Pick Your All-Time 12-man Rockets Roster 2021 off-season edition

Good list in general, but Pippen over Yao?!

 

Can we multiply the same player? If so, 15 Royce Whites obviously.

 

Pippen sucked for us - but prime Pippen was a beast and they allowed for anybody to be the prime versions of themselves. To not include Pippen with that criteria would be foolish. Prime Pippen would be the best small forward the Rockets ever had

I get it. I'm assuming that this team we are assembling is playing the modern NBA game. Yao would be a liability in the modern NBA. They would exploit the ever living hell out of him on the switches.

So my team is as follows:

Hakeem Olajuwon
Scottie Pippen
Tracy McGrady
James Harden
Chris Paul

Ralph Sampson
Robert Horry
Ron Artest
Clyde Drexler
Calvin Murphy

Charles Barkley
Vernon Maxwell

I'm designed for the modern NBA. I want a fully switchable lineup in which almost everyone can spread the floor and guard multiple positions. Hakeem and Ralph weren't 3 point shooters (but they were good enough shooters I think they would be if they played today) but they are so quick and mobile that I don't think they'd be a liability in the playoffs the way guys like Gobert or Jokic are today.

I've got Pippen and Horry playing power forward, but I think that would be their role in the modern NBA. I was a little hesitant to add Calvin because he's so small and you just don't see a lot of those guys succeed in the modern NBA, but he was so tough I feel like he'd find a way and he was undoubtedly as pure a shooter as the NBA ever saw. I would envision him playing a role similar to Steph, except you don't want to get into a scuffle with him.

And finally, I added Chuck as the guy you put in as a spark or to play small ball 5 and I added Mad Max over some more successful/talented players because he is going to give you an all NBA defensive effort every single night, can guard 1-4 and could still drop 30 (or even 50) on you when he got hot.

 

No, prime Pippen would sulk like crazy on this team full of legends, and cry because not enough plays were drawn up for him. Then he would find a way to sabotage the team by dribbling the ball off his foot, or just sit on the end of the bench with a towel over his head and refuse to play.

 

Is that how he won six championships?

 

CP3/Stevie/Cassell/Harden/MadMax/Clyde/TMac/Thorpe/Scola/Dream/Yao/Moses

 

Paul
McGrady
Pippen
Barkley
Dream

Harden
Drexler
Artest
Sampson
Yao

Westbrook
Anthony

Simply based on their prime and fit. If I went on personal favorites this list would be much different.

 

Porter / Green / Tate / Wood / Sengun / Augustin / Gordon / Christopher / Newaba / Martin / Garuda / Theis

 

CP3/Calvin
Harden/Maxwell/McGrady
Drexler/Battier
E. Hayes/Barkley
Olajuwon/Malone/Yao

 

Hakeem Yao
Moses Hayes Horry
McGrady Rudy
Drexler Francis
Harden Murphy Paul

 

Centers: Hakeem, Moses, Yao
Power Forwards: E Hayes, Barkley, Scola
Small Forwards: Rudy T, Battier, Ralph
SG: Clyde, Tmac, Harden
PG: Paul, Lucas, Francis


15 players.....

Had to leave out Calvin - wanted him in there....but the other SGs were just better.

DD

 

Terrible list.

Didn't include Josh Christopher.

 

Listen, I thought about it but he hasn't yet hit his prime yet and I felt like that might be a violation of the rules.

 

Olynyk? Hartenstein? Gary Clark?

Rockets are just so deep. Notable omissions abound.

 

C: Dream, Moses, Yao
PF: Hayes, Sampson, Thorpe
SF: McGrady, Barkley, Horry
SG: Harden, McLemore, Maxwell
PG: Paul, Murphy, Lucas

 

I agree with that. Luckily my starting 5 has Olajuwon and CP3 to be leaders.

 

C: Olajuwon, Malone, Howard, Yao
PF: Barkley, Hayes
SF: McGrady, Snottie Quitten (yuck)
SG: Harden, Drexler
PG: Paul, Westbrook

That is a bit Center heavy, but that has been the strongest historic position for the Rockets.

Probably the most objective way to look at it would be top single season Win Shares or Win Shares/48. Using the second measure, we have:
Paul
Harden
Barkley
McGrady
Malone
Westbrook
Olajuwon
Howard
and Capela
as the only ones with a top 250 season all time (unless I missed a Rocket perusing the list on basketball-reference.com).

As an aside: the fact that Kareem has three of the top four seasons (with Wilt at number 3) shows how underrated he is when people talk about who the GOAT is.