Tmac was not only as good as we had hoped, he was better. There's not a human on the planet who would have predicted anything near the superhuman performance of 13 in 35 when Houston traded for Tmac in June 2004. Tmac was as prolific a scorer as advertised, a better passer than anyone knew, and was a better teammate to Yao than most expected when he left Orlando amidst such acrimonious circumstances. Les and CD simply did not do enough quick enough to support Tmac and Yao. Tmac was at the top of his game the 3 seasons here and was one of the best players in the league. They took too long and injuries and wear and tear caught up to both their centerpieces. Management also needed to be smart and understand the deficiencies of the team, the fact that neither Yao nor Tmac had actually learned how to close out games and brought in some veteran leadership instead of relying solely on athletic talent (tmac) and size (yao) to beat teams like Dallas and Utah those early years
That makes zero sense. Yao's gotten to the second round. He's in the good graces of the Rockets organization and liked/respected by the local media and fans. T-Mac's never gotten out of the first round. His reputation has been tarnished by questions about his heart, his ability to play well with others and his maturity. He's despised by the hometown crowd for every franchise he's ever played for. What's that tell you?
Yeah, clearly Les did not do enough to support T-Mac. Take a look at this quote after the extended Adelman: “When I read his comments all t he time, I couldn’t help but think this is the truth. There is nothing that was in any way protective or trying to obfuscate. He was just saying what was the reality. He wants as a coach to win every night and Tracy wasn’t ready to participate in that.” http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6794261.html Doesn't sound very supportive to me. Why did he have to take a dig at Tracy like that? I wonder.
youre a crappy 99 poster because you seem to want to blame this teams lack of success on one person. that's so amazingly myopic that i cant even fathom how a smart sports fan can even begin to make an argument with such a reason. you cleverly try and give "options" as to why this era failed but your masquerade is transparent. we get it, you dont like tmac. it wasnt yao's injuries, piss poor roster thanks to management, old predictable JVG's offense, management's love for ex-Knicks players, ryan bowen, moochie norris, stromile swift, or rafer alston's fault this era was a 'failure,' it was all tmac's.
seem like Yao couldn't grab a single rebound even with at least 6 inches on everyone why did you have to bring up bad memories.....
HOW THE HELL DID YAO NOT GET THE REBOUND AT :22!?!? Stuff like that cost us the game, the inablility to block out and rebound, and that led to us not getting a defensive stop. Also missed layups.
He was backpedaling and jumped backwards to try to get the rebound. Boozer only needed to jump straight up. If you think that Yao should've gotten that rebound, you don't understand the limitations caused by being 7'5.
It makes zero sense that pretty much everybody expected a championship with this duo and they have failed to deliver??? I could care less what their respective reputation is like. They BOTH have failed. What doesn't make sense is giving Yao a pass because he's in good graces. Your using reputation as a reason for Yao's failure to be ok.
I voted for lack of supporting cast. 04-05 we had the Mavericks in a game 7, but the Mavs clearly had the better team. Ryan Bowen!? But I dont think we had an excuse to lose the game 7 against Utah, we clearly had the better team, but just couldn't finish them, Which was on t-mac like he said... Injuries really had a big part of course...
I don't know if everyone expected the Rockets to get a championship. I don't think there was any guarantee of that. I do know that there definitely was an expectation that the team would get past the first round. Guess who did that? It sure wasn't T-Slack.
Sigh. Mcgrady 0-7 in playoff series Yao 1-4 in playoff series. You people put WAY to much emphasis on getting out of ONE round of the playoffs. Face it they both either alone or paired together have failed at one point or another. Mcgrady+Yao have been paired twice together in the playoffs and both failed. Mcgrady by himself took the Jazz to game 6 without Yao Ming, the year before Yao they together only made it one more game. Yao who last year was fortunate to have an All-Star in Ron Artest was able to beat the Portland TrailBlazers. The fact is that it's hard to say has been the larger failure when they have all been in the playoffs under different circumstances, but to say Yao Ming is excluded from being a failure like Mcgrady doesn't make much sense.
I think most people expected a championship. What team goes into the season aiming for the second round? Every team wants a championship. You don't get a trophy/parade for making it to the second round. Seems though you are perfectly fine with minor success.
Yeah it's his fault because he's the one that scores all the points on the team. He's the one that gets all the rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks on the team. He's the only Rocket on the floor in the playoffs.
Can't believe "injuries" isn't one of the options in this poll. That, along with the fact that the Rockets never had quite the cast of role players they currently do, is the reason. You can blame T-Mac for his behavior last season, but for anyone to pin the blame for the failed era on him is silly. His injuries? Yes. His play? No.
Dang, I thought the TMac war was over. Just when you think things are calming down in the GARM, somebody is itching to stir the crap up again.
hahahah jvg is gone ryan bowen is gone stromile etc all your excuses are gone but we finally won a series. we WERE FAVORED against Utah that year, were we not? did we not have HOME COURT ADVANTAGE? were we not leading in the series? All your excuses are gone, Les can't fire all his coaches. We all know why. you can think i hate whomever all you want. if your best player can't get along with his coach and your best player can't help your team win one freaking playoff series.. THEN HE'S NOT YOUR BEST PLAYER.
Sam Cassell took a crap LA CLIPPER team to the 2nd round of the playoffs and they never paid Sam $25 million dollars/year. when $25 million per year can't buy you a playoff series win, then it's not worth $25 million dollars
