same thing as morey said. he'll return before the new year's. he hasn't had full practices/scrimmages yet. that will start on thanksgiving. the team will give him AT LEAST 2-3 weeks so most likely he'll return earliest mid-december, latest by new year's.
Feign, Friedman, Morey all said he will be back this year (2009). But that's true. We cannot be sure. Just wait till 23rd.
You're not serious with that statement are you? If your coach wants to put you at the PG, SG, SF positions for different scenarios in a game that should speak to one getting better. He is one of the best handlers that we have on the team. He is one of the best offensive players on the team. He can play defense but I hope that people do realize that if you are shouldering the scoring load that most often you are not guarding the top guy all of the time, i.e. MJ with Pippen, Kobe with Ariza and now Ron, and Roy with Webster/Outlaw. The only legitimate knock on the guy is his health. Say what you want but if this team was winning, a large portion of the naysayers would be quieter because we were winning. It becomes the cost of doing business. Or as they say, "Winning cures everything" or something to that effect. No matter the opinions of various people on here and whatever statistical numbers that are used, the coach and many of the players including team captain Battier have said that T-mac makes the team better. I find it funny how naysayers forget this when they continuously belittle T-Mac. This debate is so old. Just be fair. He has done both good and bad things as a Rocket. But noone on here can convince me that his presence on this team even at 70% doesn't get everyone else easier shots. He's just been that good folks.
Actually, it doesn't. Not at all. It implies that he's one of the best on the team in those areas. It does not imply that he has improved his game. All of the time? Seriously? All of the time? How is that relevant to McGrady? McGrady has shown glimpses of being a good defender, but has not been consistent. Conversely, Jordan and Kobe have proven themselves to be consistently great defenders (in their primes). In regards to Pippen, I think he guarded players like Magic b/c he was better equipped than Jordan was. Pippen was taller and longer than Jordan which allowed him to be a more versatile defender. The same can be said for Ariza and Kobe. Not really. There are a few posters here who still criticize the Rockets despite their regular season success. That's because these posters recognize that a McGrady-led team's regular success doesn't translate into postseason success. Wow. A team is better with a 20mm player as opposed to without. Shocker. Sure, a 70% McGrady gets easier shots for teammates. A 70% McGrady also gives up a lot of points on defense.
I'm alright with DD taking the negative stance on this matter. His track record usually says his spectacularly wrong or not. Which if he is spectacularly wrong on this one is going to be a pretty good result for the Rockets. Either way I think you guys are blowing this out of proportion. I've rarely heard that Adelman doesn't respect T-mac as the player and we all know what Van Gundy thinks about him. I think whatever offence that comes about it should be sweet to watch.
Actually I am right a lot, Aaron Brooks, Yao Ming etc....but I do have my misses which people like to bring up, particularly Dan Langhi... It is not Tmac's talent, it is his style of play and expiring contract....I think for the good of the franchise he needs to be traded. Either way, if he comes back and kills it on the court....I am fine with taking my lumps. DD
Personally I don't think we are in a lose lose situation at the moment. We have an excellant opportunity to see how good T-mac is. Noone in the league is going to offer him anything decent sized. If he comes back plays well we can sign him to something similar to Ariza and get a decent player for chips (on lower years). He is by far and away the best player we have who fits in with Yao. There is no denying that he fits well with Yao in my opinion. If he doesn't come back healthy we can just let him go with not much. What have we to lose this season? Nothing really to be fair. You could argue that he would impede the development of Ariza but I see it the opposite way, he could play with Ariza. If anyone is going to suffer its Brooks but I don't see him being the future to be fair.
I think people bring up your misses so much because you contradict yourself a lot. You say T-mac's style of play is not conducive to winning (i.e. hogging the ball), but then in another thread you said the ball should always stay in AB's hands. Which is it? Considering T-mac has better court vision and passing abilities than AB I wonder how you can classify Tmac holding the ball as ball hogging but then turn around and say AB holding the ball is the "right thing to do".
I think Brooks is developing into a very solid point guard. Most impressive has been the number of assists he has demonstrating the improvement in his passing game. Can Brooks, Ariza, and T-mac all fit into an offense? Of course they can. T-mac even when he does return will not be playing 30 minutes again for a very long time - that knee won't let him. You have basically 4 key guys (Battier, Ariza, T-mac, and Brooks) sharing 3 positions being backed up by lowry and chase. That's plenty of minutes.
Wow, you really dissected it huh? Pt 1. Your argument doesn't prove that he doesn't work hard/improve either. You still don't know. But I would be inclined to believe that the coaches would (e.g. Adelman and Van Gundy). That was my point. Pt. 2. Pippen was the primary defender for the Bulls allowing Jordan to be more of a help defender thereby saving him for the offensive side. I don't deny MJ was a great defender, but, as I stated before, he didn't guard the best offensive player 1-3 all of the time. Pippen was long but he also guarded the likes of Stockton and such during those years. So him having long arms actually reinforces my points. I appreciate that. T-Mac has sometimes guarded Dirk, Kobe, LeBron and so on too. Of course, our main defender, Battier, did the bulk of the work which is why I emphasized all of the time. Pt. 3. Just because a few people here still disagree doesn't refute my point. There will never be a consensus on much of anything here outside of cheering for the Rockets. So what was your point? I stand by what I said here, especially with fans of Houston teams. You win and you get more slack. It has happened for every team that has ever been here. Prime example, Hakeem was nearly shipped out of here. Thankfully, they didn't and he and the team won. Guess what, he stayed and those who wanted him out ended up loving him until well you know... Pt. 4. Glad that you agree. Pt. 5. Outside of last season (injurygate), when has T-Mac been a defensive liability, especially in the playoffs? This is the NBA, everyone gets scored on. And also, Battier was partially brought here to serve the purpose identified in Pt. 2. I would also suggest that because most of the offense ran through T-Mac, he should have saved his energy for the offensive end. As has been brought up on here as his fourth quarter no shows or flame outs go, how did most of the team that season get their points? A large percentage was due to him drawing double teams/penetrating and dishing (Yes, Yao did it too). Yes, he did have the ball most of the time, so need for that argument. Funny how similar that is to what's working this season, as many of them have stated, they get their point by ball movement because most of them can't create their own shots. It's also funny how people (including myself) applauded Brooks in the Halloween game for him doing some of the same things that you know who did? This was interesting but all that this did was prove that we agree to disagree, except for pt. 4. I can live with that. As I have said recently, T-Mac has been cited as a catalyst for both good and bad things on this site. Just be fair in your critique. He's on our team and we need his skillset.
you guys listen to the Jazz commentators at all? they were saying t-mac was running the stairs at the the arena and they were making fun of his conditioning saying that even walking down the stairs made him tired.
Yahoo says it is January. You just never know. We will see. He has to run and run a lot and work on his stamina, conditioning.
