Because we needed something more than just defense and hustle... By bringing in another Chucky Brown, we don't improve any. did we improve any?
they wouldn't have swept us but they definitely would have beaten us. sorry to say but the sonics during the mid-late 90's were damn good. they were arguably the 2nd best team during the regular season (behind the bulls). i think 94-95 rockets would have crawled out and beat the sonics in 7 games because Dream was playing out of his damn mind. but the sonics were just that good.
It's easy to speak in hindsight, seeing how the Rockets didn't reach their goal. We went 57-25 and a WCF berth in 96-97. Compare that to 48-34 and a 2nd round sweep in 96-96. That's called improvement.
Also, earlier in the summer, LA had just signed Shaq. LA, on paper, had leapfrogged us, so it was imperative to add more firepower, to a team that didn't have too much offense. The Rockets felt like Olajuwon and Drexler were on the slow decline, so one more primary scorer to shoulder the load was necessary.
Actually , the Sonic had beaten the Rockets 16 straight times. After beating the Rockets in game 7 of the semifinal in 93, the rockets went 0-16 in the regular season and playoffs against the Sonics. I agree with the guy earlier that they really didn't want to give Horry the money the market was demanding because of his inconsistent play. No one ever thought Utah would come up like they did, but as I remember, Clyde was giving it up to Hornecek and Hakeem didn't exactly dominate ostertag like he should have. They had their cahnces and made their run so I'm not mad about it at all.
going from a team that got swept to a team that was derailed from the finals by a lucky last second shot was an improvement in my mind. honestly, this is MY assessment: after getting beaten in 95-96 by the sonics, i think rudy and co. finally got the answer to their question: 'if the sonics weren't ousted, would we have gotten past them during our championship years?' and that was a no. the sonics had the BEST D in the league and ran a fast pace offense that the rockets couldn't defend. they did the wise, but not the best, thing by trading for barkley. barkley did what he was brought in to do. 19 ppg 13 rpg was pretty amazing considering the other 2 hall of famers he had to play with. he rebounded, he scored, and he actually hustled. was he worth 4 players? honestly, no. but was he what the rockets needed? yes. they have a team that all of the nba would have doubts of winning against. 96-97 was the year that stockton killed it for us. i was 14 then and i still remember that last shot by stockton. when it went in, i knew it was the last opportunity that our Big 3 could reach the finals. Drexler was miffed and was retiring, and Barkley and Dream were not getting any younger. that was supposed to be the best best finals matchup since the lakers and celtics of the 80s. rockets vs. bulls. dream drexler barkley vs. jordan pippen rodman. it was meant to be....but fate wasn't on our side. after that season, we never got back to form b/c 1. our top players were retiring or getting older and more injured. 2. we had no young players to mold and build around. so in essence, trading for barkley accomplished this: 1. we got pass the sonics 2. we were one shot away from our third championship (seriously we would have beaten the bulls) edit: sorry i said threepeating...it should say third championship now.
It's easy to speak in hindsight, seeing how the Rockets didn't reach their goal. My vision was crystal. When the rumors began circulating I was one of the ones calling Star610 screaming NOOOOOO!!!!! I like his statline but I don't think that he was the type of player that ever made those around him better. KJ would probably agree.
i think houston knew that he wasn't going to make anyone around him better. everyone in the league knew that. but what they also knew was that he can get 20/12 every game...like in today's NBA, that's still a valuable commodity. just ask webber.
Sacramento just can't beat LA. The Maloofs trade Christie and Peja for...................Mutombo? The Kings just got worse.
well they couldn't beat LA b/c of free throws. referee controversy aside, they shot themselves in the foot by not making freethrows. is that a pipe dream trade? b/c i'm pretty sure the maloofs are better/smarter than that at making acquisitions.
2. we were one shot away from our third championship (seriously we would have beaten the bulls) We were one shot away from a game 7.
true but i had faith that we would have beaten them in a game 7 IN UTAH. we were pretty much evenly matched in the playoffs.
wel.... if the clockkeeper in Utah went to the bathroom during the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter, it'd be a different story.
Barkley was one of those guys that was good enough to win one, but never had lady luck on his side. I feel for the little/big fella'.
Dwil- Houston signed CB4 for 2 reasons: 1. To match up with Seattle 2. To keep up with the Bulls who added Rodman Maybe a better comparison was did the Bulls make a misatake in signing Rodman. Chicago already had 2 superstars who had proven they could win a championship. Why add a PF, who had a history of causing chemistry problems. Well in Houston's case it didn't work, in Chicago's case it did. Both teams apart from their big 3 had role players around, and I really have a hard time believing Chicago's role players were better players than ours. The problem was how the Big 3 on each played. In Chicago Pip and Rodman both knew it was MJs team, and MJ carried the team when he needed to, but at times he deferred to Pip and he let Rodman do his thing (rebound, play D, make an a$$ out of himself in general). Meanwhile in Houston Dream was the man. But be honest this Dream was not the same as the Championship Dream. He could not carry a team on a night in and night out basis. He needed help. CB4 was during his Houston run a more dominant offensive player than Dream. That does not mean CB4 was a better player but CB4 played with more intensity on the offensive end of the floor. Clyde IMO was jealous of CB4. Clyde could handle dropping the ball into the post to Dream because he knew (when it was just Dream) that he would still get opportunities to handle the ball, simply because Dream couldn't post up every play of the game. But with CB4 also in town now we could post up virtually every play. Clyde wanted the ball. Clyde didn't like it that CB4 didn't practice hard. Clyde didn't like it that reporters flocked around CB4 to hear the outrageous words come out of his mouth. Some blame CB4 for the chemistry problem, blame Clyde's jealous, balme Dream for not being able to be the leader and sit Clyde and CB4 down, hel1 blame Rudy for the asame thing. My point is adding a superstar with an ego led to a couple championships in one circumstance (Chicago) and didn't work here. So blame CB4 for all your problems. Heck blame Bush for the stock market problems. In the end the problem is deeper than the obvious.
Barkley didn't cause the end of an era, money caused the end of the era. The Rockets weren't going to re-sign Sam Cassell and Robert Horry. And wasn't there a rumor that Hakeem was having problems with Cassell, because Cassell wasn't giving him the ball enough? The Rockets had the Jazz number, but the Jazz teams that went to the Finals were far better then the ones the Rockets played during their championship seasons. Would the Rockets have beaten them? Maybe. But the Jazz teams of '97 and '98 were probably the best Jazz teams ever so assuming the old Rockets would have beaten them is wishful thinking.
