his cousin is soft, but not in the knees. FACT: Billups + Hamilton = major part of championship team and conference finals Tracy = major part of first round exits I'm happy that you are satisfied with MVP candidates, I liked it when we had a REAL MVP. I'm not sure you know who that is. Yao, that's a different subject than this one. If we can't get rid of Tmac through trade, then I will be disappointed in Morey.
You are an idiot! Marbury is not even on the same level as T-Mac as a basketball player. Marbury killed a Twolves team that would have grown to be very good had he stayed there, killed a Suns team that was talented enough to win, made a bad Nets team worse, & we won't even discuss what he did to the Knicks. Marbury has always seemingly been about himself & money, even though I believe he has taken some undeserved heat in the media. Tracy was on a bad Toronto team, even though I felt they could have grown into a decent team. He left Toronto to go play @ home next to Grant Hill & Hill gave him 47 games in 4 yrs. Tracy became one of the bestin the business and was traded here where he made a team that was average at best immediately better. The Rockets have been to the playoffs 4 out of his 5 yrs here, the biggest run of success since the championship yrs. While he may have made an enormous amount of money, Tracy has tried to win above all else. Sometimes we don't achieve the ultimate prize and it is disappointing to all of us. As fans, we certainly are not more disappointed than the players who are out playing to reach the goal while we sit back and watch them so that we might be entertained. Yet those most disappointing thing is when we lose perspective and spread a bunch of hate and ignorange toward people that we have no personal attachment to all in the name of being a fan. With fans like you and some of the rest of these hate spewing posters on this board, Tracy Lamar McGrady doesn't need any enemies.
I don't know, I personally haven't seen your facts being proven right...but I'll still tell you that waiving a player instead of just playing him is just idiotic, especially since he's an expiring contract! We aren't contenders this year anyways without Yao, what have we got to lose?? At the absolute worst, we use his expiring contract in free agency. 23 million dollars is enough to sign 2 solid players or sign one star player. Waiving him, means that he could potentially sign for dirt cheap to a contender, such as the Lakers or Spurs and help them win another titles coming off the bench. Why help out other teams for nothing?? I say at earliest trade him at the deadline if he's not the same. Otherwise keep him, let his contract expire, and we can sign who WE WANT on OUR TERMS.
How do you know he has not been the model employee here. Has Les Alexander, the guy who signs the checks come out and said that he has not been a model employee? While Tracy may have done some things that YOU didn't agree does mean that the Rockets are inclined, neither should they be, to move him. Until something concrete comes from within the inner workings of the Houston Rockets Organization saying that Tracy has committed the unpardonable sin and must be moved everyone should sit back, hope for his return to good health, and hope that he can come back and help this team win. I mean, that's already hoping for Yao's return more than a year from now. Let's not win next year. Screw T-Mac, be a lottery team, sign a big name free agent (which is not a sure thing to happen) wait on Yao's return, & win a title in 2010-2011. Maybe on NBA Live or 2K9, but not here. This is the real world people. Think rationally, which is the opposite of how you are thinking now.
You need to go back and check both T-Mac's numbers and the rosters that he went to battle with. His numbers go up across the board, meaning he is scoring and TRUSTING/SETTING UP his teammates. In 4 playoff trips, T-Mac & Yao have played together twice. The supporting cast has been average at best every year & only once have they been favored to win a series and that was this year against Portland. In a team sport, the individual numbers are insignificant in comparison to the talent around. T-Mac basically basketball's version of Barry Sanders. An incredibly God gifted talent who has put up amazing numbers and given incredible effort to make his teammates better basbetball players but was never given a full or talented enough group arond him to win big. And just as Yao has been injury prone, Detroit's second best player during the Sander's Era, Herman Moore couldn't help Barry do the heavy lifting because he to was injury prone. Get some true basketball knowledge and once you understand the game you can look back at your posts and see just how much sense they did not make.
really? what has tmac done in the last year that shown you he has been a model employee? is Les going to come out and say that publicly and drive the value of his own asset down? of course not. I dont think anyone agrees with announcing via website or media reporters FIRST before talking to the team about anything concerning the future. His constant "i will play when I feel like it" when it came to games is something no one agrees with. Him picking a RIVAL team to win it all when the rockets were still in the playoffs is something no one agrees with (even with the lakers winning it all you DO NOT say that, there are something things you say and dont say to the media--you always say you have your teams back unless you dont care about the team anymore....Tracy has been a star and in the league long enough to know this and how to handle the media) this team isnt going to win next year, not without Yao with or without Tracy, tracy has shown that he cannot lead a team throughout the course of an entire season. His actions has shown otherwise that he has had to have multiple meetings with the coaching staff and front office to discuss "where to go from here" if anything you are thinking in a fantasy world where everything is just peachy between McGrady and the Rockets. Have you even seen anything that has transpired in the last season? If 30% of the teams "bad stuff" gets leaked out to the media --with all that has happened that we as fans know imagine what we dont know and may not know....I just am glad that his contract is expiring this year as opposed to next year otherwise it would have been the biggest dead weight contract in the history of the Rockets. I mean if you want a signed piece of paper from Les Alexander notarized from 3 different dignitaries saying Tmac is not a model employee then you are going to be waiting around. I am sorry if you cant see the obvious signs and the writing on the wall
I can't believe people are blaming tmac for not getting out of the first round. in 2004-05 season we made the playoffs and won the first 2 games, then the refs started to target yao for fouls, and later find out the series was rigged. In the 06-07 season, we played the jazz and lost in 7 games. We could not rebound the last minute in game 7 and we lost (obviously tmacs fault ). In the 2007-08 season we won 22 games in a row. Probably the most exciting regular season run I had ever seen. During the 22 game winning streak, yao got injured and missed the rest of the season plus playoffs. In the playoffs we had key injuries (alston) and the rockets lost in 6 games. During this season we had tmac out for the year with surgery. The rockets played the very young and inexperienced blazers. The blazers had problems with yao during game 1 so they fronted him, and players like aaron brooks stepped up big time, as well as artest. Then the lakers were next. The rockets took them to 7 games and once again yao ming was out for the playoffs with a hair-line fracture. Imo, excluding this year, tmac shouldn't be blamed for playoff failure. If you are ever on a sports team, the first thing your coach tells you is that it's a TEAM effort and one person can't take the blame.
