what if:clyde drexler drafted by Houston

[falcolombardi]

if in 1983 drexler went to Houston alongside ralph sampson (assume they got a portland pick in son e random trade year earlier)

how does that change the nba results for the rest of the century? assuming the rest of Houston rosters remained roughly the same: sampson injury, thorpe, they still mánage to get horry (hey, if lakers can get kareem and magic while having kareem...)

of course this kills portland as a contender unless they randomly find another all star somewhere (but Terry Porter keeps them as a good team)

how do these rockets fare against bulls and west contenders through 86-94?

[penbeast0]

That's an odd hypothetical. Drafting Jordan instead of Hakeem to play with Sampson, Portland drafting Jordan, those I've seen before but not adding Drexler to the Twin Towers.

Drexler isn't a difference maker his 1st year so Houston should still get the 1st pick for Hakeem (or Jordan). His second year he becomes a good player with outstanding playmaking in addition to his scoring. Assuming Clyde doesn't block his way, Houston's 4th starter would be Rodney McCray with Lewis Lloyd shifting to the bench and Robert Reid (still a good player) playing more PG or getting buried on the bench. PG is still their achilles heel as they are hoping for John Lucas to get his drug problems under control. They already made the NBA finals in 86 as Lucas plays 65 games. Houston finally gives up on Lucas and moves Reid to the point in 87, Drexler's minutes would be coming at the expense of Mitch Wiggins (not that good) and Lewis Lloyd whose own issues are becoming more obvious.

Drexler may allow them to deal Lloyd while his value is high. In real life, Houston never does much in the playoffs with that core again and by 88 Sampson is done. The big questions are whether the Twin Towers idea really works, especially without great outside shooting (which Drexler doesn't help that much with) and how their locker room deals with first Lucas then Lloyd and whether they can stay focused as a team.

Hard to tell how Drexler does in that situation. If he sticks it out and develops a good rapport with Hakeem, maybe Hakeem doesn't want out as much. Houston does add Sleepy Floyd and Otis Thorpe to replace Sampson and Reid so they would still have talent but unrealized potential can make a team stop believing.