mark madsen has been in the L for years. so what? i'm sure these guys are all much better players than us here and are capable enough to make it to the NBA. but i'm talking about "playoff-caliber" material role players. guys who actually play better when their stars get doubled/tripled constantly and elevate their games, and not become ghosts despite getting open shots all the damn time. did rafer or luther or bobby jackson "elevate" their games when yao and tracy got doubled/tripled? no, they actually GOT WORSE. that's the only time i'll call certain NBA players "scrubs." when you're open all the time and you suck EVEN MORE, you're a scrub. mo will is a good player no doubt. but when all the attention and some is on lebron james, and you play worse (and you've been an all-star), you're a scrub in my eyes. he shot a rafer-like % in that series v. orlando. there's a reason lebron walked off the court. it wasn't because he lost, it was b/c he was in disbelief at his teammates' suckiness and he didn't want to throw a temper tantrum publicly. and it's not just lebron. kobe is the same way. when he blew that 3-1 lead v. phoenix, to him, it was b/c of bynum's softness or kwame's scrubiness that caused them to lose. and he threw those fools under the bus PUBLICLY. these guys are NBA players yes. but if you have that one guy who constantly get doubled/tripled, and you suck even more, you need to check yourself. there's a reason scola or brooks were raved so much in this playoffs. they actually PLAYED better in the playoffs, and when the attention was on yao. there's a reason guys like robert horry or sam or kenny or role players of our glorious past were considered "great role players" b/c they step up when hakeem pass them the damn ball. i played ball myself. when i constantly penetrate and pass the ball out to the open guy and he keeps missing, hell yea ima get pissed. but in the NBA, you can't pick and choose who you play with. lebron was forced to keep passing to mo and gibson and wally... and those guys. he put up 40, 8, 8 in that series for god sakes. how the hell do you lose? answer - teammates must have sucked badly.
Um...not to get between you guys or anything... ...but there probably are as many pros as there are cons to this whole Tracy McGrady argument (and depending on who you're talking to, the cons are winning)... The thing that happened with the Rockets this season that I found most impressive was that there was some other talent on the floor that was capable of scoring, and that there were some guys who could give the Rockets different scoring options based on how they're being defended. That's been Rick Adelman's goal since he took the job. To diversify the Rockets' offensive attack. And that, by definition, would change everybody's offensive responsibilities. Adelman's offensive philosophy requires everybody to recognize they way they are being defended and counter it with movement. His offense requires not only skilled players, but smart ones basketball I.Q.-wise. It has a lot of the triangle offense's principles, in that the sets dictate what the players should do, not necessarily one player. That's the beauty of basketball, usually. Sometimes the focus is so much on one guy's skill or ability that other people's contributions are either ignored or discounted. Whatever you think of McGrady, it undermines any argument to ignore the personnel the Rockets have had for the past few years. Personnel that, any way you slice it, haven't gotten the job done. Not in the ways this team has managed. TEAMS win. You guys know that. Not always the all-stars. Not always the high-profile or the high-paid players. Not even the most fan-friendly or the most cancerous teammates. TEAMS win. And for the record, whether or not McGrady assumes any responsibility personally for the Rockets' postseason woes, he will be the the player most will fault. Nobody's going to need to edify any of that. He's the guy that can't win. He's the guy who cripples teammates. He's the guy who peed in everybody's Cheerios. Doesn't matter whether or not McGrady stands on top of the highest mountain and begs all of us for forgiveness for not being the player he tried to fool us all into believing he was. It doesn't matter if people ignore other teammates who people don't even remember. McGrady is the culprit. And I've never had any problem with that. The real unknown in all this is whether or not McGrady, if he remains, could be any kind of contributor to this team. If what he was able to show in flashes this season is any indication, he is still a capable player. I've seen about as much of Tracy McGrady as anybody else. His character flaws are glaringly evident. He's played too often one-on-five basketball offensively, because he has (or HAD) the ability to do that, and there were often no better options for the team. And anybody relying on that ability alone can't ever expect whatever percentages you want to use to gauge McGrady's effectiveness, to be anything other that marginal. THAT'S the bigger problem. How do you get the most out of a player's ability without crippling the rest of the team? You assign that player a role. You give him a job. You ask him to do it. Nothing more. Nothing less. There will be times when a talented player can carry a team for stretches. That's why you need them. To get your team past rough patches. But if all you HAVE is one guy, sooner or later, whether that guy is a winner or a flake or a loser or a quitter, your team will not succeed. I'd apologize for making excuses for McGrady...but that's never been what I've done. I've always looked at the big picture...winning a championship. I don't measure any ONE player's ability or competitiveness in a vacuum. A player will define himself by the time he's done playing. A TEAM defines itself by winning. It is difficult for me to believe that a TEAM that set a record for consecutive wins last season, and fought again this season against all kinds of crap (and got better doing it), couldn't find a way to get McGrady "on the same page" if they still had any interest in him. If McGrady is the problem, so be it. I expect Rick Adelman and Daryl Morey to get rid of him if he is. No fuss, no muss. Life goes on. But that will not happen if he ISN'T, at least not to the extent he appears to be. McGrady has ability. He knows how to play. And if he can't work within this system, with these coaches and players who will share the responsibility of winning and losing, then THAT will be on his headstone.
