[Justice]Maybe McGrady, Artest should sit down, talk things out

That is just pure, biased, hate.
And not a lick of it is true...

Ron has shown flashes of brilliance(Warriors, Celtics), and he has played
very good defense when healthy. Ron brings EFFORT and HUSTLE
every night, and he has averaged 5 dimes a game over his last 5...
Unlike some player on our squad, his passion never waivers...Ron is
not the problem....

Ron has also been getting better, and it takes an
idiot to not see the effort he is putting forth to make
this work...

 

no he cannot outright lie, but he can stretch the truth and make something out of nothing. just read david aldridge's article about yao and tmac. that's borderline fictitious.

 

When the team is losing, people get mad, they say **** out of frustration. I think there is a difference between THAT and legit "I don't wanna play on the same team with this guy" lockerroom issues. And the difference is, when we start winning, the frustration goes away and Tmac and Artest hypothetically could play together fine. If it was the other kind, which is what you seem to be implying it is, then we could start winning and they still have a problem because it isn't rooted in frustration from us losing a couple of games in a row.

Perfect example of this was last season when we started off 17-17, there were times when it was obvious the team had a problem with Rick Adelman. But when we were winning 22 games in a row... it was obvious that they didn't. Why? Because we were winning.

The Chronicle wants to make it sound like its a deeper issue because it sells papers. We're taking the smallest ammount of evidence and assuming the worst.

 

unfortunately, he has little potential of getting better, unlike tracy and ron.

 

looking at the whole team, including coaches and management, who else has damnit brave to call tmac out?

tmac has ability to play good D but he chosed not to play. i've been watching him since he joined us. he played bad D most time. in the past, his offense covered up his D liablity. no body complained at all. nowadays, his offense went to south. ppl started to pick his D too. after ron singled him out on D, he played very good D for a qt or two in the last game. then he didn't do much on D in 2nd half.

rox needs a person who can kick tmac azz all the time to make him play D. yao and ra are nice ppl. it's hard to ask them to do this job. i don't know who else besides ron can take this job.

 

who is to say certain players don't still have a problem with adelman? who is to say that a team can't win in the regular season just because it has more talent? who is to say that during the streak everyone became a believer?

you are doing a lot of assuming.

the order of operations is not to win in order to create chemistry and team play over the long haul, but the reverse. consistent winning (especially in crunch time, in the 4th quarter, when the stakes are highest) comes from chemistry and team play. note that this years rockets team has been terrible in close and late situations. because they try to win on talent alone, not as a team.

 

Trade Artest... hahahaha

Who wants to trade for Artest? He creates drama wherever he goes... is this our problem? Probably.

 

His value is as an expiring contract ala Kwame Brown last year.

DD

 

I am. But so are you. And I would rather assume someone is innocent until proven guilty rather than the other way around.

This argument is really pointless actually. I'm going to claim the chemistry came from winning 22 games in a row, you are going to claim they got the chemistry and THEN won 22 games.

The point I'm trying to make is lets not assume that the Rockets chemistry is shot for the season solely based a few articles. And the funny thing is, all the articles are on something different (Adelman pissed at Tmac, Yao pissed at Tmac, Tmac and Ron pissed at each other). Yet what always happens is the article gets published and you NEVER hear about those two guys being in conflict. And that seems to prove my theory that its frustration and not hate. Have you ever gotten pissed at your friend for doing something? You aren't pissed at him for the rest of your lives. You forgive and make up.

And the funny thing is, for all the evidence of lockerroom blowouts that there are. You can look to the court and see Tmac, Yao and Artest communicating, smiling after a good play/shot. Yet the media for some reason never brings this to attention.

I'm telling you... this "feud" between Tmac and Ron is being exaggerated.

 

like they say. you can lead a horse to water but you cant make it drink.

I am not assuming anything

 

That's bogus, Morey knew what he was getting when he signed Artest. A dude who would freely speak his mind regardless of guys stature. I hate the rule that you can't speak on players lack of hustle. Stop catering to Tmac and watch his play improve, he plays better when called out anyway.

 

So what, he plays well in 2 games when the team has played 50? COME ON.

I am nto hating on Ron, I like him as a player, but with him we are not gonna be as good as we tought he would be.

Ron is the problem

1) He never looks to pass the ball (Memphis for example)
2) He is not that good defensivly. He is gambling, he is too close to the player he guards and as a result, that player EASILY blows right by him - but ok, this may be due tothat ankle
3)He only looks good when his shots are going in. Look at GSW game, did you see how HORRIBLE shots he took in that game? But damn, he player wonderful game because they went it.

His only great game this year was against Utah. Sure, he was phenomenal, because he CARRIED THE TEAM.

 

I thought you said Ron was perfect coming off the bench not too long ago

 

You must have me confused, I have been against Ron on this team since before the trade.

DD

 

Artest has 6 or more assists in 3 of the last 4 games. You just conveniently picked the one game where he couldn't get loose and really sucked to make your point.

Also, Artest has always had a bit of a gambling attitude on defense. It's not surprising as he is one of the best steal guys in the NBA. You aren't going to change what has worked for him for the last decade and I imagine his ankle is holding him back a bit on defense.

 

We brought Ron in so we won't collapse against the Jazz etc in the playoffs.

Keep Ron.

 

If you can only keep one guy I think you keep Ron. McGrady has had his chances with the Rockets and he didn't get it done. Is it all his fault? Of course not but when the recipe doesn't taste right it's time to change some ingredients. McGrady will bring the most in a trade and his departure would arguably be the best thing for the team's chemistry, consistency and intensity. Role players are supposed to be inspired and pushed by the franchise player. We all see that it is just the opposite here. The other players have to call McGrady out publicly to get him to give it his all for a few games. No wonder McGrady teams can't get out of the first round.

Ron has more than his share of flaws. He definitely hogs the ball at times and has atrocious shot selection too often but the effort is there. Like Yao you never have to question Ron's will to win. That doesn't make up for his mistakes but it certainly makes it easier to forgive him when he screws up or misses an easy shot. More than that, Ron's toughness is going to be needed in the playoffs. That's why the guy was brought here, not for the regular season but for the playoffs.

With that said, trade Ron, Tracy, Rick Adelman, Les Alexander or anyone else if it brings in a top quality or even second tier PG.

 

I can't speak for you personally, but a LOT of people in this thread are taking these two articles to mean that there is animosity in the lockerroom between Tmac and Artest.

Now... there is evidence that suggests that may be the case, but I have taken that same evidence and come up with another perfectly legit theory (that all this calling out is a result of frustration from losing).

The thing is... I don't know why people WANT to believe that there IS animosity between the two of them. When thats the only explanation, sure. No point in being in denial about something that is wrong with the team. But you can explain all of this stuff away with simple theories that make sense.

And historically, I would actually say my theory makes more sense... because you couldn't count the number of times articles like this come out. A player gets called out in the media... months later you never hear about it and the team is playing perfectly fine.

 

Doc Rocket's posts about how Battier hates McGrady's guts, the Aldridge article about friction between Yao and McGrady, Alston calling out Artest and McGrady, etc. etc.

There's an awful lot of smoke there and it's been puffing around for months now.

 

What about the dallas game (in dallas), were he basically carried us to victory, while mcgrady was on the bench. And you are crazy if you think that Mcgrady's defense is anywhere as good as Ron's defense.