How did the Barkley trade set the franchise back? You're telling me Sam Cassell and Robert Horry both resigned at over $8million a year were going to lead this team to the playoffs? Revisionist history is the reason Robert Horry and Sam Cassell did no wrong. The fact of the matter is that while I love him, Robert Horry was one of the greatest underacheivers in Rockets history. Sam Cassell didn't blossom into an elite point guard until this season. The Rockets would have been stuck in mediocrity with an aging Hakeem, no future prospects, and no immediate hopes. The Barkley trade was made to maximize Hakeem's 2 year window of opportunity and it did that. We got past Seattle and fell to Utah because Rudy Tomjanovich refused sign Kevin Johnson or include a 1st round draft pick in a deal that would have sent Brent Price to Dallas for Derek Harper. And no, we wouldn't have beaten Seattle simply with the addition of Kevin Willis. He was horrendous against Shawn Kemp in the Seattle series. We won that series because of Charles Barkley.
Why could we have just signed Tim Hardaway? Why Brent Price??????? What the hell were the Rocks thinking? I don't care that Hardaway tore his ACL. The guy ended up signing with Miami for peanuts and he only ended up making a few more All-Star games afterwards. God, if only....
I agree with most of what you said. Barkley's numbers his first year at Houston: 19.2 pts on .484 shooting, 13.5 boards, 4.7 assists! Who knew that he wouldn't mix with Cylde? Although I hated to see Sam go, he was worth those 4 players. But no one could have known that KJ would actually have a (his very last) productive year. He had been injury prone for years. As for Price 1st round pick v Harper, whos knows? Harper was also getting old, Price could still have recovered from his injury and he ended up part of the Stevie trade and who knows what that 1st rounder was used for. I certainly wouldn't call those obvious mistakes.
