People screaming T-mac didn't do anything with the Rockets tend to overlook circumstances. In case you forgot, Harden didn't get out of the first round without Howard and got a lot of criticism for his performance in the 2014 performance. Even last year in the most critical game 6 it was not Harden who carried us. Guess what, role players stepped up. Can you tell me even one player in the 05, 07 or 08 play-offs who stepped up besides T-mac and Yao?
T-Mac is hated around these parts but he was a ridiculous basketball player in Orlando. I would say he was better than prime Kobe. The shooting, the passing, the finishing ability - he was on a much higher level than James Harden. Having watched them both play, I have to say it isn't even close to be honest. The fact that his teams didn't do well in the playoffs doesn't tell the whole story. He was damaged goods by the time he arrived to Houston. In Orlando, his teams sucked because Grant Hill got injured.
the dude carried the rockets through the playoffs with no second fiddle and a rapidly deteriorating knee that he had to get drained constantly. Like I get Tmac made some bad decisions but the guy doesn't deserve some of the vitriol he gets, all bunch of cry babies
The problem with this discussion is that we are assuming that both Yao and T-Mac are healthy. That phrase 'if healthy' seemed to be the one most recurring theme about their time together. Every offseason, we as fans would get our hopes up. "The Rockets next year are going to be so good if Yao and T-Mac are healthy!" Just about every year, we would read analysts say that the Rockets could be serious contenders "if they could stay healthy" I always loved Yao. I loved his heart, his work effort, his talent, his free throw shooting, his unstoppable turn around shots and his just overall goofiness on the court. I loved T-Mac during his early time as a Rocket, but then that love started to go the longer he was here. But still, the phrase "if healthy" became a reoccurring and very frustrating part about their careers. After several years, I wasn't surprised any more when they would get hurt and miss time. On the other hand, Dwight Howard and James Harden haven't had that problem. Dwight has dealt with injuries and some inconsistencies but he has been healthy and beasting in the playoffs when it matters. James Harden has been a tank and hasn't missed time even when he had an injury that he was dealing with. The two of them together have already taken our team farther (WCF) than we ever did with Yao and T-Mac. James Harden is younger and should be getting better, improving on what was legitimately an MVP caliber season. I know this isn't really part of the debate, but with the addition of Lawson, healthy D-Mo and Beverley and an improved supporting cast, there's no reason to think that the best isn't to come with our current dynamic duo.
"if healthy" is the key word, but the supporting cast has a lot to do with that. For example, Durant, WB and Ibaka are young and healthy until Harden trade takes away the support cast. If Yao&Tmac has the current supporting cast, they'd likely to be healthy and win much more.
Yao and Tmac with a decent supporting cast would have won a ring. Major pieces of playoff runs: Flying Ryan Bowen, Mike James, Jon Barry, David Wesley, Bob Sura, Luther Head, Von Wafer, Juwan Howard, Stromile Swift, Kirk Snyder, 6'6" Chuck Hayes at Center. Enough said.
The real answer is you cannot compare because of all the injuries and the vast difference in supporting casts and role players. But on talent alone and based on peak play, TMac was probably the best out of the 4. His peak year in Orlando was even better than any single Kobe year. So injuries aside and assuming similar support casts, I'd take Rockets TMac and Yao over current Harden and Dwight. Main reason being current Dwight is not even close to what he was in his Orlando days.
Apart from Harden who only faced guys like Curry, LMA, Griffin, hobbling CP3 instead of Shaq, prime Kobe, prime Wade, primer Lebron....younger Duncan every other good player, star was damaged goods From Barkley, Tmac, older Scola, deteriorating Kevin Martin, older Metta WP
You can't look at Orlando T-Mac without looking at Orlando Dwight. Both of them had the heights of their careers with the Magic. Even if you look at Orlando Dwight, from my memory the Rockets used to always dominate them during those years. The NBA is all about matchups, and we matched up really well against them. Their entire offense was having four 3-point shooting players on the court with Dwight at the same time. They would pass the ball to Dwight, where he would be bigger and stronger and able to dunk on whoever was guarding him. When they double teamed, he could pass it out to an open 3 point shooter. Against the Rockets, he wasn't able to dunk on Yao. He wasn't stronger than Yao. He definitely wasn't bigger than Yao. We didn't have to double him and could stay at home against their shooters. Was Rockets Yao better than Orlando Dwight? I don't know, it's hard to say. Yao was a terrible matchup for Dwight. But if you want to look at talent alone, don't discount Orlando Dwight who almost won an MVP, won three straight DPOY and was universally considered one of the top 3 players in the NBA.
Tmac has other things i would say is better than harden. He probably has better taste in music And his wife did not sleep with lamar odom. Tmac has more dedicated fans , probably more than jeremy lin.
it saddens me greatly to know what we only got the slightest taste of yao's true prime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKXDlWnBWIg
First, I can not vote because Yao and Tmac were never health. In one playoff run, bad Luther Head was a starting SG on the team, with a 1/12 shooting in the game seven, only six players played that game, only Yao and Tmac can score, otherwise, the rockets would win. In another run, Tmac was injured, and Yao was unstoppable during that time, and got injured again in the Lakers' series. I had to go for Harden and Howard if I have to vote.
To all those who thinks this is not close, voting suggests otherwise. We cannot all be blinded by fandom or favouritism towards one duo or the other now can it?
