in interviews conducted this year, McGrady has publicly stated that his goal in this league is not to put up 30ppg. He *wants* to be a facilitator, and while he will still want to get his shots, he has said he is fine with floating in the 15-20ish range of points, so long as he is moving the ball and rebounding decently. Further, I don't think his 'co-existence' with Artest on the court stemmed from McGrady demanding the ball (if anything, he shied away from it much of this season because he was playing on a bum knee), rather, I think their on-court chemistry was hindered by the fact that he an Artest liked to shoot from the same spots, in addition to Ron causing on-court problems by calling McGrady out in the papers.
Nicely written. I agree with the fact that we now have the role players, but lack the star power. Indeed, if we manage to keep these players and possibly add someone at the MLE for next season, it will be interesting to see what we can do. That is assuming both Yao and Tmac will return as well.
this is how i feel wholeheartedly. i think they are fooling themselves thinking that yao can ever retain full health. the second it became clear that mcgrady's season was over last year, i would have put yao on the block as well. they should have gone full into rebuilding. right now, i would be looking to trade battier and scola for young parts, mcgrady for any young talent i can get (even if it necessitates including brooks in the deal), re-nouncing yao at season's end, and completely starting over with a high lottery pick. building upon the hope of health is never a good prospect. naturally though, finances are a more important consideration than a long term plan and thus les is committed to stubbornly sticking with yao despite the heavy odds against long term health. in this scenario, the best you can really hope for is just to keep everyone together and hope mcgrady is healthy. when you already have everything depending on yao's health, if you have the good fortune of having him actually return healthy, you probably can't waste any of the few years he has left after that in waiting for talent to develop/mesh together. we're basically in limbo right now.
I don't like this idea at all. I'd rather take the chance of Yao/T-Mac being healthy in the future than trading all our vets and going back to the Francis years. No thanks. Rather stay with the vets we KNOW can win games despite being undermanned than hope for the best in the lottery. Not a good business decision either, which is why Les wouldn't ever trade Yao or T-Mac. Another reason why we shouldn't think lottery is we have Morey. He can find championship type role players in the later rounds as he's already shown. What this team needs right now is health and that is all. If the team can hover close to .500 when T-Mac returns, we will make the playoffs with ease.
Excellent overview, thacabbage. I couldn't have done any better if I'd tried.... ....and I've made more than a few attempts.....!
we have already done the "wait for yao/t-mac to be healthy thing". ive done this for 5 years now. what this team needs, it may never have. this illusive health issue is the root, not the symptom. we have to face it. the guys we have are injury prone. at this point, it isnt just coincidence. im sorry but barely making the playoffs isnt exactly my idea of a succesful season. what i failed to realize is that we really dont have any other option than to bank on yao for 2011 and possibly further. unless yao opts out for some miraculous reason, the cabbage is right. we must view our future through this prism. and to that, my paradigm has shifted and i will start thinking in that light. i agree that we shouldnt aim for the lottery. but at the same time, lets just focus on developing what we do have. learn cohesion, learn our strengths, develop our youth. if we happpen to end up in the lottery and play our tails off, then that isnt so bad.
If this team plays their tails off and plays to their potential, they won't be lottery bound, unfortunately for some fans around here .
this could be the last season of the yao and mcgrady era so enjoy it while u can... maybe not since yao is not playing
