Exactly and he is not a good outside shooter, he is an inefficient scorer, especially this late in his career. There is a difference between selfish and finisher, Magette has been labled selfish, but on that team they are all selfish.....at least Magette can finish. DD
Truer words have never been spoken. But we do get to see Ron do his best TMac impression by dribbling incessantly.
Good Lord, are you still pining over Magette? The guy plays ZERO defense and is not a smart basketball player. Don't let his numbers fool you...if you didn't care for Artest's play this season (re: fool's gold), you would absolutely HATE CM. You should pick a player that actually fits with our team to jock as an acquisition target
thing is: steve was healthy for all of his years here for hte most part, tried his hardest every game, and just wasn't good enough. so we saw the best of steve and his peak. he just wasn't more than a star player kind of guy. with tmac: the hate comes from his lack of drive moreso than anything. but despite the fact, if he stayed healthy, he would still be better than steve despite the lack of motivation. during his tenure, injuries have been the achilles heel. if the team had stayed healthy for the most part, we would have gotten playoff success.
I totally agree. While T-Mac was arguable still hobbled since he beginning of the season, their respective games imho just didn't fit. They each needed the ball and they would have competed for shots. I'll give T-Mac the nod as the more prolific scorer. But we have Yao. And if T-Mac means going with Rafer or a Rafer-like sub-saverage scorer, then in some ways, we lose out there too. Some observations I notice with Yao, Artest & Co. vs.Yao, T-Mac & Co. 1. Better overall offensive balance 2. More opportunities for more players to shine 3. Opportunity to develop the bench 4. Opportunity for Yao to shine 5. Better general flow 6. Game "feels" faster Incidentally, I think the best thing about Artest & Yao vs. T-Mac & Yao is precisely the upgrades and changes RA and DM had to do once T-Mac went down. Trading Rafer imho was basicall the end of the holdover era of JVG T-Mac ball and the new era of RA Team Rocket ball. Has our turnovers increased materially since then? I have no statistical proof, but my memory of games with AB and KL tell me no. Also- our offensive productivity in terms of all around assists and better point production from the point guards. Everyone is happier Everyone is getting touches Everyone is getting more minutes Addition by subtraction anyone???? theSAGE
except for your request for a rehab report, I think he addressed every single one of your point. Now just coz you typed he missed the boat, doesn't make it so
I am starting to believe that too. It's almost like Iverson situation, great talent but ball stopper. On the other hand, how do you explain what TMac has done without Yao? Artest wasn't even here to help him. AI could never have done it. So I would say, TMac is definitely a far better talent, player and teammate. Yea I get the second round thing and we got past this year without him, but its the not same team he had. Its not an apples to apples comparison. Even Yao couldn't get past the first round with the teams that TMac had here. Let's not look at him with a biased lenses, let his win/loss record speaks for itself, with and without Yao.
I don't think replacing anyone in the starting lineup is the answer for having a better TEAM, however adding to the current rotation would make a huge impact. If Tracy is healthy and willing to come off the bench as a super 6th man, then we could have something really special. When teams front Yao, we could go to a small lineup of KL, shane, ron, tracy, and scola. that would give us a whole new.......... Or just come off the bench and replace Yao with everyone else switching, or replace shane/ron, depending on matchups. Go Rockets either way!!!
DD, who would you want to have the ball in his hands, Brooks or McGrady? Clearly it should be McGrady and this team would be REALLY good (better then the Lakers) if he was healthy and not limping.
But the problem with our current lineup is that it's sorely lacking a perimeter scorer/playmaker and go to guy. The only reason you'd bring McGrady back is if you think he can be that guy again while playing within the team concept. Either Artest or Battier would have to come off the bench, and the better choice I think is Artest.
A healthy Tmac and Artest together would not be an issue. Ron is not a great decision maker with the ball in his hands. He's also not that much more efficient either posting up, spotting up for a three, or going to his left contrary to popular opinion. Ron's at his best cutting to the basket with a head of steam, as evidenced by some nice passes from Shane to Artest inside. It's apparent that without Tmac or Alston, Battier is now our best passer inside. Tmac would make those passes. He's been making those passes his entire time here with the exception of this season. If you're in a scoring position he will find you, whether you're Yao, a rookie Landry, a spot up shooter, or even Mutumbo. With all this talk about how the ball moves better without McGrady, we're still not better offensively without him. In some ways we're actually worse, as Ron doesn't hit his shots at a better percentage than Tmac and defenses can focus more on Yao. This whole Tmac/Ron can't coexist myth started because both players were injured when playing together. Tmac, whether his fault or not, was suffering from knee problems. And Ron sprained his ankle badly early in the season against OKC and was forced to play on it in Battier's absence. Suprise! Both played badly when injured. Battier and Landry also played badly coming back from injury and no one batted an eye, but when Tmac and Artest play badly it's due to poor chemistry. The two can co-exist. We all thought so before the season began. More importantly, Morey thought so when he pulled the trigger on the Artest trade. The only question is whether Tmac will ever be healthy again. There is no question that Corey Maggette is trash.
