This coming from the latest Houston Chronicle article. That's 15 lbs up for those who can't do the math. T-mac has the Point
T-Mac has the point Rockets to let superstar lead attack against Grizzlies tonight By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle MEMPHIS, TENN. - Still experimenting with rotations and combinations, Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy thought he would give a new point guard a try tonight. Big guy, goes about 6-8, 225. Considered Magic Johnson his inspiration. Known to score a bit, too. Tracy McGrady, twice the NBA's scoring champion and five times an All-Star, might not have jitters tonight when he starts at the point against the Memphis Grizzlies. But Van Gundy, undecided about his rotation at point guard after Rafer Alston, will put the ball in McGrady's hands to see how things mix in his latest preseason chemistry experiment. "We have to find out when Rafer's not on the floor if we can play without a true point," Van Gundy said. "Do we want to, and can we function effectively if McGrady's our primary ball-handler? "We're trying to get our best players on the court." Van Gundy has no doubts about McGrady. He has called McGrady one of the best point guards in the NBA, no small praise considering McGrady has worked almost exclusively at small forward since being acquired by the Rockets. Even when the Rockets introduced him early last season with: "And at guard ... " McGrady ran plays at small forward, with Jim Jackson trying to turn himself back into a guard. But despite the addition to the Rockets' backcourt last season, McGrady increasingly initiated the offense. The triggerman Coincidentally, the Rockets got their first look at how skilled a playmaker McGrady can be in Memphis, when he had 30 points and nine assists in the third game of last season. By the playoffs, he was so much the triggerman of the Rockets' offense, that even while averaging 30.7 points per game against the Dallas Mavericks, he averaged 6.7 assists. McGrady was able to do that at forward, where he will play the bulk of his minutes. Tonight's experiment was inspired by other factors. Last season's starting point guard, Bob Sura is out, and there is depth at shooting guard with last season's trades for Jon Barry and David Wesley and this season's additions of Derek Anderson and Luther Head. With McGrady initiating so much of the offense anyway, particularly when Alston has been out, Van Gundy will put catch-and-shoot talents around McGrady tonight to see how well the Rockets' offense clicks. "Right now, behind Rafer, he'll probably be our second primary ball-handler," Van Gundy said of McGrady. "We'll just have to wait and see how it all works out. I don't know if it's something we can use steadily or not. We'll find out. "We're trying to figure out a rotation that will allow us to play our best. That's one thing we'd like to find out." The Rockets unsuccessfully tried McGrady at the point in the preseason last year but did not have the shooters or quick defenders to surround him that they have now. Tonight's experiment is risk-free. McGrady will be able to get by without a few extra preseason minutes at small forward, and even if things don't work with him running the point, he doesn't need the extra position to contribute. He also has no complaints with moonlighting. "It doesn't matter to me, whatever it takes to win," McGrady said. "Whatever it takes to win, that's what I want to do. If I have to run point some, and it kind of works in our favor anyway, because I kind of did it last year just running the pick-and-rolls to death, and we were very effective at it, or if I'm off the ball, I think it's going to be the best situation for the team. "Whatever coach decides is going to work." In some ways, even tonight McGrady will be more of a playmaker than point guard because the Rockets won't ask him to chase Damon Stoudamire and Bobby Jackson on the defensive end of the court. To make it work with McGrady running the point, the Rockets will have to use shooting guards on opposing points, as they did last season with Wesley. Defending the blurs That is not to say McGrady would concede that he could not defend the league's blurs if the need arose. "Only in key situations will I probably defend a guy like (Allen) Iverson, try to make it tough on him, make him drive as opposed to taking the open jumper," McGrady said. "Thats a tough job, though. I mean 82 games, 38, 40 minutes a game, running point, thats tough. It really is. "To run point for a whole season, that's a tough job. But if coach is ready to try that out, I'm ready to take on that challenge." Even in 10, 15 minutes a night, Van Gundy decided it was worth taking a look, figuring that if the parts fit around McGrady, the same answer might solve another Rockets question. jonathan.feigen@chron.com ROCKETS SUMMARY Chicago connection Rockets forward Juwan Howard, still proud to call Chicago home, said he has no mixed allegiances with the Astros playing in the World Series against the Chicago White Sox. "I'm a Cubs fan," he said. "A Cubs fan, a Cubs fan, a Cubs fan." Guard Luther Head could not duck the topic so easily, though he did point out that he happily pulled for the Astros in the National League Championship Series. That said, Head, who grew up on the west side of Chicago and played basketball at Illinois, said he is a lifelong White Sox fan. "I've been a White Sox fan forever, my whole life," Head said. "I can't help it, but I won't flaunt it." Work to do Midway through the preseason schedule, the Rockets have consistently said they are not playing as well as their unbeaten record indicates. This might be the result of four consecutive practice days, but they do make a strong argument. "We're not jelled together yet," Rockets guard/forward Tracy McGrady said. "We still have a lot of work to do. We're 4-0 in the preseason, but to us, that doesn't mean anything. We're doing so many things that can hurt us in the course of a regular-season game. There's so many gaps on defense and we're out of sync on offense. Guys are in the wrong spots. I'm not doing pick-and-roll coverages quite well. These weeks before the regular season we have to buckle down and focus. We're confident in ourselves we're going to get it all down." Jeff Van Gundy could not have said it better, though there is a good chance that is where McGrady heard it on the Toyota Center practice court since Monday's game in Laredo. "I think McGrady is dead-on," Van Gundy said. "We have a lot of work ahead of us. We're not anywhere near where we want to be. (The record) can have a negative impact because you can be seduced into thinking that you're playing better than you are. "That's why you have to judge by the process of how you're playing versus the end result, because right now the end result says we're doing good things. My eyes tell me we're doing not enough good things. "We haven't played or practiced as well as I would have liked over the last week. Hopefully, we can start making strides again, because we have a long way to go."
