Do you know the one word that best describes the assumption that McGrady could ever approach his Orlando days production, or even approach the production of his first season here? It's 'irrational'.
the size of their contracts have nothing to do with this. if you told tracy it was legal to restructure his contract he may do it if it meant being able to sign another above-average/top tier talent. tracy is paid the max because the level of his individual talent exceeds the talent level of any other individual on the team. generally 2 > 1 so that is an totally unfair comparison to make.
I voted Yao for the regular season MVP, Tracy for the Finals MVP, Rockets for the Championship, Luis Scola for ROTY, Mike James for SPOTY, Steve Francis for CPOFTY, Adelman for COTY, Daryl Morey for EOTY. Yup.... I believe that awards and credits should be shared around evenly
Tracy Mcgrady should take the mvp over Yao because he did everything. The man played at another level scoring, passing, and just leading the team. Yao was a great factor but as u saw in the playoffs at times he was very unefficient. Tmac is the leader and this team would have gone no where witout a playmaker.
MVP of this team - tmac. we basically are just not very good w/o him. even if u take him now and have francis, bonzi, and james play at their highest level, i think the best we can do is the #8 seed. but if yao is out and everyone plays at their best, hell, we might be the #4-5 seed since the game is so perimeter oriented nowadays and we can go phoenix suns on everyone. but we can't win w/o either and when i say win, i mean the CHAMPIONSHIP. in that sense, tmac will get more MVP votes. when tmac was out last yr, yao (and it wasn't all his fault) couldnt keep this team around .500 (we were 2-8 i think). w/o yao, tmac led this team to a 20-12 record, which is ridiculous. tmac avg 29.9ppg and 7.3 apg during that stretch. and w/ a yr to refresh his body, i think tmac can only get better, esp. playing "off the ball." tmac is basically unstoppable playing off the ball as u saw he ALWAYS scored off of those curls/screens. but he couldn't do that a lot during a game b/c he was the only one who could create last yr. this yr, he'll do that a lot more b/c francis, james, AND yao will be the passers. trust me guys, tracy will go bezerk on the league next yr. under adelman's system, i think yao will play a HUGE role in facilitating (that can be a great thing). he'll go in the low post for his share of touches. but when teams start to double or sag on him, he'll go around the ft line and find cutters, esp. tmac. as u can see, tmac is gonna be THE scorer next yr for this team. but again, if yao can DOMINATE on the boards and on defense (ala 11-12 rebounds and 3-4 blocks a game) i can see him garner a lot of MVP votes also. but tracy will get more votes regardless b/c to the consensus, tmac is still the guy on this team and rightfully so.
that's a DUMB assessment to make. if you want to take yao and battier out, then use that money to put someone else in their spot. like i said, tmac alone + good defense => playoffs. it's that simple. but he can't win beyond that
how so? last yr was his first yr back from a HUGE injury. THE FIRST YEAR. you usually judge a guy THE 2ND YEAR from the injury, not the first year. u did know tracy had a higher PER last yr than in 04-05. he had more assists. he wasn't as clutch but he never had great conditioning b/c of he never had an offseason last yr due to his back. he will never approach the orlando's production b/c he won't get the whole offense to himself ever again b/c yao is a great player. but he'll surpass the 04-05 campaign EASILY next yr. u don't know how much RHYTHM is to a NBA player. he never had one to start with last yr. he had to find 2 months to find some then got injured again. that's why he was inconsistent. trust me, you'll be surprised at the tmac you'll see next yr. i thought last yr was a "decent" year considering it was the first yr off of the injury => and it earned him all-nba 2nd team. i expect him to challenge for one of the 1st-team all-nba guard/forward spots next yr.
this is the roles of these two players on this team. yao - the efficient offensive player and be somewhat of a defensive anchor. tmac - the scorer, passer, rebounder, defender on some nights when shane battier is outmatched, the ballhandler, playmaker, creator... tmac basically does EVERYTHING for this team.
Without Yao in 2005-2006, McGrady and the Rockets staggered to a 6-15 record, ending any real hope they had of making the playoffs. You conveniently neglect this fact, and if you pull out the injury card.... I could make excuses for Yao due to his injuries too. The sample size on Yao playing with McGrady out in 2006-2007 is too small. The final tally was something like 2-5, but we can't say anything from that. You have a right to be optimistic, but I think it is foolhardy to think that McGrady can get any better. He has played his best basketball, he has lost some of his physical ability, his back has become more of a problem the last two years than before, and he seemingly is afraid to drive to the rim now. On top of that it seems his jumper is not as good as it used to be. This looks to me like a player in decline. Now, McGrady has great talent and even in decline can still put up say 21-5-5... but the thought that he will blow back up to Orlando Tracy (which is what you're saying) is farfetched. If McGrady is relied upon to be the main scorer... we will lose in the first round. There is plenty of precedent for this and all of it is bad. I think it is very debatable whether McGrady is still "the guy". I've explained in a previous thread why I believe Yao to be a slightly better player than McGrady, and I believe that his failure to lead his team over Utah means that he is no longer "the guy". I hope that Yao can step up and fill this role, because I think McGrady only gets worse from here on out.