Of course I see your point BUT,1. there are not many scorer/playmakers that also play serious D and also available 2. you normally don't bring defense off the bench, but offense 3. I would not mess with the chmistry the current starting 5 have. If you indeed replace artest with a playmaking wing with no defense, I think we would be back at square one. without our defense(shane,ron and this year to my great surprise, YAO) we wouldn't even make it to playoffs, let alone advancing.
Sorry, but this is an invalid argument. Preseason is only a handful of games. They played enough practices and regular season games to understand each other's tendencies. Not only that, they could study game film of each other to see where each were most efficient. Revisionist history at its finest. As I've said many times before, Yao is most effective when he has consistent 3 point shooters, which never occurred prior to this year. Not to mention, if the team chemistry were anywhere near as good as you think in the past few years, the Rockets would've advanced in the playoffs. Thats the same propaganda we get fed every time he needs to rehab. And thats the same thing you spew every time he gets injured.
The article makes a good excuse for McGrady not being at the last home game. However, nothing will be a good excuse for the what he said on the Jim Rome show... He's dead to me. By the way, why did he choose to go to Chicago for this surgery and rehab? Having one of the best medical centers in the world here in Houston wasn't enough, he had to find somewhere that was 1000 miles away to do the surgery? I know it's probably specialized, but I'm not going to buy that there isn't someone in this city that qualified and at least as good of a choice...
Really? watching films tells you how to play on the court together? So by that logic, why do teams need pre seasons? The entire point is not each other's tendencies. Its each other's tendencies in a given SYSTEM. You fail there. You think Artest would shoot that many 3 pointers at Sacramento? Indiana? Ironically your comment is actually a perfect example of revisionist history at its finest. Never occured prior to this year. Without TMac, Yao could barely win games. That's a fact. We had just as good three point shooters then as we do now. And no we wouldn't advance, coz Team chemistry means jack if there is no talent. Again, circa 2004 team around our two superstars, team chemistry was great but we sucked. period. Yes it can happen. Shaq and Kobe caused really bad team chemistry but they went on to win 3 championships. Yes it did happen. Everytime? It happened only this year. Again, propaganda is when you bend the truth to make your case. Obviously propaganda have us believe that TMac came in PERFECTLY healthy and he just DIDN'T REHAB. Very conveniently excluding the fact that TMac did after all have BOTH SHOULDER AND KNEE surgery in the post season. And his knee surgery resulted in some complications. Do you really think TMac would be THAT slow even if he was slightly out of shape?? Heck he looked like Mutombo out there. These are facts. Everything else is half propaganda, half truth. Yes blasphemy for pointing that out. Again only this year he sucked after he came back from his injuries. And again he did after all have another surgery which proves there was something wrong after all. Unless he likes to damage his body just to prove he wasn't lying that he was hurting. Having said all that and defended TMac, I have no defense for some of the things that comes out of his mouth, even though I don't get the criticism he got for his "It's on me" coment. As a max player, it is friggin on him if we lose. Yao even said so himself this year. TMac is just too honest, too foolish and too naive. He needs to just shutup and play ball.
Did you read what I wrote? You study film to see where other players are most efficient. How do you think Battier prepares for Kobe? I fail? Funny. Systems are modified to adapt to players' strengths. You notice how the current Rockets arent running the exact same system as Adelman's King? Fact? Really? I thought the Rockets won enough games to make the playoffs when Yao was paired with Francis. This year, we added Artest, Barry, and Brooks received much more playing time. Who did we have back then? Btw, McGrady is not a good 3 point shooter. Shaq and Kobe didnt get along off the court. But on the court, they were one of the best 1-2 combos the league had ever seen. Sorry, but they had chemistry on the court. Several times this year. Hence, "everytime". Routine, and elective shoulder and knee surgery. There were no complications. He didnt rehab properly so his knee didn't function properly. How can you not understand this? Its common knowledge that several doctors said he didn't need surgery, and McGrady kept shopping around until he finally found a doctor that did advise surgery. In other words, surgery wasnt required. Most people look at his surgery as an attempt to derail any trades involving him. Don't forget that he announced his surgery near the trade deadline.
"Mentally" healthy. T-Mac won't make this team better with 40% FG and 20 FGA. It is funny how TOFs argue about the fact that this team didn't play well when T-Mac was on the court this season.
Well, I don't think McGrady is a "playmaking wing with no defense", but you're right, the defense of the starting lineup would be better with Artest.
I have been watching him for years, he attacks the rim relentlessly, he moves off the ball constantly, he hits his FTs...he is not terrible on D, just not great. The guy would thrive playing with this team.....we need his efficiency. It all boils down to that....how often can you put the biscuit in the basket... Tmac is inefficent, Rafer was inefficient, Ron is inefficient.... You up your efficiency you win......Maggette is efficient. DD
