[T-Mac] OKC squandering Paul George's talent....

How did he waste Yao's prime when Yao couldn't stay on the court? Say what you want about T-Mac's disastrous last years with Houston, but he gave several MVP caliber years to the organization and was ready to go in the playoffs. Those Utah series were lost because Boozer and Okur would murder Yao.

 

darrell murray completely disagrees with you.

 

Just like he squander his own talent

 

Actually the Playoff version of him was better than the regular season version more often than not.

As puzzling as that might sound. 90% of his 1st round exits were pretty hard fought.

The one series he should have gotten them over the top was the Orlando vs Detroit series when he proclaimed going to the 2nd round leading 3-1 and then got their collective arses kicked.

But his teammates were inferior, so they said.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002–03_Orlando_Magic_season

 

It's not speculation if you were a real Tmac fan and followed Tmac like I did before you would know Tmac wasn't really that dedicated to bball. Even JVG said Tmac was the most talented player he had ever seen but he coasted a lot on his talent. Here is an article talking about Tmac's reaction to JVG questioning his work ethic:
http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/2011/03/tracy_mcgrady_has_no_hard_feel.html

As his coach JVG knows more about Tmac's work ethic and he said if a normal player works for 10,000 hours to achieve greatness Tmac worked for 1000 hours only. What does that tell you? Like I said if you were a true Tmac fan you would know all this stuff already because you would see and read about this during his career.

As far as Tmac's therapy goes he relied on his buddy/friend/relative for his personal fitness and training regimen, that's not a good sign because although his buddy/family may be extremely loyal to him he wouldn't know as much as a true professional. In fact there was a thread here on CF talking about how questionable Tmac's training regimen was and how it may have worsened his health. In contrast look at Lebron he pays an ex Marine to work on his fitness rather than just one of his boys.

I'm not questioning his performance in the playoffs, that is effort and not related to laziness at all. Lots of lazy stars give a lot of effort in the playoffs like Melo, Iverson and Westbrick doesn't mean they aren't lazy. You know a player is lazy when he doesn't add anything to his game, like in Westbrick's case his jumpshot is still broken or in Melo's case he still can't hit 3 pters consistently and has all the weaknesses he had as a rookie. Tmac is less lazy than those guys since he added playmaking but he lost his defense when it was his calling card when he was a rookie and he didn't improve his jumpshot. Like JVG said Tmac had a ton of talent and could've been Lebron before Lebron, instead he is just a normal "HOF" player which is amazing but nowhere near his potential.

 

There are different levels to laziness just because you are lazy doesn't mean you will be a bust like Olowokandi or Hasheem Thabeet. Btw Greg Oden wasn't lazy he was just frail and suffered injuries left and right.

Anyway you would know Melo is lazy because he hasn't improved a bit in terms of skillset since his rookie year. When they both started out Melo was as good if not slightly better than Lebron, look at the gap between them now that's a result of Lebron being driven and working his butt off and Melo just relying on his physical gifts and talent. Now that both of them are old Lebron is still an MVP level player cuz he works hard but Melo is regressing and isn't even a max player anymore when before he was considered one of the best players in the league.

 

I recall Melo being touted as star but Lebron was hailed King when he was coming out of HS.

Not that it matters but Lebron's ESPN hype began when he entered the league. I always thought Lebron would be more versatile.

Versatility ruled in the end.

Melo was a rebounder and scorer and stayed that way to this day......well you can improve your game but rarely do they add something which was not there from the start like playmaking.

Maybe I just had more expectations toward Lebron than Melo.

 

Lebron had no shot coming out of college, he was like Ben Simmons had mediocre defense too.

Melo came into the league and led the Nuggets to one of the greatest turnarounds in league history, lots of people (me included) thought he should have been ROY.

Lots of players add skillsets all the time Tmac wasn't a playmaker until he came to Houston, Kobe added post scoring, Lebron added 3 pt shooting and KD added defense. Even Harden wasn't really a ft machine in OKC and only last season did he start finishing his shots.

This is how you know a dude is working on his game or not.

 

Spoiler

Tmac is a unicorn that he added things which was not a part of his game and which at times some coaches never really asked him to do.

