[CHRON] McGrady: Rockets' success hinges on team, not him

did you read my post? i'd trade tmac in a heartbeat if we can improve the team.

i only love players who bring championships to the team (hakeem, clyde...).

both tmac and yao are mentally weak. we all see it in their play. yao was nervous as hell in game 7. tmac is unable to close out a series win and how he has struggled so badly this year.

our stars are not exactly the best stars in the world. we have to know their faults. people keep wanting to point out tmac (and most of it are true--lack of intensity and focus, not willing to drive, settles for jumpers...), but yao has tons of faults too (the obvious ones--slow, lack of agility..., but also he doesn't perform well under pressure, he can't handle all the types of defenses, he can't score at will and teams can take him out of a game, he can be a defensive liablity v. certain teams...)

our stars have a lot of faults that we have to hide (that's why we're bringing in a lot of pieces).

more importantly, our stars have too many injuries.

is that an "only-fan" for you?

i'm a realist

 

Did you read my posts? My point is that you had to support your hero by dissing the other players on the team which you are supposed to be a fan of. Your behavior fits the definition if an 'only-fan' to a 'T'.

 

how is he my hero? he's my favorite on the team but he is not my hero. if you want to get into the specifics, lebron is actually my favorite player in the NBA right now. you could see my numerous posts where i claim he is the best player in the NBA.

i'd get rid of tmac with no hesitation if he sucks it up in the playoffs like he has the last week.

 

Words don't win or lose games (the script does), so none of it matters to me too much. And especially have no problems with taking ON pressure (I.E. "it's on me")- because if you don't win you have to eat it more individually.

Shrinking away from pressure is what makes me cringe. Not necessarily this time (though it's funny this is the exact opposite of what he said last year- as if last year's team was so good, that if they lost it would be "on" him- but this year, well then it will be all team lol), but for instance denying it was the biggest game of his career last year. Which he had to eventually rescind lol, I imagine that one didn't sit well with J.V.G.

 

Well how the Hell are you suppose to counter-argue this God-Forsaken Jinxing Thread that puts every blame on T-mac without telling the haters why the blame shouldn't be all T-mac.

And how in the world do you tell others that last year wasn't all or even mostly t-mac's fault without naming the flaws of other players.

You sir are obviously a t-mac hater.

I am disappointed, playoff time and these posts are being made. The basketball God looks down on us. We came so far after such a terrible incident. We are damn lucky T-mac didn't give up like many of you SAID he will. Now you're going to this b*ll****?

Tell me, why do the rockets deserve to pass the first round with fans that don't even appreciate their own players? Ye Jackasses, right now GS warriors deserve the playoff spot more than we do. Why? We made it so far with the most inferior team and ended with the fourth best record when we lost our BEST player in the early second half of this season. And Yes, T-mac did not give up, he laid the weight on his teammates, the most mature thing a leader could ever do. And now, you're saying he is backing now TeamUSA?

I am so disappointed in many of the fans here, especially you TeamUSA. You should be ashamed of yourself for making these morale decreasing threads. If there was a basketball God, we are the last people he'll help. We don't appreciate the fact that we are in playoffs when NOBODY, even some of our own fans, thought we could make it into even the eighth seed

Keep your trash up your ass until playoff time is over. You can spill your junk later, but right now, I want to watch Rockets Basketball. I want the Toyota Centre to be as loud and as red and white as possible. I want our fans to be supporting every single player in these moments.

What I don't want is threads like these that are demoralizing. Please lock this up and let this thread die. Its playoff time, arguement is not necessary

 

Frankly, it gets a little tiring when any criticism of McGrady automatically invokes a defense of "Yao's just as bad".

If you feel compelled to defend McGrady, fine. Try and do it on the merits. But trying to drag Yao into it is just muddying the waters.

 

Too bad thats what Rockets fans have been doing after a lost. It goes to McGrady First.

 

Kobe and Jordan are consistently effective throughout the game and then step it up in the final minutes.

Btw, yao also put up 29 pts in game 7 so tmac clearly didnt dominate every minute. He had help.

btw, jordan and kobe are in an entirely different class than tmac. its like comparing alonzo mourning to hakeem. dont expect to prove any points by comparing good against great.

Is it asking too much for our $20 million man to attack the basket in the 4th quarter...especially since the jazz were in the penalty relatively early?

Thats basic basketball.

They were in the penalty. Tmac should've been more aggressive. The odds of him drawing fouls while penetrating is much greater than yao drawing fouls in the post. Basic basketball...

You're probably going to counter with something like "he wasnt getting the calls." But you know what? That doesnt matter. Keep attacking. If the fouls become obvious, then the refs will be forced to call them. The last thing he should do is defer to teammates. To jeopardize the entire season on the shooting abilities of the role players is simply poor decision making.

 

are you stupid?
Im not even an only fan, Im an advocate against the continual bashing of Tracy Mcgrady for Game 7 last year. Its amazing that you guys can go oh yes Yao Ming is encumbered by slow agility, he can't board blah blah blah blah. But Mcgrady is under a set of different conditions, his a superstar wing, he can easily score on a triple or double team. Last time i checked single man scoring (Kobe Bryant last season) did nothing but lose as well. Its about holding both players accountable. Sure he said something stupid, but that doesn't make Yao any less at fault what happened in game 7.

