I dont mind disagreeing with you. But when your whole argument is based over a couple of games where he was clearly not close to being himself physically, that's what is annoying. Its like no matter what he has done in his career, you're going to focus on the worst possible moments he's had. Those numbers I posted from the 06 07 season were the last time I remember Tracy playing like himself. Last year he was pretty banged up and still played at a pretty high level. He says that he's back to his old self, who am i to question how he says he feels? If he is indeed back, then yes, i would want him on my fantasy team. Those numbers I showed you rival some of the greats of all time.
Tracy McGrady is not the same player he was 4-5 years ago. Everybody including Tmac knows that. Its obvious, and there is nothing wrong with that. The man has been in the league 12 years now, battled various injuries, and has never had a great supporting cast around him until last year. You can't blame Tmac for us not getting out of the first round. When he was in a weaker Eastern Conference, he had no help. Grant Hill never played in a playoff game with the Magic, Mike Miller was traded during the 02-03 season, and Darrell Armstrong was good in Tmac's first year in Orlando, then he declined. Then he had a rookie Drew Gooden and Pat Garritty, who were decent, but nothing great. But besides that, he had Giricek, DeClerque, Pat Burke, Shawn Kemp, Patrick Ewing, Steven Hunter, Reece Gaines, Jarrell Sasser, and Jacque Vaughn as his help. I don't know if Michael Jordan could've won with this cast against a good team in a 7 game series. I mean that supporting cast was HORRIBLE!! Its amazing that his team had a 3-1 lead against the Pistons. Jon Barry and Rick Carlile still mention how great a performance Tmac put on against them by himself Game 2 vs. the Pistons. Tmac had 46 points, and his team STILL ends up losing. http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200304230DET.html With the Rockets, the supporting cast did improve, especially with Yao's play starting in 2007, but they had some flaws. In 2005, Yao was a good player, but he was very inconsistent. Much of this was probably because of the toe problem he had, which thankfully he got fixed the next year. However, he wasn't the Yao that we've seen the last 3 years, who can dominate and play defense and rebound. After that, you had Bobby Sura, who was a good player offensively and defensively. Then you had a number of 3 point shooters in Wesley, Barry, Padgett, and Mike James. James could create for himself, but he was not a very smart player either. He would force shots when penetrating instead of passing out to the open man many times. We also had Mutombo, Weatherspoon, Juwan Howard, Moochi Norris, and Ryan Bowen. Howard actually missed the playoffs due to a heart condition, so we lost a player to help space out the floor on offense and had to use Ryan Bowen, who was limited offensively. Mutombo was old, but helped greatly defensively and Weatherspoon was old as well, but he did okay in limited minutes. Now that seems like a MUCH better cast than the one Tmac had in Orlando, but there is a huge difference. The Rockets, being in a much stronger Western Conference have to play a team who won 58 games regular season games, including 18 of their last 21 to finish out the season, even though the Rockets were the 5th seed with 51 wins. If the Magic EVER won 51 games, that would've almost garunteed them a top 3 seed in a weak Eastern Conference. Now in the playoffs, Tmac is doing everything possible for the Rockets to win. He is shooting a high percentage from inside and outside the arc, he is attacking the basket, hitting game winning shots, shutting down Nowitzki along with Ryan Bowen. We were able to win the 1st 2 games on the road, but the Mavericks depth prevailed. The had Terry shooting out of his mind, Stackhouse, Howard, Finley, Daniels all playing at a high level from game 3 onwards. On top of that, the refs made some very questionable calls on Yao Ming and in Game 5 we were robbed, because Finley's foot was out of bounds when he stripped the ball from Barry on the baseline. Then in game 7, Tmac and Yao scored 60 out of the 76 points scored by the Rockets, where as the Mavs had 4 players in double figures and 3 players close to 10 points a piece. Now in 06-07, the Rockets had a true point guard in Rafer Alston, a a glue guy and defensive specialist in Battier, a blue-collar hard nosed defender in Hayes, 3 point shooters in Head and Novak, an athletic wing in Snyder, and veterans in Howard and Mutombo. Bonzi Wells was also a part of the roster, but he decided not to play in the Playoffs for some reason...but he really could've helped. The Rockets did have home court advantage in this series, even with Yao being out 32 games due to injury. With that, we took a 2-0 series lead. Tmac, although not shooting as well, still managed to get to the foul line and get plenty of assists. However, Game 3 really exposed the Rockets: http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200704260UTA.html I mean, only 4 Rocket players scored. The team scored 67 points with Tmac and Yao scoring 50 of those points. The Jazz meanwhile had all 9 of their players score, including 33 points off their bench. That told the story right there, the Jazz like the Mavs in 05 were a much deeper team than the Rockets. Tmac and Yao played brilliantly the rest of the way. In games 