1) You are right on that one, his body looks to be in great shape 2) Everything is pretty much on target except for one thing. Tracy CANNOT dominate the ball. We want to run. Sure, he'll be a focal point in the offense but he just can't do that. We have to play as a team and he has to play as a leader which doesn't reall mean to have the ball 90% of the time. We need T-Mac off the ball more. 3) He says money is not important, but it is. He is playing for the next contract and he is playing to show that he can come back to his old, all star form. And, if you expect the guy to score only 18 ppg while dominating the ball, it will be a complete FAIL. And 18 are not enough for him at all to call it a succesfull come back imo.
there's value in the rockets banking in more revenue. Maybe not a tangible, direct benefit to you individually, but indirectly I would imagine that increased revenue provides more flexibility in how the team spends on talent, allows more options for the team in terms of planning out its long term moves.
I agree with Tracy being the focal point, but not dominating the ball necessarily. Why can't we utilize Tracy as the focal point of the Triangle Offense? I think he would be deadly with his length and dynamic game. If anything, Rick should be thinking about utilizing Tmac via implementation of the Triangle offense for a good part of games. The other parts would be McGrady curling off screens and shooting jumpers/driving to basket. Of course in the 4th when defenses tighten up, McGrady would be able to Iso and close out the games for us (what he does best). Thoughts?
DD, out of curiosity, how old are you? You stated before that you've followed the Rockets for 40 years? Y ou dont' look all that old in your videos.
if we are truly rebuilding then we need to cut our losses with both tmac AND yao. i agree that hoping and praying every season that your 2 best players can play at least half the year and the postseason is an awful life for a fan, but i'm not giving yao a pass on that just bc he carries a large international fan base. and if we're really in rebuilding mode, we are going to have a hell of a time acquiring the pieces we need to become a truly competitive team again. a decent center and an elite playmaking swingman are not exactly a dime a dozen. yeah we won 2 preseason games and our fastbreak looks nice, but you're kidding yourself if you can't see the holes in our team. we are going to struggle in the worst way in the halfcourt without tmac, but i'll gladly sit through a season of that if it lands us a decent draft pick. it just happens to be the luck of a rockets fan that we are in eternal purgatory; never bad enough to get high draft picks, not quite good enough to truly be a contender.
Read my previous post about McGrady's unparallel talent. Do you agree with that? What are your thoughts?
The OP never said anything about Tmac dominating the ball. Maybe he expects Tmac to have better shot selection. That way we can spread the offense around. Tmac scoring 32ppg would be a BAD thing.
Tmac is the only reason the Rockets were even in that series to begin with. Do you realize how overmatched the Rockets were that year against that dallas team? It was one of the best playoff round performances of all time from a player and the Rockets nearly pulled it off. I think, if anything in games 5 and 6, Tmac deferred to his teammates too much and should have just taken over in the 4th the way he did in games 1 and 2.
If TMac is "feeling it" then great, but I'd also say the thing about AB and even frikkin' CBud. I just want Tracy to help this team. And I know he can. If he comes back putting up 23 shots a game, he'd better be better than he ever was. Because, if he isn't, this particular team needs something more than that. It's up to him.
here's why I think T-mac will succeed this season.<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/guUsMGK3MrA&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/guUsMGK3MrA&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=250507006 And clearly, as we can see in this boxscore here, McGrady obviously should've deferred more responsibility to the likes of aging veterans, one dimensional role players, and scrubs.
Actually, he did. I agree that Tmac dominating the ball is a bad idea. I find it strange that after 12 years in the league (and in a contract season) people think Tmac is suddenly going to become a completely different player than he has been his entire career. The guy's game is walk the ball up the court, dribble for a while looking for his shot or a wide open man and then jab forward and pull up for a jumper (most of the time) or go to the rim and kick out or try to score (some times). It's not realistic to think this year he is suddenly going to let the PG handle the ball and initiate the offense while he moves and cuts without the ball, mans the high the post and gets out on the wing to finish fast breaks.
Been following them since the 1972-73 season...and I am 45 years old. I think a team wins the games by being balanced, Tracy's style of play is unbalanced, and while teams let him get comfortable for 3 quarters, they shut off the spigot in the 4th and he is not good enough to take over on a consistent basis. Are you saying that every 1st round team that he has led has had nothing but scrubs to compliment him, that he was not at all at fault even though he was the leader of those teams? Did Hakeem complain when he led a rag tag group of cast offs to their first title? I think Tmac's main problem is that he has always tried to do too much and because he is not efficient enough, ultimatly over a long series team's he leads will fail. DD
Yes, this loss can unequivocally be blamed on the fact that T-Mac did not share the offensive load with Ryan Bowen, Moochie Norris, and Scott Padgett. Van Gundy should also be blamed for choosing not to play Vin Baker and Clarence Weatherspoon. Hindsight is 40/40
Lots of excuses for teams failing, I don't recall Jordan blaming his teamates, or Hakeem, or Magic, or Wade, or pretty much any alleged Superstar player. Sometimes you just have to bring your teamates up.....instead of putting them down. DD
He's never shot higher than 45% for his career, with his athleticism fading I think around 20ppg, 5rbd, 7ast, FG 43%, 3pt 35%, FT 74% since he'll be dominating the ball with the players on the current roster.
We certainly agree here! (the bold part, LOL!) Ralph would have been perfect for today's league. With the big strides sports medicine and sports conditioning have made since the early/mid-'80's, he might even have lasted. Too bad we'll never know.
T-mac dominating the ball IS a bad idea, but with our roster that'll most likely be the situation. And with him dominating the ball, he's gonna put up some decent statistics, independent of how well the team does. My original point that T-mac will have a relatively successful season still stands. It's a win win for both T-mac and the Rockets if T-mac ups his trade value.
