Do you believe Tmac is hurt?

There are degrees of injury that are in between "Ligament tear" (which an MRI will show) and simple bone bruise. Clinically, you can diagnose ligament tear without an MRI (and the imaging will just confirm it)... if the trainer feels its not necessary, he's not saying "its a minor injury he should be able to play through." He's just saying its an uneccessary test that isn't going to diagnose anything.

Besides, if the guy isn't getting full elevation on every play, what good is he? He "sucked it up" and played against Orlando (who he'll always try to embarass), and he had nothing. Teams will TRIPLE team Yao (they can lay off Chuck AND T-mac) if they know T-mac doesn't have elevation on his jump shot. Sure, he can still be a facillitator, and pass the ball, but a lot of that is based on teams doubling him and him finding the open man.

Also, Bill Worrell questioned Rick Adelman's strategy LONG before he ever questioned T-mac (and btw, he's questioned why T-mac is unhappy... not that he's faking an injury... and we know T-mac is unahppy because of them a.) lacking an identity, and b.) losing games to teams they should be owning).

And now, we see Adelman slowing the ball down more, featuring less Yao high post, and openly stating that "I have to allow these guys to do what they're comfortable with..." (indicating that "his system" may never be fully implemented here). If he instilled that sort of transition at the start of the season (rather than get these guys so discombobulated that they had no chance to adjust when teams caught on to their pseudo-run-and-gun), things wouldn't have fallen off the edge like they did starting with the Toronto second half.

 

Just to add on to this (good observation BTW), Clyde and Bill have really started to question things about TMac like his body language. I remember Clyde distinctly saying something equivalent to "Tmac needs to suck it up even if he's a bit gimpy" (I'm paraphrasing here). If that doesn't sound like he's questioning TMac's heart, I don't know what is.

 

I'm not trying to blame this on TMac but IMO I felt yao made a better adjustment to it. TMac's always looked more comfortable in an ISO offense

 

With the way he was playing vs. Orlando did you REALLY want him "sucking it up," and playing? He couldn't even run without hobbling.

Question his toughness all you want, but we had a better chance winning that game with him out than with him in.

 

on a side note, the lack of articles this year with yao complaining about being tired has been a nice thing to see. it was a mega peeve of mine in past years cuz I knew every article would be about yao saying he was tired.

 

if he realy couldn't run without hobbling, he would have been off the court. Maybe he was gimpy, but he was not hobbling.

thats what Clyde was talking about, if you're gonan say i'm good enough to be on the court, then you can't constantly tell everyone that you're hurt by your body language, you're just creating an excuse. I think Clyde was put off by that.

 

Thank you.

 

Please... both him and Yao have looked pretty damn comforable playing the 2-man pick and roll over the last 4 years.

The only thing is, once teams send 4 men at these 2, ONE of the other 3 players has to have the ability to hit an open shot... which hasn't happened this year.

 

So what, he's hurt enough for it to effect his play... but not hurt enough to keep him from the court... so thus, he should play (but play badly?!?).

I'm all for resting guys with injuries that prevent them from being effective. If T-mac can't elevate on his shot, teams lay off him, dare him to shoot, and he no longer faces a double team that will allow him to be a playmaker.

He then becomes useless.

 

if you saw him in Orlando, you would see why I made that statement.

even if they're running PnR, Tracy still always jacked up the most shots by far. He wants the ball, he needs the ball, he can't move without the ball. I love TMax and think the world of him, but he is what he is.

 

Wel, given that he's our best passer, best finisher, and can find the open man when he gets doubled EVERY TIME (and, not to mention, that Yao would literally face the fronting/deny defense every single night if it wasn't for the threat of T-mac)... he is what he is.

Orlando was 4 years ago... and we already know the stories about how he came around as more of an "all around" player once being put on a better team (till today, Adelman raves about how he had no idea of how great of a passer he was... much like JVG said when he first got him).

Also, you want him to move without the ball, you better damn well have a PG who is prolific at doing all of the above (including feed the ball to T-mac), because we don't need to be wasting 14 seconds on the shot clock every play simply because our guards/forwards aren't comfortable making passes to our stars under pressure.

 

if you're going to be on the court, don't walk around showing to everyone how hurt you are, you're just giving yourself an excuse for failing. it's like saying "hey look, i'm injured, so if i miss a shot, it's cuz of mu injury". i don't like playing with people who's always got to complain about some body part that's bothering them, and I think thats exactly what Clyde was talking about.

if he's not able to do that then just sit.

 

So that's what he did... not only in that game, but he sat out the Denver game as well.

And yet this thread is "Do you believe Tmac is hurt"... indicating that he's faking an injury because he's unhappy.

You guys can't have it both ways... saying that "he should suck it up and play through it... but if he sucks on the court, he's doing his team a disservice, and should be fired for hurting the team."

Hell, after all the back injuries this guy has had... which are chronic and pretty damn hard to fix fully... you'd think people would be relieved to know that its a banged up knee (with no structural defects) that will eventually heal. Its just not ready to go right now.

 

he shoots the ball too much. i don't think i have to change anything about that statement.

rafe isn't the best finisher or shooter but he is a great passer and someone who can run the offense, so we do have a PG who can get the ball to Tmac if he's moving without the ball.

 

ok you need to re-read every single thing i posted because at no point did i say he should suck it up and play thourgh it no matter the injury. I said if he's healthy enough to say he can play on the court, then he better be REALLY healthy enough to play on the court and not tell eveyrone "i'm hurt, i'm injured" through his body language.

if he's not healthy enough to go, then sit down. So what part of this do you have a problem with?

 

And you get the ball to T-mac... TO SHOOT!

Of course he shoots too much... he's the only guy on our team that can get his own shot whenever he wants. He's also our best scorer and finisher... should we criticize a guy for trying to do what he's best at? Especially when teams often are able to neutralize our other threat by a simple front/deny defense?

Also, we're still not losing games because T-mac shoots too much... we're losing them because of our inability to hit outside/open shots, our lack of intensity on transition and half-court defense, and the lack of a consistent third scorer to take the heat off Yao-Tmac.

 

So, I guess you didn't read my previous post... because I said THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HE DID... and he gets criticized for being a "quitter", and faking an injury (maybe not by you, but by this thread in general).

So, you're basically saying he shouldn't have even attempted to play the Orlando game... fair enough. But he did stop playing when he realized he was ineffective (like he did against Dallas), and he sat out the last game for the same reason.