This is no dig at Hakeem. I will always appreciate him bringing us the 2 championships. That being said, Remember when Toronto offered Doug Christie for Olajuwon. At the time I supported Rudy for not pulling the trigger on that trade. Now - watching Doug Christie play for Sacramento, I wish we had a quality defender like him. He is also a good shooter. Most of all he has the aggressive hustle. He is the best defender they have. I know that hindsight is 20 / 20, but we need a couple of good defenders..... Comments?
My man, no way, Cat, kills Doug Christie 1 on 1. I wouldn't trade CAT for him let alone Dream. Christie is like the Dow Jones, up and down and headed nowhere. If he's on, he look's like a superstar, however, he disappears at times. Check him out against Kobe (which, nobody can stop), by the way Micheal Finley averaged 28 plus against him.
The trade was actually quite a bit more complicated and would have involved McGrady and Dickerson as well (I believe) plus other spare parts...and, if I'm not mistaken, we were gonna ship at least McGrady over to Orlando (plus whatever would have worked capwise) in exchange for Penny "Mr. Glass" Hardaway. Scottie Quitten + Mr. Glass? Talk about two contracts you don't want. Of course, we still managed to land contracts that suck (Mo-T, Rice, Cato) but I'll aim for optimism with Steve, Cat, and Griff on this team.
if you watched the series, 1) christie was a difference maker; 2) finley's points were the quietest 28/game that i can remember from a star of his caliber. in fact, i was discussing him this morning with a mavs' fan, and couldn't even remember him taking a shot last night, let alone scoring 27.
Christie is awesome this year, just because Webber makes him great. They have great chemistry, Webber has great hands and can pass and receive the ball perfectly. Them two on the floor is fun to watch. Bibby and Peja can do there own thing. But Christe and Webber really work together to get alot done.
My recall is that the trade was: #5 pick #12 pick Kevin Willis Doug Christie for Hakeem. The #5 pick turned out to be Wally S, and the #12 pick turned out to be Bender. What a haul. At the last minute, Rudy couldn't bring it upon himself to pull the trigger. After turning down this haul, Blineberry/Dream had the nerve to say Rudy was disloyal.
Actually, the #5 pick was Jonathan Bender and the #12 pick was Alek Radojevic. But Houston could have had Shawn Marion or Andre Miller or Wally Szczerbiak AND Corey Maggette, along with Doug Christie and Kevin Willis. There was talk of McGrady in the deal instead of Christie, and probably could have been if we'd have sweetened the deal, which would have been the coup de grat. For the last couple years, we'd have had Francis/Mobely/McGrady/Marion/Willis, with Cato, Maggette and Thomas to back them up. Our rebuilding would have been complete. We would have missed getting Griffin, though, but we'd have also probably not picked up Rice and Taylor. Also, it was Dream that killed that deal and threatened to retire rather than agree to the trade, so Rudy HAD to put a good PR move on the situation, saying he couldn't pull the trigger. Woulda, coulda, shoulda... it never ends We coulda traded Sampson in "84 to Portland for the #2 pick and Drexler, giving us Dream, Jordan and Drexler in the 80's and 90's. That's got to be the biggest one... We coulda drafted Rashard Lewis... 3 times... in '99. We coulda traded Sampson to LA for Byron Scott and James Worthy, in '87 before Sampson fell out of sorts with coach Bill Fitch ... giving us a team of Dream, Worthy, McCrae. Scott, and Lucas (and Reid). That team would have gone all the way in the 80's. Hey, everyone's shooting themselves in the foot this year for not trading for Ben Wallace... <b>it just never ends...</b>
Actually, every team in the NBA has these type stories, since no one can foresee the future. Injuries, character, chemistry, luck, officials and illness (Magic/Mourning) play a factor too. That's why this is a game that we all sit here off-season and prognosticate. Actually, the Rockets have done better than most teams, in terms of luck and good picks... Getting the #1 pick two years in a row, taking Sampson and Dream, trading lower picks and players to grab 2 high picks in Francis and Griffin, nabbing Mobely from the second round, finding later first round picks, such as Cassell and Thomas... But no matter how good you have it, there will always be woulda, coulda, shouldas...
I feel better, all things considered, about being the fan of a team that it too loyal, rather than not loyal enough.
Right before the draft just like the shareef deal. I didn't want to trade Hakeem then or now, but it was done anyway. It looks like the only players to retire in houston sports uniforms will be the ones who has never won a playoff series or anything. Bagwell and Biggio.
Who would've known T-mac would've turned into a superstar and Doug Christie would become a premiere defender? Trades and drafts are all about luck in a way. If Toronto had known T-mac would've molded into a superstar in Orlando they would've never traded him. Just like if Portland knew O'neal would become an all-star in Indiana they probably wouldn't have traded him. Im sure theres many many other cases where a deal turns out good for one team and bad for another or vice versa etc. It's all about the luck.
T-Mac wanted to leave once coach butch carter was fired after the playoff loss to the knicks. Actually he was blowing up in that series. Christie has always been a good defender. He was drafted by the Sonics in 92 to play along side the Glove, but held out and was traded to la for perkins. He played good in la, but was traded to the knicks where pat riley wouldn't let him mell the court. The Rockets wanted McGrady, but Toronto wouldn't give him up just like O'Neal in portland.
Yes, the McGrady trade is the second best trade that almost went through for the Rockets. The number 1 trade was the Vernon Maxwell for Jayson "I love playing with guns" Williams in 1995. At that time Max was the starting SG of the defending champs, while JW was a 8th man in NJ. A year later Max was gone from the NBA (temporary albeit) and JW was the top rebounder in the league.
You're right, my bad. But I truly believe the Rockets would have taken Szczerbiak at 5; he fits the prototypical role for a Rockets small forward. They needed a center of the future, so they probably would have taken Radojevic at 12, who turned out to be a bust. I doubt if they would have foreseen Shawn Marion's impact. As such, we would have had Szczerbiak and Christie today instead of the No. 15 pick. Mobley would be the 6th man of the year. We would have had no Eddie Griffin, though, because we would have made the playoffs last year.
