The Teams of the Great Centers Study #6 -- The '94 Rockets

If you swapped Boogie and Gay for '94 Hakeem and Maxwell, how many games would the Rockets have won?

  • 50-54

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 40-44

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 35-39

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 30-34

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 29 or fewer

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    4
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#1
Welcome to Study #6 of The Teams of the Great Centers series.

-- Study #1 may be found here: http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/the-teams-of-the-great-centers-study-1-the-96-spurs.60134/
-- Study #2 may be found here: http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/the-teams-of-the-great-centers-study-2-the-83-sixers.60173/
-- Study #3 may be found here: http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/the-teams-of-the-great-centers-study-3-the-94-knicks.60204/
-- Study #4 may be found here: http://www.kingsfans.com/threads/the-teams-of-the-great-centers-study-4-the-05-heat.60255/
-- Study #5 may be found here: http://kingsfans.com/threads/the-teams-of-the-great-centers-study-5-the-97-heat.60327/

Study #6 of the Teams of the Great Centers series takes on one of the most famous modern era great center teams: The 1994 Houston Rockets, featuring league MVP Hakeem Olajuwon at his peak. Of course that will be the complaint on this one, but watch the numbers carefully, and take a look at the rest of their roster. Far from unapproachable.


Study #6 -- The 1993-4 Rockets
Team Record: 58-24 (Won NBA Championship)
Coach: Rudy Tomjanovich
Pace: 15th of 27
Off Rating: 15th of 27
Def Rating: 2nd of 27

A) Roster and Roles
C - Hakeem Olajuwon (#1 option)
PF - Otis Thorpe (rebounding and defense)
SF -Robert Horry (defense, shooting)
SG - Vernon Maxwell (thought he was the #2, defense, chucking, distributing)
PG - Kenny Smith (shooting, distributing)

B) The #1/#2 Comparisons

1) First of all this needs to be addressed. The great difficulty in this comparison is that this was peak Hakeem, considered one of the highest peaks in NBA history. He went on an amazing MVP tear after his 30th birthday. Just check out his numbers:

'94 Olajuwon: 41.0min 27.3pts (.565TS%) 11.9reb 3.6ast 1.6stl 3.7blk 3.4TO

But do you see it? Do you see the thing that makes this not a crazy comparison? 41.0min/gm. 41.

Consider this:

Per 36 minutes:
'94 Olajuwon: 24.0pts (.565TS%) 10.5reb 3.2ast 1.4stl 3.3blk 3.0TO
'15 DCousins: 25.6pts (.551TS%) 13.2reb 3.5ast 1.6stl 1.8blk 4.5TO

And just like that, suddenly this isn't so crazy at all is it? If anybody you know, including the man in the mirror, tries to diss Big Cuz feel free to copy/paste these numbers for their benefit. The gap between an MVP and Cuz begins to come down to, "the MVP stayed on the floor and played more minutes". That's of course one of the reasons this Rockets team did better than our current Kings. It also falls squarely on the correctable side of the ledger.

2) The Rockets mess at #2.

The Rockets essentially did not have a #2. Their second best player was probably Otis Thorpe, but he took fewer than 10 shots a game on his way to a very efficient 14-10 line. Vernon Maxwell took the second most shots, gunning up garbage from all angles in a way that would J.R. Smith blush. But when you shoot .389 and actually average fewer points than Thorpe, who is shooting .561, what claim can you have to #2 status?

After Hakeem's 27.3pts no fewer than 6 different Rockets averaged between 9.3pts and 14.0pts a game. it was Hakeem and the 7 Dwarves, not a #1 and #2 as we think of them. In any case no matter who you try to tag as the #2 that season, with Rudy we have a significant edge at #2 (why I was tempted to use the Hakeem/Drexler teams, but they were created by a midseason trade that messed up the team stats, and were only a 48 win team thereafter).