It may not be Tmac's fault that he hasn't gotten out of the first round, but it still doesn't change the fact that with him we haven't done so. I mean it isn't like Lebron has had this uber supporting cast and he has been to the finals already. Iverson took a relatively weak supporting cast to the finals. Sure it was in the east, but Tmac was in the east before he was a rocket too, and couldn't even get out of the first round. Most "superstars" this far into their careers are taking heat if they havent won a championship, not waiting to win their first playoff series. But in the end it is Tmac's health, not his basketball ability that is the problem. A healthy Tmac is obviously talented. Even if he does fully recover from this injury though, how long til his shoulder or his back or something else flares up and side lines him?
Well our 2 star players are never healthy, and sadly may never be. I think if we're getting rid of tmac because he can't stay healthy then put yao on that list as well. I want to see a team that doesn't get injured every year. Maybe im just crazy in thinking that though
I don't think you get the NBA outside of what happens to the Rockets. Firstly, to win a championship, it's rare ok, it's not an easy thing to do for any franchise. It took the Rockets, what, like 30 years to win it's first? Despite Kobe not being like MJ, he's been the best (or top 3) player in the NBA for the last decade. A guy like Kobe doesn't grow on trees. He is a rarity. So yes, you like 28 other teams every year, is going to have to be patient.
If we can't get some proven young potential, we should just see how things go on. Worst case, we let him expire, sign some decent FA's (we know we can't land a big ass one). Best case, he plays great for us because of his contract year and accepts to take a huge pay cut since he wants to live in Houston. I always loved Tmac, I have his jersey and everything, but he really really deceived me with his comments this year ("I never had a good team...";"Tmac decides to shut down 2 days before trade rumor"). However, my mom always told me you need to be able to forgive people. If Tmac can prove to me on the court that he is still worth respecting basketball-wise, then I will forgive him.
As far as picking the lakers to win it all, I agree that you don't do that. While he may have been speaking what he felt was the truth, you don't do that ESPECIALLY when your team is still alive in the playoffs. But with that being said, the in and out of the lineup thing is not that big of an issue with me because he never should have been in the lineup anyway. He knew that his knee was not right, heck even the team doctors knew it wasn't right. Does not matter if they said it was on a non weight bearing portion of the knee. As someone who has had surgery on both knees, if any part of the knee is not right it is going to affect the whole knee. It may get better with rest but because there is a problem in the knee the pounding of playing basketball is only going to make it harder to play back to backs, not easier. He was in the lineup opening night because Shane couldn't play and he wanted the Rockets to get out of the gate quickly. But because he didn't play much in the preseason and really didn't go through training camp, it took heart & a selfless attitude, especially when you consider all of the criticism he would've taken for not playing when the doctors where saying he could. Plus, it was in his best interest for his career & once he retires to make sure that he had all off the facts & the proper diagnosis. I don't fault him for that. I don't fault him for announcing his surgery the way that he did since everything the Rockets were saying publicly was a direct contradiction to information he got from some of the best doctors in the world. Plus the Rockets knew that microfracture was a possibilty from the jump when he had surgery in the offseason, but Tracy & the team wanted that to be a last resort. But then when it comes to that, everybody hates Tracy. So what he handled some things in ways some of us wouldn't have. Fine, call him out about those things. But to make that a blanket covering for man is just wrong. There are three sides to every story. But in this case there appears to be four: Tracy's Side, The Rocket's Side, the Truth, & the Media's side. And you are living in a fantasy world if you don't think that the truth lies in a combination of the other three sides put together. Give the man a break and let's see what his basketball abilities will bring to this team on the court next year because the Rockets sorely need those abilities.
You are right dude. However, there are people here on this board who equate McGrady to Kobe which has been incorrect since day one. Then they have this 'hope' every year that he would lead us to a championship based on the fact he was a scoring champion on a bad Orlando team who almost did this or almost did that. Now people are saying he's training with MJ's and Dwade's trainer and he'll come back like those guys. It's not only an illusion it's delusion based on their confusion
1. Yoyo doesn't live in a fantasy world, he lives in the world where Mario Elie and Daryl Morey give him props. 2. Let me break down the 'let's see what his basketball abilities will bring' no playoff series wins with him actually playing. Season Age Tm 1997-98 18 TOR 1998-99 19 TOR 1999-00 20 TOR 2000-01 21 ORL 2001-02 22 ORL 2002-03 23 ORL 2003-04 24 ORL 2004-05 25 HOU 2005-06 26 HOU 2006-07 27 HOU 2007-08 28 HOU 2008-09 29 HOU *didn't play in playoffs Do you see the pattern?
Every single thread that mentioned Tmac, all you can do is bash him any way you can. You are one of those people that if a player is not doing well, you bash him and if he is playing really good, you hop on his bandwagon. If you don't have anything else to say about Tmac besides bashing him, you might as well not say anything at all. I don't care how much you hate him, he is still the best player on the Rockets roster.
Guys I dunno if this been said, but he averaged 15 points and led the team in assist when he was playing with a bum knee last year.
no I think Yao is better. if both were healthy. for last year, Yao was the best, then Scola was 2nd best.
