2018-19 NBA Off-Season

That's because Barkley was traded to Phoenix.

And he was traded to Houston.

Olajuwon, Drexler and Barkley were all entering or in the down side of their careers. Hakeem didn't average 20 points again after Barkley's first season there. Team didn't win its division in Barkley's first season there and fell to .500 the next season.

That's probably why there may not have been any ring-chasing talk. Houston became a WORSE team by virtue of the Barkley trade.

 

They ought to put that poster on a roller. He will be back. Whether its to retire “as a Cavalier” or play his last season as a Cavalier, LBJ will be back in Cleveland. You can guarantee that when he goes out he will want the full Jeter. Standing ovations at every arena, gifts from friends and foes alike. The humble brag speech 82 times.

 

Lakers believe Lonzo Ball's camp leaked his knee injury to prevent potential trade: report - NY Daily News

 

I don't remember him less fondly. Because I never remembered him fondly to begin with.

 

Those three didn't get together until Drexler was 34 and a year away from retirement, Hakeem 34 and fading fast, and Barkley 33 and a hobbled shell of his former version.

That is exceedingly different than the Warriors gathering five all stars when all are simultaneously in their late 20s prime.

And, oh yeah, you're also wrong about the "two of them landed as free agents" part. Instead both came via trades. Drexler was traded for Otis Thorpe plus a first round pick (a deal many thought weighed in Portland's favor at the time), and Barkley was traded for a package of four players that included Robert Horry and Sam Cassell, which plainly appears to have been a dumb move in retrospect.

In sum, that's one piss poor analogy for this. Extremely different things.

 

Well, I should say no one bitches and moans because he went to a pretty stacked team instead of sticking it out with Houston. (I know, I know, he was traded)

 

While the Warriors are unprecedented, it feels weird to talk about a guy with a ruptured Achilles as in his prime. I mean, he is, but not exactly. He’ll play like 30 games next year. It just happens he joined a team that won’t care, which is likewise unprecedented.

 

But it wasn't a stacked team. Houston traded four solid players from its championship rotation, including its third- and fourth-leading scorers.

 

I mean, they did improve by nine wins and go from a five seed to tied for the second-best record in the West. They went from getting swept in the second round sweep to being that close to game seven of the conference finals.

So in some sense, they certainly got better.

The next year they did get worse. Got old and injured.

(Also worth noting, Barkley literally told the Suns he’d retire if he wasn’t traded to a contender)

 

This was referring to Moses, who joined a 58-win finals team with Dr J, Dawkins, Cheeks and a bunch of other good dudes.

(Houston didn’t trade either third or fourth leading scorer from the title teams. Those players were Thorpe, Maxwell and Kenny Smith. One was traded for Drexel’s, the other two released. They did trade the third-and-fourth leading scorers from a 48 win team)

 

Malone LEFT a team that had been to the Finals only two years earlier for one that had been to the Finals the previous year. 76ers weren't a superteam stacked with players in their prime. Rockets actually matched 76ers' offer but decided they didn't want to pay him $2 million a year and TRADED him (there's that word again) to Philly.

 

For one season it seemed like a good deal (although, even in in that one season, Barkley only played about 50 regular season games).

But when you look at how Barkley broke down after that, compared to everything Horry and Cassell went on to do, it's clear that was a dumb trade. They exchanged excellent assets with their best years ahead of them for a broken down former superstar with his best years all behind him.