Please....Do all of us real Rockets fans a favor and JUMP OFF THE Rockets bandwagon. We do not need ignorant fans claiming this team. We can leave all the ignorance to the Charles Barkley media types who watch us play like once a year. Please, I beg any Tmac hater to reply to this thread answering one freakin question for me. WHAT THE HECK DO YOU WANT THE GUY TO DO???? He's praised for playing unselfishly when we win, and then he plays like he has all throughout the streak again last night, his teammates don't step up, we lose, and now all of a sudden he's a scrub??? If he takes on the double teams and shoots fadeaways he's selfish and stupid??? If he passes to his team mates he is soft and not aggressive enough. Awesome. So what exactly do you want him to do? I don't have time to get all the numbers together, but Tmac has been amazing during the streak. He has played the best ball of his career, the best ball of any Rocket ever not named Olajuwon, and he has done it at a time where almost everyone doubted him. He was coming off an injury, people thought the team was better without him, people wanted to trade him and said he was done, his best teammate went down with injury, but did he fade? Did he fade like all the haters wanted him to? No. He just came out and led the Rockets to a 22 game winning streak. Sadly, that's not enough for the fans who have just tuned in. Face it fellas, there is no player on this earth that can turn this team in to a title contender. The Yao injury will prove to be too much to over come especially in the playoffs. Our centers, Mutumbo and Hayes are black holes on offense and this makes us extremely dependent on Mcgrady and outside shooting. So it shouldn't suprise you that teams double or triple Mcgrady and force our outside shooters to beat them.....Last night we saw that good teams will beat us by executing this strategy. To blame Mcgrady for last night's loss is laughable. So again, if you're out there, and you're going to blame Mcgrady every time this team loses, please do all of us real rockets fans a favor and stop posting. I wish I didn't have to make a thread like this in the midst of a brilliant run by the Rockets but I am sick of hearing the same ignorant things every year about how Mcgrady is not a leader and how he is a cancer, and a loser. The last 4 or 5 years he has had to play at an unreasonably high level for us to compete with the best teams, and sometimes his best wasn't even enough(Dallas series, Utah series). Finally this year he had enough talent around him to get it done, and then Yao goes out with an injury. He STILL plays hard and leads the team to a historic streak during which he had to play the full 48 mins just to give the team a chance, and he is still getting blame? Again: WHAT DO YOU WANT THE GUY TO DO?
some people will be dumbasses there entire life and some people just do not know the game of basketball so they are just ignorant. so to get upset like this i do understand but man you are wasting your breath completly, these fake ass fans in houston are just no fun to even talk to or listen to. I like everything that you said but our fake fans will still bring up a dumbass argument that makes no sense whatsoever Peace
Ok. Let me answer your question. I want this guy to drive, I want this guy to go to the foul line more times, I want this guy not to tell ABC reporter during half time that he is tired, I want this guy not to say that his teammates need to knockdown open shots after last night's loss, I want this guy to score more points at games that define this team (the Lakers and last night)... Face it. TMac faded under tough situation while his peers, LBJ, KB, DW won't. When I drove to work this morning, I heard guys at 790 were bothered by TMac's play in the last two games. When I go to Chron, I saw Fran Blinebury was pissed by his postgame comments. Hey, we root for this team win or loss, with or without TMac, with or without Yao Ming. we probably root for this team longer than you have. We were bothered by TMac's play, not by the team. Why do you label person like us bandwagon fans? Just because it is a popular word? I love this team and the streak. I believe this team could go deep in the playoff. I just want TMac to play a better game so to give the team a better chance.
true true... fans will be fans... when things are going great it's all gravy, but one loss and the **** hits the fan (no pun intended)... we got bigger fish to fry so let's continue to support our team!!
Tmac is not Michael Jordan or LBJ for that matter. He needs his team mates to play well in order for him to play well...."KB" is the best player in the league but when matched up with a great defender, it's proven that he can't do it all by himself every night. It's a team sport, and when a defense is geared up to stop Mcgrady, I'm glad that he is unselfish enough to move the ball around to his team mates who have the easier chance to score. If you think he could have "driven" to the basket every play yesterday then you just don't understand the game....The Celtics played swarming defense last night. Alot of times Tmac would come off a pick and there would be Garnett just waiting on him. Sometimes a third defender would even sag down to help on Mcgrady making it nearly impossible for him to get to the basket.
Sweet Post Dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways. If someone is on this board, chances are they are not a bandwagon fan. Truly inspiring post. Last night when I was driving home I told my friend I couldn't wait to get on Clutchfans to see half the posts like this and half the posts saying doom and gloom. It is pretty entertaining. Dude, I know you worked on your post for a long time. I know you put your heart into this. Your heartfelt posts are a dime a dozen, though.
LBJ, KB, DW didnt win 22 games in a row and to be honest we wouldnt have won half those games without TMac. Who you think setup all those threes and took pressure off of everyone else for them to score like that. TMAC. I for one dont like his play but damn he probably is playing his hardest now.
