that's according to how we think. if you've seen how tracy has struggled the past few weeks, are you sure the players still think he's our best player? i sure don't. it's like you play in a pick up game, you should know who's playing well and who isn't. you follow the lead of who's playing well. ron artest brought the intensity last night in the 2nd quarter. but nobody else did. it's ludicrous to think tracy has that much power on the players. it's not like tracy didn't pull one of these games before and we still competed (a lot of games before he rested). tracy played pathetic. we can say that. but to say his bad play caused others to play bad also is just dumb. if that is the case, we wouldn't be 21-13 right now and we be blown out in a lot of games (at least 8 b/c he has had 8 single digit scoring games).
The rocket management is stuck between a rock and a hard place. What can they do right now? T-macs up and down attitude is really starting to hurt the fabric of the this team, its as if he's quit on the team by selecting which games to play in and at the same time playing with little intensity while playing. This has got to be a nightmare for the coaching staff and Les. What to do?
For this to come out the way it has over the last week has The Company seal of approval all over it. It must be worse than we even know because it make trading TMac all but impossible until next season. And DD, I think Rafer's been calling out TMac for the better part of a week - only very carefully.
When you're on the road, at the start a 5-game road trip, when one of your key hustle players is not available for the trip, players need leadership from somewhere. It's human nature. And the coaches undoubtedly game planned that game with Tracy as a focal point in mind. That means the other players have a certain expectation for how T-Mac is going to play. If he's showing little interest in carry out his responsibilities, that's going to have a negative impact on the play around him. It causes confusion elsewhere, and confusion leads to bad play, and bad play (without any one person trying to step up to make a run) leads to an overall malaise for the entire team.
Playoff losses to inferior opponents 50 win seasons are nice but Hustle and maybe even a playoff victory would have been nice at the beginning I said he cost to much SF3 or Cuttino but not BOTH! Rocket River
I have to agree with you, but how do you know when he's ready to play? Management looks like their at an inflexion point with T-mac (to call him out publicly or not to call him out). They are in a very tough spot because they cannot allow this to go on any longer for the good of the team. A drastic move may be coming very soon.
tmac is a cancer ala stephon marbury. his inconsistancy and disruptive behavior is distracting. add his lack of hustle and poor shooting, and he is even worse. tmac is the centerpiece of the offense, if he is not doing his job, then the offensive schemes don't work. they can lay off him cause they know he wont drive to the hoop. they need to bench him, and start van wafer. i dont care if tmac does go back to scoring 16/5 a night, its a matter if its in the scheme of the offense or if he jacks up 3's early in the shot clock. he does this garbage and thinks he is helping the team, i dont care if he starts shooting at 50%, cause its not going to make his teamates better and get us over the hump. and everyone blaming adleman...i agree, he needs to assert himselve on the lockeroom, but he isn't the problem, coaching wise. in sactown, he did great with some excellent players, no genuine superstars, and i think he can do the same here. get rid of tmac(inactive list, injury list, waive, whatever) and start wafer, alston, artest, scola, yao. rotate motumbo, battier, landry, and brooks, perhaps barry and i think you got a hell of a team. also, as far as trading mcgrady, not going to happen. no one wants him cause they know he is a jumpshooter with questionable heart. he will get us NOTHING near the supposed value the 20mill a year contract demands. just need to cut our losses
you my friend are in denial....when kobe was sulking the last few years, his team struggled also. once he stopped complaining, others brought their games up. now look at vujic, farmer, gasol....they all look much better because they are playing up to their superstars level and expectation. look what jordan did for jud buchler and steve kerr and luc longley after he retired. those sub par role players got huge contracts and general manager jobs. none of those players were the same besides steve kerr who happened to play with another proven mvp and champ in tim duncan. your superstar's body language and intensity does trickle down and for you to think otherwise is ridiculous. the reason our record is decent is because we have two other stars who offset Tmac's horrible persona.
