I know, I understand but when you are a fan of a player you tend to not see all his warts, and look more at the sunny side, still you are way better than most. Me, I am a fan of the team, I would trade ANYONE if it made the team better. DD
I can't lie I became a fan when T-mac became a Rocket but if he was traded I would still be a Rockets fan.
After a while you will not be a fan so much of a certain player, you will just care about what happens to the team. I became a fan in 1972......pain and misery followed by a little taste of success. I want that success back...STAT ! DD
I will say this homeslice, any coach that puts the blame on one of his own players in public needs to go. a good coach knows this. a reason you barely ever see coaches criticizing his players. but to a default I do not think he was lying. But he wasnt telling the whole truth. He wanted Tmac with the ball, yes. But he wanted Yao to end up with it ASAP. You have more options down in the paint with Yao then Tmac at the top.
let's all face it.. the defense that jvg implemented is dead and gone... layups after layups after layups after dunks after dunks... the problem is the whole team, not just any 1 particular player... when yao is out they take jumpers... when yao doesn't establish himself early on in the game he's out of it... i refuse to blame this one on matchups.. i blame it on lack of effort from the entire team
A few points I'd like to make. As far as the perimeter defenders allowing penetration, blame that on the new defensive rules. It's already nearly impossible to stay in front of someone without fouling, then add to that when a person gets picked. You'll probably say, well that's when the defender on the screen-setter needs to flash to prevent the drive. Well, teams are purposely running the PnR against Yao. He can't flash. Regarding the last play of the game. McGrady was the best option last night. What was not good was having Yao set a pick for him. That allowed Dalmbert (I don't know how to spell that stuff, haha) to switch off and contest Mac's shot. If you have a play for TMac to shoot that shot, I think you let him go iso so no switches can occur and you won't have a taller defender coming up to contest or block the attempt. Anyway, it's frustrating, but I saw a lot of good things last night too. Regardless of all that stuff, point is, the team was sloppy all night. How many times did they have the ball hit them in the hands and commit a turnover, or miss an opportunity basket? How many times did they run the break just to pass the ball WAAAY too late instead of just going up? If you miss, you have rebounders since you were passing too late to them anyway. If you get fouled, you got FTs. If nothing happens, at least you got a shot attempt up.
Here is a smart fan who should be able to see it, rather than bash a single player. "I wanted the ball in Tracy's hands," said Coach Rick Adelman. "After the game, coach said that we have to learn from this game," Yao said. "Why do we keep learning this game? Learning from these games means we lost again and this happened again and this happened months ago, and two months ago and now it is the end of January and we are still and learning. Why is the end?
I just want success. Being a fan of the Falcons I haven't seen success much. And now the Rockets have lacked playoff success. My sports life is miserable but I can't stop watching.
I didn't base my assessment on their individual stats. But if that's what you want to do, based on Hollinger's Game Score McGrady's game rating was 18.0, and Yao's was 6.8 (for the season, McGrady has averaged 12.2 in 34 mpg, and Yao has averaged 15.1 in 33 mpg). So, objectively speaking, the stats indicate that McGrady had a much better game, well exceeding his season averages, while Yao had a terrible game. But, again, my assessment wasn't based on the stats. McGrady's play, for the most part, met my expectations for what we need from him. Ok, he wasn't running the court hard, but I've given up hope on that. In the half court offense, he was playing fine. Yao .. was just totally off. Completely lost. He admitted as much after the game, saying "I don't know how to play right now". That's how he looked.
For what it's worth, I thought Tracy played a little harder on D last night. I kind of stopped paying attention towards the end, but at first I noticed he was very aggressive on both ends of the court. To blame a loss on a single player is silly, unless it's absolutely obvious that they are at fault throughout the entire game. We all know that the team lost it as a whole. Their lack of composure down the stretch is an old problem they had and has resurfaced. I have faith they will get in the groove soon, and get back to playing better basketball for 4 quarters.
I think I am remembering the fourth quarter for Tracy mostly when I am referring to his agressiveness, and I might be miinterpreting his aggressiveness, as more a failure to make shots. He missed all of his jumpers in the 4th quarter, along with getting blocked a couple times too. But I still stand by the fact that his defense was not that good last night and that he is starting to look old. Anyways I do agree with you completely on Adelman. His substitutions are jsut ludicrous right now. I think it was a mistake to take TMac when he was starting to roll and it was a mistake to put Yao in to start the 4th after only 3 minutes of rest. And some of the combinations we have on the floor are completely puzzling. Right now, I will give Adelman a pass as he has just got his whole team together for basically the first time this year. But he needs to get a rotation that makes sense on the court soon.
Tracy also hit 3 three pointers and went 5/5 from the line. You have to compare their points scored per shot attempt (including shots that result in trips to the line). That's a truer indication of scoring efficiency than FG%. Based on that, McGrady scored 24 points on 22 shots. That's above average efficiency. Yao scored 13 points on 13 shots. That's below average efficiency.
I still don't get Yao's comment "I don't know how to play right now" Is he saying that because of how the refs are officiating him? Or is he frustrated with the way the offense?
Probably both. It looked like the game went too fast for him yesterday. Like it was his first NBA game or something. He's probably wondering how that's possible after being in the league for 7 years, as am I.
this is a team lost, you can't blame one person for this lost. To me as fan, you can point out the things each player did wrong, but blaming anyone for team lost it's stupid.
Each player on this team needs to look in the mirror and take personal responsibility for what happened. I know Yao will do so, because that's his personality. To his credit. The rest of the guys need to start doing it as well.
Does Hollinger's stats say everything? Hollinger's stats tell us, "for the season, McGrady has averaged 12.2 in 34 mpg, and Yao has averaged 15.1 in 33 mpg" , It seemed Yao almost played as bad(or good) as T-Mac this season. Do you believe it?
