Monkey on their backs: Rockets are 11-42 without T-Mac

Tmac is not what he used to be. Nor is Ming. When Tmac away, rockets gets better games these days.Give Ming some time. He 's the true man.

 

The reason why we are so terrible without T-Mac is that he is the only player on the team that possess PG passing skills. None of our guards (nor anyone else other than T-Mac for that matter) are adequate passers for a PG. In other words, we don't have a true PG(obviously) who creates easy shots for others when T-Mac is not in the game!

1) A true PG is capable of passing to the player MOVING/CUTTING to the basket on a pick-and-roll.
2) A true PG can dribble penetrate AND execute an accurate pass to a MOVING/CUTTING player.
3) A true PG can draw defenders to free up an open teammate AND THEN pass the ball to that said teammate.
4)A true PG has above average vision and is aware of where his teammates are on the court so he can make passes that INDIRECTLY lead to open shots.
5) A true PG in a Rocekts uniform will drive to the middle when Yao is being fronted and then pass to him for from that angle (or drive to the middle AND have Yao run towards the basket to receive the pass).

Rafer Alston, Luther Head, Mike James, Tyron Lue, David Wesley, John Lucas can do none of that!

Wonder why Rafer's A/TO ratio is 3 and yet T-Mac's A/TO is 2 when they are about equally as good in handling the ball? It's because Rafer RARELY attempts to pass to players ON THE MOVE CUTTING to the basket, whether it's a P-n-R or dribble penetration, while we have often seen T-Mac passing to Yao and Hayes for dunks and lay-ups!

Rafer gets his assists numbers mostly from passing to the obvious open-man for an OUTSIDE shot while T-Mac gets his assists mostly from passing to cutters for easy LAY-UPS! Rafer is not a true PG and this is why we do so bad when T-Mac is out! Take last nights game against Denver for example. The many times that Yao set a pick for Rafer, he never received a pass when he rolled to the basket. The only times he got the ball after a pick was when Yao was standing still near the 3-point line. And I don't recall any of Rafer's assist that came from passing to a cutting man for an easy basket in the game. I wouldn't fault Rafer for this because he just doesn't have the creativity in making those passes where a decent passing PG can!

Let's take a look at the seven games Yao played last season without T-Mac. FOUR of those would be wins if we actually had an adequate PG that can give us TWO or THREE EASY baskets! That could have been a 6-1 stretch instead of 2-5!

1) LAL L 94-102
2) @ GSW L 107-109 (lost by 2 points)
3) @ LAL L 101-112 (lost in 2OT)
4) @ LAC W 108-103
5) @ POR L 87-89 (lost by 2 points)
6) @ SAS W 97-78
7) LAC L 93-98 (lost by 5 points)

T-Mac can shoulder the PG duties if he decides to and when he's healthy! However, when he's out, we just don't get the four or five easy baskets that T-Mac creates. Also, there's a slight problem with T-Mac handling the ball so often because he'd look to score more often keeping his eyes on the basket instead of looking for open teammates. Until Rafer learns to pass, we need to trade for a passing PG. I think Adelman should have Rafer practice the P-n-R passing to the cutter. It doesn't take much brains to run it properly. If he can execute the P-n-R the right way, that'd be a huge!

 

This is what is so frustrating about the whole Tmac situation. The old saying about women applies here to: "Can't live with them, can't live without them." We're terrible when he doesn't play, but sometimes the guy just gives up and he doesn't have the "it" quality to get us over the top, that much everyone seems to agree on.

 

It's love/hate. On one end you have a player that when healthy and motivated can flat-out be one of the best players in the league. A player that's one of the most gifted and versatile players there is and he's a guy that we simply cannot win without, as alluded to in the first post.

On the other end you have a fragile body/minded spoiled star that clearly doesn't take the regular season seriously. Kind of in the mold of Shaq in just coasting through the regular season and then turning it on in the playoffs.

I love T-Mac and I still want him in Houston. I'm not trashing him, just calling the shots the way I see them. I really think he works under the impression that the regular season matters little and it's all about turning it on in the playoffs. Well, 0-6. Need I say more? Let's just say I hope that i'm wrong!

 

Rockets don't stand a chance with out TMAC with this lineup. Yao can't carry the entire load. Just impossible for him.

Great ball movement for the most part last night, but once again....a big L for the Rockets when no TMAC.

 

Yao will not make 20 mil. The new contract structure dictates that his maximum pay is around 14-16. Tracy's max contract was negotiated prior to the new structure in place.

 

Please explain this to me. WTF does our current Rockets lineup have to do with that scrub lineup TMAC had in orlando?

