Enough crap please. I am as big a fan of Yao as anyone here, but please give TMac a break, he is playing through injury here. Without him we are a crappy team, 13-41 overall record?!!?! What are we without Yao last season? 20-12!Don't compare Kobe with TMac, do you want to compare Dwight with Yao this season?? Why can't Yao rebound like Dwight?! Why can't Yao block like Dwight?! blah blah blah. Now all of you YAOFs, shut the f up. If you want to defend Yao against attacks by moron, I am with you but leave TMac the f alone.
It has been said that Stevie needs the ball and is not good at moving without it. I am wondering if TMAC has the same problem. It may be difficult to see if this is true since no one but AB and Steve have the ability to move with the ball AND run the offense - to different degrees. MJ and Alston still have their own problems including jacking up ill-advised shots. I think that when the motion offense is successfully implemented, if it ever is, it will not include Rafer, may not include MJ or Chuck as starters. I think it will be some mix of AB SF, Tmac, Battier, Scola, Snyder, Yao of course, and Bonzi if he can reclaim his on court coordination. Why this could be a shot in the arm for Tmac - if he can learn to move without the ball, and let others set him up - he starts from top of the key now, gets chased down by two defenders and then has a 3rd charge up at some point and stop him from driving, he either jacks up a low % J or passes off to someone else. In the new system with AB or Francis dribbling and then quickly passing to Scola or Battier, Tmac can cut underneath more and catch passes such as we have begun witnessing on rare occasions now - for easy shots. Or if they collapse on him near the baseline, then Scola, AB and SF, and Yao are free to move in for some kind of easy 10 footer, layup, etc. This can help cut down on the type of pounding Tmac takes physically trying to drive. Tmac must make the decision to give up the ball and playmaking role in the new offense. We have seen rare glimpses of this, now it just is going to take RA changing his rotation NOW so we leave the old offense behind much more quickly. Now how do we kidnap Tom Thibodeaux from Boston??
you, sir, don't care about anything about the Rockets except your hero Yao Ming, who has been getting owned frequently of late. now, only if you would actually watch a couple of Rockets games, you would see that Tmac is one of the best defenders in the league and he puts 100% of his effort every night atleast on defense.. he has active hands, great athleticism, and great reaction time that allows him to stay in front of his defender. as a matter of fact, it was Tmac's defense that allowed us to win against the bobcats a couple of weeks ago. I suggest that you start watching some games, and if not, highlights would suffice, to get a vague picture of how great Mac is on defense.. for your convinience, I embedded this video for you to see so that you won't have to do tough challenging research to find some highlights: <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IxkMyOnh08c&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IxkMyOnh08c&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
I agree, too bad he hasn't really tried for the last couple of years. And RocketsMac, wtf was that? That video makes me think your post was sarcastic, but somehow I doubt it... Yes he drew a charge on Gerald Wallace, it's unfortunate that his 100% effort started and ended on that play. He is not as bad (lazy) as Bonzi on defense (who doesn't even pretend to be contesting jumpshots) but he is pretty terrible. When he tries he is the best on the team, however 99% of time the effort is not there.
I was thinking the same thing. Either RocketsMac is an idiot, or really sarcastic. His highlights to show off TMac's defense were all offense, except for the one defensive stop at the end of the game. The point was already brought up though - why wasn't he guarding Wallace the entire game? Not to mention, he switched on to Wallace.. Bonzi was on him to start off.
thank you for being really respectful, but I am neither.. I couldn't find a vid only for the last play, so I posted that video of the full highlights assuming that people here have a wide enough attention span to put in context of my post.. well, needless to say, I was wrong.. btw, saying that Tmac doesn't put effort on D is just B.S.. I tell you, he doesn't drive to the basket, he shies away from contact like a little girl sometimes.. when he goes on a layup, he does his "aaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeehhh" scream and misses it if there was contact or not.. I can point out Mac's mistakes, but saying that he doesn't put effort on D is not based on facts. watching every single game for Tmac for as long as I remember (since he got here), I've always noticed his active hands and great effort on D.. he always strips the ball away from people, contests every shot, and blocks out for the long rebound.. as a matter of fact, he was one of very few people to be able to STOP Dirk Nowitzki even though he gives up about 5 inches to him, but his great athleticism and wingspan allows him to stay with Dirk and not allow him to shoot over the top comfortably.. as for comparing him to Kobe and saying that "he doesn't take the best offensive player from the other team", I think he doesn't because we have Battier and he is our defensive specialist. I remember Mac being on Dirk for extended periods of time during the 04-05 playoffs, and he did a great job on him.. that's not mentioning the fact that we need his explosiveness on offense and we can't have him drain all of his energy defending, say, Dwayne Wade.. btw, I remember Tmac schooling Lebron in 04-05 and blocking him multiple times in a game where both guys were going at it.. Tmac dropped 35 and we ended up winning the game..
tmac is inconsistent defensively.....I find that most of his mistakes are on off the ball rotation.......
Adelman's Kings did shut people down. They were a top 5 defensive team for a couple of years and always a top 10 defensive team when they were winning. PPG allowed does not matter at all. It is points per 100 possessions allowed. That takes the pace out of it. This is how Phoenix is actually not too bad of a defensive team. I think we have the potential to have a Dallas-like offense/defense balance. We will be brutally efficient on offense and top 10 on defense. We just need to get the right players in the rotation.
So Tmac is guarding Brad Miller. Thus forcing Hayes to guard Artest, Shane to guard Martin. On defense? TMac is soft these days.
The last play I just saw where McGrady was guarding Garcia and let him run right by for a layup is a perfect example of his lack of committment on the defensive end.
Man you are so right on with this post i too can't stand his shot selection and then the defense he plays his horrible however he considers himself a superstar and others compare him to the best players in this league. I don't understand the love for him in houston remember last year after they lost game seven and he was at the podium talking pretending to cry. I love the rockets, but he was an embarassment to the franchise that day. I can think of alot of players that play both sides of the ball, look at tonights game Artest. What about Nash/Wade/Kobi/Lebron/Arenas/J.Howard/Carter/Iverson/Anthony/Ginobolli/Parker/Stackhouse
Long time fan, that isn't wholly correct. As a big kobe fan that is one of his biggest knocks. He doesn't know when his jumper is off and is supremely confident. This season it's been better and he has been attacking when he can't make anything from otuside however last season it was a big problem particularly in the playoffs against the suns. It's just Kobe and Tmac's ego and confidence overrides their B-ball iq's. Kobe for example in the past has said that even if he misses a lot of shots, it creates rebounding opportunities for his teammates. This was after he shot 9-33. Just arrogance but it is what makes these players great and what makes them awful at times. Take the good with the bad. And mcgrady shouldn't be guarding the best perimeter player. Kobe does this out of necessity. If he had battier, he wouldn't be guarding the best guys out there night in night out.
