if the Rockets were able to acquire Charles Barkley in 96/97 without giving up Sam Cassell or Robert Horry? I would say Sam, because he got traded, like 3 times that year. Do they beat Utah and go to face (and possibly beat) the Bulls?
I don't know if we would beaten the Bulls that year,but a healthy Barkley along with Sam Cassell would have been enough for us to get past the Jazz IMO.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Dude, ive felt that for years. they got barkley, and barkley was what they needed to get past seattle...that was the big goal...and it worked. but in the process, they traded away what they needed to remain superior to utah: sam cassell. sam neutralized stockton by making him RUN and play D. Stockton was older and Rudy knew just when to put Sam in to really keep stockton under control. in trading him away, we cursed Matt Maloney with the job of stopping Stockton...a slow, spot up shooter. Stockton's dream come true. and in the end...whose shot beats us in that series? Stockton. Ending the dreams of what wouldve been one of the greatest Finals of all time...6 Hall Of Famers on the floor at one time. The possibility to rewrite history...because the Rox wouldve won that series. And all the 'legend' of Jordan wouldve had one asterisk: Olajuwon COULD beat him. He was beatable. It also erases the asterisks that some people like to put by the Rox titles while Jordan was out. ALL of this couldve been...but who screwed it up? Utah. I hate Utah.
It seems like the Jazz always catch us at the wrong time, especially in the next season, when we had a good chance of knocking them off in 1st Round. If only Barkley was healthy.
Great post. While I also dont think we would have got past Seattle without Maloney. I mean I still remember what he did game 7. Those 3's he hit were HUGE.
I would've LOVED to have kept Sam when we got Barkley. All we needed was a point guard, just a decent one. With Sam we would've won it all. Stockton would've had to actually guard somebody.
i hate looking into the past and asking what if. there are too many variables. plus there is nothing that can be done about it now. what if the rockets accepted the bulls offer of the #3 pick for ralph sampson? jordan and hakeem playing together for their entire careers! could they have surpassed russell's 11 championships? what if the rockets drafted prince #15 instead of boki, and scola #38 instead of titto maddox? yao, scola, prince would've been together for the past 7 years. what if eddie griffin (rip) wasn't mentally unstable? how good could he have been? marcus camby type shot blocker, with a 3 point shot.
