Clyde was an excellent all round player. So graceful, gliding on the court. He made things easier for us. I love Otis. He was a champion too, but we needed Clyde to win. Maxwell was awesome when he got going,but Clyde was more dependable and a better player.
Clyde never comes here, we stay in a flux the whole season and maybe get knocked out in the first round. Fact. Personally, I love Drexler's commentary. He can have me chuckling like a little school girl sometimes. Give me the chip.
OK BS. Far from being a fact but just an opinion. We had a Championship caliber team before Clyde came.
Yeah, we had a championship caliber team that was massively underachieving and looked like a jeep stuck on a beach kicking up sand and getting no where. When Drexler came, the team looked like it got a new life and in a way, it looked like they wanted to repeat not only for themselves but to get him a ring also.
pure overstatement. We did not "massively underachieve." We started the season 9-0. We had a better first half of the year than second half. Those are facts. Another fact. Hakeem was the MVP that year, not Robinson. That's the whole point of Hakeem getting pissed when Robinson got his trophy. So, it is flat out wrong to say Hakeem "massively underachieve" that year. It's just silly wrong to say that. This is one of biggest misconceptions by Rockets fans. Just because you got rejuvenated as a fan after the trade, doesn't mean the Rockets did. They didn't...not until the playoffs. Here's their record: 30-17 pre-trade (and they started 9-0) 27-18 after trade They did not get better, but I guess we can blame that on Maxwell, right? Hakeem was going to rise up in the playoffs all by himself -- no matter what. And he was going to beat Robinson and the Spurs...no matter what, too. The way it was, we faced three of the worst defending SGs in the league -- Ainge, Hornacek and Del Negro ... three series in a row. Maxwell would have destroyed them too. And then you have Thorpe to offset any gap between Maxwell and Drexler on the offensive side It's just speculation to say that Hakeem (the true MVP in 1995) was going to "massively underachieve" in the playoffs without Drexler
All of these choices are bad because Clyde winning a championship has nothing to do with Calvin not being in the booth. It wasn't fair how Calvin lost his job and he is a million times better at this than Clyde so I expect to see him back now that we have a real team again.
OK Well said. Most also don't remember what Thorpe brought. He was a huge release valve for Hakeem. Many times when he was doubled or triple teamed he would dump it to Thorpe. Our interior play was still great with Hakeem but lessened. We also knew that Drexler had a couple more years left in him but we just figured that someone else would rise up. The nail in our coffin was the Barkley trade.
Terrible poll but seeing the responses makes me believe there's two camps regarding the impact of Drexler: he saved our team and we wouldn't won without him or we really didn't need him cause everything was fine. Seems like the truth is in between because there are a few facts to consider what happened before the trade happened: After 9-0 start, Rockets did in fact play a lot worse. It seems ego's started to play up for both Maxwell - started chucking again which actually hurt the team - and Kenny had huge problems with Cassell starting to become the go-to guy and even started the 2nd half one game. Kenny made explicitly clear he did not like it and talked a lot of **** on the bench to Rudy T. Otis Thorpe was injured for quite a few games, Herrera did well but it all went back to normal in January. Then February came around and Max decided to go nuts, a few days later trade is made and the injury riddled 2nd half of the season started. Everybody was getting ill: Kenny, Horry, Sam, Herrera, Dream and Maxwell. Drexler and Dream both did some amazing things in the playoffs - along with some heroics by Sam, Elie, Chucky Brown, Kenny & Horry - but there's no secret to why we won: we had two go-to guys. Even if Thorpe had stayed and battled with Malone and them, Rudy T even admitted Vernon was getting tougher to deal with and couldn't be counted on. This is partly due to injuries that went on for quite a while. We can argue about why the trade was made, personally I think Vernon's play and character (no contract extension, ego and his usual mad max persona) and going into the stands is definitely up there as why they did it. I love Max as much as the next guy, but he was becoming a real pain in the ass that season and no way we would've won anything with him in 94-95. There are a few ifs to this assertion but given that things had played out the same prior to the deadline, I say the Rockets did the right thing. Having said that, I never liked the trade and will never like the trade simply because it was an overreaction, OT was the last guy to trade, they let Herrera - his replacement - walk after the season and could've gone about replacing Maxwell in a different way. Sure Rudy T and company claimed Vernon was not being replaced and could even start alongside Clyde, but we all knew that was some bs. That trade was made to make sure we had a reliable, starting SG with no character issues. Totally understandable but still, the way it was handled was not right. Nothing against Clyde, because again, we would not have won that 2nd championship without him. No objective fan can deny it.
I like Drexler. The only way to make it better would be to add Bill Walton to the broadcasting team. I would PAY for that commentary.
Championships are so rare, there is very little you'd trade to cancel it. Murphy >>> Drexler, but NO WAY you give away a title for that.
OK Maybe I am not am objective fan. We would have still won the Championship without getting Drexler. You or anyone does not know any different. Maxwell needed to go for sure and most fans back then agreed with that. Thorpe was a big help inside and I doubt any would disagree with that Herarra was half the player of Thorpe. Still though we were OK with trading Thorpe. My complaint is only that Thorpe's contribution is being minimized. Of course when we have Hakeem at his finest we could do without him. Overall getting Drexler was nice. At the time everyone was happy to bring him back home and get a ring. I never said that the trade didn't need to be done. We needed to do things and definitely Maxwell had to go. Kenny needed to get over his ego and would have. We still had a Championship caliber team before the trade and after the trade regardless. Until we dismantled the team and became just another playoff team.
I'm not so sure Maxwell had to go if the trade never happened. Clearly, the trade exacerbated Maxwell's madness. Without Drexler taking his job, I say Max's madness stays in check the closer we get to the playoffs.
Is this thread about who we'd want doing the broadcast, or whether the trade was a good idea? That Murph is better than Clyde as a broadcaster calling games isn't up for serious debate, in my humble opinion. Of course he's better. Broadcasting just doesn't come naturally to Clyde, whereas playing shooting guard at the very highest level did, back before he retired. Regarding the trade... that's the most conflicted I've probably ever been as a Rockets fan. I loved Clyde at UH. For years, I was a hoping that, somehow, he'd reunite with Dream in Houston and make some runs at a title. But hell, we'd just won a championship! Do you really bust up that team in hopes of catching lightning in a bottle with Drexler and Olajuwon? That trade truly shocked me. Ultimately, Clyde returning the Houston to play with Hakeem made it all worthwhile. That we won again made things perfect. Yet I agree with HeyPee that we would still have repeated absent the trade. So yeah, content and conflicted. That's me.
I don't know why they just don't call someone a Maxwell, instead of a streak shooter. Max lived and breathed being hot and cold. He was rarely in between.
I think that 94 team maxed out. People say they wanted to keep that squad together, but I don't think that unit was capable of winning another title. Maxwell was simply too big a headcase, and Utah had just reached their mid-90's peak. We needed Clyde's superstar ability to get past Utah in the 1st round. Going for 41 and 31 in the elimination games
