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[Yahoo] For McGrady, hope and health go hand in hand

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by J-Wolf, Nov 14, 2008.

  1. J-Wolf

    J-Wolf Member

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    For McGrady, hope and health go hand in hand
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    By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports 54 minutes ago

    Tracy McGrady stretches his legs and looks out onto the practice court. He sees what you see. Opportunity. Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets’ giant franchise center, finishes his free throws at one basket. Ron Artest, the 262-pound bruiser, shoots at another. The Rockets’ other first-rate defender, Shane Battier, lounges in a chair, fresh off another rehab assignment.

    McGrady sees Luis Scola, a skilled forward, gift-wrapped and delivered from one of Houston’s biggest rivals. Rafer Alston, the Rockets’ capable point guard, is yapping away about something. Carl Landry and Aaron Brooks, both of the young legs and limitless energy, scrimmage on the opposite court.

    Never in McGrady’s 12 NBA seasons has he had it this good. A complete roster, a seemingly perfect blend of talent and potential, experience and youth, for him to direct.

    “The sky is the limit for us,” McGrady says, and clearly he sees his own first-round ceiling finally, mercifully, lifting. He smiles and rubs his left knee. He knows what you’re thinking.

    “If,” he says. “If, if, if, if, if, if, if, if…”

    With McGrady and these Rockets, it’s always best to add the qualifier. If McGrady’s knee improves. If his back doesn’t give out. If Yao doesn’t suffer another serious foot or leg injury. If Battier’s left foot heals. If Artest doesn’t lose his mind.

    The Rockets have been skillfully constructed by their sharp, number-crunching GM, Daryl Morey. They’re loaded and deep and everything you’d want your team to be. But always, it seems, they’re just one snap, sprain or strain away from calamity.

    McGrady won’t deny this. He missed 16 games last season then underwent surgery on both his left shoulder and left knee in the summer. The shoulder, he says, is arthritic and will need additional work. His knee still aches. He guesses it will be at least another month before he’s back at full strength. For now, he lacks his usual explosiveness and lift.

    “I’m still on ground patrol,” he jokes. “My jumper is flat. Everything is so flat. Mentally, I’m just not there. I’m not confident at all.”

    He says he has his good days and bad days, and who doesn’t? The good came Wednesday when he dropped 27 points on the Phoenix Suns. The bad? Last weekend he went nearly two games in Los Angeles without making a shot, finishing 1 for 16. Afterward, he said he had been under the weather, his energy sapped by the flu.

    McGrady’s excuses are legit, but they’re excuses just the same. Even amongst the Rockets, they think he’d help himself by not discussing his injuries and ailments so openly. During a game against the Los Angeles Lakers last season, he failed to make a shot for the first two quarters. At halftime, he told an ABC reporter he felt tired. What NBA star admits to being tired after one half?

    This is the Rockets’ curse. For all of their hope and potential, they remain supported by two fragile cornerstones. Yao has missed at least 25 games in each of the previous three seasons and is still working his way back from surgery to repair a stress fracture in his left foot. Many of McGrady’s problems are somehow connected, directly or not, to his troublesome back, which has led him to seek a dizzying variety of treatment options over the years.

    “He’s had so many different people tell him so many different things that it’s enough to make anyone’s head spin,” said one person close to him.

    Trading for Artest should lessen T-Mac’s heavy lifting. That’s what the Rockets hope, at least. Artest is a punishing defender, but he’s also adept at the other end of the floor, evidenced by the 23 points he scored against the Los Angeles Clippers last week when McGrady was unable to make a shot.

    The Rockets consider Artest a low-risk, high-reward gamble. He’s in the last year of his contract, which should give him ample reason to behave, and the Rockets already looked like a contender without him last season until Yao and McGrady went down. He also enjoyed some success, a half-season’s worth anyway, playing under Houston coach Rick Adelman in Sacramento.


