In my couple of years living in Chicago I learned to never trust a rumor started by Sam Smith. Sam has a fantasy of playing GM. Back when the Bulls were the worst team in the league, he came up with a trade idea every week in his column.
I think it's perfectly fine to question the source, but lets actually examine it from a RA standpoint. In Sacramento, he made Vlade, Peja, Brad Miller in to All-Stars. Bibby and Doug Christie also played very well. Heinrich and Nocioni from my point of view make a lot of sense. Nocioni is tough as nails kind of guy, who plays with Scola on the Argentinian national team and understands a team concept, willing to sacrifice his body. Heinrich is already a well-rounded point guard who has the potential of becoming a very good one. He has missed 15 games in the last 5 years combined (including this year). Can play 40 minutes, his numbers have suffered this year a little, but so has McGrady (easily attributable to their respective records). other options to add include: Noah, this is interesting, we know he is not "there" yet as far as his scoring abilities go, but any footage of him that you do see while in college, shows the kind of intensity he plays with. He is all over the place, great rebounder and has a swagger. Someone who could compliment Yao on the floor by playing that twin tower role. So let's not count him out. Joe Smith, not as sexy option as Noah, but he could also play alongside Yao. Will give you 20-25 minutes a night. If we sneak in Mike James or Rafer into this deal, why not? This city and this board is so infatuated with having two superstars that we are willing to sacrifice the teams identity. We know the current system and group of players and we know the results, we know the injuries that happen to McGrady and his lack of aggressiveness when Yao is on the floor. We have assets of our own that we should be adding onto, Yao, Scola, Battier , Head, Hayes, Brooks, Bonzi. We should take a note from what the Spurs have done for the past 10 years, what the Lakers are doing right now, what the Blazers are put together to do. Even the Hornets are taking those steps.
I don't care if T mac is unhappy. we paying his sorry ass 20 million. He needs to get on the court and work for the money. If that don't work then just freaking retire.
I doubt this rumor is true, but if we were considering trading Tmac, the Bulls are on the short list of teams that might want him and have something of value to offer back. The problem with Tmac for other teams: 1) You aren't going to build a lottery team around Tmac. He is injury prone, has quit on lottery teams before, and hasn't shown he can lead a team any where. 2) Other teams aren't going to give up a franchise player for Tmac unless that franchise player is forcing a trade, because Tmac hasn't won anything to make you think he will carry you farther than the player you are giving up. So the only teams that are likely to want Tmac considering what it would take to get him are lower tier play off teams particularly in the East who think they are underachieving and want to shake things up. Deng and Heinrich would probably do it from the Rockets perspective, but it's doubtful the Bulls will give up Deng. Heinrich is shooting worse than Rafer from 3 this season, and is getting $11,250,000 to do it. If we don't get Deng in the deal it is hard to think of a package from the Bulls that would really improve us Otherwise, if the Rocket's don't think they can win with Tmac, why would any one else?
They just talked about Tmac on Justice's show on KGOW. Apparently, Fran Blinebury confirmed that McGrady has indeed been saying how he's unhappy with Adelman's offense off the record for some time now. That he doesn't feel that RA's uptempo style is really suited for him. Fran quoted JVG who said that a lot of guys say they want to run but only a few will make the commitment to run and that group includes McGrady. He calls McGrady an enormous athletic talent but not a true competitor like say a Nash, Duncan, Kobe, LeBron. What I find interesting is that I've heard the same thing from a friend up here who works for the Mavericks.
on Justice's show, Sam Smith says Tmac kept saying he didn't like Adelman and his offense when they hired him, but TMac was always saying how he liked the hiring of Adelman and was excited for the new offense. I don't really trust this Smith guy really.
Smith also only talks about how he and Justice don't like TMac and call him a tease. He doens't cite any sources for his rumor. Smith and David Justice are like the same person.
On the other hand, I don't know if any of us can EVER trust what McGrady says on the record. From tv to radio interviews, McGrady gets in this mode where he just starts saying things that everyone wants to hear. I like McGrady as a player when he puts in the effort, but the problem is that he doesn't always put in the effort...Us Rocket fans either knew or were warned of T-Mac's unwillingness to play every play. The offense seems to run much smoother with Tmac out. fast breaks look like fast breaks because everyone runs. We've seen Tmac slowly walk up the court way too many times. There was a thread that said one of Yao, Adelman, or McGrady have to go. This is true. Tmac needs an in your face coach, Yao needs a coach to draw plays for him in the low post more, Adelman needs a big man that can pass/shoot from the elbow and a player that has a motor running for every play. With all that said, if these Tmac to the Bulls rumors are true, I would at least consider it. Hinrich is a great point guard that can hit the 3 consistently. Nocioni is Scola's boy and brings a nice shot and grit to the forward positions. I don't think those two guys alone are enough. Perhaps at least one 1st round pick or another rotation player would sweeten the deal. But let's consider that Tmac has a history of injury problems. Maybe this is the start of what could be many McGrady trade rumors this season.
