Thinking back to the championship teams in the mid 90's the Rockets had great PG depth and versatility. Cassell would provide energy off the bench and penetration and scoring. Smith Provided 3pt shooting, good leadership. I was just wondering, was Kenny Smith simply not good enough by the 95-96 season to warrant keeping him as a bondafide starter, or was Cassell just that good that they had to give him more minutes. What exactly happened to Kenny Smith? Was it his fault Cassell got more minutes, was Kenny Smith not a good NBA PG, or was he just mediocre back in the mid 90's and through his career? Was it just simple luck that Cassell and Smith were able to coexsist, or was and is Cassell just simply a much better player than Smith ever was? I have been wondering this, because they both seem like they might be more productive in their careers statistiscally had they NOT been on the same team. However had they not both been Rockets at the time, they may not have been the same championship team in other words, not having depth and versatility at the PG position? Meaning maybe not as deep a team, or even a championship team? What do you guys think? Was Kenny a good NBA pg, was Cassell much better? Or were they both about even, thus the reason they split time...?
it was a perfect balance of youth and experience. there games complimented eachothers. then kenny got old and sam got better and the balance was lost.
one was the teams "fire" and the other was it's "ice" (sorry about the cliche). they both played off each other very well in the playoffs. what made the difference to kennys playing career vs sams was kennys price, a then princly ~$3m a season... too much for a player in his 30s. It was a joy to watch them in the finals. There was always a sense of anticipation as to which one would "go off" on that particular night. They "traded" 20+pt games in the orlando finals series, and other big games that year. Was it going to be a deadly, but "uglyly" flat 3 point shots (what was with the ball spin too!) from kenny, or sam driving hard for a 3pt play or a big 3.... it was just so exciting to watch Hopefully Ming's addition will take us back to those "lofty heights" (again so about the cliches )
