His favorite play is having the ball in his hands, he rarely ran the play you talked about, the one the Rockets run with Von now..... Tmac never committed to running the offense, this year or last, and was b****ing about not being used correctly. Tmac COULD be an off the ball player, but it would require a much different mindset, and committment level than he has shown to date. DD
finally a voice of reason... this whole bunch of first round stuff is just plain stupid and ridiculous. 1. that the rockets made it to the 2nd round really isn't a big deal if you're not part of the media. portland was by far the best matchup and the worst team of any playoff series we have played in the last 10 years. it's nice that we won and i'm really proud of the guys but reality is that this series has proven nothing. after all it's only about the championship for us and if we get sweeped by the lakers or go down with little fight this season is worth nothing more than any other season where the rockets lost in the first round. it wouldn't have been for t-mac, either. 2. if you believe that the rockets have a better shot at getting a ring without a healthy mcgrady you should really think again. ron artest is no tracy mcgrady and luckily for the rockets he accepted that fact in the portland series. but to beat really good teams like the lakers yao alone won't be enough. adding artest to the mix won't change the picture, either. you need a star player that creates open shots for his teammates, can score by himself and can close out games. a healthy t-mac can do all those things especially in the playoffs. right now the rockets don't have a single player like that. i'm sure ron will try his best but unfortunately he is what he is...not the most skilled offensive player out there. and @ dadakota: 1. yeah, the rockets were really bad chemistry wise with t-mac in the past. that's probably the reason that 22 game winning streak never happened. too bad that adelman never figured it out. otherwise he would have made yao or artest the focal point of the offense. wait... 2. artest and t-mac doesn't have to fit. artest should be the first option off the bench anyways because actually when he's in scoring mode he really doesn't fit with anybody. the time where artest and mcgrady are on the court together could easily be limited. neither of them would be as effective but playing a quarter together wouldn't kill any of them, either. 3. i find it really strange that you're always demanding that t-mac shouldn't be in a playmaker role and at the same time you have no problems with brooks playing it. that really makes no sense at all from a basketball stand point. the lakers want kobe with the ball in his hands most of the time not derek fisher. the cavs want lebron with the ball in his hands to make plays. and the heat don't give the ball to chalmers, they give it to wade. if you have that kind of playmaking talent on your team you use it and create an offense around it. not the other way around.
You've argued in the past that this team would be better with Maggette instead of Artest. So I have a simple question: would you rather replace Ron Artest with Corey Maggette or a healthy Tracy McGrady?
I actually think The Lowry Move fits T-mac with Artest more. His so good at running the team and moving off the ball. He would be a good fit with a T-mac Artest Battier Yao tandem. Move Scola at PF and Center into it with Landry splitting time at PF. I think it will work but thats a story for next season
We need a second superstar on this team, it doesn't have to be McGrady, regardless he hasn't been a superstar in a few years...... Portland wouldn't have been able to pay so much attention to Yao if we had that second guy, I hoped Artest would fill that role, but he's just not good enough........ It's very unlikely we beat the Lakers, I'm just happy that Yao got out of the first round.
This is a lot tougher a question than you might think. Tmac is by far the better passer. Maggette is by far the better finisher. Maggette moves off the ball a lot better than Tmac does, but TMac can be a much better defender when he wants to be. Tmac shoots from the outside too much, and Maggette draws tons of fouls and hits his foul shots. Both have had issues with injury and getting nicked up. I think I would take either, but if I had to choose, Tmac by a nose, but either would be better than Ron on this team that already has Battier. But since TMac will never be healthy again...more than likely...I would choose Maggette for the next season over Ron. DD
It seems to me that getting lost in all this hyperbole is that Artest is actually a more efficient player when someone else is creating for him. He is an excellent outside shooter when he gets the ball in position to shoot rather than off of the dribble. He's often effective at driving to the basket, but mainly when his man is out of position or when he gets the ball from fairly close in. He is at his worst offensively when he tries to create things from scratch, either on jumpers or by attempting to get to the basket. I think Artest would be a much more efficient player if he were playing with an excellent playmaker like a somewhat healthy McGrady.
that's like saying yao could be a great midrange shooter if he ever moves his ass out of the low post. why would anyone want yao to be a midrange shooter when he's a domiant low post force? why would anyone want t-mac to be a scorer running around screens when he's an elite playmaker at his position?
