ESPN Page2: Mcgrady can be a mystery

A real piece of journalism. The dude actually has the wisdom of watching a full game of T-Mac before actually writing, unlike most of the other garbage thrown out these days.

 

I agree with many of his points. Tmac can beat his defender every single time, but he settles for the outside shot too much. Sometimes when he gets inside, it seems like he has an easy layup, but then he passes it out beyond the arc. To see Francis play wild and out of control, but get bailed out numerous times by fouls leaves me thinking that tmac should average 12 freethrows a game.

 

Thanks for the article post

 

Great post. Hope I could see this kind of post every day, and I agree with you. T-Mac is just too talented, and young. He's still learning the game and how to play smarter and how to dominate. I have no doubt in my mind that T-Mac can dominate if he puts his mind to it. Now, the problem with T-mac is the same problem that Yao has now. These two dont' have that dominating mentality yet. When everything clicks, watch out!!

 

t-mac might be a little too fragile to drive as much as Steve or even kobe for that matter.

 

I don't think it is fragility. I think a lot of it is energy conservation. Jordan could beat his man off the dribble any time he wanted to, but he shot a LOT of turnaround jumpers. You can't run with reckless abandone for 48 minutes or you will wear down and when you need to make a jumper because the defense closes down, you won't have your legs.

I don't have a problem with him taking shots. His percentage has been gradually improving since the start of the year.

 

Agreed

 

GREAT post. i agree with you 100%. i think slowly he will mature even more (we are already seeing some of it). this guy has not only a lot of talent, but he is growing a will to WIN. i know he lost a lot of that in orlando, but he is slowly gaining that back. i totally agree, we are going to see an allstar tmac turn into a superstar.

 

Thaks Jeff!

I agree. I would like for him to go to the rack more often, but there are things called " collapsing defenders" that makes it hard. He still gets the job done and his percentage is ok from the field

 

Too bad that the rest of the writers associated with ESPN can't be this insightful, reasonable, and thought out as this writer was in this article.

TMac is the best talent in the league. It doesn't mean he is the best player in the league, but he is simply gifted and blessed to have his skill sets to go along with his height. Those that bash him as a superstar seem to forget that he ALONE had the Pistons on the brink of elimination one year before their championship. He fell into bad habits playing in Orlando so it's going to take some time to re-adjust to how he is supposed to play all the time and win. What I think is the best about him, and what will eventually make him a true superstar of this era, is that he wants to be pushed and molded to play the right way. This will bold well for the future. And, just like Yao, it is scary knowing what kind of player he can be when he finally 'gets it' and it all come together for him.

 

"Hmmm...which T-Mac should I be today against the Knicks?"

 

I agree with Jeff's post too.

He could drive to the hoop a bit more but not much more. Guys like Kobe, AI have to pull up to conserve energy and because they'd end up being injured quite often. While it does seem that T-Mac can get to the rim at will, it's just not a reasonable expectation. No one does that in today's game and no one will without getting hurt or being completely worn down early in the game.

 

I disagree on some of your points. While I do believe that both Tracy and Yao can dominate (each in their own right), I believe that Tracy and Yao are two completely different individuals.

I don't know what the deal is with sports writers and analyst saying that Tracy doesn't have the personality or mindset to dominate or whatever. I've watched McGrady his entire NBA career and the guy is probably the biggest prick on the floor. This isn't so much a bad thing, but McGrady, from what I have seen, is probably the cockiest person in the entire NBA. I love McGrady. He's the most entertaining player in the NBA to watch, but I believe his introverted personality gives people that impression...the same way it did for Hakeem, Bird, and a slew of others. IMHO, Hakeem's personality reminds me a lot of T-Macs. Hakeem, as nice as he was off the court, was one of the cockiest fools on the court.

On the other hand, I don't believe Yao will ever be that type of person, which isn't a bad thing either.

I think ignorant people out labels on what wins and what doesn't, when the fact of the matter is that there have been different routes, different options, personel, whatever, that has all rendered the final successful results of a championship. You don't 'have' to be this way or 'that' way in order to achieve a goal. If what majority of these clown sport writers were saying was true, KG would be the one sitting on 2 champion rings and not Duncan.

 

I have to say Jeff, I saw Jordan goto the turnaround and really develop that shot after he came back from his first retirement. He took it to the hole a lot more often when he was in his 20's than his 30's

 

Dang - Chad Ford had to go ahead and be right for once in his life didn't he.... I guess he just had to do it.. guess we'll all have our moments when we are absolutely right for once.

 

Nine offensive categories, huh? I count three. I'd love to know what this guy is talking about? Top ten in first quarter points, second quarter points, third quarter points and fourth quarter points, total points, first quarter assists, total steals, second quarter steals, fourth quarter steals and third quarter free throw percentage? That guy had to have made up this stat(Eric Neel).