i mean wow, is it like mcgrady tried to make a mockery of our organization, give tha man a break. He is only human, and he might not have met some guys expectations or even standards but he tried, jus enjoy our first round exit as the HOUSTON ROCKETS, point, blank, period.
Tracy is no Shaq and wouldn't have the same role Shaq had with the Lakers, but Kobe would definitely share the ball with him(and gasol/bynum). People don't know that Kobe is not that selfish player the media makes him out to be, he is more than willing to share the ball with his teammates. He doesn't play for stats imo. PG: Brown/ Fisher SG: Kobe or Tracy/ Sasha SF: Kobe or Tracy/ Ariza PF: Gasol/ Powell C: Bynum/ Mbenga With Kobe and Gasol/Bynum there's no pressure on T-mac.. If he's even 75% of what he use to be that team is unbeatable. Solid lineup. Too bad he won't opt-out of his contract this off-season.
Yeah, he contributed alot of headaches around the trade deadline and got out of the way so that the real team could come together and get to the second round.
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^^ lol @ Scarface281. Nice one. I am assuming the guy sitting on the chair is the doctor McGrady finally found who agreed with his assessment.
ummm... no one said he carried us. he clearly led that team however, with rafer being on a hot streak a close second. It was a team effort but let's not forget tracy's value was more often that not his decision making and court awareness. his passing was among the elite and certainly contributed to the ease of baskets for scolandry and others. No one is overlooking yao ming's presence but the fact remains that tracy was the man 2 season's in a row to keep this team a float while yao missed significant portions of the season. tracy acted like a b**** the way he handled the injury BUT it was a legit injury. he did have freaking microfracture surgery. in that regard I hardly see how this scenario is any different than yao going down the prior 2 years. it sucks but given that he didn't invent a fake injury I don't have any idea where all this hate is coming from. While I'm at it, it's hilarious to assume that tracy wouldn't play given the exact same condition von wafer had. that's just hating for the fun of it. we have no clue what kind of pain wafer was in and no clue what kind of pain t-mac has played through in the past. he certainly wasn't 100% in last years playoffs but he gave a heck of an effort. it's interesting to see how people rewrite the past.
This Tmac bashing needs to stop. Seriously. Don't get me wrong, the Rockets played great this series and they deserved to win, but with that said, we had the best possible matchup available, maybe with the exception of the Hornets who had major injury problems. The Blazers are a young team, who relies on a young star player (Roy), and another soft young good player (Aldridge), to do EVERYTHING for them offensively. Kind of like how the Rockets used to rely on Tmac and Yao for all of the Rockets points and playmaking. Even when Shaq and Kobe dominated for 3 years, they had Horry, Fisher, Fox, Glen Rice, Horace Grant, Ron Harper, etc. to help them. Veterans who knew how to win tough playoff games, not to mention Phil Jackson coaching them. Back in 2005, what did Tmac really have besides Yao? They had Jon Barry, Mike James, Bob Sura, Ryan Bowen, Weatherspoon, Moochie Norris, Andre Barrett, Scott Padgett, and Dikembe Mutombo (Juwan Howard was out for the playoffs). So with that squad, he had to face a Dallas team that won 58 games, including going 16-2 to finish out the season under Avery Johnson after Nellie resigned. That team featured Dirk, Michael Finley, Devin Harris, Josh Howard, Jason Terry, Stackhouse, Marquis Daniels, Najera, Keith Van Horn, Dampier and Bradley. That team was supposed to beat us in 5 or 6, tops. They were MUCH more talented than we were. What did Tmac do?? He shocked the Mavs in games 1 & 2 and we stole the home court, with him hitting the game winner in game 2. We come back home, and lose 2 very close games. Tmac had good games in both, but Dallas clamped down on our 3 point shooters and basically dared Yao and Tmac to beat them by themselvs. Throughout all this, Tmac and Ryan Bowen are shutting down Dirk, so Tmac has to score and make plays while trying to shut down Dirk...not a simple task. Game 5: The Rockets are down by 3 with less than a minute to go, Jon Barry gets a rebound, but leaves the ball exposed; Finley (while still out of bounds) comes in and strips the ball out of his hands, he gets fouled, the ref missed the call, Dallas wins. Houston comes back in Game 6 behind 37 from Tmac, and forces a game 7. Game 7: Looked like the Blazers last night, as Yao and Tmac combined for 60 of the Rockets 78 points. Nobody else came to