Get real. CD is just a pasty. Rudy T and JVG have directed all of the draft picks and significant trades. CD works the phones, negotiates contracts, and reports back to the coach.
I thought not drafting Rashard Lewis was one of the lowest, most embarrassing moments in Rockets history. It was flat-out unethical. Everything points to the likelihood that promises were made to an 18-year-old that his hometown team would take him. I believe what was said immediately after draft day. In every scenario but one, the Rockets were going to take Lewis. Only if Dickerson, Drew, and Turkcan were all available, would Lewis not be taken. They were all available, so Lewis went undrafted by Houston. The problem is - that's evidently not what the Rockets told Lewis. They told him they'd draft him. Not doing so was pathetic. You're trying to cash in on the kid's good will and win his loyalty before draft day...then you betray him. Yuck. The scenario that happened wasn't probable? Fine. Then tell him, "we're almsot certainly going to take you, but..." What makes it even worse is, Houston not only broke its word - they got burned by doing it. Yes, I know nothing has been proven. But Lewis claimed there had been, and Houston's response at the time was pretty weak. And some people with contacts to the team kind of intimated, IIRC, that it happened. CD should be embarrassed for this. He should apologize.
Embarrassed, yes. Apologize, no. He should just admit they made a mistake, no harm in that...JVG admitted they should never have cut Hayes..... I wonder if Hayes was playing from the get go, if our record would be this bad? Probably it would be 4 or 5 games better. DD
when we had cuttino and steve throwing the ball back and forth it was sad looking over at seattle and seeing our potential small forward playing with them but now i don't really care. it's extremely likely that had we drafted rashard lewis it changes things enough in that we don't get the ping pong ball to draft yao and we most definitely don't get t-mac. i'll stick with what we have.
I wonder if Dawson really thought the 98 Rockets were going to go all the way to the finals. I seriously doubt it. We were 41-41 and Hakeem was into his decline at that point. I think CD is too smart not to know which playoff year the Charles Barkley injury happened. He clearly tried to get around the Rashard question. Actually, the Rockets were up 10 points early in the 3rd quarter of Game 4 98 vs the Jazz, long after Barkley was knocked out. Then it fell apart.
Who's to say RL would florish in a Rockets uniform? I think it was better that we didn't draft him so he could be more determined/focused on becoming a good player. I think if we drafted him, he would've became a bust and people would be like Rashard Lewis? Who's that??
Somewhat true in that I dont think Lewis would necessarily thrive in JVG's offense...With TMac and Yao, Lewis would likely just become a spot-up 3-point shooter...
BI-GONES......Move on people. Yes it sucks that we did not get RL but as an earlier poster mentioned it most likely would have upset the space / time continuum and kept us from getting Yao which would in turn have kept us from dumping SF sorry butt and getting T-Mac. And even if we did manage to screw things up enough to get Yao and T-Mac, he and RL both play small forward so we would still have issues with playing time and position. Having put all that into perspective I'm pretty happy where we are right now. If Stro can get his head out of his arse at lot of things could be different. I'm confident we are consitent SG away from being a great team. And if we bring Spaniolus over here as our PG that is just gravy on the potatoes.
is spaniolus really suppost to be that good of a player. i read that front page article recently about him, but i had no idea about the guy. what was he a 2nd round pick?
What they did to Lewis is similar to what they did to Clyde. If anyone heard him on Insider, he stated that he had the promise of Houston that he'd be drafted that year by them and that he was excited. He was extremely disapointed when they passed him over.
There is nothing proving that Spanoulis is anything but Turkcan with a Greek accent.... A short Badiane.... I will wait until he actually shows up and plays against NBA level competition, and then we can determine if he can contribute.
I'm a little vauge on what I am about to say, so if anybody can verify or clear up what I am trying to remember, just jump right in. I am pretty sure I read this in a Clyde Drexler autobiography. Clyde said that Lewis was promised by the Rockets that they would draft him. But that was a month or two before the draft. Then something changed (this is what I can't remember - management philosophy, player trade, new head honcho - something at a high level) and in light of that change, Lewis was no longer the obvious pick. At that point the Rockets stopped saying they would draft him. Lewis never understood that thngs changed and held hard feelings.
Has anybody noticed Lewis has added some muscle the last couple years? He's actually got some nice sized guns now. And I noticed in last night's game, he's a lot more physical. Wouldn't mind seeing him on the floor with TMac and McGrady.
Well its all water under the bridge. I've long held the belief that had the Rockets drafted Rashard that he may not have flourished here as he did in Seattle. He could have possibly been traded when the Rockets decided to trade for Steve Francis. The shame of it all is that not one of the players that were drafted by the Rockets that year (14th - Dickerson, 16th - Drew, 18th - Turkcan) are still in the NBA, thats the most embarassing thing about the whole debacle. I don't remember CD raving about him but I do remember Rudy T raving about Turkcan saying that he hit 24 out of 25 three pointers that had him shoot.
Thats funny but that is the same thing Boki did. You would think that Rudy would not take a snake bite twice.