    Even after Adelman left, most of the Kings didn’t consider him a bad teammate as much as an erratic one. From night to night, no one knew what to expect: Devoted and Encouraging Ron, or Moody and Combative Ron. Perhaps it says something that when the Rockets and Phoenix Suns started pushing each on Wednesday that Artest wasn’t in the middle of the tussle.

    “When we had Ron in Sacramento there was so much around him,” Adelman said. “…He just had something going on around him all the time. I don’t even know how he was able to relax.

    “I see a guy today that’s a lot different than even when we had him in Sacramento. He’s much more relaxed. He’s calmer. He’s trying to fit in with this team.”

    That’s been difficult with McGrady missing much of the preseason. The Rockets are still feeling each other out, and they’ll have to adjust some more once Battier returns. For now, they have yet to find much of a flow offensively, unable or unwilling to share the ball as much as Adelman hopes.

    “I think we just step into the arena and think we’re going to win just because of our talent sometimes,” Artest said.


    McGrady knows as well as anyone that won’t work. His combination of length, athleticism, range and vision rates among the best ever. Among wing passers, perhaps only LeBron James grades as high. He’s smart and unselfish. The game comes easy to him, and that also works against him.

    “He knows all the shortcuts,” said one scout.

    Former Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy tried to make McGrady more of an effort-based player, but that wasn’t his makeup. Sleepy-eyed and playful, T-Mac dazzles his teammates more than he inspires them. Yet for all that talent, he has never advanced past the first round of the playoffs. His legacy, so far, is as the King of One and Done.

    “I’m bitter about it, not being able to have the success and play in the big moments, on the big stage,” he said. “But you know, what can I do? This is probably the best team I’ve been on. …I’ve just been in some not-so-good situations come playoff time.

    “I just think the teams we’ve faced have been a lot more talented and a lot more deeper than our teams. That’s just the hand I’ve been dealt with.”

    There’s an old NBA cliché that the truly great players can at least lift their teams out of the first round. But there’s a bit of flawed logic in that. Did Kevin Garnett transform himself into a great player once he joined the Boston Celtics? Would Tim Duncan want his greatness measured on whether he can carry the collection of journeymen and D-Leaguers currently surrounding him into the Western Conference semifinals?

    In truth, McGrady’s performance in the playoffs has often run from good to great. He’s averaged 28.5 points in the postseason for his career and of his seven trips to the playoffs only during the last two did he have home-court advantage. More than a few times he didn’t have the better team.

    “You can’t do it by yourself anymore in this league,” Artest said. “Those days are over.”

    Still, there’s another old NBA saying: Own your record. McGrady’s playoff failures will continue to cling to him until he can reverse them. This season, this team, affords him his best chance to do just that.

    The Lakers have already exposed the Rockets, but the season is still young. The schedule will eventually soften. Battier will return. And despite their early struggles, the Rockets are still looking down on the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs.

    “I think we’ll be fine,” McGrady says.

    He smiles. He knows what you’re thinking. He’s got it good right now, but with him, with these Rockets, you’re never quite sure how long it will last.
     
  2. Jeff Who

    Jeff Who Member

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    I love that 'one day i feel good, the other i feel bad'. So one game he has his jumper working, hitting 4 prettu much tough 3s without any problems and the other one he can't buy a basket. If he can score 27 (and play great) one night, so than he can do the same.
     
  3. TheGM

    TheGM Contributing Member

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    He got a painkiller shot the day of the Suns game from that Phoenix doctor he mentioned; I'm not sure if he will do the same tonight.
     
  4. DPballer

    DPballer Member

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    Great article.
    This was my favorite part.
    Exposed us as what, that a team in the middle of a tough road trip without Battier and with T-Mac/Yao not close to 100% can't beat a healthy Lakers team playing with the luxury of three days off?
     
  5. verse

    verse Contributing Member

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    our frontcourt length. our frontcourt athleticism.
     
  6. Bassem

    Bassem Member

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    I don't like this article.
     

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