After 10 games T-mac has played, his FG% just reachs his career low. He is shooting 40.8% from the field so far this season, which is the lowest since he entered the league. 97-98 TOR .450 98-99 TOR .436 99-00 TOR .451 00-01 ORL .457 01-02 ORL .451 02-03 ORL .457 03-04 ORL .417 04-05 HOU .408 Why could this happen? He now has better teammates like Yao, Taylor, JJ, all better than his last 3 season's Magic crew. May someone explain?
The same reason Steve's game suffered last season and the same reason players like Ewing, Sprewell, A. Houston, GrandMama didn't/couldn't average over 20 points a game when our current coach was theirs.
Jump shooting is one reason. The other being that, with Houston essentially a 2 man team, he has to force shots.
I agree, he settles for way too many jumpshots. I think he can pretty much take anyone off the dribble. I wish he would attack the basket a lot more. In my opinion, only good things can happen, he makes the shot or get fouled and shoots free throws.
What are we, 12 games into the season?. give T-Mac a little more time to get used to the system. I think he need time to increase his shooting %.
Last season at Orlando it was a one man team, and it did not stop TMac from shooting at a higher percentage.
Honestly, TMac's shooting is only off 5% from his career high and is off by less than 1% from last year. One more shot out of 20 (about the number of shots he takes per game) would have won another game or two so far, but his percentages will come around. I attribute most of it to unfamiliarity with the system and his teammates as well as their unfamiliarity with him. Once he starts to see the way his teammates will react to him, he will get easier shots and more assists. I suspect his FG% will be 44-45% by the end of the year.
1) .417 was last season. And if you think that's much "better" than .408. Well, that's a problem. 2) You said, last "SEASON." Has the *season* finished? If it has, let me know. Averages with as little games we've played can affect the percentage greatly. It's what McGrady improves to that matters.... Lets say, 25-30 or so games into the season. .40 percent is average. He needs to bump that up to .450.
No kidding! His shot started off slowly this season but has picked up in the last few games. This is the only reason it is lower. He is still shooting over 40% and isn't that off from his career numbers.
In related news, Francis's scoring average is up 4 points and his shooting percentage up 2%. Van Gundy's offensive system discourages guard penetration in favor of post-up play.
He's only played 8 games. Give it time. His shooting percentages will rise. I do remember looking at Mcgrady stats last year before the trade and the one thing that caught my eye was that he struggled shooting the ball against western conference teams last year. Remember Mobley did as well. Now If thats going to hold up for the rest of the season this year, I don't know. I do expect Mcgrady's fg percentage to rise, alot of his misses are rim dippers and net grabbers. But on the nights he gets doubled and tripled everytime he touches the ball, if he hovers around 40% fg percentage yet still dishes out 10 plus assists without turning the ball over more than a few times, like last night, hey you won't find me complaining.
Maybe his groin/hip/back problems have hindered his attacks at the rim. Seems like everyone's been dinged up a bit. Get well Rox!
Actually, forcing shots no matter what team you play for is bad. Because if you are a one-man team, you will get doubled. Its that players job to find the open man. That will not harm the "stars" %, but it will harm his winning because maybe the guy that he passes to will not make the shot. But individual stats will not be hurt if he passes well. Thus, so far, McGrady's passes have been very good. And it's helping the team win. It's his jump shot selection that needs to be improved. That is a separate issue. Take a look at what he's doing for the whole team: He's creating, making others better, rebounding, playing defense, blocking shots, keeping his TO down...you name it. It's true. He needs to improve his FG%. But he's NOT JUST a scorer on this team anymore.
TMac is "warming" up. His % will rise. One of these games he is going to drop 60 on somebody. You'll see.
I attribute it more to the offensive strategy. We get no easy buckets. Basically I see us feed the post and if there's no shot inside, the post player feeds others for jumpers. Nobody cutting so again...no easy buckets.
No cutting? What game are you watching. Yes, we depend on the outside shot. It's the nature of the inside-outside game. But, McGrady is being used a SG/PG. Cutting usually happens with *other* player with McGrady feeding them the basketball. Ward and Lue must feed the ball to McGrady for that to happen. They are not that good at that. McGrady one-on-one is also a weapon. He has drove to the basket a lot and has been successful. 4-5 years ago, cutting wasn't our thing. It was iso-clearout jumpshots. Cutting is used more so now, than then. By the way, I think it's much easier to score inside against teams than ever. MoT, Yao, Deke, Howard and even McGrady all pitch in.