This just meant that JVG will let T-Mac/Yao practise Pick'n Roll in this game. People were wondering why there were no pick'n roll the first 3 games. It turned out that JVG did not allow it.
Its good to hear that... I guess. i hope he can still fly around. but at 225 at 6'8 or at more like 6'10, he is still skinny.
He definately was bigger than 210 last year. I'd say around 220 as well, and i'm pretty sure he's at least 6'9
Tracy shut down Baron Davis and Chauncey Billups in the playoffs (01 and 03 I believe), because he has such huge reach, that they can't shoot when he's on them and they can't drive either, cause he'll poke the ball with those tentacles of his. He defended them part time. However, he has shown that he can get the job done defensively on PG's and we don't need to talk about his offense. As far as his weight, he wasn't 215 last year. They have him listed at 215 for 5 years now, but he was proabbly 225 last year. This year he looks considerably bigger in the upper body. I would say he's 230-235lbs
The only problem is! Who will play SF while TMac plays PG. The choices we currently have is DA and Flyin' Ryan Bowen. Is anyone else uncomfortable with this?
To Bill Brasky! "His poop is used as currency in Argentina." "He sweats Gatorade" "Bill Brasky had a four day heart attack...a day for each chamber. At the autopsy, they said his heart looked like a basketball filled with riccotta cheese."
at least for no, that is. i hope he can develope into one. he has such amazing skills and confidence. i like the fact that our key personals (jvg and tmac) are openly recongnize our weakness while having a 4-0 for preseason. one can not stress that enough. the record can make one over confident so easily and keeping a cool head at times like that is not easy. looking forward to seeing them gel better every game.
For me, it's good to hear JVG clearly say they are searching for PG options behind Skip. This clearly tells us JVG is pleased with our new starting PG and doesn't feel the need to give him all the playing time even though he is new to our team. For now, Skip is off my worry list. Other than that, this is really no big deal. T-Mac playing the point on offense while Skip rests is to be expected. On defense, either Luther or Wesley will guard the PG while the other backcourt player (Luther, Wesley, Barry or DA) takes the SG and T-Mac defends the SF. I agree with Furious Jam that JVG is not comfortable turning the PG reigns over to Luther yet. For our offense to run smoothly, the two players who cannot be on the bench at the same time are Skip & T-Mac. Getting Skip for Mike James is looking better and better every day. I'll say it again: If Yao's offensive efficiency improves this year, we will debate the reason. I'll give most credit to Skip while some will argue Yao is a lot better and others will say Stromile helps him. People, true PGs make other players better because they get them the ball in the right place at the right time. If/when Yao's points per minute go up, most credit will belong to our new PG.
Good analysis. I think it interesting that JVG hasn't really looked much at DA at the point. I also think Yao will have a big jump in offensive production for the reasons you mentioned, as well as the chemistry/assists between Yao and TMac will increase.
I think the most important development is that this puts to rest any chance of Moochie seeing the court. I had been sweating that one out.
It doesn't bother me. It all depends on matchups. JVG will only put TMac at PG if we have the advantage. If we don't have the advantage, then he won't. Simple as that. Plus DA has played SF his entire career. Offensively, JB can play SF too. Defensively, you'd put TMac back at SF.
225 is a lot for a player like McGrady - it always seems to me the heavier a player is, the more limited their mobility and the more knee issues they develop.
