I used to hate when we played the Sonics. Such a scary lineup. Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Detlef Shrempf, Dale Ellis, Sam Perkins, hell even George Karl was scary.
Actually surprised to hear GP say this considering how the Sonics routinely beat us back then. But their whole defense was designed to stop Dream, almost like an "Olajuwon Rules." The other major problem was that Payton used to routinely torch Kenny Smith. It was a real problem. As much as I love Kenny Smith for his Orlando heroics and being a vocal leader of the 94-95 teams, he was a real weak spot against quality opposing point guards. GP, KJ, Derek Harper all obliterated Kenny in the Playoffs.
Kenny played well against Stockton and Penny Hardaway. Nobody remembers any of Kenny's bad passes, cause he was never a bad passer Or missed threes cause he was a great 3 point shooter
That Sonics team was our kryptonite. They had, maybe, the best Dream counter in Sam Perkins...long-armed which made it tough to shoot over and still built like a brick. He also could step out and hit the three which meant Dream had to respect him. They also had Michael Cage to get physical with Dream and give up 6 fouls a game...usually wore him out. Usually meant Kemp would destroy us because he was too quick for Dream to cover...same for Thorpe, but they could at least manage it with those two. In '96, we had no one to cover him, couldn't put Horry on him because Kemp was too big for him...which is basically why we went out and got Barkley that offseason. And we couldn't put Max on the Glove because Seattle had a ton of good shooters (Ricky Pierce, Hersey Hawkins, Nate McMillan, Detlef Schrempf) that were too tall for Kenny to guard and Payton was too quick for Cassell as well. I think, if we had Elie in '93, Rockets win that series and give Phoenix a run for their money in the Conference Finals. By '96, without OT, we just didn't have anyone to help Dream out inside and Seattle feasted on us. Still glad we didn't see them in '94 or '95.
name a big Dream didn’t embarrass Shaq, Robinson, Ewing...they all got the business Dream was a professor down on the low block handing out free lessons to his sons
Great points, their triple teaming of Hakeem helped them a lot too. Barkley finally knocked them out.
The Sonics were our nemesis -- thank-you again Mr. Mutombo (we should retire his jersey for the 94 miracle).
Olajuwon Garnet Kawhi Jordan Payton ...would lock down any team you put them against. ...and destroy on the other end as well. The best two way players with complementary skill sets.
Those 1994-1997 Sonics teams were solid - so many above average players, although no MVP-caliber player (Payton was close although a tier below). Sam Perkins was ahead of his time in terms of being a Center who could hit 3's. The teams had a nice balance of shooters, as evidenced by leading the NBA in True Shooting percentage in 1995-1996, and being 2nd in the league in the 1993-1994 and 1994-1995 seasons. Interestingly, in the 1994-1995 season, the Rockets led the NBA in 3-pointers attempted per game, at 21.4. Last season, the Rockets also led the league in 3-pointers attempted per game -- at 45.4. Amazing how much 3-point shooting has increased. And it's not just the Rockets, either. The Bucks shot 38.2 3's per game last season, and across the NBA, 3-point shots per game went from 15.3 in 1994-1995 to 32.0 per game last season - more than doubled. The game has really changed - watching Rockets vs Sonics from the 90's is like watching a half court slugfest. A lot of feeding the post, double-teams, and very physical play. Spacing was tight... and at the time, these two teams were among the leaders in 3-point shooting -- i.e had they had best spacing in the league. Watching the Knicks during that era was just painful - how to cram your whole team between the free throw line and the baseline.
Elie would have worked in 93. Home court advantage would have done it to, which we should have had. Too bad since the Bulls could have been taken that year and we had an advantage over them anyways. A real history game changer. Of course the Nuggets dropped the Sonics for us in ‘94 so things have a way of working out sometimes.
it really is a great what-if. We were 2-2 vs Phoenix that year, but we had absolutely torched them in the last 2 games we had played that season. With as hot as we were down the stretch, I think we win that series which sets up the match-up with Chicago and we definitely had the advantage there. Would have loved to see that one and would have loved to see what the narrative would have been if we ended up with 3 in a row.