 

Your post reeks of bias. You can't expect Yao Ming to get a rebound if its past 6 feet (which I totally agree on, I don't expect him to board like Boozer, if anything we should blame the fact that we still had Juwan Howard as a Power Forward). Lets not mention that we couldn't grab nearly 3-4 rebounds. IT wasn't one or two it was quite a few. Im not blaming the forward line, its flawed. But they are just as at fault.

Advocating for T-mac to drive in the 4th is awesome except you nearly ignore the facts when:
a. they doubled or tripled him as soon as he got the ball
b. No one else named Yao could hit a shot from a barnyard.

I sure to God have not been able to see how you can expect him to drive consistently on a double or triple team. He clearly had no option in that quarter. Sure your probably correct he needed to drive ALOT more in the 4th quarter but as many analysis has shown in this forum, our offence last year was way too predictable, its easy to see that Mcgrady would get the ball close to or around the wing areas. The Jazz were manhandling him on a double team he didn't even have space to drive. Its like how people crucified Lebron James last playoffs for dishing that last shot against the Pistons.

I don't believe passing out of a double team is taking a break. Last time I checked its what every coach in basketball teaches. You can yarn all you like about $20,000,000 player but thats like telling me Yao Ming isn't paid his max salary to not get rebounds?????

Both of them are equally at fault and Im sure you'll find that they'll both admit they weren't clutch in the critical plays.

 

This thread has turned into complete garbage

 

I have no idea what you're trying to say.

 

Yep, these kind of threads constantly get bumped up too but when someone like SuperMarioBro makes a thread about actually analyzing Tmac and the reason for his problems it falls into the abyss.

That thread is here

I personally think it is injuries. Earlier in his career his fg% was higher and he was getting even more attention from defenses and had an even worse shot selection but scored more often. He has alot of physical problems that prevent him from attacking the basket alot but hey he's the star of the team and people will always blame him for everything. It's just odd that people rarely give him credit when we do win.

 

how can anyone say they are not worried about T-Mac? remember last year with 5 seconds left, T-Mac walked up teh court and passed the Chuck Hayes to shoot a half courter? Remember that T-Mac? It's the same guy.

 

I don't think that Mcgrady was trying to "bail himself out" or anything like that. I even thought it was a little rediculous last year when he made that infamous statement ("it's on me") because the fact of the matter is that this is a team game. It will be doubly important that Mcgrady is in top form during the playoffs because the rockets will already be down one superstar. However, I can't stress enough how much this is and will always be a team game.

 

al i had to said is lets go rocket!!!!!!!!!

 

well i'm sorry. they're both rockets so if i say one thing about a star, it has to apply to the other star since they both are the leaders of the rockets. as an unbiased rockets fan, i believe yao gets away with WAY too much in terms of criticism. he has been our most consistent player the past season and a half offensively. this year, he's more of an integral part of our offense than he ever has and we go to him more than tmac quite at times. hell, his usage rating last yr was guard-like (around 28-29)

whatever blame people want to throw at tmac is fine with me b/c he hasn't done much to thwart it with his playoff record. but those same exact things apply to yao, if not more.

if you're a rockets fan who just cares about winning like me, you for well know that we have 2 stars that their own fans lack confidence in (doesn't mean we don't watch they play and cheer them on, i do). but they're on this team so we support them.

 

what has kobe done without shaq? ZERO success and missed the playoffs one year. i never said they were not great closers, they were. but they had help where they don't have to score/assist on all BUT 7 BUCKETS IN A GAME. how ridiculous is that?

yes but tmac got 13 assists? i'm sure tmac created some for yao.

yes they were in the penalty. but who's better at drawing fouls the past few years? tmac or yao? yao had 11 free throws in that game. he had okur on him without double teams nearer the basket.

we went to yao? TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT? what's wrong with DEFERRING to yao, the best center in the NBA who was having a strong game offensively (i only criticize yao's defense and rebounding primarily in that game--> we lost on that end). he's closer to the basket, he had space to operate... tmac did his job doing everything possible for 44-45 mins, let the other star finish the game? ISN'T THAT THE POINT OF A 2-STAR SYSTEM? and yao's a much better ft shooter than tmac.

if we were playing a team like the warriors who surround yao, then you can blame tmac for not getting to the line. but yao was not double teamed one single bit. we went to him to end the game and that was the right move by JVG. he's our best asset offensively if he's single covered. TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT?

 

tmac SUCKED the past few games. any normal fan can see that. if he plays any close to that level, please cut him. if he doesn't step up in this playoffs, it means tmac is no longer a dependable player (along with his injuries) for us to invest in.

he better be doing a lot of practice. this is his time to show he still has it.

 

maybe Tmac will be more relaxed in the playoffs if, for the first time he just does not feel so much wieght on his shoulder, maybe this is the year.