I was never really a Barkley fan. I was young then and pretty much a casual fan so i tend to compare what i thought then with what i think now. Then, i hated losing to the Sonics (cheaters) because my brother was Gary Payton's biggest fan. So, i was happy to get past them but i wasn't watching the team so much because my guys were gone. Now, i don't approve of trading for specific reasons it clouds reasoning. Any transaction should make the team better (some percentage of now and later). Comparing both trades, after the fact, there is no contest. We "won" when we got Mcgrady.
no question we are a better team with Tmac than Steve Francis. but its pick your poison in the end. Francis - dribbling the out the 24 second clock in 4th, making terrible choices as PG Tmac - disappearing or settling for outside jumpers and missing in the 4th But looking back at the Francis era, we were overachievers. We WEREN'T suppose to win. With Tmac, we are suppose to win. That's why its similar to the Barkley era, we're suppose to win.
didnt barkley call out tmac during our game against dallas? then tmac killed the mavs and dissed barkley after the game
i did mention in the playoffs and i did mention not only this year but all the years we lost and gone fishing on TNT. yeah, but that dallas 'diss' was all in fun. Barkley specifically said that the ROCKETS wouldn't win, not saying that Tmac sucks. well didn't that barkley call out work? at least it motivated Tmac.
That goes back to public perception, which i could care less about. It just depends on how you look at it. If getting better results in both the short term and the long term are your goals than you come to my conclusion. If you look at it from an expectation standpoint they are both failures and your comparison is just.
ugh...i don't even know what joke you're trying to make but...ugh Him and Dantoni really kill basketball. There's 2 sides to the game.
We had a Barkley era? That was Hakeem's era. tinman, as a historian, you should be ashamed of yourself!
Technically the Barkley-Hakeem Era Ralph-Akeem Era Otis-Hakeem Era Clyde-Hakeem Era Barkley-Hakeem Era Tmac-Hakeem Era? (Toronto 2002)
The Barkley trade hurts me more because of what we gave up. While Horry and Cassell aren't superstars, they are arguably two of the clutchest players of the past decade, and Cassell has been very, very good. We gave up a lot for Barkley when you really think about it. The players that we gave up for T-Mac haven't done much since they left, so I don't see how we can ever say we lost in his scenario.
Cuttino had success. He was on the Clipper Team that almost made it to the WCF. Cassell and Cuttino. who'd think of that?
I believe if we got Barkley one year earlier, there would be no contest on who's the Champs. Drexler, Dream were not on the decline and Chuck himself was still explosive.
I love Chuck. You are right, we just got him one year too late. And it wouldn't have mattered if we hadn't made the trade either, the end was near for that team. Hakeem was slowing down, Clyde was nearly at the end, and the rest of the league was getting better. Bark played his heart out for the Rockets though.
Thanks for remind us. I know this but lots of people here don't. I don't care if Charles predicts us to lose every single game. That does not change what he did as a player. If Maxwell beats up 5 dudes by himself and then takes their girls, would I still want him to shoot 3s in game 7 vs the Knicks? YES!!
I don't know why but i was just never a fan of Barkley's game. He would occasionally take the shots that just made me say "WTF was that". No doubt he played hard but the only thing i liked about his game was that it fooled me into thinking that i could get into the league as a frontcourt player. Funny as it may seem i enjoy watching him wearing the sports coat more than the rockets jersey.
i don't think anyone hated barkley the player, just the analyst on TNT. that's 2 different things. i also appreciate what barkley did as a rocket. barkley goes all out every single game. and that's all you can ask for at the end of the day. however, i don't like him dismissing us and talk garbage about our players on national TV. the player v. the analyst -> 2 different people.
Wow, alot of you people are not very good fans. Don't say you are being realists either, everyone here just bashes our team saying we won't ever do anything unless we do this, or that, because they know so very much about managing a championship caliber team. I have no doubt in my mind that our team is capable of winning a championship right now, all they have to do is play comfortable, that comes with practice and no injuries, so all they need is a little faith from their fans and divine intervention to insure we don't sustain any major injuries again this year. I am just sick of reading these so called "realists" talk about how we will never win with Tmac, we will never get out of the 1st round, we won't win with rafer, we won't win with chuck, blah blah blah.
Like Ricky Bobby says "if you aint 1st, ur last!" That's the way I think of it. Speaking of the Barkley trade, the rox had to make that move. The sonics beat the rox 16 straight times. Until they got Barkley, the sonics beat the rox every game from game 7 in 93 until 97 including a sweep in the 96 playoffs. After they got Barkley, I know he and clyde had a few problems. I can admit that clyde slacked off big tme after they got the ring in 95 and he basically let hornecek cancel him out. I'm not miss cleo, but had the rox kept the francis group together, I'm not sure if the team would ever make the playoffs on a consistent basis. Francis hasn't been very healthy or good since leaving houston, mobley has been ok and cato is out the league. The today's rox just needs to add talent.
but the point is we haven't won. and injuries and age are major parts of what destroys teams. like that team Charles was on. We were contenders, just like we were with Yao, but when your one of your best low post players goes down. its over. look at Miami, Shaq aged, Dwade got hurt, Zo got hurt, everyone got older. World Champs to worst in the league in 2 years.