Really. Really? Really?! Some of you fools still crack me up. Even if Tracy is somewhat unhappy in Houston's offense, you don't just pack him up and trade him for a bunch of guys who can't get it together in the eastern coference. If we are in "win now" mode, trading T-mac certainly doesn't get us over the hump and out of the first round. Also, do you really think RA would be happy to let go of McGrady in his first year coaching the Rox? I think we owe it to the Rockets, RA, TMAC,Yao and to ourselves as fans, to give RA a shot to take the current team to the next round. I don't see equal value in a tradefor Tmac, much like trading Kobe. Brandon Roy isn't going anywhere. I expect Tmac to stay,play well into the playoffs and spite the haters on this board. Disgusting. Cod
Can we please stop with these ridiculous rumors. If ANYONE read their houston chronicle this morning, they would have seen Morey talk specifically about how we will NOT trade tracy mcgrady. None of us have ever heard a word come out of tracy's mouth about him being unhappy. This is unsubstantiated and can only lead to trouble. There is no trade that we can successfully pull off that will equal the talent of Tmac. This team is finally starting to gel and adding Tmac back to the mix might be the move that puts us back on track. Lets stop being so inpatient and see what this team is capable off when its got a HEALTHY Tmac and everyone else on board.
Yes, I've heard of that from Sina, too. Quite surprising if Rox want to trade with Bulls. I think Gorden+Wallace is a good choice, since Brooks and Scola are better than Nocioni and Hinrich. We have Battier and Wells in SF. Wallace can replace Mutombo.
Not this season. He is shooting 29% from 3, which is worse than Rafer. Nocioni is an ok role player, but you don't trade a franchise players for two role players and hope to improve. Deng is the key part of any trade because he has the potential to be a franchise player and currently has a much smaller salary. The rockets were expected to contend THIS year. If they aren't given that expectation then changing coaches made even less sense. With that in mind I don't know that draft pick compensation would make things significantly better. Especially considering the rockets overall history in the draft over the past 10 years.
Well there you go. And some of you sound like nuts here. TMac may have issues, but many players do. And TMac's talents are extremely rare. There's only a small handful of players who can take over games, repeatedly, like TMac. IMO, if he learns how to let his teammates step-up when he's off, everything will be just fine. Someone tell him that leadership does not mean you have to keep shooting.
What about further down that very same post saying that I don't think those two guys are enough. jk man good post. But the Bulls' troubles started this year. And why shouldn't it have? Just about every Bull was mentioned publicly about Kobe Bryant trade rumors. This year should be a void year for them. The reason they had such high expectations this year is because of what they've done the past few years.
Tmac is certainly talented, but it's not unreasonable to question someone who is supposed to be one of the most talented players in the league, yet can't even make it past the first round with multiple teams in both the east and west. I mean most "superstars" are questioned for not winning titles, not for the inability to get past the first round. Me personally, I am more concerned with staking our future on someone who is injured every year. His effort as a whole has been fine to this point. If he was playing hurt then that explains the supposed lack of effort in the games prior to him sitting out. Our team has talent, but 2 young developing players who average double digit scoring might be better in this motion offense than having Tmac who seems to do best while dominating the ball. At any rate I certainly would not be looking to dump Tmac at any cost like some people here, but at the same time I would not consider him untouchable either.
Good trade if it goes down.Nocioni fits in better with adelman's offense, He knows how to play without the basketball, he can shoot the basketball and he is a team first guy,He plays with scola on the same national team it would be a perfect fit and a perfect compliment with the system. The hedo turkolo's the vlade divac's, the peje stojovic type players along with Nocioni fit adelmans' style. Kurt henirich would be a perfect point guard in this syste, he would be better than mike bibby because he plays defense. Heinrich Nocioni Scola Yao ming Battier T-mac's mad because he doesn't want to change his style of play.He wants to hold the ball over his head for 10 seconds, he wants to make all the plays He doesn't want to move without the ball, he doesn't want to sacrifice his need for the ball,He doesn't want to change his style PERIOD,POINT BLANK and when he comes back he is going to continue to play the same way and hopefully he can ruin the flow and eventually next season get adelman fired because he doesn't want to really leave hosuton because he is fixed as a family man in the city and doesn't want to move. This would a perfect adelman starting unit.Adelman's is about offense and with all of these dudes playing off of Yao ming they would be a dangerous force to reckon with.