Seeing something and being critical does not mean you're a hater or a bandwagon fan. You can love the team and see points of concern. If parents are disappointed in their kid when the report card has a couple of Cs, does that make them bandwagon parents? If anyone's saying "we're screwed with Tracy McLazy", than yes - your anger is valid. But when people are saying, "I don't like what I've seen from McGrady the last few games - we're in trouble if he doesn't turn it around"....those aren't bandwagon haters. IMO, it's just as foolish to pretend that the Rockets are flawless and ready to go. I loved the streak, I love the way it turned Toyota Center into a wildhouse (even more than the playoffs last year!), but: -We're going to have problems with our 6-9 and under rotation. Garnett murdered us in the 3rd while we sent 6-6 guys at him, and Duncan and Amare are going to be as difficult to control if we see them in April. -McGrady has not looked right in a week, and honestly strikes me as a guy desperate for a week off. Maybe this isn't always apparent on TV, but I've seen disturbing signs: -->on offense slinking off to a corner standing straight up with arms down clearly not wanting involvement in the play -->facing perimeter one-on-one situations with no double coming against the likes of Matt Carrol, Vlad Radmonovic, etc and repeatedly not attacking the mismatch -->getting the ball and passing it either too quickly (not looking for own shot) or driving and passing off into a worse shot (Mutombo down low, or backwards to someone like Rafer when he isn't alone). His defense has been fine. It's great that he's looking to involve guys. But when Yao is out, our offense has to key off of McGrady - no one else (yet) is able to take the ball and create their own shot regularly. It's on McGrady to deliver 20 ppg, draw doubles, and create for others. When he is passive offensively, things sputter around him. We got away with it against the Lakers and Bobcats (McGrady start attacking in the 4th), but it sealed our fate last night. It's something that needs to be addressed. I have my suspicions that McGrady will sit out 3 or 4 games before the season is done. Evan
I agree with most of what you said but it further proves my point. Without Yao, this team is way too dependent on Mcgrady to play at an MVP level. Please recall the last time a team won a championship with a team built like that, and how foolish does it sound when you blame losses on the only player on the team that can consistantly create offense?
I'm not arguing that point at all, I pretty much agree with that. I haven't been blaming McGrady for the loss. He did contribute to it, but we were simply outmatched. Can't stop Garnett with 6-6 smurf forwards, Celtics were determined to take the streak down, and we stopped running actual offensive sets once we got rattled. Evan
What exactly can we run if teams have good enough defense to defend Mcgrady off of pick and rolls? We have no other offense. We tried pick and rolls with Rafer and Bobby Jackson, and we tried to post of Scola. For the most part this just led to turnovers.
This is just on the game last night!!!! He played like S%#t.. 4 for 11.. Yes FG% isn't bad but only 11 shots? What does that tell you? He is our superstar who is supposed to act like a superstar.. It's a big game with a day off the day before? How are you not mentally prepared for this game? The Celtics played a back2back and they blew us out in the 2nd half. Last time I checked they didn't have any 1 defender facing T-mac 1on1 on a all defensive team? He was so cocky in the interviews that I expected more.. When your team is struggling you show and command the ball so that you can make up for there mistakes hoping to start a spark. That is my gripe. he is a no show for big games. Playoffs= BIG GAMES!
Forgot to add that I wasn't expecting a win just a competitive spirit for our #1 Man.. Don't give that bullcrap that he was tired.
Check the tape man. Tmac has had his best games in the playoffs...His team mates have been miserable.
T-mac did not win 22 games in a row... his team won 22 games in a row... He did hardly anything different before and during the streak. Kobe, LJ, paul, peirce, heck even Carter could of lead this same team to a 22 game win streak.... His stats were nowhere near impressive... He did not have to be impressive you cant fault him on that..... His team played elite level defense and scored when they had to.... thats how they earned this 22 game win streak.... I dont see how you can say we wouldnt win half these games without t-mac.... How many other players in the league can post up 22pts 6 assists per game on 44% shooting??? Plenty.... The fact is when his team NEEDED HIM he disappointed. There are ways to get out of double teams.... Superstars learn to deal with them.... I dont know if it was horrible play calling , bad floor spacing or T-mac being a p***y.... but they didnt try invlove t-mac more in the offense.... It has been a fault of Mcgrady for years.... He does not show up for big games... its even more apparent now... He seemed to loose his drive to be willing to dominate a game. Luckily they did not need Mcgrady playing like a superstar for this team to go on a 22 win streak... Great example is the Lakers game..... He did not need to play like a great player.... Infact he was BELOW AVERAGE and the Rockets managed to pull out a win because of great defense. Just notice how all the big plays throughout the streak were from our role players.... All the hustle plays, clutch 3s, rebounds, key steals... none from Mcgrady.... I do not know how everyone was screaming MVP for him..... He honestly was playing the same as he did when they were not streaking.... Im sorry, but true fans understand faults of their team.... And a fault of our team is that our best player just does not show up in big games.
When he was in Orlando Yes... but in Houston no... I was at game 7 last year and I wanted him to do more.
He couldn't possibly be tired from playing 48 mins a night at a high level. He couldn't possibly be tired from being the only guy penetrating on offense all night long. Mcgrady is a great player, but he is no energizer bunny anymore. He's been in the league 11 years you can't expect him to have the energy of a 22 year old player?
I guess you rather have T-Mac chuck up 33 shots like Kobe right? T-Mac said himself, "I've been in the NBA for 11 years, they played the best defense I ever seen." I thought everyone wanted team ball. We lose one game and your b****ing about T-Mac not taking enough shots. It was either take a tough, highly contested, low percentage shot or pass to an open teammate.
