IT is so simple to me we were losing games because all our role players couldn't make a shot for their lives. Now they are and when you make shots it not only helps the offense, but the defense as well this is a league of confidence if you have none you have no chance.
i dont think you understand the concept of basketball. tmac is our closer we need him in the fourth if we had tmac we could have had a chance vs Boston and Detroit. WE ALL KNOW HE GETS HURT ALOT BUT WITHOUT HIM WE WOULDN'T MAKE THE PLAYOFFS
Well that’s because of ball movement, when Tracy is in he tend to be the dominant offensive presence, we tend to focus on getting him the ball rather than just creating shots in the flow of the game.
You don't get it. You're thinking like if we trade Tracey (not a typo) that we're not getting anything in return. Wrong. We can get 2-3 solid players for Tracey which would make the Rox as a WHOLE much stronger. Get rid of Tracey McPippen!!!
Two wins over the Eastern conference and people think we are good as we are... Our next three games are against the Wiz, Knicks, and TWolves too so this talk might actually gain some steam. If you ask me, our best wins of the year were the blowout of Utah in the second game of the year, the defeat of the Spurs at home, the win at Phoenix, and the win against Detroit at home. I was at the two home games and trust me we do NOT win those games without T-Mac. This team as it is configured will make no noise in the playoffs. T-Mac's an X-factor but think about it this way: last year he and Yao's roles were essentially swapped. We were looking smooth without Yao, people started calling for us to move him, etc. etc. But the fact is that we ain't gonna do ***** without both guys on the court.
Whoa. I like AB's game. but whoa slow down. The kid just played 10 or so NBA games, and had one big game yesterday, and he is compared to Bibby or Parker? His shooting for the most part I have seen so far is not consistent, and he is certainly taking advantage of opponents' ignorance of his game. Bibby was not a #1 pick, but he was the #4 pick, and Parker, whoa, just give AB some time. Regarding Tmac's exit. At this point, around league there is no team would want Tmac for one of their productive super stars. The only successful trade scenarios I can see is trading with losing teams like the clippers, Buck, or Bobcats for equally damaged and lesser players like Brand, Redd, or Okfur straight up, do we want to do that. I will wait until the allstar break to have my conclusion.
dude, I think thats the exact reason why you might wanna trade him? Honestly, the only things holding us back from trading T-mac is that he have practically no trade value.
Sure T-Mac needs motivation. But it is something that you can't provide. He has to motivate himself. It is not like he needs supporting roles. Motivation is something you have to find it for yourself. If we can get 70% value back from trading him, that will be good enough. Following is a reply I made to yesterday's post game analysis thread: =============================== My biggest concerns about T-Mac: 1. His health. This is like a time bomb, can blow off at any time. Can you imagine this happen in a playoff series? That would be toooooo costly. With his health condition, I can't stop worrying about it. 2. When he is hot, he can do a lot of things. But he can be "cold" and take a lot of contested jumpers. Is he a consistent "Mr. Cluth" in 4th quarter? No, I don't think so. He is far from that now. This will hurt you when in the fourth quarter, when teams are down quite some, team or himself try to rely on him to come back through his offense. And his poor free shooting percentage is also a very negative factor. 3. His heart. I still remember the game 7 vs. Dallas. He quited very earlier since Rockets were down big in early of the game. Yao was playing hard through the whole game. I hate T-Mac's attitude very much. The whole team (including him) had worked so hard that year, and it was just 10-20 minutes away from the end of the season if they lose. No matter what is happening, you should fight extremely hard to get back. If you fight hard, there is always a chance. If you don't, your chance is 0. He just gave up way toooooooo easily. This year, he also showed that his will is toooooo weak. Problem is probably we can't really get much from trading him. It is not because there are no solid players out there for trade. We don't even need a $20M level player. I just don't think other teams will be willing to trade their solid $10M+ players for T-Mac, because he is too fragile (both physically and mentally). Do you want your super star to walk off the court in the middle of a playoff game after he takes a jumper and won't be able to come back for the rest of the series? I do agree with him on court and buying into current offensive system and playing hard on both ends, the team can only be better. But do you think the above injury scenario is only a remote possibility? I don't want to take the chance. Do you think Rockets will be a champaignship contender this year? No way. With role players playing like this, they can develop into a champaignship contender in several years. How do you like the chance that in another 3-5 years, you have a healthy T-Mac all season long (or for majority part of the season), and healthy enough to take all the beat for all the playoff series? I don't feel good about it. ==================================
haha - yeah, t-mac has no value. haha! what kind of reality do you live in man? I just can't imagine, but i'm curious.
