Sam Cassell and Robert Horry admit they were furious about their trade to Phoenix

Probably top 3 worst trades in franchise history, even if we had won with Barkley. With those 2 + Dream we had years left to fill out the roster.

 

@Carl Herrera vs @MadMax

Listen to the end ... the truth be told

 

I still remember when they were introduced at the Suns press conference, holding up their Suns jerseys, as if their dog died. No one looked happy that day.

 

"I don't want to go to Phoenix, man"

Someone, who lived in Phoenix, once told me, if you're getting ready to leave the house, check your shoes for little Scorpions before putting them on.

 

I think Bullard has given us really good perspective before in bits and pieces about his time on the team at that time. He has very little to say negatively about Barkley. The main knock is that he came back from injury very out of shape, but the guy still could play at a high level.

It's also hard to knock Barkley and Drexler when your starting PG is Matt freaking Maloney. The lack of success with that team was driven by the fact that they needed at least some competent young talent that could do something, and another play maker.

Only planning on dumping the ball in the post to Hakeem on every play was a huge mistake, and led to Drex & Charles doing more than they probably should have been relied upon to do at that point. I just don't think Cassell & Horry were really giving them exactly what they needed anyways that year. I see the trade as a bit of a wash as much as I loved those two guys in their roles.

The next season is where the fault lies on Pippen who was an atrocity, and should be embarrassed to show his face in Houston if he ever does show his face down south.

 

We finally beat the sonics. We werent going to win with cassell, he became a big headed and jacked too many shots. It hurt losing horry….. if vernon never quit maybe dont have to make that trade… dreams window was closing, it was worth a shot.

 

Nope, trading away your future like that for fan favourites is never worth it. We’re not talking Landry and Brooks here, Cassell was top talent and Horry a legit two-way player, both starters. Along with Dream, Drexler, Elie to round it out then all we needed was another Thorpe to get another shot, which should’ve been do-able without giving up those 2.

 

It was Josh Smith, Terrence Jones and company draining threes and not quitting while Harden was on the bench that got the Rockets to the conference finals in 2015.

 

I remember Barkley getting something absurd like 30+ rebounds his first regular season game with us. Still shocked we lost to the jazz but going back and sadly watching the "high"lights of that last play, they got away with murder. Antoine Carr is literally lead blocking for stockton to hit that 3

 

I read on here a decade or so ago that Sam told the FO he wasn't going to resign.

I think Bob with his regular season injuries and chronic tendinitis was sweetener for getting Barkley.

Worked great for Horry as he went to teams that allowed him to stay in cryo for most of the regular season.

The "towel" was OG players move

 

Big Shot Bob might’ve been furious at the time, but that trade sent in motion the magical career that he had! Sam I Am on the other hand might’ve benefited if he’d stayed around for a couple more years…

I was in favor of the Barkley trade at the time (hindsight terrible trade) but at least I wasn’t in favor of drafting Harold Minor over Robert Horry…

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I was pissed too

Rocket River
Never got over it

 

When I visited Phoenix for the first time, I was shocked to see a placard in my hotel room warning me that scorpions WILL get into my room if I opened the window, haha.

 

I pretended to be press and said that I'd forgotten my badge so I could get into the Pippen press conference and I did get in. It was his first one here and we all cheered his car as he arrived. So many fans with such high hopes.

While waiting for it to start, I stepped outside to smoke a cigarette and ran into Gene Peterson and we talked for a good while. Maybe I'm remembering this wrong but I think he might have been smoking with me. At some point I went off about Matt Maloney and Peterson got quiet and excused himself to go back inside.

Once he was gone, as I continued to smoke, I took in my surroundings and saw Maloney standing on a landing/fire escape from the second floor. He'd heard everything I'd said. I felt awful but gave him a 'truth hurts' shrug and went back inside myself. I still feel pretty badly about that.

 

The Sonics were a real problem for that mid-90s Rockets because they played illegal defense constantly. But we just traded a weakness vs. one rival (Sonics) for weakness vs. another (Jazz). And, you know, **** the Jazz.

Sam gave us 15 and 5 off the bench for the 95-96 team on solid percentages. I don't know where you get the big head. Who else was supposed to score on that team? Clyde missed near half the season, Kenny was washed, and the starters included Horry, Eldridge Recasner and Chucky Brown.

Cassell seemed pretty good as a #3 option helping the early-00s Bucks make the ECF and as an All-Star and #2 option helping the mid-00s Twolves make their still-only WCF.