Going a little retro here. But in looking at the second Rockets team that won the title with Drexler, what happened to that returning championship team? They started 9-0 and then after that went 20-17 for a 29-17 record prior to getting Drexler. Why did the champs start off so poorly is my question? Were there any nagging injuries to key players, or any internal problems? They finished the season 28-18 with Drexler, but many games Hakeem was out obviously so that affected things. How good would anticipate that team would have been had they had Drexler all season? Or how good could they have been if they never made the trade at all? Any input on this subject would interesting for those who followed the Rocks back in the day. (And yes I like asking a lot of retro questions, and for that I apologize )
I felt that we needed that extra star power, I really don't know if we were better or worse. All I know is after giving up Thorpe for Drexler, Mad Max didn't play no more. We were starting Chucky Brown at PF and Charles Jones was in our playoff rotation, so if you think our pf situation this year's bad, you haven't followed the Rox long enough. The question is does the Drexler upgrade over Mad Max outweigh the down grade in pf from Thorpe to Chucky? Really hard to look at it on paper but I can say this, Drexler was as good as we needed him to be in the playoffs and does give us a different look instead of dumping it down every play and a guy we can still go to when Hakeem sits. He also gave us some fast break baskets that we don't usually see at that season. Lastly, I think having his old UH friend back really helped Hakeem to be more focused. So on paper, the Rox really didn't improve that much (maybe even downgraded) but the fit was just better with Drexler there.
i'm pretty sure we were 30-17 w/o drexler and 17-18 with him. didn't horry become the pf at that point? smith, drexler, elie, horry, olajuwon is the lineup i remember for all the big playoff moments.
No, I'm pretty sure Chucky Brown was our starting pf (remember him shutting Charles down in that phoenix series?). Robert's refusal to play pf for us was one of the major reasons that Rudy didn't like him. Our starting five that season in the playoffs was Hakeem, Chucky, Robert, Drexler and Smith. With Elie, Cassell, and yes Charles Jones being the guys that are coming off the bench.
The Rockets used Pete Chilcutt at starting PF for the end of the Phoenix series, after we made our comeback from 3-1 (check the tape), and then moved Robert to PF for the San Antonio and Orlando series, even though he spent most of the time guarding Barkley in the Phoenix series as well. (Elie was the starting SF in both those series as well) Robert matched up better against Rodman and Grant on both ends of the court, and since his shot was dead-on, was the perfect inside-out complement to Hakeem. I never heard of Rudy not "liking" Robert, but honestly, back then, he was still kinda skinny... not bulked up like he is today. The only think I could see Rudy not liking is that Horry never developed a post-up game... when you're a 6-10 SF, there were many nights that he could have just dominated his man by backing him in.
We started that season (94-95) on pure emotion and anticipation. After the euphoria wore-off, so did our effort. Effort (adrenaline) is one of those things that can carry at team to wins, but you also need something called "talent." And we just ran out of talent as the season wore on and the emotion wore-off (no more adrenaline wins). Also, the 3-point line being moved in didn't help the Rox. That was our bread-and-butter -- Dump the ball in to Hakeem and and kick it out. Rudy's plan worked in 94 but didn't in 95. Teams scouted us. They found our weakness: One star, a bunch of role players. So, their plan was to "Play man-to-man and let our role players beat us." They wouldn't double Hakeem as much because that would leave our role players wide open. Sure, Hakeem would dominate some of those single match-ups statstically. But we wouldn't win the game. So, what actually happened under those conditions? Well... Hakeem would pass the ball out to the 3-point line to a waiting Smith, Horry, or Elie. The difference was that those shooters were COVERED. Less distance for the defender(s) to cover and less talent to deal with (basically, anyone not named "Hakeem."). Those role players couldn't create their own shot once they found themselves covered. And if Hakeem had an off-night and decided to take the one-on-one match up, but missed most his shots, well, then we died. Or rather, we lived-and-died with Hakeem's one-on-one misses since there was very little ball movement...it was like pick your poison! The other problem was Rudy's simpleton offense. You heard of that "inside-out offense" right? Well, Rudy took that literally! One play, over and over and over... So, when you take: 1) Closer 3-point line 2) Man-on-man defensive strategy was used by our opponents; on the Rockets 3) "Let the role players beat us" mentality from our opponents 4) Rudy's simpleton offense (repetitive and predictable). Well, that was a recipe for disaster. Enter DREXLER! He gave us that extra cutting, slashing, driving, passing, rebounding, and scoring that we needed. It opened the court up and gave us that extra option. So now we had two players that could create their own shots. It relieved Hakeem. And removed a lot of the burden for our role players to score on their own. Drexler actually made others better with his accurate passing (for a SG). I think the better question would be, "How good could we have been if Drexler would have started the season with us, instead of a mid-season trade?" I felt that we were a 55+ win team if Drexler would have started the season at the beginning.
Hmm. maybe my memories are getting bad (at such a young age ) But I guess Chucky Brown shutting down charles made a huge impact one me when I was younger. I also remeber reading quite a few artilce about Robert not willing to play PF for the Rox and how it was a big deal that he was willing to play PF for the Lakers. I honestly don't remember chilly Pete much in the playoffs, how long did he play each game? Also I think Rudy didn't like Horry cuz he impregnated Calvins daughter.
