Kenny Smith and Barkley say Rockets are not better without TMac

I don't Kenny and Charles watch enough Rockets games to understand how good they are without Tracy and Skip. They only got a small sample size last night, and then blurted out their usual hater trash talk about the Rockets. When do they ever say anything positive about the Rockets?

 

The OP is misrepresenting what Kenny and Charles said.

Charles said that:

1) The team isn't better without McGrady AND Alston.
2) That the team had to run the offense through Yao, and that McGrady was more of a role player.

Kenny said that:

1) T-Mac COULD help elevate the team in the playoffs to a championship contender. That doesn't mean that he definitely would have.
2) That T-Mac had to run the offense through Yao instead of trying to run the offense through himself.

 

People in the media have not fully grasped what has happened to TMac: he's suffered an injury which has severely reduced his abilities and he's no longer a star in the league. It is questionable whether he will ever return to his old form. When they are talking about the Rockets miss TMac's 25 ppg they obviously has not seen Tracy play this season.

 

You're fooling youself if you think this team is better with even a healthly Tmac. Tmac is a player in the Iverson mold. He is a 1 on 5 player who needs 4 defensive players around him. An easy comparison this season is Elton Brand and Iverson. Both average moree points than the people they replaced. Yet, their teams lose more with them in the lineup.

The fact is when Tmac is on the floor, he takes shots away from everyone else and he does NOT play within the flow of the offence. This naturally makes everyone else WORSE. When you shoot 35%, don't play defence, don't follow the offensive scheme, and you're taking shots away from everyone else who shoots a better percentage than you, then obviously the team is better off without you.

 

They are both right, without Tmac Rockets is not a better team.

The question remains as which Tmac are they referring to? This season's Tmac or in previous seasons Tmac?

We didn't have a Full Tmac, I would argue that we probably got a 65% Tmac just walking up and down the court throwing out passes. We don't need this Tmac.

Alston Lowry trade, I still think it is an adjustment we made in the last sec when option of trading Tmac away got squeeshed.

Lowry is not a better floor playmaker or a better offensive (which alston isn't one anyway). We are looking to see if AB could problem equal value as Alston for the playmaking and that Lowry could surpass Alston in defense. At the same time saving money in a long term.

 

why don't we just get marbury? he can create his own shot too. what logic does kenny and charles have? if creating one's own shot was all it required then we can probably find a few guys that can fit the bill. it doesn't matter if he is a chemistry killer, doesn't play defense, nevers takes it to the rim. all he gotta do is create a high percentage shot on his own fall away jumper with someone on his face from 25 feet. infact, lets just keep him on the bench just in case we get in a situation like that.....let see how often he gets to be on the floor

 

that's his whole problem....everything about him is Individual. god forbid him shining means everyone else take a back seat. role players will just watch cause most of the time, they don't know what tracy is gonna do.....is he take the pick, is he going left, is he going right? even tracy doesn't know because he is just playing one-on-one on the fly.........

 

When was the last time any of us saw Tmac create his own shot and make it with the shot clock winding down. LOL. 04-05 vs the Mavs maybe.

I like Kenny, but seems like Charles's buffonery is rubbing off.

 

Meh, it is just former players standing up for players they know or like.

Especially Rafer...

Neither one knows any more than anyone on here.

And in this instance they are DEAD WRONG.

DD

 

Kenny and Charles are like two old ladies commenting on life as it passes them by. If you are quick with the remote, you don't have to listen to them.

 

People, people, people. OF COURSE we are better without a T-Mac that's hurt, lacking confidence in his OWN game! However, this team would easily be the BEST in the league if we had a HEALTHY T-Mac. Healthy is key. Some say "Oh, T-Mac is a ballstopper, blah blah blah." We don't live in a world where someone is once a ballstopper, always a ballstopper. It's all about buying into the system Adelman has. That's how we will be successful with or without T-Mac. By buying into Adelman's system. With a healthy T-Mac that buys into Adelman's system, no one will stop us. Look at the Lakers. They have a system. It's the triangle. Everyone buys into it, therefore they only have 10 losses out of 57 games. There's no need to debate over the subject of this thread, for it is crystal clear.

 

Everybody gets injuries, but at a certain point, injured players become huge liabilities. Even more so with superstars because they can't physically play like they do when healthy but they try to anyway and the result is often failure. TMAC never came to terms with the limitations caused by the injury and still tried to be "the man" and still took more shots than anyone when he was on the court. He never adjusted for the injury.

Saying we'd be better off with an injured McGrady is like saying we would have been better off last year if Yao had tried to play the rest of the season with a broken foot.

 

Are we better with TMac this season? No.
Are we better with a completely healthy TMac? Yes, we become one of the top 4 teams in basketball.
Is TMac ever completely healthy? Mostly not.

At this point, the idea of TMac is better than actually having TMac because he is not going to be that player probably ever again.

 

First, they always pimp offense too much. Half the game is defense. They're looking at the Rockets and saying, "where is the offense going to come from now", when the more appropriate question really is, "why had their defense been so bad and why has it gotten better"

when ernie finally tried to get them to talk about defense, they both were adamant that a good defense player couldn't stop a good offensive player. that the offensive greats don't get taken out of their game by good defense. Then Lebron led his team to 74 points on 7-21 shooting with 0 assists and 1 rebound.

So, basically, Kenny and Charles didn't say anything last night that reflected reality.

 

After Yao's very first 20-point game in 2002, Charles said he would never score more than 20 ever again, then Yao had 21 by half time against the Lakers on perfect 7-7 shooting then Charles had to kiss a donkey's ass on national TV.

This is a goood omen guys.

 

This just proves the power of Rocket greats Charles and Kenny
cause no matter how hard GP and Webber try, they can't get the clutchfans to go bezerk on every word they say.

 

I think what they are trying to say when they say " We are not better without Tmac" because we are a championship team missing a closer. We all have seen (on this board and during games) down the stretch we do not have a player who can be effective creating his own shot. If you look at the most recent championship teams they all have someon who can create there own shot.

As much as we dislike T-mac behaviour he is that guy who can make us a legitamite championship contender

 

This is complete nonsense.

#1 How many times have we blown games in the fourth with TSlack in the game? He has not been a closer; he has been a loser.

#2 Most analysts only look at the "stars." They over-emphasize the stars. They also over-emphasize the past. TSlack has been horrible this year and should have been benched earlier. They only remember the scoring championships.

#3 The reason why TSlack (and many stars) appear to be closers is that they have been given lots of opportunities to shoot at the end of games. Heck, given as a bad a shooter as Airballston even chances and he'll hit some game winners.

 

Those guys said some smart things last night.