[Houston Press] 93-94 Rockets vs. 11-12 Rockets, a Player Comparison (by Jeff Balke)

That year Dream was out for many games because Cartwright elbowed him in the eye. Kenny was more aggressive and ran the pick and roll to perfection with OT.

 

weird article.
Didn't that '94 team start the season 15-0?

Oh, and Parsons is probably better compared to Horry rather than Bullard. Bud would be compared to Bullard.. Why is Parsons an offensive-minded player like Bullard? Does Parsons really strike you as a one-dimensional spot-up shooter like Bullard...who can't guard anyone?

btw: little known fact...Earl Cureton played more minutes in the playoffs than Brooks and Bullard combined. And Chris Jent got more than either as well. Bullard got DNPd 13 times in the '94 playoffs. Brooks...18 times. I don't see Rudy DNPing Parsons. Parsons actually seems like a player Rudy would love.

 

Lowry would put up 25 a night then. And finish games. This cast is better than Kyles cast.


It's not a knock to say Kyle Lowry is a better player in 2012 than Kenny Smith was in 1994.

 

You're right.
I was just pointing out that Kenny was not just a jump shooter when he first joined the team. Lowery is a stronger player. I still think Kenny can run offense with the best of them.

 

I have not forgotten Kenny. You just pulled the stats Kenny's absolute best season. When was he ever an All-Star? Kenny was a good scorer but elite? No. Kyle Lowry is not as good of a shooter as Kenny but he is better at absolutely everything else. Kenny did not even no how to spell defense.

Kenny was 25 when he put up those stats. Kyle is 25 now and I would take him over any point guard the Rockets have ever had. Only a non-drug induced John Lucas was better IMO.

Mike Newlin
John Lucas
Alan Level
Robert Reed (86 play-offs)
Sleepy Floyed
Kenny Smith
Steve Francis
Rafer Alston
Aaron Brooks

Sam Cassell would have been the best IMO but we traded him before he could become a starter.

Please don't take this for Kenny hate because it's not but I have been waiting for a long time for the Rockets to finally get a real point guard that can play like Kyle is right now. Will Kyle keep this up? I don't know but he has turned me into a believer.

 

We can check back at the end of the season and revisit stats but even unchanged I take Kyle over Kenny. Of course as of this posting Kyle has upped his average to
17.8 ppg - more than Kenny
9.3 apg- more than Kenny
.443 f/g%

Of course we know those percentages only tell a fraction of the story:

Defense - giant edge to Kyle
Steals - Kyle 2 Kenny 1.3
Rebounds - Kyle 6.9 Kenny 2.8
Leadership - this is objective I know but IMO its not even close. Kyle by a landslide.
Better at running the offense- once again I think it's Kyle by a lot. There was a reason that Rudy T did not trust Kenny at the end of games and liked to sub in Scotty Brooks to finish the games.

I love that you are a fan of Kenny but as a point guard and as a complete player that effects the game on both ends of the court, I don't just think Kyle is better, I think Kyle is vastly superior.

 

When Kenny split time with Brooks, he was slowly on his decline. During the 2nd championship, he became more of the jump shooter that people love to criticize.

Sure, Kyle is putting up great numbers on lesser team. Kenny Smith's career is not defined by Derrick Harper, Scotty Brooks, and Game 1 of Orlando.

He was a pretty solid point guard who was the perfect guy for Clutch City. We could play "put this player on this team" on fantasy basketball but you can't do that in real life. The chemistry, the trust, the closeness of those guys, Mario, Max, Kenny, Horry, etc is a factor. They played for each other. You can see that .

If we had a badass like Sam Cassell as the #2 point guard, he'd get playing time too.

 

Martin and all the rest of this year's Rocket's defense would look a lot better if they had Hakeem in his prime guarding the net. Likewise if the 93-94 Rockets were starting Dalembert they would probably be a lottery team or just make the playoffs like this year's Rockets are likely to do.

 

I know you're responding to the All Star question, but Kenny wasn't that great in 93-94.

 

...which is the entire basis of the article.

 

true. We don't know the post season results for Kyle yet, but Kenny was monster against Utah that year.