I'm generally not a fan of compromises, but in this case I think one is in order. Yes, T-Mac's TS% was generally on the lower end compared to most other stars. This include regular and post-season. And yes, T-Mac's favorite shot was that god awful 20 footer that he was very much not great at. T-Mac is certainly one of the least efficient volume shooting stars in the NBA of the past decade. Even Morey has said he tried to get T-Mac to attack the rim more. Something which T-Mac obviously ignored. However... Context should indeed come into play. I can't really say too much about the team makeup of the Magic(besides their talent not being good), but I can speak of T-Mac during the Rockets era. That Rockets team was just bad offensively. JVG was not an imaginative offensive coach. The team makeup was not ideal in terms of spacing. And T-Mac never had easy baskets. For one, the Rockets NEVER ran the ball. You can probably see 1~2 James Harden fast breaks every game last year. Can you even recall a T-Mac breakaway dunk during his time here? Also, the Rockets had a ton of busted plays during that era, because posting up Yao was so difficult and time-consuming. Whereas more efficient offenses would've shot in a more timely fashion, the Rockets ended a lot of possessions where T-Mac had to throw one up there. If T-Mac and Yao didn't break down, it would've truly been interesting to see what they could've done with a much more athletic team. Lowry, Brooks, Landry, Scola and more playoff success might have truly changed T-Mac's legacy. Side note for tinman: The above does not change my opinion that T-Mac did quit on the team and is considered a quitter in my mind.
Remember Tmac fans love JVG, but you pointed out that the offense was predictable and slow. So they got Rick Adelman and Tmac fans hated him because he was showing Tmac that he rules the Rockets. Rick preached team basketball on offense and it worked when Tmac was out because the system wasn't built on 2 players. Your post is great, but the problem is most people here care more about Tmac's legacy than the Rockets legacy. Obviously Rockets legacy would be absolutely fine without him.
