were too late by a couple years as well. i suppose the lakers with Shaq, Malone and Kobe might count, but Malone's overrated and Kobe still hasn't shown worthy as a franchise player winning only 34 games last year. he still has to get his team to the playoffs or at least a winning record.
True. The Houston Rockets team is really blessed to have that many excellent front court players in the last 20 years.
I just love how everyone criticized Ralph for playing a face to the basket game and being accused of being a 7'4" guard. If you look now, that's how a majority of the big men play (minus Yao and Shaq), hardly any big men play the traditional back to the basket post game. Dream took his game to another level when he even said in his own words that he incorporated a "guards face to the basket game". I actually believe Ralph would have succeeded more in todays game than in the 80's. He was just ahead of his time with his versatility.
Hakeem Vote gets split up so it's not an accurate vote. Anyway, I think the best Rockets front line was the Hakeem-Barkley-Pippen frontline during the shortened season. THey didn't have a any guards unfortunately to pass the ball around, but whoa, imagine if that team did!
