Thought this was an interesting article written from a DALLAS MAVS perspective. It makes a lot of good points. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/columnists/dmoore/stories/063004dnspomoore.ee06.html McGrady boosts Rockets Houston gains offensive help for Yao, can close in on Spurs; Mavs need their own right fit 01:43 AM CDT on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 While the Mavericks stockpile and posture and try to figure out how to land one of the top five players in the sport, the Houston Rockets went out and got one. Tracy McGrady is no Shaquille O'Neal. But then, the Rockets don't really need one of those. Yao Ming will do just fine. What Houston needs is McGrady. Acquiring him as part of a seven-player deal Tuesday nudged the Rockets closer to San Antonio – and possibly past Dallas and Memphis – in the newly formed Southwest Division. The trade has been on the verge of happening for more than a week. Trust us when we tell you that will seem like the blink of an eye compared to the odyssey that lies ahead for the Mavericks in their pursuit of O'Neal. But enough what could happen. Let's focus on what did happen. Think how bad the Mavericks are on defense. Well, that's how bad the Rockets are on offense. The only team that made the playoffs with a worse offense than Houston was ... There wasn't one. The Rockets were one of only five teams that failed to average at least 90 points during the regular season. The team broke the 100-point barrier only 15 times. Houston ranked next to last in the league in offensive rebounds and next to last in turnovers with 16.7 a game. Jeff Van Gundy is a splendid defensive coach. But his peers will tell you his level of offensive sophistication is lacking. That's why McGrady is such a wonderful fit. When the offense breaks down, as it did repeatedly last season, the Rockets now have someone who can bail them out. He's good enough that Houston will score in spite of itself or a pedestrian scheme. Not everyone will embrace this theory. Skeptics will point to point guard Steve Francis, the key player who went to Orlando in this deal. Francis is an outstanding offensive player who averaged 20.1 points in his first four years in the league only to record career lows in points (16.6) and field goal percentage (40.3) in his one season under Van Gundy. Why will it be any different with McGrady? Because McGrady doesn't pound the ball on the dribble the way Francis does. He's a wing player who can catch and shoot or slash to the basket. He's a more efficient scorer than Francis – a key in an offense that doesn't generate a lot of shots – and is unselfish. McGrady's scoring will go down with the Rockets, but his assists will go up. The question is defense. Coaches and players around the league say McGrady's defensive intensity has slipped the last two seasons. Van Gundy won't allow that to continue. McGrady won't win the league scoring title as he has the last two seasons. But he'll become a better all-around player. It's not just McGrady that makes this a good deal for Houston. Juwan Howard is an upgrade at forward over Maurice Taylor. It's hard to say what, if anything, the Rockets will get out of Tyronn Lue and Reece Gaines. But it didn't get much out of Kelvin Cato and what it got out of Cuttino Mobley – the other two players shipped to Orlando in the deal – was too erratic for Van Gundy's taste. McGrady fantasized about playing next to an elite center during All-Star weekend. He openly lobbied for owner Mark Cuban to rescue him and O'Neal in recent weeks and drop them onto the Mavericks' roster. McGrady wasn't able to orchestrate that deal. But he got the next best thing with Houston. The Mavericks can only hope their pursuit of one of the league's top five players turns out as well. If not, Dallas could find itself behind Houston in the standings.
what's this "could find itself behind Houston"......Dallas will be behind Houston!!!!!!!! Shaq isn't gonna change enough for them.
nice read, thanks for the post. I like how we put a little bit more fear to our competitors with this trade now. When I firist heard about the trade on the verge of happening, I thought we were trading offense (steve) for offense (Tracy) and that it was going to be kinda pointless in the end. I looked over stats and they were very much on par with one another if you took into consideration what Steve had to work with and what Tracy had to work with over the past few seasons. This article helped me understand one humongous point though. Steve gets his on having to puound the ball, he just hasnt been able to be a catch and shoot kinda guy. I wish him and the others the best out ther in the east. I think Orlando will have a top 6 team over there.
