And to think, I used to be at odds with ya back in '07. Now here we are together helping sweep ole T'Mac out the door.
.368 fg for the season, it's a stretch of 6 games and he only played 7 minutes a game. But how can you single out the only good game he played while simply ignore he sucked in others?
After watching tonight's game, I feel better and better about our T-Mac situation. Watching little Brooks bravely and dumbly driving in there and taking a hard hit for an attempt at getting a foul made me warm and fuzzy to start off my new year!
Not any more. He lost his explosiveness and his quick first step. Fill what up? He can't get his shot, he can't shoot. All he'll do is create, and without being an offensive force, he can't draw doubles and create either. See response to #1. Yes he can, easily. See #1. Also, why doesn't he CONSTANTLY "impose his will" (is this some synonym for "play hard"?)? Why does it occasionally "turn it on"? Why can't it just ALWAYS be on like Carl Landry? Because he's lazy. Yeah, he is a good passer with a high basketball IQ, but he refuses to do as the organization asks and isn't a team player. No, he's not any more. Yep.
Please let him go, it's a wrap in Htown for the Tmac. He's no different when than other Rocket who moved on. Yes, he's an offensive machine. However, he cares very little about D and team offense when it comes to moving the rock. STOP TREATING HIM LIKE HE'S YOUR FIRST LOVE!!!
I watched the video and what differences I saw was no lift in his shot. From the three point line he use to do a verticle leap on his shot that put him over his defender. In the video that was gone. The T-Mac before the last couple of seasons could drive through the paint most of the time and slam down a dunk. In the video, he had no leaping ability to do it. T-Mac was a superstar a few years ago. Now he is just a good player. Sadly, this good player still has a superstar ego and can't play team ball. The best decision for the Rockets was to give T-Mac the trade he wants. Good luck T-Mac....thanks for the memories.
Ideally, McGrady would've shown a little more patience, played those 7 minutes the way Adelman wanted him to play, and gotten his minutes increased to 15 to 20 at some point in January. It would have generated more interest in him from other teams, making it easier for Morey to make a trade that benefits both him and the team. A win-win situation. Instead, it seems to me that Morey's job has been made more difficult than it ought to be.
Considering in Morey's latest interview when asked if Tracy woudl still be a Rocket if he agreed to accept the 7 minutes again as long as possible, I think there was no desire to increase his minutes, but to simply frustrate him into wanting to leave.
From what I read, Adelman did not rule out giving McGrady playing time; he just didn't want to make any definite commitment to McGrady's minutes or be pushed into doing so. As far as I know, all Morey said on this subject was that he agreed with the coach. Did you read or hear otherwise? And if Morey/Adelman really wanted him to leave from the get go, they would just go about looking for a trade. They don't need to play any games with McGrady or need his permission.
Morey as asked if Tracy agreed to go by coaches timetable as long as it took would he still be a Rocket. Morey did not give a straight answer. The only reason he would not say yes is if the answer was no and he had no interest in keeping Tracy. So I think he didn't give a straight answer because the honest answer was no. He and Adelman did not want Tracy on this team.
I think you're talking about the recent 610 radio interview after the Hornets game. What I heard was Morey summarizing what he saw as Adelman's rationale for McGrady's minutes and then agreeing with the coach's decision. IMO Morey didn't/doesn't give a straight answer about playing time of players because it's not his to give. If he did so, it could seem as if the GM was second guessing the coach. When asked similar questions, time and again Morey's been very careful about saying "It's the coach's decision and I fully support it." Sometimes, it comes off as if he were hiding his opinion, but I don't think that's it.
The question wasn't would his minutes get increased over time. The question was, would he be part of the team if he agreed to the circumstances. Answering that question does not undermined the coach, especially when the coach hasn't given a straight answer either. Again, the question was if Tracy agreed to do what coach wanted, would he be part of the Rockets Basketball Club.
