on a side note, i saw tmac last night driving in his range rover. he seemed fine.. his knee isn't bothering his ability to accelerate.
Well I have to agree with that. One day he says his knee doesn't feel that good and he may miss the beggining of the season, and the next day he says he is fine and ready to go. So we really don't know what to expect. As I see he should play against Kings in last game of the preseason. Maybe his knee will be really good and maybe he will be ready? You never know.
Maybe a blessing in disguise. Let Adelman try that Rafer/Brooks combination to see if it works in the regular season, let Wafer get some experience, the first 20 games aren't as critical anyway.
He can miss 10 games or more if necessary. I would rather he play, but if he is not 100% why risk the rest of the season? Anyways, better during preseason and first few games than late in the season and playoffs. We just have to wait. Injuries can't be rushed or they prolong.
Hopefully there is some good coming out of this. While it's true, nothing but negativity comes from pointing out McGrady's propensity for making built-in excuses and finding spots to shirk responsibility. What we can do, though, is make the move that he's passive-aggressively begging for and take the burden off him. Go forward with this team with the idea that McGrady is NOT going to be a centerpoint. Scheme him as a complimentary player in the offense. Let Artest be the primary option that he won't be for 82 (or even 41) games. Let McGrady be a bonus, and there's no letdown when he doesn't show up. Evan
Last time McGrady was out the team bonded and started executing Adelman's offense. Hopefully something similar can happen this time.
If he knows, today on October 19th, that his body will need to miss the season opener, then it's likely he misses atleast the first 3 or 4 games of the season. Making a prognostication this far out lends itself to the situation being worse than he is saying, and certainly way too bad to make an exact estimate that only one game off would be enough. That's the key here that the "it's only Memphis" posts are missing. I just hope this doesn't drag out to 10+ games like the Carl Landry situation of last year. You can't really criticize McGrady - he is coming back from surgery and it isn't something that is under his control. It is frustrating though because I suspect this probably won't be the last of his injury concerns over the course of this year.
Guys, This could be just another Tmac moment where he just says something that he is feeling, basically talking out his arse. If he does miss a couple of games, no biggie, but...I don't think it has anything to do with an arthoscopic surgery done 5 months ago, but rather a lack of being in basketball shape. DD
wow and to think that the first few pre season games everyone was dishing out on poor lil AB and now everyone is loving him lol
sorry was qouted the wrong person, i was trying to quote "Tracy Who??? we got Arron Brooks in the house!!"
The only worry I have is one of chemistry, we need all the players performing in the roles they will be playing all year in order to build chemistry. Last year we had a rough start.....because we had a lot of new pieces including a coach with a new system, and trying to break a players mindset of being micromanaged. This year.....we add in an integral piece in Artest, a bigger role for Scola, Landry and Brooks......but Battier and Tmac have not learned how to play with all these pieces this year. The sooner we get the players playing together the sooner this team can take off. It is a complete guess on my part, but I think all of this is just Tmac worried that he is not in shape.... DD
The real Danger here is that T-mac knows we have Artest now and he seems like the type of person that would gladly give over his responsiblity to another player. T-mac has said many times that he willing to sacrafice his game but what he really means is that he doens't like the pressure being on his shoulders. Having all the talent on the roster now means Mac, instead of working hard on his own game and getting ready for a long run in the playoffs, is deferring to the other guys on the roster to get the job done. If this is the case it's a major character issue with Mac and he has to be traded a.s.a.p. for whatever you can get for him because he's a max contract guy who is not a max effort guy.
Yea, he's talking out of his arse just like when he said he might need surgery after the season. Of course, he has no idea what is going on with his own body but we have all the answers.
Interesting take on him being out of shape. Have you noticed that Bullard has said over and over again that Mac needs to play and the only way to get into basketball shape is to play basketball. I mean Bullard has been almost on the verge of calling Mac out in a couple of his pregame segments.
