Are we receiving some kind of karmic comeuppance from making fun of David Robinson for all those years? Think about it. Since Dream murdered him, the Spurs have won four championships. They now have twice(!) as many as we do. In that same time period, we've more often than not been the worst team in Texas. We've also been saddled with the softest player of all time in Tracy McGrady, a guy who makes Robinson look like Rambo. Poetic justice?
Tmac giveth and Tmac taketh away. The team needs to taketh the ball away from Tmac in crunch time...if AB is running the show late last night the team wins going away. Tmac took the ball away with about 5 minutes to go, and the team stopped moving, and stopped scoring. Thanks Tracy....nice job...... DD
Cut Tmac some slack. He can't help being out of shape, unmotivated, all talk and without question, the oldest 29 year old athlete in the history of the world. Basketball was not something he was asked to do. It was thrust upon him. This robbed him of his true destiny of living at his mother's house and sleeping on her couch his entire life.
When Yao is 0-7 in playoff series, we can talk. He still has quite a few more years to hit that benchmark.
It's taken many Clutchfans four years to get there, but it's starting to look like everyone's waking up.
Rather than hate on the guy that actually tried to take the game over why not redirect that criticism at the 7'6" guy that doesn't demand the ball and took the 4th most shot attempts on the team? It's a basic principle of an inside-outside team. Nevermind the expected up's & down's that comes with the three superstar mold (rarely will all three play well/have monster games), Yao should be the one constant among the three. Artest & T-Mac have always been streaky while Yao is parked three feet away from the basket. We should be feeding Yao constantly, not having him play off of everybody else.
How about the curse of the lack of other players who can step up when T-Mac is struggling? Even though our win-loss record may suggest otherwise, we played our best offensively in games where T-Mac was at his best. Games where T-Mac struggled: - ugly wins over Memphis, OKC, and Clippers - blowout loss against Lakers - bad loss against undermanned Spurs team - good win against Dallas on national tv (thanks to Ron's best game of the season), but their record indicates they aren't such a great team either Games where T-Mac played well on offense: - close loss against a really good Boston team, and a pretty good Portland team - best win of the season against the Suns
i think people understand yao is just not that "take-over" kind of guy. b/c yao rarely demands the ball, never dominates a playoff game.
That's because Yao wouldn't be able to carry a team to the playoffs, unlike Tracy McGrady who has done it multiple times!!!
exactly. tmac right now isn't consistent enough for us to depend on him. so in games where he struggles early, LIMIT his minutes and pound the ball to yao or artest. what the hell was yao just chillaxing on offense? we went through this over and over every year. last yr v. dallas earlier in the season, yao barely got the ball and he didn't do anything. and after the game, he says from now on, ima demand the ball. and yet tonight he only shot the ball 9 times and said nothing.
Durv, You are ignoring the fact that when TMac is struggling he does not give the ball up, he still wants it and dominates it. Last night, he was struggling and he basically struggled his way to a team loss.....you know kind of like the Portland game where he failed to cover his man Brandon Roy....you starting to see a pattern here? This has to be something the coach recognizes and pulls him out of the game...egos be danged ! DD
but yet he's on the decline. still hasn't shown the willingness to want to take over a ballclub and be the best player. tracy right now is clearly not at his best. and yet yao is nowhere to be found to take over that role. yao right now has the ripe opportunity to say, "tmac, your time is over. it's my time now." but NO. and once again, he's still hasn't made a playoff game his. if yao or tracy is going to win a series, it might be b/c of aaron brooks.
that's why people are blaming those losses on tracy. he cost us those games. but the positive is that he clearly wanted to take over that game. that's the mentality we need if we're going to win in the playoffs (hopefully he wont' suck like this 5-6 months down the line). artest does not have that mentality; neither does yao. when games are close, you need one guy to step up. tracy tried and failed. sure, i would have liked him to run the offense more and hopefully he will. but i wouldn't slam him for trying to win us a game. i would slam him if he just started playing passive knowing he struggled and let the others decide for him. but tracy clearly is not getting the job done right now. he's either playing great or sucking. we can't have these polarizing performances. he needs to get his act together real quick b/c it's a great time for us to move up in the standings and we're only 5-4
I'm not going to defend T-Mac's defense. He flat out hasn't been a good defensive player this year, or most of last year. Offensively, I think still think we're at our best when McGrady is playing well. Brooks is a great penetrator and he has the potential to be a good playmaker. But he doesn't have McGrady's court vision. He can't take advantage of the same passing angles McGrady has. Even a sluggish T-Mac who could barely get separation from his man made some very good passes under the basket off the drive to our bigs. He can make things happen, and that's why when he's at his best, he's our most effective offensive player. Do we win yesterday if Adelman recognized T-Mac doesn't have it, and he puts in, say, Wafer instead? Who really knows. It's not like Brooks was completely frozen out at the end of the game. I believe in the last 5 minutes he took and missed more shots than anyone. He exhibited some questionable decision making as well. Wafer hasn't shown me he can do anything other than hit spot up threes. Adelman went with a guy who's proven he can take over the games in the past, and it didn't work. If faced with the same situation next game, I'd wager he sticks with McGrady again.