So the best two #2 options compared to Rudy:
'94 Thorpe: 35.5min 14.0pts (.593TS%) 10.6reb 2.3ast 0.8stl 0.3blk 2.3TO
'94 Maxwell: 34.3min 13.6pts (.483TS%) 3.1reb 5.1ast 1.7stl 0.3blk 2.5TO

'15 RudGay: 35.5min 20.7pts (.552TS%) 5.9reb 3.7ast 1.0stl 0.6blk 2.7TO


C) Frontcourt
Hakeem playing over 83% of his team's minutes that year (Cousins right now is at 55%) paired with fellow iron man rock Thorpe meant that to a large degree the Rockets didn't even worry about reserves. there effectively was no bakcup center (Eric Riley was on the roster in a deep bench role but did not play). Hakeem was the only rim protector, but since he was almost always in the game, they didn't need a second one. For the 7 minutes a game where there actually was no Hakeem, they would just slide the 6'10" Thorpe over tot he C spot. Between the two of them they grabbed 22.3 rebounds a game. And next to them sat the ultimate, then young, roleplayer in Robert Horry (making the frontline 6'10" straight across the board). They had a size/strength advantage at every position but center, where they had a Dream advantage. The reserves were almost irrelevant, both in talent and role. Its a different frontcourt structure than ours, although if you continue to call JT the PF (which does not appear to be in the cards)...well it would still be a different structure. Full sized though, and the core of the team. great center, the more talented Oakley character, then elite roleplayer instead of our #2 weapon/star.

D) Backcourt
Is Kenny Smith really much better than Darren Collison? I ask that question because of the recent odd Darren Collison angst on the board. And the answer is of course "no". But his straight on three point shooting game did make him a more natural fit to provide spacing. Vernon Maxwell was of course a complete mess, but in his messy way, once again one of those great center SGs who provided a) defense, and b) extra ballhandling, as these Rockets again split PG duties. If your PG isn't a great creater, get a creative SG to put next to him and get all the assists you need anyway. Behind that far from intimidating pair the backups here do deserve special mention though: Mario Elie, Scott Brooks, a young Sam Cassell? That's all the veteran toughness, defense, range and clutch shooting you could ask for from a set of bench guards. And for its era, this was one fo the early teams to really use the inside/out 3pt bombing structure as a real weapon.


E) Main Rotation Roster Comparison
C Hakeem Olajuwon (Age: 31 Exp: 9yrs) = DeMarcus Cousins (Age: 24 Exp: 4yrs)
PF Otis Thorpe (Age: 31 Exp: 9yrs) = Jason Thompson (Age: 28 Exp: 6yrs)
SF Robert Horry (Age: 23 Exp: 1yr) = Rudy Gay (Age: 28 Exp: 8yrs)
SG Vernon Maxwell (Age: 28 Exp: 5yrs) = Ben McLemore (Age: 21 Exp: 1yr)
PG Kenny Smith (Age: 28 Exp: 6yrs) = Darren Collison (Age: 27 Exp: 5yrs)
SF/SG Mario Elie (Age: 30 Exp: 3yrs) = Derrick Williams (Age: 23 Exp: 3yrs)
PG Sam Cassell (Age: 24 Exp: R) = Sessions (Age:28) McCallum(Age:23) Miller (Age:38)
PG/SG Scott Brooks (Age: 28 Exp: 5yrs) = Nik Stauskas (Age: 21 Exp: R)
SM/PF Carl Herrera (Age: 27 Exp: 2yrs) = Omri Casspi (Age: 26 Exp: 5yrs)


F) 1993-94 Rockets Main Rotation Stats
Olajuwon 80gms 41.0min 27.3pts (.528 .--- .716) 11.9reb 3.6ast 1.6stl 3.7blk 3.4TO
OtThorpe 82gms 35.5min 14.0pts (.561 .--- .657) 10.6reb 2.3ast 0.8stl 0.3blk 2.3TO
VMaxwell 75gms 34.3min 13.6pts (.389 .298 .749) 3.1reb 5.1ast 1.7stl 0.3blk 2.5TO
KenSmith 78gms 28.3min 11.6pts (.480 .405 .871) 1.8reb 4.2ast 0.8stl 0.1blk 1.6TO
RobHorry 81gms 29.3min 9.9pts (.459 .324 .732) 5.4reb 2.9ast 1.5stl 0.9blk 1.7TO
MarioElie 67gms 24.0min 9.73pts (.446 .335 .860) 2.7reb 3.1ast 0.7stl 0.1blk 1.6TO
SmCassell 66gms 17.0min 6.7pts (.418 .296 .841) 2.0reb 2.9ast 0.9stl 0.1blk 1.4TO
SctBrooks 73gms 16.8min 5.2pts (.491 .377 .871) 1.4reb 2.0ast 0.7stl 0.0blk 0.8TO
CaHerrera 75gms 17.2min 4.7pts (.458 .--- .711) 3.8reb 0.5ast 0.4stl 0.3blk 0.9TO


Conclusion: So How Did They Win 58 While We'll Win Sub-30?

