How good was Orlando T-Mac..?

People forget how good T-mac was. He was a talent that only comes once in a blue moon. People also forget that going into the 07-08 season the Lakers were willing to trade Kobe straight up for him, but the Rockets turned it down. (Hindsight is 20/20).

In all honesty you have to give tracy some credit with his years in Houston. In the playoffs he basically carried this team with very little help around him. Anyone remember game 6 against Utah when he put up 40 points in 08? Its just sad injuries derailed him.

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I doubt its in Adelman's style to enable him. If anything, Adelman destroyed him because he probably treated Tracy like everyone else on the team and his fragile ego could not withsand it.

 

Almost forgot...


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When he puts his mind into it, he was unstoppable offensively. Better than Kobe. Must be his eye, fools the defender. His eyes look down, but he's actually looking up eying a rebound.

...and I never liked him during his Toronto/Orlando years.

 

He was in the East back then and the East was inferior with an exception of a few teams. I remember Steve Francis and Cutino Mobley just walking over the eastern conference when they were with the Rockets.

I want it to be clear for people:

We got that Orlando T-mac, he didn't magically 'get worse' with the Rockets. He played with a better team and better coach in a better conference.

Remember how he left Orlando? One of the worst teams in the league.
Remember how LeBron left Cleveland? the team with the best record in the league.

 

My bad... (Just mute the horrible song in the video lol)


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So? That's obviously not the point he was making. He was speculating about how good McGrady could have been.

I think he could have been one of the best ever. He would have had to win a few championships to be considered Top Five, so it depends on what his situation was.

Let's say after a disastrous '03-'04, T-Mac develops the sort of focus and killer instinct that you see in Kobe. If he had remained healthy, could a motivated T-Mac have won a few titles with Dwight Howard? I think so.

We'll never know, unfortunately.

It was still a GREAT trade.

 

oh yes he was stoppable.

Game 7 in the playoffs:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200305040DET.html

7 out of 24?

unstoppable?

yes. this is Orlando T-mac, the scoring machine.

 

Agreed.

T-mac was never a walking 24 second violation like Francis.

Basketball IQ T-mac > Steve

 

Tinman, who do you like in the NBA today?

 

If you check his splits, he played great against Western Conference teams back then too. His teammates in Orlando were not good. The Magic invested a lot of money in Grant Hill, and he basically never played.

Were the Rockets not a better team after trading for T-Mac?

EDIT: Was writing this before your last post. Still, I don't think changing conferences is what caused McGrady's decline.

 

He was always "good", even showed flashes of greatness... It was never enough though.

 

I've always looked at it this way. He suffered from bipolar multiple personalities.

• T-Mac was an unstoppable force who was possibly the most naturally talented player in the history of the NBA.
• Tracy McGrady was a liability to any team he was on because he would give up, got hurt easily, wouldn't fight for things but demanded the ball.

Unfortunately, Tracy McGrady beat out T-Mac for control of that man's body & mind.

 

He was my hero!