And what exactly did Steve or Cuttino do since being traded that makes the trade look so bad? BTW, nobody in their right mind would have given you TMac for Steve straight up.....and to add "or Cuttino" is laughable. What exactly are you looking for with the "I said he cost to(o) much" comment (other than someone to correct your spelling)? #1 you weren't/aren't correct and #2 are you looking for a prize of some sort? Mobley's no longer in the league and Francis hasn't mentally been in the league since he was traded.....what a stupid friggin' comment.
I think Cuttino has gotten out of the 1st round I think Steve had the team TMAC left rolling until the GM got in the way Rocket River
I would almost completely forgive McGrady if he would restructure his contract. In the meeting that took place re: back-to-backs, they should have stipulated 'Great, we will pay you half the money we currently do.' If McGrady wants to restructure his contract to reflect his job performance, I'm all about it. As it stands right now, he's robbing this team blind. And yes, I understand, he's not going to do that...he'd be a fool to. But my point is that the guys on the floor know how much money everybody makes. If Tracy is out there making the max, playing in half the games, and half-assing it, resentment begins to creep in. McGrady may have quit on this team, but we're seeing the Rockets slowly start to return the favor. Then he's no good to us at all.
To further your point: I'm sure we've all played on a team or worked on a group project where one member didn't show any effort or concern. When one person slacks off, it makes others think 'why should *I* pick up the slack?' And before you know it everyone is making sure they only contribute the bare minimum. I think we have a lot of high character guys that would not let it get to that point (Yao, Scola, Artest, etc). But when you're in the trenches, how can you fight hard for a guy who doesn't want to fight alongside you? That group dynamic could be coming into play right before our eyes.
Sadly this can't happen. 1st off, a team over the salary cap cannot renegotiate a contract which would change the the money values in the contract, though i've only ever heard of the contract increasing not decreasing. As for restructuring the contract, you just change the time frame that the contract is paid out in not the amount of money that is owed to the player. So we would be worsening our cap situation for more than just 2 years. I wonder though, that since the doctors said he should be able to play through this and since McGrady says he needs these days off, if the Rockets would just suspend him for those days. Especially after blatantly quitting on his team yesterday during the game, there is now doubt to if that is part of the reason for no back to backs stipulation. You still do not recoup the money that he would be paid for those games (it ends up donated to charities), but at least you don't pay him. If nothing else that may help to ease any resentment the other players may have about him being paid to do nothing.
Cuttino got out of the first round because Weisbrod gave him away for a bag of whipped peanuts. What has Steve done since that would make you think he could have helped this team past it? Was it the way he froze out Dwight Howard? Got outplayed by a second round draft pick in his rookie season? Got benched on the worst team in basketball? Or was it when he was asked to never show up to the Trailblazers, a team that could have used veteran leadership?
You make good points but I don't agree with most of this part of your post. Some team needing a short-term boost (Cleveland, albeit for expiring contracts and draft picks; Detroit, for 2010 cap space) but no long-term commitment, for example. Everyone wants to assume no one wants to trade for McGrady, or give up anything of value. I would suggest several teams would step forward and make a pitch. McGrady's contract expires at a good time. Even if a team had to take on an extra year of paying McGrady versus trading a contract that expires this year (i.e., if we got Tayshaun/Sheed, Sheed being the expiring contract, or, God forbid and I don't suggest it, Starbury), many teams are drooling over the chance of either being a player in the 2010 sweepstakes OR PRETENDING to be a player (shining on their fans about 2010's possibilities while dumping unwanted contracts/players). When I watch the team play without McGrady, especially the 2nd team, I see a lot of Adelman's Kings, a team that was THIS close to winning a championship (*cough cough* REFS! *cough* REFS!) As far as getting "XYZ cents on the dollar for McGrady", getting rid of his attitude, which has infected the team, is already 50 cents on the dollar. Getting a decent player as well would make up some of the difference. Also getting an expiring contract so that we can keep Artest next year would just about be dollar-for-dollar. Will we win a championship this year without McGrady? Unlikely. Will we win a championship this year with him? Impossible. I used to dismiss all the Me-mac references. I suspect in Orlando the term became strongest when he quit on them, just like he's quit on us now.
