<br> Interesting to remember what McGrady's goals were at the time and what he saw in this team. What our viewed "potential" was. Interesting to think about what type of ambition he had/has. And we say he lacks a killer instinct <br> LINK: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/2004-06-29-mcgrady-francis-deal_x.htm <br> PS: i still think it is awesome how we got both super stars from that trade, even if francis didn't pan out on his comeback trip. This has to go down as one of our best trades ever! We screwed over the magic pretty bad, except too bad they had a guy named Dwight Howard and pretty much eventual and bloated expiring contracts in Francis, Mobley, and Cato.
I can't explain the moment when I read that we acquired TRACY MCGRADY. He was my favorite player before he was even on our team. It was like a gift from God. But this article just makes me miss the Orlando/04-05 T-Mac..
Dawson made a bad deal four years ago ,we trade our franchise roster ,2nd roster and a big backup center,aquiring an injuried guy ,an old PF who would no longer be in his prime, a small pg and a short shooter. Franchise is untradable for ever .Dawson made a wrong dicision ,because the team was approching with Yao ,steve and Cuttino.If he must trade francis ,then why did he take the cat together ?Actually we need a shooter since cat was traded.Jon barry is a good shooter yet old,bob sura is more of a player.as a result of our lack of shooter,Yao has been always facing the double.I guess yao will never off the ball when facing the one on one match,the same to tmac.but because we have no shooter,the two guys have to face the double,that 's why i suggest we should trade one of them.Provided we have mobley and francis on our team,yao will be more free near the hoop.However ,the fact is that yao was posted in the paint,with his injuried toe being steped and steped again. So don't attribute yao's missing games to yao himself.dawson should blame to the jnjury . After trading SF and cat,we formed a two-star team,but we have to find a 3rd score in attach.we should have two stars ,yao and SF3,and a 3rd cat at the same time.But now morey have to pay dawson's bills , having to find another score. what's more ,if we have had cato as yao's backup,would yao be injuried so many times? Deke is good when he is young ,but he's not young any more.We should not have be envious to celtics so much we had big three four years ago,our big three were SF3,Cat and yao ,but two of them were traded for our new big two. So please stop thinking about trading our big two for big three ,like trade tmac for Prince and Billups.Billups prince and yao are not big three,they are big one plus medium two.
T-Mac has done alright here. I think we just need to have a virtually injury free season like 2005 then fairly analyze where we are as an organization. If either of our stars are hurt for a long period next year, then it's time to give up and get one their salries off the books.
Hmmm winning 50+ games in 3/4 seasons. yeah, I think that made us better. (regular season wise) Agentzero, do you really feel we suck more as a team because of the sf3/tmac trade? What the hell?
Well no one foresaw the health issues that would plague each of our stars these past few years. McGrady was right almost, because IMHO if he was still the same player he was in Orlando w/o back issues he would be leading this team and allowing more space for Yao to operate down low like the 04-05 season and of course we would have already won a championship again already. All i can do is pray to God that this team can stay healthy and have a little bit of luck added to that wish.
Yea i agree that Yao's developement helped us get better, but the main factor was definitely T-Mac. You gained a 6'9 slasher/shooter/athletic player and replaced a 6'2 tweener that could dunk and dribble? T-mac can score at will......lol (sorry just laughed when i thought of him sayin that statement). But seriously T-mac obviously is the main reason for the rockets growth. Without him we would be normal.
I'm sorry AgentZero but I think your opinion on keeping Steve Francis and Cat is r****ded. The Rockets are championship contenders with Tmac and Yao. Tmac runs the Rockets by himself without Yao better than Francis, Cat, and Yao did back then. I'm sorry bro but that trade for Tmac is one of the best trades ever.
Yea i have to agree with you. Tmac is what makes this team go. No disrespect to Yao , but Tmac showed that he is STILL THE MAN on the team. In the last 2 mins of a game, with or without Yao, its still the same story: Tmac save us.
that would make sense if we didn't win at the same rate without Yao as we did with him in the lineup, as long as TMac was playing.
I am gonna play also throw two guys by name of Jeff and Rick. I think they both have also contributed to making Houston, such a competitve, like Yao and McGrady. T-Mac is the engine. Yao is the body structure Rest of the team are the wheels JVG and Rick are the drivers. CD and JM are passenger navigators of sorts. My assestment over the last 4 years would be several flat tires and broken wheels, great engine that has odd click here and there, body structure that is pretty big and sturdy by prone to certain hits or awkward turns (think Mack trucks), and drivers who are definitely top level Nascar/IRL racers, but usually are haven't been lucky enough to win.
It was a great trade. Francis/Mobley were not taking this team anywhere. McGrady has come up short but the injuries and some flat out freak stuff (Mavs series officiating) contributed. I'm not the biggest McGrady fan but I do that deal every day of the week.
It wasn't as simple as you think! CD had to get rid of 'Dribble Mania' as it was killing the team and Steve's reluctance to pass to Yao Ming was not going to develop Yao into a star NBA Player. A lot of untalked about team politics went down during this time in our teams history.
