This. Cato came over in that god awful Pippen trade to Portland where we got 6 mediocre to awful players in return. Cato was a backup for the Blazers but he had 7 blocks in a preseason game and CD felt the need to immediately lock him up for the long term. They had no idea what Cato could do as a starter and they didn't bother waiting to see him as a starter in regular season games. He was offered that contract primarily because of one performance is a freakin' preseason game. CD was convinced Cato was the next great shot blocker and didn't feel the need see more. One of the dumbest things I can remember. Stupid, STUPID move.
Player: Ralph Sampson, Yao Ming Coach: none. We've been blessed with some very good coaches GM: CD has done some great things, and has also done some devastating things. GM move: The Eddie Griffin trade. Season: There were many. I guess the worst one was probably the season when Yao went down for the last time right before we were about to make some noise in the playoffs.
1) Yao Ming, he was so good but couldn't stop getting injured. Not his fault by any means, I blame referees and genetics mostly. 2) Jeff Van Gundy, how could he not find offense more important? He had Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming in their primes and couldn't coach his offense out of a box. 3) None, Dawson and Morey have been great. 4) TMac trade having included Kelvin Kato. I really liked what Kato did for Yao Ming's game. 5) 1998-1999 season. We had Pippen, Hakeem and Barkley and we were turrible. I have no idea how that team figured out how to be that bad.
That trade came from Hakeem's book "Living the Dream". LIke I said, Rashard was a nice player but Olajuwon, Jordan and Drexler would have been a dynasty.
1) Stromile Swift, Maurice Taylor, SCOTTIE PIPPEN 2) none 3) none 4) Trading Pippen to where he wanted to go for a bunch of scrubs 5) 96-97 with Stockton shot
1) Ariza (had chance to blossom, turned out he was already maxed out) 2) n/a 3) n/a 4) terrence williams 5) 2011-12 collapse
1)pajamas jerseys 2)current shoulder pad jerseys that look like candy canes, possibly reason free agents won't play for us. 3)Yao Mings broken foot. 4) Royce White
Injuries to Yao and TMac that robbed them of their prime at age 30. Before that, CD contracts to Maloney, Cato etc really hamstrung the franchise. In the post Yao/TMac era (none really), that the Rockets didn't have much luck until last year with the Harden trade. Morey did most things right, just had no luck. But luck appears to be on our side now ... we'll see in the first week or two after July 1.
1) Pippen followed by Eddie Griffin and Stromile Swift 2) DNA 3) DNA 4) Recently, Terrence Williams and Brad Miller. Historically, dumping Pippen for crap and passing on Rashard Lewis three times. I can live with the Eddie Griffin gamble. 5) 08-09. To this day, I am haunted by Game 2 of the regular season where we beat Dallas to go 2-0. Yao and Artest were dominant the entire game and we finished on a 16-2 run with McGrady on the bench leading the cheering. It was Scola's second year with Landry/Brooks packing some muscle off of the bench. At that moment, I really felt like we had ARRIVED.
Who/What was the most disappointing: 1) Player; Trevor Ariza 2) Coach; McHale 3) GM; N/A 4) Move by a GM; Trading Landry 5) Season? That year Luther Head was supposed to be the next superstar guard....
