I have been saying that forever, that a leopard does not change his spots. How many players with the level of individual success that Tracy has enjoyed are willing or able to remake themselves as role players? It is hard when you have played so well for so long as one type of player to simply modify your game, and subjegate yourself entirely to the team concept. Especially in a contract season, where he needs his numbers to get that new deal. I just think he has reached the end of the line as a Rockets player. He was great when healthy in Houston, enough to overlook his lack of defense and poor shooting.....because he did so much else, but now he is not capable or needed to dominate the ball, and the team has moved in another direction, it is time for him to move on. The guy just doesn't fit, and is unable to change.....therefore, he must......he has to.......most assuradly......go. No one likes it when they are told their hero is a paper tiger......they will learn though, they will learn.... DD
How many more seconds, minutes, days, years and games does it take for people to realise Tracy is just another ego-centered, overpaid, selfish, overconfident, just want a championship like Ron Artest I don't care where, primadona, camera horny, money hungry, I just care about stats and looking good type of guy ? Tracy is not worth a damn on the court or off the court when it comes to basketball, I'm not talking about him as a person outside of all this because he seems (though it could be just another one of his acts) genuine when it comes to charity and the whole Darfur thing. Do I need to remind you that 90% wanted to have his ass last year and even though the Rockets organisation might have been wrong, these are the same people now hoping he's going to change ?! Again !! How many times do you let yourself be fooled by this guy. It's natural since Tracy is on our team that you want him to prove you wrong or change but he will never change. He's the same guy who quit in Orlando, he's the same guy who never wanted to play two ways so either offense or defense, he's the same guy who never plays defense except for a few times a year which you can count on 1 hand, he's the same guy who openly (!) blamed Landry for the 2008 game 4 @ Jazz rebounding mistake, the same guy who blamed Rick Adelman for a few things and now the same guy who wants more minutes though he hasn't proven anything and the same guy who wants other guys to defend for him. Whenever he's on the court it's 4 on 5, can you blame RA for not playing him more minutes ?? He's even worse than Wafer who at least tried or seemed to be trying. They're the same tape of player, though Tracy has more natural God given talent, the same it's all about me attitude. I sincerely hope everybody will get this through their thick skull and we will be released of this pester ASAP.
I don't like McGrady slacking either, especially his piss poor effort on the offensive glass these past few years - which you'd think would result in great transition defense... but do you really want a guy 1 year out, 3 games in, coming off career threatening surgery to stop the lead on a break? Sounds like an easy foul on T-Mac or a quick and easy way to lose the numbers game on defense (McGrady would be blown by). You have to maximize whats out there. Sometimes knowing your limitations is better than misguided effort. It doesn't look good for Mac but look at the other option.
I didn't think his half-court D was as terrible as you make it sound. I saw all the tape and rewatched it a few times and was satisfied with his half-court D considering he is a bit out of sync. But I agree that there is no excuse on the transition D. He needs to learn to be more aggressive there and not make his teammates do the work.
Even so, there isn't much of a case for him not at least attempting to pick up the lead man. It's common basketball knowledge. I have to agree with DD here. Normally I'm willing to give players the benefit of the doubt, but it seems quite clear that McGrady has so far been unable to change the way he plays the game. Though to be fair, it's not totally his fault as he's probably so used to being the main man for the better part of his career.
Or maybe he is just getting on the same page with his teamates to make sure there are no mixups and people should stop looking at every single action as if he were some sort of saboteur to the team.
this is a legit criticism of tracy's defense. i think it's just due to bad habits (a lot of players do this if you watch it around the league and not just tracy). hopefully he'll fix this sometime soon. good post. thank god you didn't go carl herrera on us and post something stupid.
it's actually gotten to the point where i'd rather have tracy traded for the sole reason that DD and carl will stop b****ing.
It's not the first time he's done this however. Pocket Rockets Dictionary: Tracy Lovers - a bf who gives countless chances to their gf after repeated mistakes and hopes she will eventually change. Tracy Haters - fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me. Pocket Rockets = Tracy Hater
I agree. Transitional defense is a very important part of the game. If Tracy is not physically capable of playing that facet of the game, then adjustments need to be made in the way they play. If he is hurting our transition defense, its up to the team to decide wether the positives out weigh the negatives as far as increasing his minutes are concerned.
I mean the guy love Von Wafer but absolutely hate McGrady. There is not much different than the two really. I think McGrady is actually a more professional than Von which shows. Where is Von right now? oh..on his couch nursing his "back".
I must say that I didn't notice Lowery and McGradey communicating like that on the transition D. Did McGradey talk to other team mates about fastbreak D? Brookes or Landery or even Arizea? Lowery...
LOL.. you guys act like mcgrady's suppose to be perfect, like you forget he's human something, he's just getting back on the court this is like preseason for him everyone else has been playing together for months now.
One of the many automated responses from the Tracy McGrady apology hotline. I wish these operators would listen to the conversation at hand before reading from the script. I should start compiling these.
The main point of contention here and one that no TMac apologist has been able to honestly answer for is how can we trust or believe in a player that has quit and burned bridges with EVERY SINGLE TEAM he has ever played for? The hatred that some Rox fans feel for T-Mac is more than justified as this is not just a one time thing. T-Mac has never been a winner, no matter which team he played for. He has never been mentally tough, no matter which team he has played for. He has given up, burned bridges, criticized as lazy at times for every team he has played for. No one is denying his skills and abilities when healthy. The question is when was the last time he ever had a full season healthy? T-Mac apologists keep alternating between "Oh you can't expect much from him, he is coming back from what could have been a career ending injury!" to "Oh he's more agressive so he deserves more time!" You can't have it both ways. Either he is ready or he is not and when you fail to keep up a defensive effort with only 7-8 minutes of play, common sense says T-Mac is not ready. All this is moot really. T-Mac HIMSELF was in agreement with RA and FO to play 8 minutes for six games before evaluating his process. T-Mac is just being a little princess about it and whining because he became impatient.
I've noticed the same thing about Tmac's transition defense since he came back. On a particular fast break play against the Nuggets, I thought Tracy let Chauncey Billups go in for an easy layup... although Tracy ran down the court and was in a good position, he didn't do much to contest Billups layup. In my viewpoint, the same can be said of his help defense. The Rocket's defense practically relies on quick help defense and team defense to make up for our size. I've noticed that on defensive plays where Chuck Hayes, Kyle Lowry, Shane Battier (or pretty much every other Rocket player) would step in for a charge or help a teammate contest a shot, Tracy would most of time be late on the defensive rotation, or like the OP stated, he would pin responibility on another Rocket. Tracy's defensive mindset is just a result of him previously being under JVG's system, where Tracy was pretty much allowed to conserve energy on defense so that he can save it for offense, and Shane Battier would take on most defensive responsibilty at the wing position. Now, it seems Tracy hasn't changed his mindset for Adelman's system, which relies on help and team defense. I believe the same can be said for Tracy's offensive mindset. He seems to be stuck in JVG's offense, which relied on Tracy to control the ball and make plays for everyone else. This is a contrast to Adelman's offense, which relies on ball movement, player movement, and all players making plays for each other. Since Tracy's been playing, I've noticed he would provide poor offensive spacing and would slow down the offense such as cutting off penetration for his point guards.