So you proceed to denigrate Yao's contribution by calling him simply an "efficient offensive player"? How about the 3rd most efficient player in the NBA last season? You also left out a bunch of stuff Yao does that you conveniently put into McGrady's list. Also, the blatant list padding "ballhandler, playmaker, creator"... those three are basically the same thing.... Let's see, I can similarly argue that Yao does everything for the team. He scores at a clip good for 3rd most efficient in the NBA, he creates open shots for his teammates in the low post, he rebounds, he blocks/changes shots which helps to negate the mistakes of the perimeter defenders, and he will take on a tough post D assignment that Juwan can't handle. Your next argument will be "oh, but he's supposed to rebound and block shots, he's 7'6"" and I agree, but then you must concede that McGrady who is a 6'8" guard, is supposed to be a playmaker and ballhandler, while Yao is not.
tracy went IN AND OUT of the roster in 05-06. and if u know RHYTHM, he had none. but for a stretch he did stay healthy the most w/ his 6 straight 30 point games in 05-06, we were w/in 4-5 games of the 8th spot.
i'm not saying this will happen to yao. but using YOUR LOGIC, yao ALWAYS seems to have these dumb recurring injuries that sideline him the last 2 years. so how can u expect him to be healthy ever again for a whole season and then into the playoffs? and has yao ever proven to dominate in the playoffs? has yao ever proven to destroy every defense? NO and this is yao's what? 7th yr in the L. i'm not saying this to put yao down b/c i don't know. but i'm using your kind of logic and applying it to yao.
He went 6-15. This is a fact. You're using injury as an excuse, as usual, and you seem curiously willing to give McGrady this excuse while simultaneously bashing someone who wants to use the same excuse for Yao.
Yao is on the upside of his career. He has improved every year he's been in the league, and it has only been 5 years. Note I said "I HOPE Yao will take the role." I believe he will continue to get better. He may have peaked before the knee injury, but right now there isn't enough data to conclude that this is the case. They say the knee is fully healed. McGrady however, has peaked already (he peaked in Orlando), and he has showed signs of decline, particularly throughout the last two seasons. Add this to the fact that he came into the league at 18, and so has already played 10 seasons, while Yao has only played 5, and I am convinced that McGrady is on the downside of his career. This is where the argument fails. Yao is on the upside of his career, while McGrady is not.
21-5-5? He putup 25-6-7 despite being a washed of bum according to you. BTW, he as the only one who played any real ball in the playoffs...at one stage he was the MVP frontrunner where we went 20-12 without yao. not to mention that was the hardest part of our scheduel.
again, did yao go in and out of the lineup? did he have time to rehab from his knee injury a lil bit b4 going back into the lineup? YES tmac's back - when it's working, he goes right back in. no time to practice. no time to get himself into rhythm. not time to shoot jumpers to warm up during his offdays. don't even compare the injuries. they're completely different. and like i said, tmac's and yao's game are completely different. yao does NOT depend on his athleticism. does he jump through the roof b4 the knee injury? NO. did he run lightning quick b4 the injury? NO. now, let's compare tmac's back. did he jump through the roof b4 his injury? YES. did he run lightning quick b4 the injry? YES. now u see how an offseason or any semblence of a training session for a certain part can help him GET HIS RHYTHM.
again, has yao proven he can keep his stamina at his best in the 4th? can yao play in the 4th quarter like he can play in the first or the 3rd? has yao proven he can dominate in the playoffs? for what you have said about tmac, he has at least shown up in the playoffs. yao hasn't put a stamp on any playoff series he has played in to show he's that "leader." last yr was the first time he was in a playoff series as a "superstar" and he failed. he didn't fail against a stud, but against OKUR. again, tmac may be on the "downside" of his career, but damn, the downside must be darn good to make all-nba 2nd team and i didn't even think it was that good. u don't think he could improve his CONDITIONING? STAMINA? RHYTHM? JUMPSHOTS? from now on. notice NONE of these are based on his athleticism, which his game was based on during his "prime" years. so tell me how tracy CANNOT play better next yr than this yr? i just named u 4 things that he can just focus on w/o doing some major lifting weights or anything. just basically run on the treadmill, lift some basic weights, do some leg work to improve his jump on his jumper, shoot a lot of jumpers... he can be better next yr.
That's pretty mean. If Yao wasn't injured, He might also play better and better.(It's not like he's 42 years old.) Judging Yao based on his post-injury games does not really make more sense.