trading away mcgrady will be a pre-mature move as of now imo. we certainly should give him a chance and see how he meshes with the system when he returns now he's got a chance to watch. and i think we should see whether this yao-mcgrady duo works or not till at least after this season is over. mcgrady has unmatched talent. before his body became a serious concern, he's amongst the best in the league. but his problem has always been his ego. he thinks he owns a team wherever he goes. and when things are not going so well, he tends to quit. one recent example - mcgrady:"my teammate can't make plays and create shots for themselves." how many times have we heard him say that? yao:"i trust my teammates will make shots. i'll continue to look for them." and yao said this when our role players were having the most difficult time of making open shots. look what happened now. see the difference? i'm not saying yao has already grown into a true leader of this team, but this displays the difference b/w yao and mcgrady in terms of leadership qualities. "it's all on me." this is the very attitude that limits mcgrady's greatness and makes him who he is. this attitude on the basketball court translates into the fact that he dominates the ball so much (this is not the same of being "selfish") and he thinks he either has to score or make an assist. that's where the offense becomes stagnant under both jvg and adelman. mcgrady is who he is. alll i said above is not his fault per se. that's just his way of helping the team in his mind. but i really hope this recent timeout has made him think a little and he will embrace this adelman system when he's back. if not, i think the team will have to see what it can do w/o him. but that may not come, or at least not this year.
I said "practically" no trade value. Give your honest opinion of what Tracy can possibly get you? I'm referring to a trade that other team is willing to make, and that will benefit the rocket in some way.
You guys are getting overly excited over a few wins against sub lesser teams. Let's be realistic about the situation: 1. Before SheMac went down, there was over-reliance on SheMac to carry the team. So, when She was hot, we won, and when She was NOT, we lost 2. Now that She went down, combined with the Holiday and a few other days of practices, combined with true NECESSITY, the team had learned to execute Adelman's offense (except during spurts of 4th quarter when they often forgot to move around, not sure why). 3. The other players are forced to step up. Mind you, Rox does have lots of players, and without the Star, Adelman was more willing to switch to a player who happens to be hot or good matchup. 4. We played some sub-par teams. The only great team we beat was the Magic, and by only 2 pts on a close call. That said, I am excited with the team's progress, no matter how they came about. BUT, the reality is, without SheMac, we are a better-than-average team, and will probably make the playoff (note that half of all NBA teams make the playoff). With SheMac playing with Adelman's system, we will have a chance to go deeper. There was argument about getting 2-3 players in return for trading SheMac. You should realize that 2-3 equivalent players that add up to 1 SheMac can't help you when you can only put 5 players in at one time. Look at the history of Super Star trades, including the original SheMac trade from Orlando - had it worked out for the teams that traded their super stars away?
Trading TMac for a lesser albeit younger player would give us more time to build and develop a legit contender. As it stands now, this team has little to no chance of going deep in the post-season and TMac's skills and ability are diminishing with every month. So I'm all for trading away both TMac and Battier, as well as whatever we can get for SF3, Snyder, and Mike James. We can rebuild around Yao with the new talent we get in return + Scola/Brooks/Landry + and a re-signed Bonzi if he keeps up the production.
T-Mac is the cancer to the team. Look on his record, even at his prime, he was not able to lead a team out of the first round.
This is a fair point, you are right, they were doing a good bit of the offense but as soon as they hit some adversity they panicked and went away from it. I too believe Tmac will embrace it, especially as he has notice the rest of his teamates playing better in it. Tmac is a good smart player, he wants to win.....I just think he had his doubts....let's hope the team is erasing those. DD
I agree that T-Mac is not a ball hog and I also agree that T-Mac is exceptionally talented. But I ask you this: How is our newly clicking offense going to be looking when T-Mac comes back and gets his 20 shots per game? Here are the shot attempts from last night. Now you take 20 of them away from these players and give them to T-Mac. Rafer 14 (2's), 8 (3's) Head 9 & 5 Hayes 2 & 0 Battier 7 & 4 Yao 21 & 0 Brooks 10 & 5 Wells 7 & 2 Scola 6 & 0 Mutombo 1 & 0 That adds up to 101 shots. Give 20 of those (20% of the offense) to T-Mac. Who are you going to take from? Don't ignore it. If you are making a real proposal, let's hear the real details.
The team won 50+ games 2 of the last 3 seasons with T-Mac taking that many shots. The Lakers won 3 rings with BOTH Kobe and Shaq at or above 20 FGA per game. In other words, it can (and will) be done.
