Really??? Because if he "returns to form", we have a starting line-up of Brooks/T-Mac/Ariza/Scola/Andersen with Lowry/Battier/Landry as are primary back-ups along with Hayes spelling a few minutes a game. Not to mention Rick Adelman is our coach, an 8 man rotation of fast players and they can play defense! I wonder what RA can do with that!? Oh yeah, Yao might come back near the end of this season. The point is if T-Mac returns to form then this is a completely different team than the one that all the writers and everyone else wrote off a two months ago. Even w/o Yao there is a very good shot at getting to the playoffs as a 7 or even 6 seed. With Yao coming back at the end of the year, he could come off the bench, only get 15-18 minutes a game. If he's doing well and helping, then he should be in at the end of games. The combinations of who might be in at the end of games are great! Without Yao- Brooks/T-Mac/Ariza/Scola/Andersen (projected starting) Brooks/Lowry/T-Mac/Landry/Scola Lowry/T-Mac/Ariza or Battier/Landry/Andersen Lowry/Battier/Ariza/Scola/Hayes (defense) Brooks/T-Mac/Ariza/Battier/Scola or Landry (smaller teams) Brooks/Lowry/Ariza/Scola/Andersen (run and gun) Lowry/T-Mac/Battier/Scola/Hayes (half court slow down offense) -depending on who's playing well that night, we could see all kinds of craziness with the end of game line-ups. That's all w/o Yao! Please "return to form" T-Mac, if Yao does comeback and can contribute with fewer minutes, this team is gonna be sick come playoff time!
Word to that. Everyone wondering why it took him so long to hook up with Grover. Contract year. Case closed.
A contender would want a good T-Mac because they're in a win-now mode, and he'd be an upgrade over a young, developing player. Considering the Rockets get NOTHING for T-Mac after the season, even just a solid young player with some upside would be good haul. T-Mac is worthless to this team unless we're resigning him. And we're NOT going to resign him. If the T-Mac/Yao combo continues for another few years, I just may have to kill myself... or at least stop watching the NBA.
Why not? I doubt any team will be playing to give Tmac and Yao max contracts anymore...both of them could probably be retained in the 10-15 million range. I'd rather have tmac at 10 than say pay Joe Johnson the max...
WOW! I didn't know clearing 22 million in time for a great FA off season was worthless and we'll get nothing?!?!
shsu33: I say "nothing" because what you state it will happen regardless of whether T-Mac plays like an all-star or crap. Thus, it's not affected by T-Mac's performance this year. A player at 10 mil or 15 mil or even 20 mil(to a certain extent) doesn't really matter because the NBA has a salary cap. This isn't baseball. What only matters is how much he affects the cap. In this case, we either clear him off of our books, or he becomes the "star player" we sign next offseason with our money under the cap.
I love these posts where fans know more of what is going on inside a players head than all the coaches, trainers, teamates, friends, etc. Maybe he was just loyal to his trainer.
meh: You made the assumption that if he could get back to form, he would pad his stats so he could be traded to a contender. I just gave examples of how good our rotation could be with a returned to form T-Mac. You also assumed that even with Yao coming back by the end of the season(which I know you knew about b4 this convo) along with a back to form T-Mac that we will not be contenders. I wanted you to realize we can be pretty good this year with *just* a returned to form T-Mac. By saying "nothing" you show that you jumped the gun on your assumptions and that we could have a great year with T-Mac and be contenders with Yao coming back as a backup with limited minutes! I'm stoked about the start of this season with or without Yao, especially if T-Mac has returned to form. Thank you, GO ROX!
I have said this over 20 times now, and the comments in that article confirm my suspicions, after having watched Tracy's Wayne Hall training videos, I am absolutely convinced that Wayne Hall destroyed Tracy McGrady's body and career. It just blows my mind that the Rockets organization didn't protect their $20million dollar investment from his own vulnerabilities.
well its different now from what t-mac said last time, first off he only had two weeks last season, another factor is that his knee was not feeling any better and he only gained his confidence back, but he lost it somewhere down the road.
His reputation is on the line. It is a make or break season for him. I for one wish him the best this season and beyond that wherever he might end up.
If it wasn't for that joke in Wayne Hall, McGrady would of been most likely healthy last year and we could of won a championship. Wayne Hall seriously messed up a career. Hopefully, McGrady makes up for it.
Man if Tracy McGrady gets hurt this year again Tim Grover and his staff lose all credibility. They have been steadily talking since he started working out in Chicago. We'll see. I hope the best for mac and the Rockets. But lots of talking has to be backed up.
What could they have done? It was Tmac's personal trainer....does the organization have the ability to approve trainers? What you say makes a ton of sense, just not sure the team can do anything about it. DD
As a personal trainer myself, and seeing a couple of videos and hearing some stories from people who have worked around Tracy McGrady, I can understand where and how he was so fragile. Not only did McGrady have a sluggish work ethic in the weight room, but if the sample of what I have read/heard/seen is correct, he was more concerned with doing the motion hard, fast, and from point A to B in the path of least resistance, regardless of poster alignment. The reason which I underline that last part is because they discuss loading properly. Tracy has always loaded more with his joints and let his plantar flexion (the motion of pushing on a gas peddle) motion do the rest of the jumping. Really, he needed to utilize the biggest muscle in the jumping motion, his butt, and then let everything else follow. I'm confident that he will have less pain because of this. The surgery he is trying to over come though is one of the hardest and will not be successful if he repeats his old movement patterns. For example, if he is still twisting his foot out when he runs and loads with his joints, the "new knee" is only going to have that repeated joint-bearing twist motion with each and every cut, sprint, jump, and shuffle. Let's hope his newly found knowledge goes beyond the weight room and on to the court for a more conscious and aligned movement.
Oh, and for the record, his movements do need to be fast and explosive for a good amount of the training, but not when the incorrect muscles are firing and for T-mac, that was the case.