5 and 7, there was nothing more Tmac could've done for the team. He had 26 points and 16 assists in Game 5 and 29 points, 13 assists and 3 blocks in Game 7. However, it just wasn't enough as Tmac lost his 3rd straight Game 7. The previous 2 game 7's, you could say he and the team didn't show up to win, but this one proved that he did what he could to carry a team, even though this team was not deep at all. Last year, The Rockets finally got a good supporting cast around Tmac and Yao, but Yao was out for the playoffs, Alston missed 2.5 games, Battier and Tmac were injured as well. With all that, we still managed to win 22 games in a row as a team, with Tmac leading the way. However, the Rockets faced an even better Jazz team, and even with a valient 40 point, 10 rebound, 5 assists effort, the Rockets still lost by 22. The team fought through injuries, and made a series of it, but the youth and not having Yao really hurt the team in the end. You can't blame it on one player. Tmac did his part. When a team can focus 5 players on you, knowing that the others can't produce, what can you do? Try to average 40 ppg?? Thats almost impossible without help. What he was able to do has been amazing, considering the bad luck with injuries he and his teams have had (Yao and Grant Hill). Ask Kobe how hard it is to win without other players producing or having a post presence inside. He couldn't get out of the first round without Shaq or Gasol. He blew a 3-1 lead to a Suns team without Amare Stoudamire. He did everything could have, but it just wasn't enough. The NBA today is too good for 1 man to win a 7 game playoff series. Unfortanately, for Tmac, he's only had 1 real chance at winning a playoff series, which was in 07, and his team lost to a better, deeper Utah team in Game 7 by 4 points, while he did everything possible to win. Sometimes everyhing possible just isn't enough...
Cuttino's career was over because he had a heart problem ( not the same heart problem that Tmac has). So the doctor's told him to quit. He was playing well for his age in LA. Cuttino's career never nose dived after he and Steve split. Cuttino, he's a Rockets hero.
cuttino is appreciated. steve, well, his career just disappeared after he left houston. sad to see though cuz steve had so much potential.
This is the most informative post in the whole thread. This is the year mcgrady sheds that monkey off his back.
That's about as good as it gets. I think that can apply to a lot of players. Its funny people call him heartless or a quitter when he had every reason to do it last year. I didn't like the Moon play either, but what was so different between that and the wafer play vs La with Kobe? He just needs to get healthy and play and everything else will fall in line.
well for whatever reason, those names arent tossed around when discussing playoff failure. I agree..its a team game, but for tracy i can tell its a little personal.
houston's lack of playoff success the past decade is just as painful to me. sure more people point at tracy, but it hurts me as a rocket fan to freakin' stop watching basketball by around early april (when we didn't make the playoffs during those transition years) or a lil later. sure i'll tune in to catch a great game here and there, but it's just not the same feeling. hopefully we'll do something great this year
and i think people calling him washed up just may be it. finally, maybe tracy will have the motivation we've all wanted him to get during a reg. season. but that's all talk. we'll see how he plays hopefully starting tomorrow and for the rest of the season.
when i was young,i can get 3 in a row，so i think i can be a star one day,but now i am not,because i seldom play basket
No, you're wrong. When the buzzer sounds in the 4th quarter and the team that's ahead wins the game. It can't get no simplier than that.
i agree with you. bulls fans or lakers or rockets fans agree that the final score and the championship are all that matters. i'll trade tmac's 13 points vs the Spurs for a title..hell for the 2nd round.
tmac is the man.... that was an exciting game.. lol the crowd is empty, felt sorry for the people who left
Tracy's fans have Tracy only colored specks on and can't see anything passed that. They will never understand, they love the guy and will defend him to the end. Personally I could care less about Tracy, it only matters what the Rockets do. IMO this Rockets team will never erase the bad karma surrounding the team and never have the team together as a single unit until Tracy is gone. Rockets fans, this forum and the city of Houston will never heal until the "Fools Gold" is gone. Tracy "Fools Gold" Mcgrady. Yes, Cylde was 10x's the player Tracy is, He's knows it, we know it and Tracy knows it. Just wish some of his fans would come to reality with it. BTW, Stevie and Cat might not be playing ball anymore, but I'd much rather have gone to battle with those two at our side. At least we enjoyed seeing them on the court.
Ok, so you say this, which I can understand <br> Then you follow it up with a complete contradictory sentence like this.. This is why these arguments are so worthless. The "T-Mac lovers" may be blind with love, but the "haters" are so blinded by hate that they go out and make lame statements like the above..
Who in the world said TMac is better than Clyde? WTF! As for Steve and Cat, play yourself some old games and leave us living in the present alooooneeeee (see: leave britney alone)
