The trouble is that there is a large degree of overlap between YOF's who are also T-Mac haters and TOF's who are Yao haters. There wouldn't be nearly as much friction on this board except that the rabid fans in both camps feel compelled to attack the other side because they feel threatened if their player isn't numero uno on the team. As for T-Mac you have to able to tune out the baseless stuff and focus on the criticisms that have merit. In the game against the Cavs both Kenny Smith and Doug Collins came out and criticized T-Mac for his shot selection. Does anyone really think that Smith and Collins are YOF's, or T-Mac haters? The fact that this stuff isn't coming from posters on this board, that it's coming from guys like Smith and Collins and the Big O, makes me sit up and and pay attention. I would suggest that when guys like Smith, Collins and Robertson talk about it that it probably isn't an imaginary problem.
I cant recall, were they criticizing shot selection for the game, or for the year?? I know he shot a bunch of jumpers that game that he hasnt been taking the last few weeks. Wonder how much of it was settling due to being ill. I know he didnt drive much at all in the Cleveland game. If his selection was good before and the (admittedly just one) game later, I chalk that up to his illness. Sorry but I'm just trying to slow the false perpetuation that T-Mac is a cancer et al. Notice most of the stuff I say about McGrady revolves around running of the offense and shot selection. There is a reason I dont say a whole lot about his fast break opportunities(though that may be starting to come around as well) or weakside defense.
I've found that many neutral observers(not *OF of any sorts) crucify T-mac over his shot selections but Yao rarely gets the same treatment for his insane number of turnovers. Just my 2c. I know Yao is a model citizen and all. But thats just how it seems. He definetly cops less then McGrady. For whatever reason.
Yar seriously Yao has plenty of weaknesses yet Tmac is the only one being crucify left and right even though the Rockets have been winning a lot lately. When Yao gets outplayed by the Al Jefferson is it because he is playing lazy? Nope he gets the "He is physically limited", "Because he's been playing all year round" "It was Chinese New Years" yadda yadda. I mean Yao gets so many breaks yet Tmac can't even catch one. I love the big fella but I know he has plenty he needs to work on. Same with the role players.
He was clearly tired he came back early from Flu and was buggerred by the end of that road trip. But Im just saying Yao gets alot of free passes on this board for whatever reason. Its probably because his a model citizen. Some of the posters here still crucify T-mac for Game 7 against Utah. But really Yao has to take major responsiblity in that game too. I mean who went off on the Utah team again? Im just sick and of people trying to make T-mac as a scape goat for many problems on this team. Yao is just as responsible as him. When the team wasn't going well they both had a talk together. It wasn't one guy deciding to make a difference. These two guys are both our superstars. They consider themselves equal and so should we.
Who cares what criticism Yao gets? The issue is T-Mac. If I had a kid and I told him to stop doing something and he told me "Why? Jimmy's doing it, and nobody's criticizing him" I'd smack him upside the head.
I do because without T-mac against Minnesota we would have lost. But with the way Yao was playing we could well have lost. But no, the main discussion after the game was, wow T-mac jacks up alot of shots. Tell me thats not a free pass? The dude won the game for us and we are debating his shot selection. I'd much rather have some good technical discussion how we can better utilise our defence against those really fast and big post players like Jefferson and Boozer instead of debating why T-mac takes stupid shots AFTER he won a game for us.
Smith and Collins were obviously talking about the Cavs game. Robertson obviously wasn't. The committed T-Mac haters aren't going to change their minds. There is a large group in the middle though who have taken a wait-and-see approach to T-Mac and simply haven't made up their minds. I don't think this applies to you, but blanket denials and emotional outbursts from T-Mac fanatics when any criticism is leveled at him isn't going to convince the moderate majority. The Rockets offense actually looked very good last night with T-Mac looking to set up his teammates. He's said when he was growing up that Magic Johnson was his hero and it looked like he was having a lot of fun out there giving his best Magic impression. Teamwise he had an excellent game. Individually I wish he'd be a bit smarter about shooting with a hand in his face. He said something after the Hawks game about how his scoring total was down but the team was playing winning basketball. That makes me wonder if he's going to pull his shot attempts back, in which case it becomes even more critical that he exercise good shot selection. But it's hard to ask more out of the Rockets than what they did against the Hawks, and T-Mac was definitely a big part of that.
I totally agree bbjai. Actually the Tmac hate is going down a bit. It's usually just the same posters over and over that usually dont want to eat crow so they just keep bringing new reasons to hate him into it.
