Just watched the Kings and Wolves game. Although Minny lost, Sam Casell just flourished, shot from everywhere, poured in 3s with such a ease. It really pains me to watch him play, because I know he's going to play great. Yes, this is an ugly dude (sorry Sam), but hell of a ball player with hell of a champion's heart. I really wish him well, really do. I still remember the day we gave up Sam and Horry for a declining Barkley, whose game was not complement with Dream's. I was screaming and cursing in my room. I never liked Barkley, just can't help. Basically I never like big-mouths. What if, what if we haven't done that trade, well, I guess we wouldn't have got Steve and Yao. It's all past, just can't help missing Sam. I have admit that I also like his attitude a lot, especially his fondness of the Rockets. He plays with passion, but he still keeps a cool mind. Hope SF can keep his heart and desire but learn to use his head more in the games. Wish them a good next season. Such a sad day, the Leafs lost.
Im sure everyone in Houston is saying that along with the ones that are crying cause Nolan was traded....just those ones that got away.....we would have had a mature PG right now.
Dude that was like a hundred years ago. Get over it. I love Sam and wish he wins the championship this year. I wish we had him too, but being depressed over not having Sam is pretty pathetic.
Wasn't depressed about it just stating that it would have been nice to have him. Pondering nothing more than that...i haven't slit my wrists yet over it.
Sam had the HEART which ALL OF THE ROCKETS lack now. Also, I miss this guy, he had heart too, I dont care how many people he beats up or b****es he has slapped, they deserve it.
He did have heart, just can't get over the fact in 95 that we cut him because of everything and he wouldn't show up during the playoffs. That phased me big time during that year.
cassell back in the day got too exited after making a good play or two, then would turn into chucker and a poor decision maker. i have no regrets trading him.
But the experienced he gained over the years far exceed what Steve has done in the same number of years. At least right now Cassell is a smart player. He took the time to learn the game and refine his style. And in turn become a great Point Gaurd.
Everyone has his growing curve, he's a great decision maker now. Maybe we just shouldn't cut SF and write Yao off, rather give them chance to grow together and bring the Championship(s) back.
Word. The Rox back then were filled with clutch players, Sammy, Mad Max, Elie, Horry, etc. Guys like that are the glue that make a champion. I hope Minny wins it all this year.
Hmmm, I don't see that happen though. I picked Spurs 6 months ago already. It's interesting to see whether the "Big Ticket" can sustain the pressure and come up big in playoff time. He's regular season MVP, no doubt about that, but he hasn't proved that in playoffs. Not yet, although they are in the second round now, it has more to do with Sam and Spree's addition. To survive against the Kings, he has to step up to an even higher level, but he obviously under-performed tonite.
isn't this like Cassell's 5th team? I know that it sucks he's not a Rocket, but I'm sure 4 others teams are mad they dont have him either. We have to look it like everything happens for a reason. If the rockets didnt trade those 3 draft picks for Eddie than we would probably have a better team and would have missed out on Yao the next year. Try and find the positives sometimes.
I understand that max went awol in 95, but it sparked the Rockets to rally back and go on the big championship run. So i credit Maxwell for Starting Clutch City when he went crazy against Phoenix the year before. He went crazy the next year and forced the Rockets to rally with Clyde. If the Yao never wins a championship, you can blame it on whoever gave him Maxwell's number 11. Cause its a travestity this guy didnt get his number retired! HE and Sam deserve better recognition for what they did for this city and organization.
Huh? A role player that goes AWOL never deserves to have their number retired. That honor goes to career team members, or long time team heroes. Mad Max was the bomb and all... but so was MC Hammer once.
Man dropped 40 but gave up 33. For everyone here that b****es about Francis' D, you'd all be throwing fits about Cassell. It's a lot easier to say "so and so" is better when he's not on your team and you don't have to worry about nitpicking on the other intangibles that we put our players through.
As much as I like Barkley, I think it was one of the worst trades in our franchise history, because it had a terrible domino effect. That's an extreme statement, but let me explain. If we didn't make the Barkley trade in 96/97 ... - Clyde left a couple years early, because he and Barkley didn't get along. - Quitten came and left because of Barkley. If we didn't have Quitten, we'd have taken Lewis in the draft. - McDeyss, who was the top FA PF on the market, almost signed with us, but didn't, because he didn't think we had a sufficient PG ... Sam was traded away. - We signed Maloney to a long term contract which hurt us for years. We would never have done that, if we had Sam. So, in 97/98, we'd have had Dream/Horry/Drexler/Elie/Cassell. Cassell and Horry were a year older, and we'd have competed for a championship. Maybe, instead of getting Barkley to get past Seattle, we should have worked to get seeded, so we didn't play them. In 98/99, we wouldn't have made the Pippen trade, and eventually get stuck with all those awful salaries. We could have signed McDeyss, and even with all those wasted picks, we would have fulfilled our promise to Lewis, since Drexler would have been about to retire. He would have been our most important draft pick. WE probably wouldn't have grabbed Drew, but taken Ricky Davis instead. So, now we would have had: Dream McDeyss/Horry Drexler/Lewis/Davis Elie/Dickerson/Mobely Cassell If we'd have had the balls to trade Dream to Toronto, we'd have had the 5/12 picks, Doug Christie and Willis. Popeye said we could have had McGrady, if we'd have just sweetened the deal a little. I still remember vividly THACABBAGE freaking out about wanting to do that trade, and warning us all that we were missing out on the next great player, with McGrady. The funny thing, is that Dream went there anyway, and didn't leave on good terms, which was the very reason we didn't do the earlier trade. It was on his terms, though. In 99/00, if we probably would have probably drafted either Shawn Marion or Andre Miller with #5, and either Ron Artest or Corey Maggette with #12, and still picked up Thomas at #22. Too bad none of us knew about Kirelenko at #24. But, look at the insane team we could have had going into the year 2000. Willis McDeyss/Horry/Thomas Lewis/Artest/Davis McGrady/Dickerson/Mobely Cassell/Miller I know ... woulda/coulda/shoulda ... and we probably wouldn't have been able to get Ming or Francis. but, the Barkley trade and not trading Dream set us back way more in our rebuilding than any other bad moves we've made, including Griffin. (let me apologize in advance to those posters who've already heard me rant on this particular subject.) I believe this sumer will be just as pivotal. We'll see who we trade for, and how they affect team chemistry and if it sets us on the road for a championship, or if it will be another set of dominos.
40 points, 5 assists, 4 turnovers, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 fouls - but what did the man he was guarding do? Bibby got 33 points, 7 assists, 3 turnovers, 7 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 block, and 3 fouls. If Sam was playing for the Rockets, he would be getting the same complaints Steve gets. Bad decision making, shoots too much, doesn't get the team involved, and a horrible defender. The grass is always greener folks.
