Tmac needs to get his teammates involved and get his assists HIGH if he wants to increase the chance of wins. He did this last year when he passed more and got 20 points per game. Him shooting all day and making his teammates look like chumps wont result in wins. His teammates apparently can't score unless he creates for them. Rafer is an NBA PG, but he can't create or score: so the only guy in the team who can create is TMAC, and to a lesser extent SF3 because of his injuries. So they're DUDS until tmac creates. He isn't close to nash's ability in creating but he just needs to create rather than score more. YOu score 40 and shoot 30 shots a game..the whole opposing squad will hound all over you and ignore the rest of the team..and yao will get bullied and flustered pretty easily since he's 7'6 and not athletic and in the 4th if the game is close yao will turn it over or miss his turn around jumpers due to increased intensity of defense by the other team. If tmac created for his teammates, they can get easy buckets and the other team will get the perception that bonzi, scola, battier should be defended and not just tmac and the bean pole yao ming. The only way to get balanced production in this current team is for tmac to create for the lack of skill supporting cast.
Only on this board you can bashed for scoring 40 points and almost single hanndedly wining a game. as for tracy not creating, well you didnt watch the game. thats obvious with you're conclusion. He was doing that. it's not he's fault battier kept up passing up so many shots tracy had created for him. at one point tracy became visually frustrated with battier for passing up on another wide open look. It's not he's rafer was bricking he's shots. tracy had a hand in almost every point we scored in the entire second half. for exampel he had a hand in the first 7 field goals we scored. he either scored them or he created them. if battier had taken some of those shots or rafer and james hit them, e would have had 10 assists plus game. And yao played majority of the night in the low post. he's downfall against the front or sometimes against collapse defence is he holds the ball for two long. he needs to shoot the ball as soon as he gets it. dont let the defence enough room to set. attack them straight away. Also tracy was 4-of 14 at the half. after halftime he went for 10 of 16. when you're that hot and yao is playig timid, rafer is bricking, battier is passing up shots, whats he supposded to do?
You obviously arent watching the games and are just looking at the box scores or highlights. Firstly, just by Tmac drawing a double team should create enough time and space for the players. When your team mates are Bonzi Wells and Mike James, this should be enough to give them opportunities. Secondly - If that isnt enough, he is getting guys like MJ, Wells and Rafer Alston CLEAN, OPEN looks, they just arent knocking them down. Tmac is creating and doing his job. As is Yao. Like i said in another thread i made, it is not Tmacs and Yaos fault that this team is struggling. It is the role players and the coaching staffs inability to adopt change when change is needed.
Yep. he got james and battier in particular so many wide open looks . i'm just not sure why battier is being so timid with the ball. i understand you gotta keep the ball alive by swinging it if you're not open, but when you have a wide open look, you gotta take it.
I have to agree with most of you, what more can Tmac do to help this team. With numbers like he had last night, and the number of passed up shots and number of misses, what else can he do? That being said, it just seems like he has the talent to do even more. Most of the first half, Tmac seemed to be dragging and walking up and down the court instead of running. He seemed like he didn't really want to be there. I don't know, maybe it is frustration with the team performance or Adelman's system that really isn't helping him overall. I watched him score 15 points in the 3rd, but it was just like he was on cruise control and only using bursts of energy to create two feet of space to pop his shot off. He is that talented! But I didn't see him hustling on defense. I saw him get personally beat many many times. I saw him not help. I thought I saw him almost not caring, and as some say, almost smiling at times. But I knew from the look in his eyes that he was going to put up a lot of points because he looks totally disgusted with his team (mates). I think he has to be getting frustrated with Adelman also, but I dont' think he would ever say it. Maybe I'm wrong on that one, we will see. But I think Tmac needs to play with more ENERGY! Im not asking him to score more or assist more, but just to show more ENERGY AND HUSTLE. I think when he does that, it rubs off on the other players and the whole team performs better. The problem is that he can play in slow motion and do whatever he wants when he puts his mind to it. The other players get in that slow down mode, but they suck and can't get out of it or turn it on like he does. Therefore the whole team ends up looking like they are running in mud most of the night.
