Kenny is forever underrated. Including by me. He was a lot better than he ever seemed or got credit for.
No he is just still around as an TV commentator and gave himself a nickname. He did not finish most games Scotty Brooks and Sam Cassell did. He had a lot of talent but it didn't alway translate to the court. IMO, he had the talent to be an all star but he never was.
Harden or Murphy. But we won a title with Kenny at the position so he should be mentioned be default.
I remember before Kenny was Mitchell Wiggins, john Lucas, and god help me derrick minifield. Watched them during that time. Bobby Jo Reid kind of acted as point forwards a lot.
tie between llull and vspan. my money's on vspan honorable mention to luther head. though he wasnt a traditional pg, he was by default a pg due to his size. never forget those playoffs where tmac and yao needed some ****in help! and he had wide open three point looks for days. good times.
that's what the people say when they never saw Kenny play when we first got him. That's toward the end of his Rockets career. My theory is completely correct, there are only a few us of who really remember Kenny Smith, everyone else watched the championship tapes
Kenny Smith and Cassell were amazing. The biggest thing people overlook is that kenny was a freaking sharpshooter. Talk about spacing out the floor. He shot over 40% from the three during our championship run. Imagine kenny in today's nba. After we got Barkley spacing out that floor wasn't so easy anymore except for some luck from maloney against the sonics and Eddie at the buzzer.
Yes Kenny Smith was an upgrade from Sleepy Floyd but would flounder at the end of games (just like he did with the Kings) so Winston Garland then Scotty Brooks finishing most games but we didn't "click" till Sam Cassell's rookie season which was the first championship. Scotty Brooks did not return the following season making more room for Cassell. After the next season and second championship we could not afford both Horry and Cassell coming off their rookie contracts so they turned into Barkley. Smith contracts up so he catches on with Denver and is out of the league shortly there after. It was Cassell not Smith that was the difference maker. Remember what you want but this is really happened.
lolz, matt maloney and bryce drew, such cringey years. Also, kind of weird but I bought a Steve Francis Rockets jersey the day after we got cp3. I have no idea why. I guess I thought they'd run out or something? No logic used.
Many orchestrated the team on the court, but only one fulfilled the city of Houston's quest for first gold: Kenny Smith. Bad things happened after trading away the two-time world champ.
In terms of skill level the Rockets have had better PG's than Kenny but in terms of poise and leadership he's probably number one all time for us. His voice in the locker room is what helped keep the team together when we went down 3-1 to Phoenix while the rest of the guys were somewhat dejected. His big shots in game 1 of the Orlando finals really helped set the tone for the series, had the Rockets lost that game the series could have turned a whole different direction. Kenny was the ultimate game manager PG, he didn't make too many mistakes and he let Dream and others do their job and help put them in position to be effective while knocking down the open three's when presented to him. I think Kenny took a lot of heat back in the day because at times he was simply outmatched by certain PG's such as Payton, KJ, A.Hardaway, guys who were just physically superior to him. Thankfully we had Dream, OT, Horry and company to protect the paint and much of that weakness was covered up. Still, if we have to rank the best Rockets PG's of all time I think its hard to look past what James Harden accomplished last year. Kenny has him beat in longevity and accolades but not in talent. Harden has only played one year as the true PG so I don't think he really qualifies to be in the conversation yet. However, his one year as PG was the best statistical season a Rockets PG has ever had and probably the best statistical season we've seen from any PG since Oscar Robertson.
