Cuttino Mobley Believes Rockets Shouldn't Have Made Tracy McGrady Trade

Last offseason, the Houston Rockets made a splash move, trading for Kevin Durant, one of the game's greatest players, and especially scorers. Houston traded away arguably one of it's brightest young players in Jalen Green, while also parting with Dillon Brooks -- a quintessential 3-and-D player, along with the 10th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and a bevy of second-round draft picks (five, to be exact).

Durant played 78 games in his first season with the Rockets, averaging 26 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 52% from the field, 41.3% from deep and 87.4% from the foul line. The trade has been a success, especially when considering Houston's placement in lieu of the injuries that have ravished the team.

The deal was also one of many trades made by the franchise that landed a superstar. The Clyde Drexler trade in 1995 helped the Rockets repeat as NBA champions.

The James Harden trade in 2012 made the Rockets the winningest franchise over an eight year period. The Chris Paul trade made the 2017-18 Rockets the best team in franchise history.

One trade, however, didn't quite yield the same results. The Tracy McGrady trade from 2004. The Rockets paired McGrady with All-NBA big man Yao Ming, giving the team two surefire superstar players at the time.

But they never won a postseason series together. Granted, injuries limited their ability to take the court together and they ultimately only played together for two postseason runs.

Houston's only postseason success during Ming's tenure came in the 2009 playoffs, when McGrady was actually injured. All told, Houston sent Cuttino Mobley, Kelvin Cato and Steve Francis to the Orlando Magic, in exchange for McGrady, Juwan Howard, Ty Lue and Reece Gaines.

Mobley is still in disagreement with the Rockets' decision to make the trade.

"I blame Jeff Van Gundy to this day. That's my guy. I love him to death. But I always tell Jeff that you didn't have enough patience for me and Steve, because we would have... I'm not going to say we would have won one... but we would have given teams a problem with Yao Ming."

Mobley and Francis did help the Rockets reach the postseason once, during the 2003-04 season. And Francis was a good player, having made three consecutive All-Star teams, as well as the Rookie of the Year award in the 1999-00 season.

But it goes without saying that you make the deal for a superstar, if afforded the opportunity. McGrady was just 25-years-old at the time and was coming off of two consecutive scoring titles, along with four consecutive All-NBA teams.

He even made three All-NBA teams even with the Rockets. It's certainly understandable for Mobley to feel the way he does, since he was one of the players sent off, but it's a star-driven league. If you can get a future Hall of Famer in their prime, you do it every time.