What?!? T-Mac always gets his teammates involved. Rafer is not creating offense, it's T-Mac. Yeah he took a lot of shots, but outside of Yao, what was everyone else doing? IMO, T-Mac is right behind Steve Nash in being able to find your teammates. JVG thinks the same also. If we want to win, someone other than Yao and T-Mac has to step up. It doesn't have to be the same guy each night but somebody has to do it. It could be Francis, James, Bonzi or even Scola. Whoever it is, we need more than just the Yao & T-Mac show or we will end up like the past couple seasons.
I think he is doing his best. He just makes extremely hard things look easy, doesnt mean he can do more. Remember the old cliche "great players seem to have all the time in the world."
If the other guys could knock down a open jumper... t mac is playing out of his mind right now so for you to make this tread shows how dumb you really are...the guy needs help!!!
Agreed that he makes extremely difficult things look like a cake walk. But watch him on Defense and just plain old hustle. He is lacking and saving all his energy for the offensive end, most of the time. Therefore the teams suffers when he could be playing better because I know he can. Maybe he is saving it for the playoffs. Nevertheless, he is not the reason we are losing for sure!
If I'm Tmac, I gotta be pissed off by now. In Orlando, he had to do everything himself cuz management couldn't/wasn't willing to find him serious help. The first year he came to Houston, he finally got some help in Sura, Wesley, Barry, James. Look what beautiful basketball that created. Now, 4 years in, we're still finding help for Mac and Yao. It's not like our ensemble of role players are lacking in the talent department. For some reason, they just aren't producing.
Just look up "coach/coaching" in the dictionary and that "for some reason" will become apparent to you.
T-mac has to do a better job at closing games. His teamates need to hit the open looks when they double MAC but he needs to to a better job with managing the game in the final 3 minutes. One possession last night he came down and jacked up a ill-advised three when the score was 95-90.He should have looked to go into Yao to create a higher percentage shot for the team and himself. Sometimes is not hitting the grand slam,You have to chip you way through. On the next posession he could have pulled up for the three but I think he needs to understand that when he get's it going he has the defense in a triple threat situation and balance here and balance there with better execution the rockets win the game.
If Tmac is going to be a jump shooter, the team needs to get another penetrating player on the floor to help him, and create some space. Francis may be the answer, but can his knees hold up? DD
I don't know how he "needs" to play. But I'd like to see a whole lot more of how he "can" play with Yao and any other trio which TOTALLY excludes Battier, Hayes and Alston. It has to be a little tiring carrying this trio offensively.
I watched last night. Don't get on TMac. He had no help at all from the the "new and improved supporting cast". And Yao was taken out of the game as so many other teams have done, by fronting, crowding, being physical, and driving into him creating defensive fouls. No the refs don't give him any breaks, but he's got to figure it out...NBA officiating won't change for him. He's becoming a "victim." TMac knew our only chance was for him to take over the game, and he did damn well with defenders draped all over him. Finally and worst of all, the team simply capitulated defensively - and that's the part that bothers me the most. This team needs a heart transplant!! When three of our starters are basically non-scorers, and we still play lousy defense, we have no chance. Time to give Stevie, AB and Scola extended minutes. D R
If the rule that your starters are your best players then we are in big trouble. Battier, Hayes and Alston need to come off the bench and their minutes reduced drastically, to have Battier on the floor for 40 minutes for 4 points of offensive production or Rafer missing his FTs and shooting 30% or Hayes who can only make reverse layups under the basket is not working. RA needs to make some serious changes.
This is ridiculous. In the Kings game, Tmac was doing all he could to get his teammates involved...But they sucked. He would drive and kick it out but no one could hit. Even yao wasn't hitting. He was the only one who could score at the time.
I agree. T-Mac needs to completely disregard Adelman's desire to have T-Mac finishing plays instead of starting them. Blaming T-Mac for making James, Alston, and the rest of the gang looking like chumps is ridiculous.