This is just a variant of "Everybody else is doing it, so why can't I?" Whether or not Yao gets any criticism is completely irrelevant. The issue is T-Mac's shot selection. What does Yao Ming have to do with that? The problem with T-Mac's shot selection is that about half the time he'll hit those contested jumpers and everything will look okay. The other half though they won't fall and if McGrady is taking enough shots he'll shoot the Rockets right out of the game. The real issue is whether or not T-Mac has an open look at the basket, not whether or not he makes the shot. As Oscar Robertson said, they're not going to drop forever.
Tracy has been in the league for 11 years. His teams have not been very successful. Rocket fans have a right to critique him. If Yao goes 11 years without a first round win, fans are going to critiquing his game also. The Atlanta Hawk game was the first game where he bought in to the system. If he keeps it up, the Rockets are going to go far in the playoffs. However, if he starts reverting back to the JVG offense and the Rockets start losing, the Rocket fans are going to start complaining again while the TOF fans start to irrationally defend him.
Your joking right? Im talking about actual discussion. I do have a problem with Mcgrady's shot selection. But right after the Minnesota game we had about 2 threads debating on his poor shot selection and that we were lucky to win the game. We didn't debate why Yao got absolutely trashed by Al Jefferson, or why those quick big mobile forwards always kill us in the post. Im talking on a game by game basis. Jefferson put us in a position to lose, thats on our d. So T-mac's poor shot selection made Jefferson score 30 points? Im all up for discussing it when it leads to proper losses. But the fact that posters gloss over other problems to directly hit T-mac is ridiculous. Even in the game thread its like Yao Ming got owned by Jefferson tonight. Why? is there a better solution? Should Scola or Hayes be on a player like Jefferson. But no half of them went, T-mac's shot selection was bad tonight he was just lucky they fell. Why did he even have to SHOOT us out of the game? Im talking about people going out of their way to bash him when there are bigger issues at hand at that point in time. As far as I know the problems we had against Boozer still are current and we haven't solved them. Mcgrady's shot selection is improving daily and yet he still regularly gets trashed day in day out. I love both players, and both have their faults. But why single out just one and continously trash him.
You don't think Yao was a big reason why Tmac doesnt have any playoff success? I remember Boozer liting him up on the defensive end and Okur giving him fits on the offensive end. No one is saying Tmac doesn't have faults but it seems like everyone is looking for a scapegoat.
b/c those faults that yao have can end up costing us a series (like it did partly in the utah series v. okur). every star has his faults. tmac has his faults and yao has his own faults. that's why we need other players to step up to cover their faults somewhat. both of our players are not true superstars YET.
Yao and Tmac has each received fair amount of bashing after the loss. Why do you try to make it out like Tmac is the only one who has been criticized? If you are not blind (are you?), you should know about the not-that-complimentary threads and posts about Yao, right? Why do you try so hard to mke people here out like they are biased and only put all the blame on Tmac? Why are you trying so hard to make some posters here look bad? It must help to boost your manhood if you can achieve that.
When you make $19,014,187 and your team doesn’t pass the first round, you earn the right to be the scapegoat. Tracy was right when he said, “It’s on me”. Hopefully, Tracy will continue to play RA’s system and in a few months this will be all water under the bridge.
aww Don't use money as a reason. I hate the money card. You think just by playing in RA's system is good enough? The west is very talented. There's a lot of very deep teams. I honestly believe we need a better point guard and our rookies to keep developing at fast rate.
People need to realize T-Mac is not Captain Ginyu. He can't swap bodies with others and shoot open jumpers for them when he dishes to them(Head against Jazz in the playoffs for ex). He can't catch for Hayes and Mutombo. He can't finish strong at the basket for Yao. Certainly his play hasn't been up to the MVP level it was last year, but it's really not all on him. It takes 5 to be great and it takes 5 to suck. One thing I would like for him to do is to get that FT% up to 80%
Criticism of both stars is justified. I would say that with Yao don't expect him to get a lot better defending the high pick and roll or dealing with athletic power forwards who have a mid range shot. There are just biological limitations that come into play in terms of lateral movement when somebody gets that big. With the mental stuff on the other hand you can hope that the player in question will improve. Yao needs to stop bringing the ball down in the paint when he's being swarmed unless he sees how to split the double and just goes immediately. If he's too far out then he needs to pass out immediately and repost instead of holding onto the ball forever. On the other hand, I don't think he needs to be more assertive in calling for the ball in the paint. How much calling did he do last night? T-Mac just fed him the ball, over and over.
I seem to recall a whole bunch of threads talking about Yao's performance. In fact, I remember a whole bunch of people posting about how Yao always hits a slump after getting Player of the Month honors. Yeah, there were problems with Yao. But that doesn't mean that there weren't also problems with McGrady. As far as I'm concerned it's fine to discuss any problems, so long as they're real and not imagined. And you just conceded that T-Mac's shot selection is sometimes problematic.
