we got that player in yao, he "can" beat his man every play if he wanted to, but he doesn't. he doesn't impose his will sometimes and play aggressive which makes him just one of the 5. it's a team game, when doubled he's gotta hit the open man for that shot, but i feel he could work a little more on getting his shots up earlier, taking more mid-range jump shots, more hook shots, and more fade-aways to go along with more freaking dunks. mac was an integral part of the team, but he's gone. the team will have to get better without him. we got artest who is capable of putting up 20+ per and d up. i love his tenacity and heart, he wants to be the aggressor. i like barry getting more PT, more high % shots for everyone with him in there and our offense improves. AB is gonna have to pick up some slack, as well as battier and luis but i know they will. watch battier score consistently higher the rest of the year.
T-Mac passes it plenty of times, but they are almost always terminal passes for a backdoor cut or outside shot when the shot clock is down low. The problem was that you could not run an offense with him bc once he caught a pass the flow of the offense stopped; he would take five seconds, dribble it around the three point arc, and either drive it to the rack, drive it and dump it off, or shoot over the top, and honestly all three of those options aren't worth a damn if you can't create separation. Great players like Kobe and MJ were able to transcend their youthful more athletic selves by developing a midrange game that was unstoppable, as well as having a good understanding of the flow of the offense in a team. T-Mac in failing to do so has put himself at the level of Stevie Franchise and most other NBA players that lost staying power once they lost their speed. It's not an indictment on him necessarily since most people cannot adapt, but given where he started (scoring champ at age 23) from you would have expected a little bit more out of the guy.
Where the heck did you get that idea?? I don't do "point by point rebuttal," or I'd still be arguing with him. And I type about as fast as a turtle crosses the road. thacabbage made excellent points. DD is changing the game as it's played in this thread. Why continue? I, for one, don't have the energy. I don't always agree with both of those guys, but I agree with cabbage in this thread. If "imposing his will" equals exhausting the opposition, then sure, say it if you want. I disagree with DD here, but I don't find it worth quoting his own posts back at him. Not now.
we're gonna be fine, artest is undervalued here, he's a legit go to guy on a team, a la sacramento, so he is a great compliment to yao. especially if he can hit the 3 consistently.
I think this is simply not true. T-mac swings the ball plenty of times to open guys for 3's. Doesn't only get assists with the shot clock winding down... I think the opposite was actually happening. His t-mates, were so in respect of his abilities that they tended the stand around and watch. They thought all they have to do is pass him the ball when it gets tough. He would take them off the hook. You saw a similar thing happen with Olajuwon. In fact, I think that's the key reason Olajuwon struggled to get rings until Rudy T was able to find a way to move the ball to open 3 point shooters more. He did this by making Olajuwon an even GREATER emphasis on offense believe it or not. The problem hasn't just been t-mac's struggles with Adelman's system, it's been his health. He hasn't had a healthy season with Adelman. Also, he's had crappy t-mates really up until this year with the development of Scola, Brooks, Landry, and Wafer, and the Addition of Artest. It's just unfortunate about his health.
At the end of the day it is all opinion anyway, there are no winners and losers unless it is clear cut, and in this regard, it is not even close. Great points on both sides. DD
Almost. The only thing is a healthy T-Mac is 100X better than "that guy". Without the T-Mac of today, yes, we are better. But without the T-Mac of the increasingly distant past, not a chance we're better.
Yep, that's quite interesting too. He also made the statement before the Mavericks-Rockets game that T-Mac was our best player. I don't agree with that statement, however whenever you have a former rocket who played with Tracy McGrady make a comment like that.......Well.
everyone on this board seems to have forgotten what Tmac did for this team in the past. This team is definetly better with a healthy tmac!
We seem to have two sets of people talking past each other. There are two facts that have almost universal support here. 1. A healthy TMac helps the Rockets. 2. TMac when playing injured this season hurt the Rockets. These two statements do not contradict each other. As to whether we "need" TMac in the playoffs to succeed, I don't know, but I'll bet you don't either.
Who can tell me in american's eyes ,Yao is a great player , a good player or just a struggling player? I am a chinese ,and live in Shanghai!But most of people here in china think YaoMing cant be a great player because of his character!In fact in china he is a very very kind person too! most of chinese dont be as his gentle! And most of us think for the technique ,YaoMing is top3 in the league,but for his body ,Ohhhhhh......! I wanna sleep!
No totally incorrect, it is not universal, alot of people here believe that a healthy Tmac DOES NOT help this team in any way
There also were different rules in those days. The fact that Dream struggled against illegal zones makes me believe that he wouldn't have been as profilic in today's rules. The NBA killed the dominant big man by allowing zone. Can you imagine Yao's numbers if he had to be guarded 1 on 1 until he caught the ball? I like the old NBA style much better.
Perhaps I should have said a healthy TMac helped the Rockets. Otherwise, it is purely hypothetical question.
Got it! I really like DaDakota. I just hate the fact that he can type about 50 times faster than I can.
After reading all of these posts, the bottom line question is this: Are we better now without this year's version of McGrady?" Injured/ball hog/head case, notwithstanding. I think everyone's answer would be yes.
I for one believe Tracy Mcgrady a damn healthy one will be able to help the Rockets and actually be the team we envisioned it to be when we got Ron Artest, with Artest coming off the bench Ginobilli fashion. Alot of people reading what they say here so far seem to think T-mac has miraculously become the source of all our offensive problems despite the fact he pretty much made our offence go like clockwork for the last three seasons.