1) DEFENSE. DEFENSE! Do you hear me Vivek? D-E-F-E-N-S-E!!! I'm trying to remember if I have ever NOT started off one of these conclusion areas with this. I mean...look. THIS is the key. The absolute key. If you have a great center team, and you don't do everything you can to turn it into a defensive juggernaut, you are an idiot. This is what they all have in common. Mediocre roster, strong roster, whatever. Stop the other team from scoring, beat them up with your big center. Voila! Great team. here the Rockets were again mediocre at pace, mediocre at offense, did not have a true #2...but they were the #2 defensive team in the league, and they had an all time center.

2) More Hakeem Than You Can Shake a Stick At. And here is something so tantalizingly possible, but maybe not possible. The key to winning for a mediocre Rockets roster with 1 Hakeem? Just almost never take that Hakeem off the floor. 41 minutes a night, 80 ganes on the year. Given his enormous +/- stats if we did nothing else than got the same out of Boogie we could take a huge leap (did you know that our sad little Kings team are actually WINNING every minute Boogie plays? If he could play 48min night every ngiht we'd be in the playoff hunt despite all the mess).

3) Manly men up front. The Rockets had great length across the frontline. They weren't trying to smallball you, they were trying to grab all the rebounds and make all the stops.

4) Gunners in the backcourt. I almost said "Girly men in the backcourt" just to be cute and play off of Manly Men above, but no, that backcourt was full of tough, clutch S.O.B.s. But for their era they could all shoot. That was the deal. Let Hakeem and Thorpe take care of the inside, and then surround them with 100% shooters.

5) Great roleplayers. One of the very best sets of roleplayers in NBA history. Its still easier to do than run off and acquire extra stars, but they gained so much saavy, toughness, defense and clutch play from a crew that included Sam Cassel, Robert Horry, Mario Elie and Vernon Maxwell that we simply do not get nor have any real shot at with our own reserves. Want to be the Rockets? We've got our Hakeem equivalent. We've got a better #2. What we don't have are the tough saavy shooting support personnel.



Defense, roleplayers, shooters...we've talked about all these things. These are the things that made the Rockets go. These are doable things. Our stars are at least as good as any 2 guys the Rockets had. Its the other things, the no so little things, the touch things that could set us free here.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#2
Reading each of these makes one thing abundantly clear: as much as I've touted DFC's praises, I've been unfair. He's SO MUCH FREAKING BETTER than I want to admit (even just to myself). I've known he's capable of greatness, I've known he's capable of putting up historic numbers. Until you see his accomplishments directly compared to some of the greatest to ever play the game, however, you don't realize just how incredible his performances have already been.

Thanks, Brickie. I hope everybody takes the time to read and digest each of these. And then I hope they all pray to whatever deity or deities they may (or may not) believe in that our front office gets him whatever he wants/needs to take his game to an even higher level.
 
#3
I appreciate your comparisons, Brick, especially since they reinforce your long-standing philosophy of "Big Man team = Defense team" quite well.

But statistics don't tell the real story when comparing Hakeem's 2 seasons, and you know it.
That guy was in another reality those 2 years - somewhere that Demarcus (and almost every other player to ever play basketball) will likely never go. Teams stacked their entire gameplans against Hakeem, even in the playoffs, and he STILL made the improbably-difficult shots.
Clutch performances in tight playoffs games is something you just can't compare with a statistical breakdown.

Demarcus is a wonderful talent, and can fill up a stat sheet, to be sure - but the one thing he has proven so far is that when good teams focus on defending him hard, the game is tight, and the Kings need a score.... way too often Demarcus comes away with a missed (and usually block-against) shot.

Now, that unfortunate reality could change instantaneously if he was given superstar foul calls.
But until he is given star treatment by the league, all these teams you are comparing his stats to would be inestimably worse, because Demarcus couldn't be counted on to make the key buckets. Hell, he'd be out of the game in many of them, the way the refs call vs Boogie.
 
#4
Continue beating the drum Brick. Centres are the hardest position to draft and longest players to develop -- but if you draft a once-in-a-generation star like Shaq or Hakeem or Abdul-Jabaar or Walton, your team is instantly competitive and on the upswing. They should be the easiest players to develop around. That said, because everyone has figured out the odds of drafting such a player are low, the game now caters to pace and space which plays to the 3-point shooter, which is a lot simpler to find and develop. But if you have a generational star like DMC you need to play a style that suits him. He's 270 lbs and shouldn't be playing at a break-neck speed, unless you also happen to have another generational star like Ervin Johnson beside him and he can take his time getting up and down the court.