play. We lose by 40, our season is over. Tmac averaged 30 ppg, 7 rpg, 6 apg on 45% fg, and playing 42 mpg. In 2007, the Rockets have Tmac and a more dominant Yao, but he's coming back from a major knee injury and still wasn't right. This team had Rafer, Battier, Head, Hayes, Mutombo, Howard, Kirk Snyder, and John Lucas III. Tmac and Yao average 50 ppg combined during the season. Rafer, Battier, Head, and Howard were relied on heavily to provide 10 ppg or so. That team had to play the Jazz who had Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, Memhet Okur (All-star season), Derek Fisher, AK-47, Matt Harpring, Giricek, and Paul Millsap. Although they didn't have playoff experience, that team was MUCH deeper than the Rockets and they had Fisher, who had won 3 titles in LA. Games 1 & 2, Rockets win 2 close games, probably due to past playoff experience and home court. Also, Kirelinko and Okur 's shots weren't falling and AK-47 had his infamous "crying" after game 2. Game 3: ONLy 4 Rockets score in the game. We managed only 67 points, with Tmac and Yao having 51 of those points. No points off the bench from Head or Howard. Rafer and Battier combined for 17 points. Game 4, Utah wins again, probably due to the home court and having more weapons. This was game 7 from 2005 all over again... Game 5: Tmac and Yao play their hearts out. Tmac had 26 points and 16 assists. Yao had 29 points. The Rockets barely squeeze out a victory even with those great performances. Game 6, the Rockets are close throughout the game until the final 3 minutes or so, when the Jazz pulled away to a 12 point win. Game 7: Tmac and Yao both had another great game. Tmac 29 points and 13 assists and Yao had another 29 point game. Battier and Alston had decent games as well, but it just wasn't enough as the Jazz just had too many weapons that series, and beat the Rockets by 4 at the Toyota center. In 2008, the Rockets fired JVG and hired Rick Adelman. They also made their supporting cast younger and more offensive minded. They added Scola, Landry, Brooks, Bobby Jackson to go along with Rafer, Battier, Hayes, Deke, and Head to help out Tmac and Yao. Unfortunately, Yao goes down for the season when the Rockets are in the process of winning 22 straight and playing great basketball. In the playoffs, we draw Utah again, this time with Alston out for 2.5 games and Battier really limited on offense and defense. The Jazz were able to send 2-3 players at Tmac everytime. Scola played good throughout the series, but Landry was inconsistent, Jackson's shot was streaky and he was embarrassed by Deron Williams at the other end. Deke and Hayes played goode defense, but we lost offensive options with them on the court. Battier and Alston gutted games out, along with Tmac who had reinjured his knee (same one he injured during the season). The Rockets actually win a game in Utah in Game 3. Were very close to winning another in Utah in Game 4, but came up just a little short. Game 5, Houston blows out the Jazz at home. Game 6: The Jazz got out to a early lead of 18 points. Tmac basically by himself brings back the Rockets on a bad knee and a bad shoulder, and brings the Rockets to within 4 at halftime. He scored 28 first half points. Rafer Alston reinjures his ankle, and in the 2nd half, Deron Williams just torches Bobby Jackson and AB. Scola had 15 points for the Rockets, but nobody else could help Tmac, who scored 40 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and dished out 5 assists, but it just wasn't enough, as his team lost by 22, despite a great effort on his part. To conclude this post, Tmac did everything he could've done against those unfavorable matchups. The only reason we were favored slightly in 2007 was because of Home Court Advantage, not because we were more talented. It was amazing that Tmac and Yao alone were able to push those series to 7 games, and Tmac was able to push the Jazz to 6, while he was hurt along with Alston being out and Battier being limited, and Yao being out. I know the Rockets are in round 2 now, which I am very happy about. But Tmac did a lot to try to help us win before. Let us not forget that. Without him in years past, we are lottery bound every year. We didn't win because he was not there this year. We won because we had a a very favorable matchup against a young, inexperienced team who rely on 2 players for everything offensively, kind of like the Rockets from 2005 to 2007.
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Good job leading the Rockets Tracy to the second round from Chicago I saw Dikembe in the Toyota Center and he just had surgery 3 days ealier.
Thought this post over at realgm was to damn funny. It appears that Tracy is on suicide watch. http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=901868&start=0