I'm nitpicking now, but if you're talking about the radio interview, the actual question was "Had he said I'll do this seven minutes a night thing, would he still be playing right now?" Morey answered "We don't have the answer to that" and then he followed it up by summarizing Adelman's stance and saying Tracy wasn't willing to do what Adelman was asking. No value judgement. If Morey said "Yes he'd still be playing right now", that would be second-guessing the coach, which as I said Morey tries to avoid. I just don't see an ulterior motive in his not giving an opinion. Bottom line, I think we just disagree on the intent of Morey/Adelman. You believe they did not want him on the team, so they schemed to frustrate him and force him to ask for a trade. I don't.
Don't take personal shots at people. That doesn't improve the quality of this forum at all. If you're going to debate, then do it with dignity, or ignore these threads and they might go away.
At first I did think everyone was genuine, but now I disagree. I don't think Morey and Adelman wanted Tracy here at all.
I have to agree with this one. I really like McGrady as a player, but I know that he didn't fit in what this team is trying to do this year, or even in the coming years. If this team stays as is for a few more years, this'll really make sense in retrospect. I think that what Morey is shooting for is that he wants a core of players that are going to last together as a group. No one knows what McGrady's salary demands would have been this offseason, though I would have vouched for keeping him at a reduced rate. Who knows, he may have demanded for a salary higher than what the team should realistically give him, in which case he would have walked in the end while getting his playing time at the expense of other of the team's contributors. There are a lot of variables in the situation to be sure, but Morey seems to be in the business of minimizing these risks. Where I disagree with McGrady is when he said that he needs to play for another contract, and where I disagree with Adelman is in not giving McGrady a little bit more of a chance, but I can kind of understand it since he may have had more similar demands coming from other players in the near future as a result. Think of it like this, if you worked at a company where a guy ruled the roost and was at the top in sales consistently, two years ago, but he took a leave of absence and came back, only to be promoted without showing anything since coming back, would you be happy? What if said individual's two years were spent recovering from some kind of anxiety disorder, where you didn't know whether or not he was the same person anymore, wouldn't that raise questions? Furthermore, if you were all on contract and all had your ideas of what you could do for the company, but you never got the chance, since he did despite the fact that his contract is about to run out, wouldn't you feel a bit undervalued? I think that these psyche issues is what the team is trying to avoid. Sure, the team could take a chance on Mac, but given the above considerations, they felt that there might be too much to lose if it doesn't work out.
i think it's funny how everyone justifies that we shouldn't keep mcgrady because he's not the player he used to be. sure whatever he lost a step but still he's by far the best player on our roster even at 80% health. watching ariza dribble the ball like he has two left hands up and down the court chucking a ton of senseless shots not making anything is really painfull.
Personally, I don't justify it. I'd rather keep him and see if we could keep him at a discount. He even said that he wanted to come back here if they would have him back. I'm not sure at what price that would have been, but depending on what he would have shown, I would have loved to keep him at about mid-level exception type money.
I think tmac loses more than we do. I honestly think les/dm/adelman think tmac has a good chance to be a leader again but he wants to rush it this season for a paycheck next season. he should listen to what adelman says about what chris webber went through. he came back too early and never recovered. I think if tmac would have done exactly what the team wanted him to do they would have matched most offers to keep him and make him happy in free agency. if no team took a gamble he should have took less money on a one or two year contract to stay with the rockets and prove his worth when he became 100% healthy again and go for that big contract when he is really worth it. I think tracy mcgrady owed that to us after all these years of sticking by him. to me he is handling this wrong and has no want to be a great player again. he wants more money now when he hasnt done anything to deserve it then let him go somewhere else. he isnt going to hurt any rockets after what he did last year.
That's actually spot-on, though we can only make conjecture as to what Adelman is really thinking. In some ways I think that Adelman himself also looking out for his own contract, and in doing so, taking the McGrady variable out as a risk since he may feel that if it fails, his job would be on the line.
