look, i think we ALL acknowledge that the tracy mcgrady we have now is not the tracy mcgrady we traded for in 04-05, who was truly one of the top 5 players in the game bar none and a bona fide superstar/franchise player. at this stage, tracy is only that player when he's healthy, which he is rarely in the reg. season. so that's why we got ron artest and are ecstatic at the improvements of scola and other role players. tracy is our main guy as default b/c yao is just not that guy. the organization has tried (they've begged/prayed/do whatever for yao to be that super franchise player) to make yao that "it" guy but it hasn't turned out that way. but b/c tracy has declined somewhat, yao is yao, morey understands the team needs more. he addressed that. now it's time to win.
Without Horry Shaq would be one less championship ring. Without D Wade Shaq would have won nothing Without blah blah there is no one important player. I'm nearly 100% sure Jordan would not have achieved what he did without Pippen. Its a team game. Anyone that played basketball can tell you that
No I debate that severely. Ray Allen spreads their offence in a ridiculous way. They are a jump shooting team at the end of the day with some ridiculously low stats in the paint. Ray Allen is probably the biggest factor there is in both the regular season and the playoffs in deciding spacing, defensive schemes and even sub patterns. I can't think of one player you can replace him with who would space the floor quite like he did.
In recent years, the rockets team wasnt built around yao. traditional centers like him are most effective when surrounded by consistent 3 pt shooters. look who we've surrounded him with. luther? rafer? tmac? at least this year, we'll have barry and maybe even artest (looks to be a pretty good 3pt shooter when he has his feet set). you keep saying this over and over. do you not realize that this goes hand in hand with having a team built around yao? how can yao be effective when he's surrounded by shooters who dont have the defense's respect? do you recall the shooters we had surrounding hakeem? cassell, horry, elie, maxwell, and smith. no offense, but i'm tired of repeating myself. next time you reference yao not showing he can lead a team, i'm just going to call you an idiot and that'll be the entirety of my argument. frankly, i dont care if a player can lead a team to the playoffs if that team gets eliminated early.
Of course its a team game. But not everyone on the team is equally important. Anyone that played basketball can tell you that
tmac will never be the player he used to be...not even when he's healthy. back then, he wasnt chronically injured. back then, he wasnt afraid of attacking the basket. so now, even if he is healthy, he won't attack the basket like he should b/c he's afraid of getting hurt. how can you say that tmac is still the #1 guy even though the team has been revamped and we havent seen how the new/improved players play together?
i said he's still the #1 guy by default. he's obviously remains our main playmaker, the guy we give the ball to when we don't know what to run, the guy we go to in the 4th quarter. his responsibilities will be LESS than before b/c of the new and improved players and that's a good thing. but tracy remains our do-it-all guy offensively.
ask les who has he built this team around since he drafted yao? just b/c you don't think the pieces are good enough b/c you want yao to do supernatural things does not mean the team hasn't building around yao. like i said, every move this organization has made since yao was drafted had the intention of making yao the main centerpiece. every coach who has been brought here since rudy has the mentality of playing inside-out, esp. JVG. that's what you don't get. we've been building around yao. but he's just not that guy. he's a great player, but just not that franchise player. and yes, frankly, i also don't care if a player leads a team to the playoffs and loses in the first round. b/c that's still losing. however, it def. does show that one player has the ability to lead carry a team TO THE PLAYOFFS. no player in history has been able to win by himself (you need a team). but usually, one single franchise player with decent/average pieces can at least go to the playoffs.
In other words get it to the guy who'd mediocre finishing, mediocre getting to the foul line and who's questionable when it comes to killer instinct/motivation/toughness. Frankly I'd rather hand the ball off to Artest.