LMAO.

This current team CAN NOT WIN with out TMAC.

 

Earned double OT's? It was a freakin LOSS!!!

I would love as much as anyone to see this team win. With or with out tmac. If without, that frees up $$$ for other players.

I could really careless who is on the team, as long as they win. I wouldn't die if TMAC was traded, or even Yao.....if the team would just win.

 

We would of won the game with a semi-decent wing player. Try putting a Josh Howard in there and we would of came out victorious last night. I don't think any center in the history of the NBA, no matter how great they are, can win by themselves. Same goes to Yao. The fact that Bigs depend on guards, means that not even Duncan can win on a consistent basis if he was missing parker/ginobli.

 

We coasted to a 20 point win with T-mac against this inferior team.

It also has to be noted that Denver did not defend Yao particularly well... namely, they let him get the ball in the post, and threw the traditional double team at him (which allowed him to find wide open shooters). If they play the post like the new rules dictate (front Yao, weakside defender)... not only will the Rockets lose games, but Yao's scoring and passing will be effectively neutralized.

Some of you guys are too Chicken Little to appreciate that it would be FAR easier to re-motivate T-mac than it would be to trade him, get equal value, and play at as high of a level as this team has obtained over the last 4 years (50+ win level).

 

Watching the war last night, even though we lost, was more fun than I've had in several games. Like a bunch of games. They couldn't quite pull it out, but the effort was there, and the offense ran smoother than it has in ages, if ever. (yes, there have been brief instances when the offense worked. I admit these moments have been as rare as Rafer making one of his teardrops) Yao had a brilliant game. Head was the Luther of last season. Alston and Wells stepped up. So what do we get at halftime? One of the more bizzare short interviews I've ever seen from McGrady. Honestly, the guy was making no sense whatsoever, unless it was, "Get me outta here!" I haven't been on the "trade McGrady" bandwagon, but after the game and that little performance, I've got a toe on the running board.

Damn, I wish they'd won. Hey... I thought the monkeys were in D&D??

 

That was a big game by our Rockets last night. They are LEARNING TO PLAY WITHOUT TMAC now.

Good performance even thought their 2 stars, AI and MELO had big games, we managed to stay close. I think it was the 3pointers of the garbage man that made the difference, we didn't plan for that.

We can improve from here. We played like a team without Tmac.

Tmac, get some rest, we wwill need you in the playoffs. That is, if you are still a rocket.

 

I've never advocated trading him because he's such a gifted player that up until now it's almost been worth it to put up with his act. But, I don't want to go there.

Let's just keep up the effort, show everybody (including McGrady) that we can play without him...so when/if he decides to come back happy and healthy we can hit the ground running.

 

How many times have we tried to motivate T-mac? How many times did tmac quit the team ( before/after joined Houston)?

 

If you subtract Tmac via trade, it is simply not a matter of the current team winning it is also what you get in return.

I think Magic may be on to something.......If the Rockets could do something like:

Marion/Diaw/Barbosa

for

Tmac/Battier/Head

It might be feasible that the team is actually a LOT better without Tmac.

Now, honestly, I would rather Tmac get with the program and start being part of the solution instead of the team's main problem.

DD

 

Yao doesn't have to carry the entire load, we have a lot of talentend players to balance our offense.

 

how many coaches? how many teams? how many trade tmac threads?

 

This Rockets is never a good offensive team, Yao is more high post playing, we've lost everything then...

 

Fully agree. We live and die with T-Mac. Usually when T-Mac has a good game, we win. When he doesn't play or if he doesn't play well, we don't win many games. Like someone said earlier, a big reason we lack success when T-Mac is out is because we don't have another play maker.

Skip is a decent PG that makes good passes but is not necessarily a play maker. Skip can make the pass to Yao posting up, or Head coming off the screen but he doesn't really create plays like T-Mac. At times, Steve can be a good play maker. Especially with the Pick and roll with Yao or when he penetrates the basket and dishes off. The bad thing is that he gets out of control sometimes trying to make a play. When he wants to pass, James can create plays and Brooks showed flashes of that also.

As long as T-Mac is on this team, we are going to need him to play. He gives us so many chances to win games. Without him, we struggle bad. Last game was an exception, but even at that you could still say we played bad. If it wasn't for our good defense through the 4 quarters, it would not have been close.

 

I guess it all depends on who we get for T-Mac. Honestly, I don't see the Suns making this trade. We are basically robbing them if this went down. If we do trade T-Mac, which I hope we don't, we are not evengoing to get equal value, but less. When T-Mac is at his best, like during the 6-1 start, there aren't too many players that are better than him.