tmac had a VERY VERY pathetic start to last season so that's why iverson nearly closed in. if tmac starts out his normal self, he'll be the starter in the all-star game. yao is the face b/c of the international appeal. but to win, u need tracy mcgrady. the team has consistently shows that they need tmac in most aspects of the game.
I think this year rox will have much better results if tmac misses some games, wells/james/francis can all help big men, including young shaq and duncan, are/were not major weapons in the last 4 minutes, last two years we relied on head and skip and forced to feed yao when tmac was not there, tell me how many games we lost in the last 4 minutes?
obviously the team is gonna do better. but i don't think the rox can make the playoffs w/ tmac missing 30+ games.
francis was a true all-star that yr. mobley was pretty good that yr. that backcourt was one of the best. more importantly, the west was not even close to being as competitive as it is now. if francis can go back to being an all-star caliber player, sure. but that's assuming tmac is out and francis hast he ball in his hands all the time to have a chance at regaining that form.
i wouldn't say that. i would say the leaving of JVG had to do everything w/ all the moves we've made rather than morey. if JVG was still here, morey wouldn't have drafted these players (fast-paced guards) to go w/ adelman's belief. he would have drafted players who would have fit w/ JVG's defensive style. francis would not have chosen the rox if JVG was still here. same w/ MJ possibly. so i think the firing of JVG facilitated all of this so in that sense, he still has an impact on the rockets hehe.
If you use 05-06... McGrady went 6-15 without Yao. This year McGrady didn't miss many games, and we did OK in them. You assert that the Rockets need McGrady in most facets of the game to win. I assume you're going after the fact that McGrady creates a large chunk of the offense with his driving. This was true especially last year, but this was a byproduct of the scheme and the personnel. We had spot up shooters, and guys that could only shoot layups (Hayes, Mutombo), and the JVG offense didn't involve much motion. Therefore, anyone not named Yao or McGrady had to have their shot created for them. That will change this year with people who can create their own shot, and more motion in the offense, and McGrady will not create as much. Similarly, I could say that Yao is a superior rebounder and shotblocker, and it isn't even close. McGrady isn't 7'6", so Yao is supposed to be the better rebounder and shotblocker. Yao is not a guard, so he's not supposed to create offense off the dribble. If you want to compare Yao and McGrady you can't compare aspects of their game like that. You have to compare areas where they're comparable.
i don't think tracy was ever healthy in 05-06. he came in and out of the lineup every 10-12 games or so so u can't say that was the tmac of last yr. if tmac was healthy in 05-06 (or 80% relatively healthy like he was last yr), we would have made the playoffs even in 05-06. remember that stretch he had 6 straight 30 pt games in 05-06 and we were just w/in 3-4 games of the 8th spot, then he got injured again. so had tmac stayed healthy for the rest of 05-06 after coming back from the first 2, we would def. have made the playoffs at least as the 8th seed.
The one thing I always though was weird was labeling which team belongs to whom. team - collectivism whom - individualism The ideas are like night and day ... but I understand what people are saying at the same time. I'd like to promote a train of thought that places the responsibility of the team on all the players' shoulders, because a sense of ownership deepens one's emotional commitment to an idea. That three Novak hits in the first 5 minutes is equally and important as the gamewinner Tmac hits in the last 5 seconds. All the player's abilities are utilized to add up to 100% of the team. This team belongs to everybody. It's my team. I'm done with this soapbox if anybody else would like to use it. Also, I voted for Yao as the face of the franchise. It's a commercial thing.
ya...i hate lebron..hes overrated but anyways..t-mac should be the face of the rockets with a wink = P
It's TMac's team, but this team is really built around Yao. Simply, Yao doesn't have the characteristic of a learder. Yao doesn not lead this team...!
