Didn't Omar Vizquel still have gold glove caliber defense at Yuli's age...? We trotted old man Biggio every day at 2nd.... and Carlos Lee play multiple positions... well... nevermind...
They didn't trade 12 years of either - they were free agents multiple times during that period. If they had stayed with the Rockets, they could have left; if the Rockets wanted them back, they had opportunities to sign them.
This whole conversation has me remembering us sitting around the table in early 2000 at a Clutchfans (Clutchcity.net?) gathering with Clutch and RM95. Back when you went by shanna on the board. I bet we were having a similar conversation back then. I think if you look back at when those guys were free agents, and what the Rockets' cap situation was at the time, and what the roster needs were at the time, you might see that it never matched up. And Cassell/Horry may have not wanted to sign with a team that traded them away (for Horry, traded him away twice). It's a sliding doors moment where the team would have looked different and behaved differently if they didn't make the Barkley move. For one, they likely never sign Quitten with Horry at forward and Cassell at point. Maybe Clyde sticks around instead of becoming coach at UH. Who knows?
Since we are going down memory lane, we didn't need Barkley. We just needed someone that could make Kemp pay for playing illegal defense. Willis would have been enough, but if I remember correctly, Willis only signed because of Barkley. Dream/Willis/ Willis/Horry Horry/Elie Drexler/Cassell Cassell/Smith
