Finding some good from the McGrady Injury

All results tonight or other nights aside, I would like to propose a number of sources for optimism as far as the Rockets' potential performance during Tracy's absence, for however long it ends up being, and their overall team make-up once he returns.

1. The expectations are gone. Zilch, blammo, basta. Well, maybe people will still expect us to make the playoffs and such, but I mean on a game by game basis you can't say "we're supposed to beat this team by 15 points" or even "we're supposed to eke out a win" anymore. I think if you look at the absolute horror show being put on by Rafer James Battier and Bonzi with their wide-open outside shooting, a lot of it might be due to nerves. Well there's no more reason to be nervous, because it's plain and simple: don't make the shots, don't win. And not many people will be expecting us to win these next three games in particular. There's no more dual-superstar firepower to bail us out.

2. I've been saying all along that since the beginning of the year a minor injury that could open some time in the rotation would do wonders for us, as far as figuring out who we have and building up confidence for our players once the rotation settles back down to what it used to be. In this particular game, Bonzi picked up T-Mac's minutes and Snyder did a decent job being thrust into a minor rotation role. Time will tell who ends up stepping up more, but as far as the Rockets as a team are concerned, a minor injury was just what they needed to give minutes to players who might be called upon to give one or two big plays in the playoffs. Experience in the regular season will go a long way to lending them the confidence to step up when they really need to. And yes, I'm sure the blog is hopping with cries for it, but maybe just maybe we'll see what Francis can do because of this. Maybe a rotation spot at SG rather than PG will be a better fit for him also.

3. I have never ever heard this line of thinking anywhere before, and I'm not so dumb as to say that we are better off with only one of our two superstars on the floor, but there does seem to be this uncertainty surrounding the club when both are on the floor, about who to defer to and when--how many plays to allot for each guy and such. It could be a reason that the supporting cast looks so stagnant while we run our 2v5 offense, but if you look at how the Rockets pulled together when Yao went down last year, you can attribute that to many things: the rise of Juwan and Dikembe and JVG's coaching or whatever you want; but I really think that a big factor was that there was no longer any doubt as to what identity the team had. This year, it's an even bigger problem because not only are we trying to defer to our superstars but we're also trying to defer to this ideal of a 'new offense' and all the 'easy shots' it's supposed to give us. I think with Tracy out you'll see less-overthinking on our players' parts about what they're supposed to do and more freedom and direction to just execute. We were going to need a couple of months anyways to make the transition in offensive style, and I felt from our early games that having the two superstar offense, although it was saving our butts and giving us numerous wins we'd not otherwise have, was impeding the progress of our inevitable conversion. This team will get its identity faster now, and when Tracy comes back it will be another process to integrate him, but maybe that's better than keeping the team the way it was last year.


So there are my contentions. Obviously our record will suffer because of his injury, and hopefully he can make a full recovery, say in a month, because everything I said above would be moot if he came back in 2 games . Go Rox!

 

Whoops. Looks like he's coming back in a week. I guess the stuff I said above applies against San Antonio, Phoenix, and Dallas. No expectations, more minutes for Bonzi/Snyder/Head, etc. But don't expect anything from Francis yet, not this soon. I have a feeling like Feigen is intimating that the extraordinary patience being given Rafer is only meant to demonstrate the equal patience that will be given Steve when the exchange finally is made. In other words, when the change is made, it will be for good. It's just a matter of time.