You also missed the point, it is not about liking each other, it is about on the floor chemistry and what makes the team better or harder to guard by the opponents. If you know one guy is always going to have the ball it is easier to guard him and the rest....if you play a TEAM ORIENTED game, then it is much harder to guard, and everyone on the team feels more involved.... I agree, but I would rather find someone that DOES fit, Ron is too much of a wild card, and his skills are in decline. I think the contract he wants is going to hurt us in the long run, I don't think Ron adds all that much that is not covered by other players already, other than toughness, and that is both good, and bad....because of his "Thinking he is better than he really is" attitude. Also, he is a LOW efficiency scorer, if you replace him with a better scoring option, it is better for the team overall. In a Rick Adelman offense you have 5 playmakers on the floor...that is what I am looking for...everyone can make a play for everyone else....not just one guy....that is where most of you are missing the point. DD
Yao should move some to the high post, if he stays rooted to the low block he becomes predictable and easy to guard.......notice game 6? He was moving to the high post and reversing sides....... Tmac should be playing off the ball, not the entire game, but some to keep the defense honest. I never understand why people are resistant to adding MORE options to their games and becoming harder to guard. Hakeem did it, Magic did it, Bird did it, Jordan did it? Why should we settle for what they are now? Getting better, makes the team better. Leeb was right, expaining basketball and team building can be difficult....lol DD
I don't think Tracy McGrady is selfish or a ball stopper as much as most people point him out to be. Otherwise he wouldn't be averaging 5-6 assists a game. But for our team right now I think a player like Corey Maggette would be the best option of those three you mentioned. He's tough and versatile, certainly a much better athlete than either of them at this point, and also he's very unselfish too. Of course, if we had a player like Rudy Gay right now we would have a very good chance against the Lakers......but then we wouldn't one of my favorite players/person in the league, Shane Battier, wearing Rockets red.
So if I understand you correctly you think McGrady+Artest is worse than just Artest or just McGrady (disregarding any potential injuries). It's the combination you have a problem with. I understand your point about diminishing returns ("synergy" would be the last word that comes to mind when McGrady and Artest are sharing the floor). But I don't think its so severe that together we get negative returns.
This is exactly what I mean when I talk about the extreme myopia of Rockets fans. I never thought it would be that easy to forget a historic 22 game winning streak, but that's exactly what so many Rockets fans have done. That streak doesn't get enough credit, not even by our own fans. Every year, eight NBA teams win a first round playoff series. Only one other team achieved what the Rockets did, and it was 27 years ago by what is considered possibly the most dominant NBA team of all time. That is the ultimate testament to chemistry. The 22-game winning streak by itself utterly destroys any "chemistry"-related argument against McGrady. It's funny because some of our own fans were proclaiming us dead in the water earlier in the season (rinse, lather, repeat), and some time after Yao went down, the talk in the media, even on local sports radio (what an association of dumbasses they are) and this BBS was about how this team was possibly better off without Yao. Of course, it's easy for anyone to say now that those proclaiming that the team was better off without Yao last year were complete idiots, but of course, anyone now suggesting that this team needs McGrady to be championship team it really wants to be is a "TOF" who likes to suck on his nuts. It's a good thing the Rockets management isn't nearly as impatient and myopic as the vast majority of fans are. If they were, they'd be the Astros.
Yup, I think a "healthy" Tracy and Ron can work out great. If not, either one can come off the bench and fire away...
I do not agree, their games do not mix well. And, they are both poor finishers, low efficiency, we have tried that route...too often in the past. And, Tmac will probably never be the same again. Firing away when both players shoot in the high 30s to low 40s...is a bad bad recipe for winning. It is a good recipe for losing though. It is not about liking each other, it is about the team being harder to guard...the 22 game streak was awesome, magical, everything was cool, but ultimatly not sustainable. I am talking about a type of chemistry where everyone on the floor is a passer, everyone on the floor is a finisher, everyone on the floor is a cutter..... That is the type of chemistry impossible to prepare for... DD
tracy was NEVER a playmaker this year b/c he was unhealthy. when he can't make plays, he's not tracy mcgrady and he became one-dimensional if he can't score. a relatively healthy mcgrady is NOT one-dimensional, which he was this year. and so if you put a one-dimensional offensive player like artest with the one-dimensional tmac this year, yeah, it looked like they don't mix. if tracy is healthy, he would relegate the scoring if he wanted to to artest by switching on the playmaker mode: hell, artest was at his best this year making spot up jumpers/3s. tracy can get him that ALL DAY every day if he was healthier. tracy did not fit with anybody at anytime this year DD. he was a bad, one dimensional player who couldn't move. if you judge him on this year and this is how he's going to play as a one-dimensional offensive player, then yeah, you're most likely right.
uh b/c a 7'6 guy yao was INJURED??? you don't think we would have gone DEEP last yr if that big guy stayed healthy? your team is harder to guard when you have better players. and we have better players this year than last. PS - if you haven't noticed, our team only gets harder to guard when the 2nd unit comes in.
It is typical T-Mac apologist stuff No Doubt *IF* he played WITHIN THE OFFENSE they would have been contending but TMAC DOESN'T . . the offense is different so TMac centric Rocket River
