[CHRON] McGrady: Rockets' success hinges on team, not him

You see whatever you want to see, man, and I guess McGrady will never get the benefit of the doubt from you.

Oh and btw I've read your arguments in this thread and I've noticed you seem to deviate from the point that is being discussed. But whatever, I'm through with this.

 

Lets try a hypothetical scenario. Player A penetrates 4 times, gets fouled 4 times, and shoots 8 free throws.

Player B gets the ball numerous times throughout the game, and at the end of the game, has shot a total of 14 free throws.

Player B may have shot more free throws, but player A is better at drawing fouls.

On a side note, even though it doesnt apply to last year's game 7, yao's free throw attempts are augmented by the technicals that he shoots.

When the game is winding down, its a safe bet that the jazz wouldnt commit reckless fouls. If yao is going to fade away or shoot over the top, theres no need to commit a foul b/c odds are, you wont stop him from getting a shot off.

Thats why I believe that the better option was for tmac to penetrate. I would say that its more likely for tmac to draw a foul while penetrating than for yao to draw a foul while in the post.

 

Deviate? How so? People bring up points and I respond...simple as that

 

you're talking about SCENARIOS. i'm talking about the actual plays ran in game 7 dude. watch the video i posted. look at the defense yao faced. how the hell do you not go to him?? tmac was doubled like crazy.

again, watch the damn game before you talk dude.

PS - from the way you post, are you insinuating yao is soft too since you're saying he always fades away?

and tmac never gets all the calls if you have followed his rockets' career. he can be fouled 4 times in a row, and only one might be called.

 

Nice clip. Thank you for proving my point. Yao drew that foul by attacking the basket.

We did NOT play well offensively in the latter half of the 4th period.

 

what point? your point was proven completely wrong. you said tmac should have penetrated and yao wasn't good at drawing fouls. that clip showed the defensive attention on tmac and how the rotations allowed yao to get easy matchups to draw fouls. so your point about tmac has to drive was completely wrong.

and we did lose b/c of yao's lack of rebounding. that first one he gave up to boozer basically sealed the game. when you give a ROAD TEAM 3-4 cracks at the basket AT THE END OF THE GAME, it's killer.

we scored 99 points. we scored well enough. the opportunities we gave up to allow them to score 103 pts???? c'mon now. our defense wasn't that poor, but the off. boards we gave up were just too much. a great offensive team like the jazz WILL score if they get 2-3 chances at it.

 

Actually, you said that shooting the most free throws means you're the best at drawing fouls. This is not a logical conclusion. You didnt follow my first explanation so I used a hypothetical scenario to illustrate my point.

i did look at the video you posted. first of all, you should've found a clip starting from when they got into the penalty. secondly, i dont feel that he was double teamed that much. on the pick and roll, the secondary defender would flash out, but then leave to guard his original man.

absolutely not. yao is not soft. soft players dont play until their bones break. yao is more of a finesse player. he's not a power player like shaq used to be.

Should that be an excuse to stop playing aggressively?

 

He deviates...

 

Actually, I said that tmac should've been more aggressive and attacked the basket. In your clip, thats what yao did and he drew the foul.

So in general, whose better at attacking the basket? yao or tmac?

Actually, you're clip showed that tmac would eventually get single coverage. Tmac has the ability to take anyone to the basket. Its a shame he didnt do that earlier in the 4th.

 

Please show me an example where I irrelevantly go off-topic.

 

tmac scored 8-9 pts in the 4th. that's good enough. we have a 2-star system. tmac dominated most of the game, the way the defenses played yao and how we were in the penalty and yao is AUTOMATIC at the line, JVG decided to go to him.

JVG called a lot of our plays. you saw how tmac specifically looked for yao on that play where he got the foul call. he waited for yao to get position and passed it to him.

going to yao was smart. like i said, we didn't lose on offense. we lost on defense where we couldn't grab a rebound to save our lives. anyone who says otherwise is simply nit-picking.

1st chance - we were down by 1 and gave up 2 offensive rebounds -> jazz scored a 3.

2nd time - we were down 2 and gave up THREE offensive rebounds -> jazz got 2 fts.

now really, we grab one and we win.

 

I think Adleman's offense will give the Jazz fits defensively. I don't think they will be able to stop the Rockets for 7 games.

 

T-Mac will lead us to........................................



a first round exit.




Book it.


For some reason I'm not excited about these playoffs without Yao....it sucks.

 

I find it almost comical that you blame yao for allowing boozer to get that rebound. tell me, do you really expect yao, easily the least athletic (and perhaps the slowest) player on the court, to be able to backpeddle from underneath the basket and outrebound boozer, who had both position and a superior leaping ability?

