you're right. tmac's health is too inconsistent for him to play at a high level all reg. season for us to consider him higher than wade. if he does say, stay healthy ala 04-05, yes, he is. but unfortunately, he hasn't shown that health and consistent play since then. however, what people are forgetting is that he is still a top 5 perimeter player overall. the only players you can say that make more of an impact than tracy in an overall game are kobe, lebron, paul, wade, and possibly deron. when he is at his best, he is on kobe's level. and usually that is when the playoffs rolls around. as long as tmac plays his best ball in the playoffs, that's all we should care about. 27, 8, 7 in the playoffs last yr are on par with lebron james. again, tmac is no longer healthy enough to consistently play the entire season at a high level. the level he plays at during the reg. season is still extremely good. and for stretches, he looks like a top 5 player. but when the playoffs rolls around, he puts up top 5 player stuff and that's all we ask of him.
I just wish T-Mac could be more active. He is one of the smoothest players ever, but even the smooth can be active. Or at least, I think they can. He needs to be making good cuts so he can be in a position to finish plays easier, without having to deal with so much help defense. Too many times he is given an iso and the defense can set up to stop him. Have him catch the ball on the move! Just having Yao and Artest on the floor might lessen the need for him to cut to get open shots though. I'm guessing that sometimes he can just jog down the lane and get and finish/get fouled just because the defense will be paying attention to two other beasts on the floor. Artest will probably be benefiting from the decreased attention from defenses more than T-Mac will, though. Most teams would rather have an open Artest than an open Mac, IMO.
Some posters here compare TMAC's best games with Wade's average ones and think he's still better. Just like some Lakers fans would say Kobe is better than MJ if he scores 81 every game. I think TMac was the Top 2 swing player before 05, and I would even say he's the best. However, for the past two seasons, I have seen too many TMac's games with stats like 13 points shooting below 30%.
I agree if T-Mac just took better shots and improved his FG% he would be around 04-05 form...41% FG is near Rafer territory.
While I'm not a fan of "nuff said" ending a post, Shaq really didn't do anything in those finals. Wade went to the line 30 times a game and basically stole it from Gaylas.