He is also an outlier, peaking at 23-25 years of age and falling off the cliff by age 27-29 with bad decisions and injuries.

He is not comparable IMO. Lebron and Kobe had better work ethic though, but only a handful can do it.

KD? I guess but his alpha mentality has been questioned throughout.

I would not call anyone lazy making it to the NBA or becoming a star.

Yes, they could be called 'easily content' compared to their peers but lazy as a guy who does not do a thing?

Sure, Melo's time with the Nuggets was very productive.

Only saying that Melo was not the most coveted guy by the media, or everyone, sure some liked him best. (not tracking his past work ethic) (thought from the beginning that he would play second fiddle to Lebron, KD or Tracy McGrady even talentwise.)

 

Lazy depends on what you can do I mean if Lebron was lazy he would still be an allstar and still have a great career, thats because he was gifted. I'm sure you or someone you know have called or been called lazy at some point in your life, it doesn't mean the person in question does nothing but sleep and eat all day long.

Look are you there with Tmac? How can you defend him if you weren't there? JVG himself said Tmac was lazy, in his own words Tmac worked 90% less than other great players. If you work 1000 hours when others work 10000 hours what does that make you? A lot of his injuries are lazyness related too, JVG said Tmac didnt rehab properly. Even Tmac passively admitted it saying he was ok with his coach questioning his work ethic. I love Tmac and am one of the biggest fans om this board but lets be real about his faults as a player and human being.

 

Because lazy does not get you a pay check or getting your kids fed......sure there should be another term for that.

JVG was a work horse himself who could not handle the coaching job for more than 10 or so years because he would lose every hair on his head.

Do I trust JVG? To an extent.

You need the right amount of rest and work. To maintain longevity.

It's very different for everyone. Tmac has failed to strenghten his body in the offseason and beyond the age of 26. He listened to the wrong people, hired a phony as a personal trainer...........

I got no big problem with you or anyone else using the word 'lazy' but I dun use it lightly. Want it to be clarified.

Nobody is defending anyone here, this is truth, and we should be talking about Paul GEORGE here anyway.

 

Lots of lazy people are still successful its called coasting. It doesnt mean you are a bum it just means you didnt reach your potential or you could've achieved more if you put in more effort.

There is a definition of being lazy in the dictionary look it up it says "disinclined to activity or exertion". It doesn't mean you are a total bum who can't function in society or provide for your wife and kids wtf. Just think about it the opposite of lazy is working hard. In your book when someone works hard does that mean they have to work themselves to death? If thats not the case how come your definition of lazy has to be so extreme as well? There different tiers of being lazy just as there to working hard.

 

No doubt, the topic Tmac has been over discussed in my opinion.

His past flaws does not make him ineligible to state his opinion on George.

He has squandered some of his talent so he is actually the right person to ask.

But human being? He has a loud mouth but he has done lots of charity work, and he would be one of few NBA players who isn't dead broke or had great problems with substance abuse.

I would say personality issues, minor infidelity issues (which is private) but no big faults as a human being compared to all Ex NBA players.

Ok. His 'throwing teammates under the bus' (he mostly said he did not play with Shaq) thing, yeah that was a mistake in an interview but I would not say he is a pretty bad human being because of couple controversial sentences.

'It's on me, I am to blame' .....many players say that, it gets taken out of context a ton.

I will always side with Yao/Battier/role players when it comes down to it, but Yao actually liked Tmac.

 

Every human being has his own flaws that is what makes us and Tmac human not sure what your problem is with that statement. You seem to take everything to the absolute extreme if you say somebody is lazy he won't do any work at all now if somebody has flaws suddenly he is trash lol what is up with that?

Anyway his point is George's talent is being squandered (which I agree) and not George himself squandering his own talent.

 

As said before, Tmac's faults and misses have been discussed to a barfing level.

I have taking a disliking for that word. That word has been used for more extreme purposes in the past.

Lazy has been misused for guys that want to rest their body, or for people who dun know how to better themselves, giving advice just do not work for everyone.

You seem to get vexed when people dun share your sentiment. I dun share the negative vibe that comes with it, that all.