...and to this lovely little comment, I'll add this. Teams with versatility and balance win this time of year. In my opinion, the reason why Cleveland lost didn't have as much to do with how well or poorly anybody not named LeBron James played... ...as much as the fact that Cleveland hand no way to counter the matchup problems Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu caused them. Players can sometimes appear to "suck" if they're in bad matchups one one side of the floor. I didn't think, personally, that either Mo Williams or Delonte West "sucked". They were just too small to defend either Lewis or Turkoglu effectively. And the sad part is that the Cavaliers had no other options. James said himself after game one of that series that the Cavs were going to need either Wally Scerbiak or Sasha Pavlovic to play big minutes for them. But neither one of those guys (who go about 6'6" or 6'7") could do anything productive when they were on the floor. When you talk about playing to win a championship, it's not so much how much "talent" you have...it's how well you're able to keep the playing field level. If you've got too many bad matchups across the board, not even LeBron James has fingers that are big enough to plug the leaks in that dam. West and Williams had the advantage at the point guard spot, had any of the Cavs swingmen been able to give the team anything. Too often, Anderson Varejao or Ben Wallace were left trying to chase Rashard Lewis out to the three point line, or keep Hedo Turkoglu from turning the corner on that pick-and-roll of theirs. Matchups, my friend. That's what you're looking for. And what you're looking to exploit.
1) i def. agree with teams with versatility and balance have a better chance of winning. what i refer to is those superstars are expected to shoulder and DO MORE if their team lacks that. lebron's team def. lacked that and he did more than necessary, which was commendable. i was just responding to the dude who said lebron did too much b/c he wanted to, which is false. superstars do too much b/c they have to. 2) defensively, there were matchup problems. offensively, mo will went against rafer alston and the likes. and he was given a lot of wide open shots that he missed. no excuse for missing open uncontested shots in the NBA repeatedly. are we saying rafer sucking is due to matchup problems? 3) but overall, good post from you. and that's what the rockets are following. what we're lacking now is a athleticism/size up top, and a playmaking wing. then we're good to go.
Translation: ITS'S NOT TMAC . . ITS HIS TEAMMATES how many different times do they have to say it before people get it . . . THEY HAVE 1 . . and precisely 1 Arguement THROW THE TEAMMATES UNDER THE BUS TO VALIDATE T-MAC'S AWESOMENESS WITH OUT RESULTS BTW - what do they think of Abdur Rahim???? Rocket River
it's also tmac. there's a reason the blame has been mostly on him. relax dude. and it's ironic you used this same argument defending another player recently
I would rather the guy we trade Tmac for passes the ball, and the entire TEAM passes the ball...instead of holds it and goes one on one...SHEESH !! DD
B - I am devoted to making the Rockets better, always have been always will...I am just not afraid to speak my mind about it.....even if people don't agree. I like a certain style of winning basketball....where everyone on the floor is a threat and the team moves without the ball. I do not like one on one basketball unless the player is uber efficient...Tmac is not efficient, he is Iverson like....in his needing a lot of shots to get his points. I love how people say he raises his game in the playoffs when the reality is the numbers show he plays more minutes and takes more shots. But his percentages do not go up..... Players like Hakeem elevated his game....even Brooks this year....guys who perform BETTER in the playoffs elevate their game, not guys who take more shots. Don't hit NewYorker with facts......like that, it might make his Tmac excuses crumble. Oh wait.... DD
It is amazing how people are not willing to deal with the reality of the Tmac situation. 1. He is seriously injured 2. He is over 30 - on the decline 3. He is being paid $23 million - not worth his contract 4. His teamates have had problems with him - according to insiders from the locker room. 5. He whines about his role in the offense and not getting enough touches 6. He blames his teamates for his own failures 7. He QUITS on those same teamates in games 8. It is never his fault. 9. He screwed the team in announcing the surgery at the trade deadline. 10. He ignored advice on how to strengthen his knee, and didn't do the rehab. I don't care about what he did 5 years ago, all I care about is the team getting better....and I don't see a 30 year old player coming off microfracture surgery, the odds are stacked heavily against him ever coming back to the level he was before. So, what do you do? Ride out his $23 million dollars and hope? ROFLMAO...good business people do NOT do that, they act.....McGrady has value as an expiring contract.......Morey will use it... Bank on it - DD
Man DD show them youngers who's the master! <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/T2HeaRex0Dg&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/T2HeaRex0Dg&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
He did not demand a trade, but he prevented one. Tracy has thrown his teammates under the bus, and Rocket fans/coaches etc.... Just soft and lazy. That said, again, he would help us out A TON...
DD, if we're going to judge him on this past year, fine, trading him is a great idea. i'm all for it. i don't think anybody is against the idea of trading mcgrady--for most of the reasons you listed (with the hopes we get something good in return). the idea of 2 injury-prone stars is a BAD BAD idea. i wanted to break up this duo last year when yao missed the playoffs. that's the last straw for me. hell, i advocated trading BOTH of them last year. straight up trading them and just start rebuilding. what i have a problem with is that you bring up his "bad play" in previous years to also prove your point and how his style of play wasn't good in PREVIOUS years and so on...but yet you say you don't what he did 5 years ago. so....STAY ON POINT WITH YOUR ARGUMENT.
hakeem is one of the HANDFUL (or a lil more) of stars in the history who actually "shoot a higher %." it's tough to top hakeem DD. yea, if we had brooks in previous years, we would have done something. unfortunately, rafer, luther, and bobby jackson shot 10-15% below their normal %.