On offense, going to yao was smart, but having tmac attack would've been smarter.

 

no, yao is our best ft shooter. he's one of the best ft shooters in the L. ft shooting is basically one of yao's 2-3 main strengths. tmac at his best is a 75% shooter. and yao had single coverage. please, i don't know how you can disagree with that.

the first rebound was all on yao. he didn't even have a body on boozer in the first place. where was the boxout? let's not even get into leaping and jumping and athletic ability. boxing out should have put boozer out of the play for the rebound. even if he had to back peddle ONE STEP, basically it was a jumpball.

there's a reason why yao rarely wins jumpballs. but in game 7, yao MUST get that rebound (did you see how boozer got that extra lift to get that board?? it was about wanting it). it's a must. dikembe (one of the slowest mofos you'll find) usually grabs those types of rebounds.

again, the past is the past. let's all focus on this series.

 

2 things.


First, it was an exxaggeration on par with folks who say T-Mac settled for jumpers with a full shot clock time and time again in the 4th quarter.(He actually took 2 jumpshots the entire 4th quarter, and none in the last 3 minutes). And that he has done that with regularity this season.

Second, of all the things in my entire post you want to nitpick my obvious hyperbole?

 

Much like T-Mac gets a lot of heat when the offense is underperforming(right or wrong), Yao gets alot of the heat when a solid 10 RPG player only grabs 6 and during the final 2 minutes the team gives up 5 offensive rebounds.(here again, right or wrong)

Having T-Mac attack the double team and the Jazz's obviously lane slanted defense(no not in the lane, but standing next to it) would have resulted in charging fouls, turnovers, and if the Rockets were really lucky 2 more FTs during the last 3 minutes of the game.

 

Two questions you don't use any basketball knowledge at all. I don't honestly expect Tracy Mcgrady to score on a double or triple team drive to the basket. Given the way the series was being reffed I wouldn't even think it was a smart option as Mcgrady wasn't getting any foul calls what so ever.

Secondly in fact I do expect Yao to get the rebound. Thats his job he plays Center not Point Guard. Like you said Boozer had position and superior leaping ability. POSITION? Isn't it his job to box his man out? He was letting him get rebounds defensively too. Fact of the matter is both of them did not do their jobs.

Score on a double team
Box out on defence and offence and get rebounds.

Its pure and simple, I was ecastic about Yao's rebounding this season it was light years ahead of the rebounding he showed in the playoffs last year.

You see what you want to see, I honestly expect Yao to get those rebounds. 6 rebounds is inexcusable for a player meant to get 20-10. Not scoring in the 4th quarter is inexcusable for a super star wing.

I have NEVER seen you bag Yao out for not getting the rebound but you continually bag Mcgrady. Its all perception. If you want to make up excuses FOR Yao then go for it. Seems hypocritical to me that you can't handle Mcgrady explaining the situation and yet you have already made up the excuse for Yao. Im sure Yao would be the first to admit he needed and he could have gotton more critical rebounds. They both sucked and thats the end story.

 

Tracy McGrady is probably the most gifted basketball player talent wise in the NBA. Problem is, he never had to work extremely hard like others to attain his skills. He became extremely undisciplined as a basketball player as a result of the ease he acquired his skills. He becomes lethargic and apathetic during regular season games due to his undisciplined nature. Now being undisciplined in this sense doesn't necessarily mean incapable. It means then since high school he was the best player with little work, he never learned that/thought he had to work any harder then he did. He was naturally better then everyone else, he had an innate ability to perform with hardly any practice. We all know the story that he doesn't even pick up a basketball during the summer, because theoretically he doesn't NEED to to stay on the top 15% of NBA talent. That's just how naturally good he is. To us, we can't understand it, it makes us sick, getting paid 18 million a year to JUST play basketball, however the psychology behind it supersedes the amount of money made. The money is seen as an entitlement. He'll never understand, just as Vince Carter never will/did, just as we'll never understand the position there in. In this post I feel like I've been overly critical of T-mac in respect to my actual views of him, but in comparison to others this doesn't even have the scent of being critical. He'll come to play in the playoffs just as he always has regardless of his statements past or present, he wants to win just as bad as Kobe does. He may need extra motivation to bring him to that level but the playoffs always bring it out of him. It's not right or wrong thats just how it is with Tracy. Everything that happened doesn't matter, the streak, Yao going down, Tracy's laziness or brilliance, its a new season now. As fans this is what it's about. It brings out ferocity in fans and players as well, thats enough motivation to bring the T-mac we know and love out.

 

Seems like our differences stem from our view on mcgrady's abilities. when he wants to be, i believe he's the best offensive player in the game. he's good enough to drive to the basket without charging or frequently committing turnovers.