In other words you're not debating the fact that T-Mac isn't all that when it comes to finishing or getting to the foul line? If those are legitimate issues then what's the excuse for giving him the ball in clutch time? Artest on the other hand is relentless and tough. T-Mac's always been a player with tremendous physical gifts and to some extent those gifts have spoiled him. As he gets older and his physical assets diminish it's had a disproportionate effect on his game. This whole discussion is pointless anyway. If the Rockets' success depends on McGrady playing 82 games then forget it. He's getting older and the safe money is on him getting hurt again and having to sit out for another stretch later on in the season. Hopefully it won't matter too much. Last season when McGrady sat out everybody else stepped up and the Rockets really gelled, not to mentioned they started executing the offense. And this year they have Artest.
Which players in prior years (besides scola and battier), in your opinion, have we acquired that complement yao? and btw, you think that acquiring tmac from orlando was intended to make yao the main centerpiece? do you realize how dominant tmac was in orlando? of course you do. you're probably tmac's biggest fan. you even have his name in your handle. yet you think that he was originally brought here to be a sidekick. brilliant.
like i said, tracy is not the same player. if me, any rocket fan, les, or morey had a choice, they would want a lebron/kobe/wade/paul/deron as their main perimeter player. and i do agree with you on his faults. our success does not depend on tracy a full 82 game. we've had great reg. season the past few yrs where tracy did miss 15+ games (though without tracy, we looked awful). with artest and improved scola, tracy's role will decrease, which will only help him. however, i still maintain tracy is the key guy we can afford to lose. he just does too many things offensively for us that only guys like lebron/kobe/wade can do.
Dont underestimate Artest. During our 22 game win streak last year, we almost lost to artest and the kings. we had a huge lead in the 4th quarter, but artest almost single-handedly brought them back by taking it at tmac every chance he could.
1) when yao was first drafted here, initially we went inside-out until francis and everyone knew yao wasn't ready 2) when JVG was hired, that was basically the move that said, "yao is the key to this team." JVG is a classic inside-out guy that builds around his big man. 2) when tmac was brought here, JVG emphasized the inside-out game and that's why tracy only avg 20 pts and took 15 shots per game the first month in houston. yes, tracy was brought here to be his sidekick. tracy said so too. JVG said so too. tracy was still gonna be a superstar, but yao was supposed to be the main guy. how do you explain tracy's low shot attempts and passiveness in the first month in houston? was he trying to appease juwan howard? or bob sura? or david wesley? no, he was doing it for yao ming.
On the contrary, the Rockets pulled it together last season when T-Mac was out with injuries. I'd say they looked pretty damn good once they gelled and started running the offense. In terms of most valuable to the team I'd put T-Mac behind Yao and Artest. Yao's the big presence in the middle, the only guy on the team who's over 7' now that Deke's on vacation, and the team leader in scoring for the last two seasons (not to mention rebounds and blocks). As for Artest, the guy's a monster on both ends of the floor, offense and defense, which you cannot say about McGrady. And he's got all the mental assets--toughness, killer instinct, whatever--that McGrady seems to lack. And in the fourth quarter when it gets to crunch time I'd rather that either or those two had the ball in their hands. Both of those guys are better at getting to the foul line than McGrady and at this point they're both better at finishing those high percentage shots around the basket.
I ask you to name the people the Rockets have acquired in past years that complement Yao. Its a simple question...i didnt think i left room for confusion. guess i was wrong. if you cant answer the question, thats fine. but theres no need to deflect it. havent you heard the phrase "actions speak louder than words"? theres actually some truth to it. but since you love words so much, can you explain why a "sidekick" would say "its on me"?
ALL OF THEM. why should i name when i said, "EVERY MOVE the organization has made is due to yao ming." you want me to list all of the transactions/signings in his entire career? goodness. what's the point of drafting a guy #1 if you're not going to build around him? let him rot? and to your last point, i've said the team has been trying to build around yao ming, but i also said MANY TIMES, as the season goes along, it all comes back to tracy being the main guy b/c yao continues to show he's not that guy. i feel like i'm repeating myself. i guess i have to bring les and morey in here to confirm that. you can go ask les and morey right now (or email jon feign of the chron) on who they're trying to build around the past 6-7 years.
