You are right. "Jerk" may be too strong. I should have said overly self-centered, which is what I meant. The article itself didn't impress me. If the Rockets had given up something worthwhile for McGrady, fine. But IMO, they didn't, which is why he didn't bother to explain what happened with Francis, Mobley and Cato. MadMax makes some good points. What both teams have done SINCE THE TRADE is another story. Orlando was already pathetic and could go nowhere but up, especially after drafting Dwight Howard.
I think the big mistake was assumming tracy would be kobe,yao would be shaq, and shane would be that 3rd guy. Even if tracy was tracy, yao was yao, shane becoming the chuck hayes of wing players was not in the plans. This team sold it soul for win now when there were no indicators they could win now. Don't think I'm bringing this up now, I've been cussed out and called all kind of names because I never thought they were ready. If the goal is to make the playoffs and win a series, ok, I can buy that, but if the real goal is to win a ring, they were fooling themselves.
i understand where you guys are coming from, but if you consider that the rockets may have been able to do other things at the time, the rockets may have been able to come out better with a little more evaluation. but you can't make assumptions about what other trades they could have made at the time. but in any case its hard to say what would have happened, all we know is what happened. so yes, he should take into account francis has crashed and burned and even unfortunately mobley's career has ended prematurely. but considering the flack he got for pointing out mcgrady's faults at the time, I don't fault him for writing this at all, especially considering the state of the franchise in orlando
In McGrady's defense (which is a rare place for me), Howard was a young pup in high school. Nobody had any idea how good he would be and how long it would take. McGrady saw a rising, established C in Yao and decided he wanted instant gratification, so to speak. I can't blame him. If Tracy and Howard actually played together, I think they would have meshed well. Just take a look at how his first couple of years in Houston were with Yao. For all his flaws, McGrady is a GREAT post passer. OT: In fact, if Howard had a true playmaker on that team like a Chris Paul, McGrady, Roy, etc, just wow.
You made it like McGrady chose the Rockets. He didn't get to choose where he was going. He could end up in Indy ya know. Indy made a better offer as far as I can remember.
He did have a choice and he basically pointed to where he wanted to go because he had a Early Termination Option. So if they wanted to send him somewhere he didn't want to go, he could just opt out. So when they drsafted Howard, he said he didn't want to wait and wanted to win now. He said he would probably opt out after the season. That's why they traded him.
McGrady did choose Houston, he had an opt out coming up and he would only sign an extension with Houston or a team of his choosing....no one was going to take him on unless he signed an extension, he forced his way to Houston. DD
He specifically said he wanted to play with Yao Ming. The other two guys above mention why McGrady was able to choose which team instead of the Magic.
Results don't lie Winning the Deal means. . . You put your team in a position to succeed Before the Deal - Houston Rockets were a team that lost in the 1st round of a playoffs to a Laker Team with 4 Hall of Famers on it and a Hall of Fame Coach After the Deal - Houston Rockets are a team that loses to teams that may have one or two Hall of Famers [Dirk and Terry?, Deron and Boozer?] with one Hall of Fame Coach and a Rookie Coach] Before the Deal - Orlando Magic was Absolute Garbage [w/ TMac] After the Deal - They have only gone to the playoffs twice BUT THEY HAVE GOTTEN TO THE SECOND ROUND AND ARE A PLAYER IN THE EAST THIS YEAR While the rockets are struggling So who won the trade? SCOREBOARD! Orlando obviously did better unloading MacGrady than the Rockets did acquiring him. Rocket River *smile* . . . *chuckle* Am I Lying?
My point on this would be 1. People wanna give TMac a pass on that [Not wanting to play with a rookie] but will be quick to point out SF3's reluctance [at 1st Yao - which he did do well to integrate into the team - and again with DHoward] 2. Yao was only in year 3 - and TMac is still not 'deferring' to him no matter what he says . .. and IMO he stifles Yao's growth far more than anything SF3 did. Rocket River . . I'm just saying. . the facts are facts
You are right. my bad. How ironic. Now he's kinda forced his way out of Houston. I blame Yao for TMac choosing Houston in the first place. LOL
. . and it is SF3's fault we have Yao . .cause of his commentary about not needing another point guard [J Williams] so ultimately. . . it is SF3's fault *grin* saves the SF3Haters the trouble Rocket River . . just having fun at this point
Max, River has a point. It depends on what each organization was attempting to accomplish...Orlando got what they needed, which was cap room to get Hedo and Lewis....... And Houston got what they wanted.......I know right now Orlando has a better record, but I think Houston is actually a better team...... We shall see who won ultimatly but to me, it looks a lot closer now than it did at the beginning. DD
<br> The organization got 4 very good years out of Tracy McGrady after they after they traded for him. Let's blatantly ignore that. In his 5th year, he has had some problems and suddenly OH BOY THAT DUDE IN LALA FLORIDA LAND WAS SOOOO RIGHT GUYZ!!!11!!one!! <br> Point of the matter is that, after we traded him, Steve Francis did absolutely NOTHING in this league. Compare that to what McGrady did, and perhaps you'll see why this bozo is not right. <br> But I assume that you'll say I'm a "stevie hater" ...considering Steve Francis is in my top 3 favorite players ever
Funny thing about McGrady is that despite what has happened, I'd do the trade again in a heartbeat. Who else could we have gotten for Francis? No one. McGrady is history come this summer and we'll land some decent players from it, either by trade or cap room.
