I have to admit that I had a hard time thinking of a good title to this thread, but I am basically wondering why someone as great as Tracy McGrady is always getting hurt? He reminds me of a basketball version of Ken Griffey, Jr. Great athlete but for whatever reason is always getting hurt. Yes, I think we all know that TMac plays hard and because of that, he is at a greater risk of getting injured. Yet, you look at other dominant non-centers over the years like Bird, Magic, MJ, even Kobe Bryant (*gulp*). Those guys are great athletes like Tracy but they rarely got hurt as often as him. I know Jordan had that one year where he only played like 18 games the whole season but that was really an anomaly for him. It was only when a player gets older does he seem more likely to break down, injury-wise. Witness the 1996-97 Rockets with Hakeem, Clyde, and Charles. They were together on the court for only 30 games as injuries kept them apart (especially for Charles and Clyde). But all 3 were 35 or older. We have a franchise player in McGrady who is in the prime of his career. I find it troubling that this man is always banged-up. So I don't really know what the point of this thread is other than toss out a pretty obvious observation and complain about it. I'll go ahead and ask this question: would you rather want a very good player who never gets hurt or a player that is truly great but can be frequently banged up like McGrady? Is there anything the Rockets can do to prevent things like McGrady hurting his back in practice the other day other than making him sit out practice? I love TMac a lot but boy I wish he could stay healthy for 82 games + playoffs. If that means changing his style of play, then maybe that would be a good thing. Or not. At least we wouldn't have games with guys like Ryan Bowen starting in his place. BTW - this is my first GARM thread in what seems like years; please be gentle on me.
I think it's just unfortunate that T-Mac got hurt, he got banged up because he was pretty damn unlucky recently in practice. T-Mac is not fragile and he'll be back shortly. One troubling thing is he's already got tendinidis, which could be a career-long things that can keep him 100% healthy and could get worse when he's older.
Why do people complain after the guy misses one game? Seriously though, it's not worth worrying about at this point. He hasn't missed that many games in his career. We could all worry about whether Yao's feet will hold up, but it's counterproductive. Of course you would rather have a guy who is more durable, but those kinds of guys are rare. Even Kobe missed like the last 20 games last year.
Always? He missed four whole games last season. We're not talking about a guy like Baron Davis or Grant Hill or someone like that? FOUR GAMES! He is in the top 5 players in the league in total points scored in the last five years. You don't get on that list without having played a whole lot of games. Sure, they talk about him being banged up often enough, but he still plays and he plays well. He's only had one season in which he played in less than 75 games, and in that season he played in 67. (not including his first two years in which he wasn't being played much) On average, he misses about 5 games per season. That hardly qualifies him as injury prone.
Because he puts his body through very violent motions, and occasionally bad things happen. Yao is more durable because he doesn't force his body into awkward postions as often as Tmac. We can win without him tonight. DD
The basketball version of Ken Griffey Jr. would be Grant Hill. Tmac tends to get nicked up during the year causing him to miss a few games, but nothing real serious.
If I started a similar thread, exactly the same word I would have used: "Fragile". Now I understand better as to why he has at times chosen to take it easy at Orlando. JVG needs to take a page from Pop's strategy book regarding how to better use his injury-prone franchise (TD) in order to get him at the best shape come playoff time.
Like everyone else has said, you exaggerate the issue. T-Mac is not that injury prone. His back spasms and tendonitis are legitimate, non-serious, chronic issues that will never go away. If you look at T-Mac's playoff performances, he's always managed to play his best basketball when the "real" season starts. If he keeps that up as a Rocket I will be quite satisfied. I can live with him missing 5-6 games each year.
Well that is true but how many times did he play in some type of pain? I don't know but it seemed like there were at least 10 games that he either didn't play or he wasn't at 100%. And rvpals brings up a good point (one I forgot) in the tendinitis. Isn't that a condition that just gets progressively worse as you get older? Sorry for asking things that may seem obvious but I really don't know. Hopefully, TMac has surgery after the season so that won't be a problem for him. Jumping the gun? Probably but trust me - we go through a handful of games with Bowen in the starting lineup instead of TMac and I have a feeling that I won't be the only anxious Rocket fan around here.
Tmac are not fragile to the extent that it causes him to miss games.... but a nagging back pain does affect ur performance to a certian extent wouldn't it? I mean, with the back pain he often has and he is still performing as he is now, what would it be if he is completely healthy?
The problem is that TD had already won rings and the Spurs already knew what the rest of the team can do without TD. It was a luxury they could afford to do when they brought back TD slowly from his ankle problems last year. Our team, we still want to know what we can fully capably do at full strength as we haven't even seen that yet. To think "Well let's bring back TMac slowly as we will be ok without him" is something only established playoff teams should think about. That said, it's a long season and let's bring back TMac slowly at his pace. Seriously, the guy needs to work on his lower body, those legs look like they can snap. I see he bulked up his upper body, maybe he put on the mass too fast too soon and the rest of his body is overcompensating.
Agree with your assessment. The best replacement Rox can offer is Ryan Bowen, while SA can use Bruce Bowen.
I believe that Kobe has had ankle injuries in the past, even last season he missed a bunch of games. Tmac hasn't had serious injuries, mainly a nagging back at times. I believe that one of his legs is a bit shorter than the other, and he has to wear thicker soles in one of his shoes-just something I heard a while back. He may have been favoring his bruised knee, which could have affected his back one his jumps and landings, who knows? I didn't think they'd let him practice.... Excercising his midsection may help Tmac. I work as an auto Tech, and I do a lot of standing. My back will always hurt if I stand in place, but if I'm moving around, it's not so bad. People's backs are very sensitive, and some people just have problems...it's something we'll have to handle.
No offense Manny, but you are coming off as kind of naive. Everyone in the NBA plays through pain. The players who end up not missing games are the exception, not the rule, as far as I'm concerned. You want fragile or injury prone? Look at Webber. Look at McDyess. Vince Carter. Marcus Camby. Perhaps our very own Stro if you believe the gossip. TMac? Not so much. He's no iron man, but he's no mr. glass either. btw, TMac has averaged 9 games missed per season since he's become a 30mpg player. Kobe? about 9 games per season since he's become a 30mpg player. And those were kid gloves, mofo.
this thread is way way offbase. manny you didn't really look at his games played did you? i've never considered t-mac fragile and looking through the numbers he doesn't miss anymore games than any other superstar. if he plays hurt, he's playing unbelievably well through it. as someone mentioned he's only missed 4 games with us and was among the leaders in munutes played. i think that's pretty much as durable as you can expect from ANYONE.
I don't think TMac is any more fragile than the people you listed Manny. I remember Larry Bird and Isiah Thomas having back problems too. They used to lay on their stomachs before checking into the game to stretch out their backs.
I think he may have worked out too hard in the offseason, put on too much weight/muscle on that thin frame too fast.
