I voted to let his deal expire...I'm not sure if he has a high trade value right now. Who knows he will get his act together before the playoffs?
Here is what I would do if I ran the club (and honestly, I probably should be running it) 1. Sit down with Tmac and outline exactly what is expected of him. 2. Sit him down until he is healthy mentally and physically 3. Be very clear with him that the team expects to play a certain way 4. Tell him that the team needs him, he is important, but he has to play the way everyone else is playing, as part of the team. 5. Explain that it means playing both ends of the floor, he has to play with energy & passion on defense too. 6. While he is sitting out, outline a very hardcore rehab program designed to get him back to his normal athletic self. 7. Offer to help him with any issues that he might be dealing with 8. Tell the team that this is what is being done. 9. Hold Tmac and the entire team accountable..... That is what I would do, Tmac reminds me of a kid, someone who has been great his whole life and as a result has been coddled, and right now he is getting in trouble for the first time, and doesn't like it. Well, tough.....the team needs him....only IF...he is part of the solution, because playing like he has played his entire career only creates an inevitable failure, the team is better off playing together than relying soley on the whims of one player, no matter how talented he is.... Just be clear, Tmac needs a father type figure to set the rules, and to hug him if necessary..... And meanwhile the team should move on.....and they will come around when they see him working hard at getting healthy, and if not...no big deal, he will have made the decision easy for the organization by not sticking to his regiment. At the end of the day, the organization has to think of what is good for it as a whole and if Tmac becomes a cancer (and I think he is danged close) you have to deal with it...before it infects others and brings down the entire team. Thanks for reading. DD
well, let's put the card on the table. i know even tmac apologist has to agree: in order for him to be effective again he need to overcome the following obvious issues: -physically, he's got a bad knee. this can be fixed over time and if he sits out. maybe not 100% but perhaps 75% is good enough. this is a no brainer for me. if it really is just a physical issue, sit him out until he's good enough to play, not a day before. -mentally, he seems under-motivated (not unmotivated). he just doesn't seem the same anymore, for whatever reason. this issue is serious. how do you fix something like that? orlando's solution was to trade him. i think it's a combination of him being injured and the team being in a slump. he's seems to lose faith when the stars aren't aligned (as opposed to artest who makes lemonade out of lemons). maybe it's unconscious, but can we all agree on this? here's what i hope. we keep him or limit his time until he's about 75% healed. hopefully, we'll start winning and he change's his outlook on the team and really start to believe again. then he can start in the playoffs.
I like DaDa's idea. I will not sell something when the price is at the absolute bottom. If the price is right, maybe. That means we should get another quality max player back, or some very promising young star with some bad contracts. But we all know it's not going to happen at the moment. It's not just for TMac, but everyone including Yao. When you are running a business, you always listen to offers. I agree with lots of posters who pointed out lately, that it's getting ridiculous the hatred towards TMac. He may have led us past the first round in playoffs, but none of the players did. Fans and management and players are dissatisfied with him, even himself is, is because we ALL KNOW he could do much much much better. With new additions we have this season, our hopes are getting high, and it's a very cruel thing for TMac to do, to destroy that high hope in January. I don't think TMac is a bad kid, not at all, he's in fact a very genuine guy, just spoiled - by his own talent and the worship from fans. I think it's a more mental thing than physical thing for him right now. As gifted as he is, he's extremely disappointed that he couldn't do anything he used to do with ease. He has to adapt to this situation, learn to play hurt, play limited, and play hard. If he wants to, as JVG said, he could still be a great help with even much worse limitations. Hating on him or just throwing that 21 million away is not going to help anyone or anything. The organization needs to support him right now, and show more patience, so do teammates and fans. Not pampering him by letting him bring 30% on the court, but encouraging him to fight through all the adversaries. As fans, we need to give players room as well. Going to pro league after high school, all the money and fame at such young age, it's easy to lose oneself. He's making big money, doesn't mean he's superman without any shortcomings. Stomping on him when he's down is very easy, but except for some cheap pleasure, what do we really get? I think it's also a good time for other players to show great leadership, by helping their comrades. I think Deke, Yao, Artest, and Shane should be the guys approaching TMac and supporting him more, especially when he's a negative right now.
Rox should let him stay till 2010 , they will only get scrubs before the deadline and try to sign someone else in 2010. Maybe he gets his act together before playoff time
What are you getting at? That our hopes in some paradoxical way rely on Mr. 0-7? We just beat the world champs, in their building, without him. I have no doubt that this bunch can beat a lesser Western conference team four times out of seven.
I don't even want to argue with you, andyou know why., You are a blind person, but what can I do? I am not saying T-Mac is winner or anything like that. 0-7 is sad, but EVERYBODY, I mean EVERYBODY says this team has no shot even at the 2nd round without T-Mac, because in the postseason it will be all about T-Mac. And as I said, pretty much EVERYBODY says that. In the playoffs, without T-Mac we would have lost 0-4 to ANY team in the NBA by an average of 15 or more points. Regular season is one thing...
Pretty much EVERYBODY thought we shouldn't have pulled the trigger on the Pistons deals either. Doesn't mean they were right.
Of course you won't have any shot, if you just throw 21 million away. You can't just move away the highest paid player on a team, and then say they will be a lot weaker to prove that guy is the most important part. What if you get something like 15 + 5 millions back? Of course, it's wishful thinking at the moment. I am against giving up on Tmac, but your logic doesn't hold.
And really, LOL @ the blind person crack. Blind like "Blindbury" maybe, the guy who's been right about the whole situation all along.
Funny how much this forum is seperated in 3 parts: - I love Tmac - I hate Tmac - I sometimes love him, sometimes hate him. The polls are so close.
Let him rest and heal till he's ready to play then watch his attitude. If he continues to snooze through the game even when he's 100%? Dump him! No heart!
What if he does overachieve himself (that's not too hard) next season and plays like he is supposed to play. Oh well nevermind, I'm tired of talking McGrady - it's pointless.
Whatever you do, you absolutely do not trade him this year. This is another time I'm glad Morey is the GM and CD is gone, because there is atleast some kind of vision for the direction of the franchise. It would be beyond stupid to impatiently trade him this year with delusions of grandeur in some effort to salvage this season. It's not happening. Allen Iverson is the only guy you could realistically get that you could still hope to contend with. You have to think of the long term future of the franchise. You call Detroit and get rejected. Then you sit him for a month. The team is worse with him on the court right now. Von Wafer's emergence as an actual NBA player (the whole concept is so ridiculous, but bare with me, the point is you don't have Luther Head running around with his head cut off as the alternative) gives you some hope of treading water. You pray he comes back. Unlikely - very unlikely. But significantly more likely than contending this year with Michael Redd or whatever. If it doesn't work out, you get bounced in the first round, not too painful a pill to swallow as you're used to it, and then either trade him next year for a much better package or just let it expire in 2010 and go after Joe Johnson. No matter what you do, you do NOT trade this guy this year for peanuts. That would be beyond stupid. Don't fool yourselves into thinking this team is a contender as is.
Agreed. He is playing so poorly his first name no longer starts with T and he should be forced to drop the Mc from his last name. Racy Grady
Bench him or trade him. Either way T-Mac needs to be moved to a position, off to the side somewhere, from which he can't disrupt the locker room.
