Doubt it, especially since Artest knows that seemingly every year T-Mac has lit the Kings up with those same heat check 3's in Artest's face. Not to mention he won 2 scoring titles while having pretty much the same shot selection he has now. While T-Mac does things that make you want to pull your hair out, trying to control or limit his game could be counter-productive. Now that he will be facing single teams most of the year and likely getting more iso's at the elbow and on the wing, I expect his scoring to be very productive this year.
i really like what tmac is doing on one leg and out of shape and can't wait for him to fully recover. i don't think he'll attack the basket less; he'll just mix them more - shooting and attacking. now he's become pretty predictable, because he is attacking the basket most of the time. that and getting shane back and we should be SPECIAL.
Is it me or does T-Mac's bad free throw shooting seem psychological? Perhaps he had no confidence in the line before, and now that we have a toughass in Artest, McGrady no longer has the pressure of making the free throws and losing important points. Maybe he relaxed more at the free throw line and developed a steady stroke. You will expect that from Artest's arrival. You don't want an Artest knucklesandwich, when he ask for a freethrow he gets the freethrow. Hell, you don't even want an Artest b**** slap.
Well he won't be Kobe for sure, they are different and yes Kobe is better, but once McGrady falls into the right rythm he will be so close. Right now his fg% is pretty terrible but this is just beggining of the season. His knee gets better every day and he still isn't 100%. But it is just a lack of rythm. He has no lift, no elevation in his jumpshots so far but that will come. Situations like that happen every year, you just gotta play and the right shape will come. I strongly belive his fg% can be better (of course if he stays healthly). The first 3 games have shown a lot. He is not taking as many wild 3s, stupid jumpers which he used to take previous seasons. Now for example in transition he won't jack up for a j, he will drive inside. Even in the halfcourt offense he is attacking the basket more instead of shooting.
As fragile as he is he won't be able to drive to the basket for the whole season and come out uninjured.
I think double teams to Yao and McGrady has costed significant stress on the players body. They had to work extra hard to achieve a basket, and this isn't a positive to their injury prone body. I think Artest will not only take away the double team pressure, but scoring and defense as well. McGrady and Yao are not pressured to score 20 a game, nor are they forced to play as much defense with Artest around. So it is possible that both our players will play above 75 games. Missing a few due to minor injuries.
It is the "getting knocked on your ass" part of driving to the basket that gets him hurt so it doesn't depend as much on a double team or not. And as for defense, all three have to play a high level of defense in a team effort on the court, but maybe they get a little more rest on the bench from it.
yea tmac is getting to the line better this year which is really surprising considering he is a million dollar feather. He needs to go into everygame with the mentality that kobe or lebron has to take the game over. Those guys put their body on the line everynight. this is the year for a championship Its time to put the baby behind and leave everything out on the court. For example artest that man comes to battle everynight. maybe he will teach t-mac to play his heart out and stop being a baby. but I am very surprised how tmac is taking the ball to the hole more instead of jacking up shots. this is just to get a little something off my chest. the nba players should shut up about who their supporting for this year never in my lifetime have i seem them come out and back a president. But since their is an african american running everybody in their brother is voteing. Dont get me wrong the USA is ready for an african american president just not Obama. So learn the facts about the person just dont vote because of the color of the person.
It's not just Artest demanding the defenses' attention and removing the double teams from T-Mac. It's also Landry having a consistent mid-range shot, and AB hitting from the outside, and Barry when he starts to get it going. When all of these weapons start to hit consistent.... damn, watch out! As for T-Mac's heat checks - they are down from previous years, but he still has at least one per game But I really like to see him driving to the basket more often. It's good stuff! -Humer
Yeah I agree. It's not just Barry's range, or Artest's presence, it's ALL 5 (it takes 5 ya) players on the court having some ability to punish defenses that is allowing the game to open up for all our players, not just T-Mac. T-Mac is just using it to his advantage (smartly) by driving in and getting to the FT line and (thankfully) making them at a high clip. Come on Humer...you gotta give the guy at least 1 heat check right?
I'm ok with Heat checks actually...means he's been hitting. We never seem to have a problem when he happens to be just plain on fire. You take the good with the bad. And yes, I know he hasn't had too many situations when he's been on fire lately, haha. I also want to point out, a lot of times, I think people mistake him going 2 for 1 at the end of quarters for heat checks. I sometimes even have to remind myself.
This is a dynamic from having artest in vs shane. When artest is on the floor with his ability to put the ball on the floor. When the ball goes in to the post, gets kicked out to artest, the defense has to close out under control which means slower. When artest attacks and draw eyes and kicks to tracy, his man is coming slower, thus giving a hobbled tracy a step on the defender, drawing a foul. Shane is no threat, thus the defense closes out of control. When he whips it to tracy, the defense is already there in defensive position with eyes already on him. Now its a even matchup with the dribble.
there was an article about tmac and his free throw shooting. He said he practiced very hard on them I will find the article
