[Tracy McGrady] I could've won championships, I just never had the pieces around me.

I could've won a championship if I was on a championship team, too!

 

if he played with a prime Grant Hill and Tim Duncan I’d say he’d definitely have gotten out of the first round, at least

 

It’s for sure that Morey’s best teams weren’t in the TMac Era. And for sure Yao and TMac’s injuries prevented what could have been a champion winning combination.

bit it’s also true that TMac gave up on his team!!!!

and that’s why he’ll never be a favored Rocket.

 

Those teams from the pre-morey era were awful, everyone knows about only 4 players scoring in an eliminaiton game vs Dallas.

But T-Mac never stayed healthy (maybe didn't take his weight training seriously enough) to take advantage of those really good rosters by 2009.

 

Tracy McGrady James Harden

Could've Should've Would've​

...

 

The 2009 team that he flaked out on had the talent to win it all, but otherwise agree

 

He act like this team wasn't pretty damn good lol

https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2009.html

Too bad he got hurt and Yao couldn't play game 7 against the Lakers.
Really could of been our year! After the Lakers it would had been the nuggets (which we swept in a season series) then the magics (which we swept them in a season series that year too).

 

this fool couldn’t even make it out of the 1st round…

just stop it T-Mac

02-03 McGrady maybe, but u fell off a cliff and never came close to that level again

 

He was also up 3 - 1 against the piston and choke it away lol

 

Pieces?

Like a knee, back, shoulder, ankle? Heart? Like pieces of one's body?

 

dont forget yao ming

 

Who knows if he could have or not

What I know for a fact was those teams were complete garbage outside of tmac and Yao and that’s an absolute fact, it took me a while to recognize that

Also he eventually succumbed to arthritis he never gave up on anything, I know it’s easy to say oh he quit but that makes no sense

Now if we had a talented team surrounding him and Yao like we did 2009 we no doubt would have gone deep but not sure you can say he would have def won a championship

 

Best rocket team to not win title

 

Also remember McGrady admitted that he didn't take weight training as seriously as he could have. Man was a year younger than Kobe yet his career was over by age 32, while Kobe was still a top 10 player at age 34 before his achilles exploded.

Never improved or refined his bio-mechanics either, still pounded his heels when running when just about any long-distance runner out there would beg you to run on your balls/toes.

Say what you want about Harden, but his drive to improve and refine his game was undeniable. He improved every single year during his 20s, became the GOAT Combo Guard, and revolutionized the game by both killing the mid-range and reviving it by taking it behind the 3 point line. By the time Harden turned 30, he was carrying a team in a way nobody seen since Jordan and Kobe in scoring 34 a game.

Albiet this came from 2000, just compare him to his second cousin, Vince Carter, who played into his 40s.



I have no clue how much longer McGrady could have extended his prime, or whether getting jacked would have made his bones strong but his joints weak, but even without the injuries, he relied on his quickness and leaping ability to score over dudes, which would have deminished by his late 20s regardless.


None of this is taking away his amazing work in Orlando, he was arguably the best player in the world in 2002-03 alongside Tim Duncan.
None of this is implying that he "cost us a title" by declining hard from age 28 onward, chances are that Yao still goes down sometime in 2009, and the Rockets fail to win even with 04-05 level TMac on the roster.

But this isn't a Harden situation where everyone knows he was one terrible injury away from being a champion, T-Mac was washed by 29, and put up far worse numbers at 28 than Harden right now at 32.

 

I think that first season with cp3 was lol

 

The guys who got the most PT with him in Orlando were Pat Garritty, Darrell Armstrong, Gordon Giricek and Jacque Vaughn. Then they filled out the rest of the rotation with guys like Don Reid and Andrew DeClercq. He's right. If he played with a Duncan or a KG he would have rings.

 

T-Mac needs more help!!!

 

He has a point. Yao stayed hurt and they never had a legit #3 option. He should have stayed in Toronto with Vince.