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(Hypothetically) Would a young Kevin McHale make this team a contender?

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by carayip, Oct 18, 2012.

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How good would they be with McHale the player?

  1. Championship contender

    15 vote(s)
    16.3%
  2. Playoffs contender

    66 vote(s)
    71.7%
  3. Lottery bound

    11 vote(s)
    12.0%
  1. carayip

    carayip Member

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    I honestly don't think replacing Martin with Jordan would beat my team McHale or team Olajuwon.

    The current team makeup is primed for an elite big man than an elite wing.
     
  2. prs325

    prs325 Member

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    McHale was a beast back in the day
     
  3. morpheus133

    morpheus133 Member

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    You add any hall of famer to the roster without giving up more than one starter and you will at least have a chance at contending. Plus if you have a hall of famer on your roster then other stars want to play in Houston.
     
  4. mike_lu

    mike_lu Member

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    He's a grinder ;)
     
  5. Rashmon

    Rashmon Member

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    You gotta love that clothesline of Rambis and then the announcer (Heinsohn?) saying, "it's just part of the game."
     
  6. Easy

    Easy Boban Only Fan
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    If we also had a young Olajuwon.
     
  7. felixng2012

    felixng2012 Member

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    That would be unfair for the rest of the league.

    Dwight Howard will get it worse than DRob did in the 1995 postseason.
     
  8. johnstarks

    johnstarks Member

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    With the team as it is now, I wouldn't trade McHale for Howard either. Omer does what Howard does as a defensive anchor, but McHale brings a real low post presence on offense. McHale is #2 behind Dream on the all-time low post moves list in my book. If McHale wasn't doubleteamed, he scored. Plus he had a decent jump shot. And his defense was excellent and he brought toughness that would help the mindset of this team. Howard is a beast, but he doesn't have a tough mindset.

    Omer and McHale anchoring the defense would be ridiculous. We make the playoffs on defense alone. Our bench is too thin and Lin and Parsons need a bit more experience to make a deep run.
     
  9. stl1622dc

    stl1622dc Member

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    You can't compare players across generations. The level of athleticism has increased exponentially since McHale's days. Weight training didn't even become part of sports training until sometime in the 1970s and so it was still relatively new during the era when McHale played.

    Arnold Swarchenegger mentioned that he would train with Wilt (generation before McHale) occasionally and that one of the reasons he was so dominant was b/c he secretly weight trained. Coaches during that era were under the belief that weight training made you slow and immobile. Can you imagine a post player NOT weight training? That is the level of discrepancy we're talking about.

    Today, kids w/ potential receive professional level training during their freshman year of HIGH SCHOOL (~15/16 years old) and many times earlier. Insert Wilt, McHale, or any other dominant bigman from the 60-80s and they'd likely still get good numbers, but they would definitely have trouble adapting to the level of strength and speed involved. That's not even including the changes in rules (zone, no hand-check, etc.) that have shifted the NBA game from big-man centric to guard-centric.
     
    1 person likes this.
  10. raskol

    raskol Contributing Member

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    my, my.. He was a monster! One of the best~
     
  11. Easy

    Easy Boban Only Fan
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    Well, McHale had Bird, Parish, Dennis Johnson and Cedric Maxwell all in their prime, and still couldn't win the championship every year.
     
  12. felixng2012

    felixng2012 Member

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    Hakeem>>Bird especially in today's league where centers are garbage. Hakeem was a much better playoff performer than Bird ever was. Bird was better regular season but Hakeem was way better in the postseason + had much much more impact on the defensive end while contributing a lot offensively.

    As for not winning a championship every year.... I have no clue why but Bird and Parish were underachievers in the postseason. Cedric only had a few good years before steep decline. Dennis Johnson was good but nothing special.

    Also keep in mind that the Celtics faced Kareem and Magic and Pistons which were pretty stacked teams as well.

    The fact that centers today are a lot worse than in the past would make Hakeem that much better in today's league. Shaq is retired, Duncan is old, Yao is gone. Now we are left with Dwight who is great but more at the level of Drob than all time great centers.
     
  13. Arthurprescott2

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  14. Aleron

    Aleron Member

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    In this hypothetical scenario, Mchale would not be part of the trade, but it would have also prevented from Howard from basically crying to the universe about how he doesn't want to go to Houston.

    We had a better trade offer, but years of bad blood with players and agents wasn't worth it for a slightly better offer to Orlando.
     
  15. heypartner

    heypartner Member

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    You can add the 76ers to that list. Who were actually more competition to Bird and Magic than the Pistons.
     
  16. red32

    red32 Member

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    He sure was, and I thought he was a smarter player too. BUT, I worry about the OLD McHale the coach...
     
  17. matty101

    matty101 Member

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    I am 22 and so never saw Mchale play so I'll take all you old timers word for it and accept he was one of the more exceptional players in his era and worthy of the hall of fame. BUT, that 56 points may have been the most unimpressive 56 I've ever seen. I recall 2 decent post moves for 4 points and at least 12 offensive rebounds for 24 points. They were hardly contested rebounds either. A further 10-12 of those points were in transition/put on a platter for him by bird.

    Not knocking the man, everyone says he was great. But as I said, the most boring 56 points I've ever seen an NBA athlete get in one game!!
     

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