Go to guy is really the decision maker with the ball. i personally think brooks is that guy because he's a triple threat. He can drive,pass,and shoot, plus he's a really good ft shooter. People on this board can criticize tracy for everything. but you feel safe with him having the ball in his hands. Against Utah a couple years ago when Yao was playing, he assisted or scored on every basket. If he's healthy, which has been a problem of late, you could do what Orlando has done lately and thats run hedo at the point and have lee and pietrus out there. Having a great decision maker allows you to do that. What has cut down on tracy's effectiveness is his inability from lack of explosion to get to the rim. You have to be able to get to the rim if you're going to be a closer. Like i said, i think brooks is heading that way of being the closer. His decisiion making needs to get better , but the other things required, he has them already.
You're making John Weisbrod feel very proud of his decision to trade T-Mac away five years ago even though he is no longer the Magic's GM. Here's a link to the T-Mac trade video on YouTube. Go to the 3:45 of it to find John Weisbrod's rather critical remarks of T-Mac. Link-->http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sxa0mLPRhk
the fourth quarter struggles of the Rockets are obvious.. We do need a go to guy.. but, mcgrady is not the one i want on my team, we need to aquire a talented scorer via trade or something.
I would adjust this message in the following way: The Rockets need a go-to buy who can create his shot a few times as they are prone to severe droughts. It doesn't matter which quarter it is. Fact: Fourth quarter point totals are usually thrown off a bit because games (such as games 4,5,6, & 7) can include a dose of garbage once the game is put away and the winning team sort of takes the foot off the gas pedal.
...And this is what I can't seem to figure out with all these "McGrady makes the Rockets worse" arguments. I've been called a "McGrady apologist" for saying that McGrady, WITH THE TEAMMATES HE'S HAD HERE IN HOUSTON, has done the best he could. Same thing with Yao. But people around here talk like Carl Landry and Aaron Brooks and Luis Scola were playing on this team before the 2006-2007 season. Like somehow, we can all forget that we've had Ryan Bowen or Scott Padgett or Kirk Snyder or Vassillis Spanoulis on this team. So I guess, somehow, McGrady kept those guys from getting better or learning how to shoot the ball. Spanoulis "quit" before he found a way to work and improve so he could get on the court. I'd like all these stat gurus and chemistry geniuses and character judges to point out just how much McGrady kept Reece Gaines or Luther Head or Keith Bogans or Stromile Swift from getting better as players. It has never been good offense to consistently give your best player the ball and let him make a play for others for 48 minutes. That's predictable, easy to defend, and a sure-fire way to lose. I don't care who that best player is. If your team can't consistently find a way to generate offense, you go back to what works. Jeff Van Gundy never wanted to expand anybody else's offensive responsibilities, because he knew better than most of us here do, that what he had on offense besides McGrady and Yao was garbage. It was simple and more effective than usual because that's what guys with McGrady's and Yao's talents are able to do. And for all their faults, both Yao and McGrady managed to get teams to a seventh game in a series almost by themselves. Nobody would have any more to say about Yao's hands or McGrady's shot selection if some other Rocket in 2007 had decided to make a personal appearance on the court in any one of those games where both McGrady and Yao spotted the team 2-0 and 3-2 series leads. Anybody else decides to score more than 2 points in any game, and the Rockets win that series in six games. I get that role players aren't going to get alot of credit or blame when a team doesn't win. That's to be expected with any star-driven sports league. But you're not going to win if those "role players" stink. Plain and simple. I'd much rather back the notion that the entire plan of building around Yao and McGrady is flawed because neither of them can be healthy at the same time, than to say they haven't done enough to win, or can too easily be taken out of a game. Please. I don't care if nobody thinks McGrady isn't a leader. I don't care about McGrady's shooting percentages. I don't care about Yao's bad hands. I don't care about Yao's not being able to hold post position. All of those arguments are biting the hand that's feeding you. McGrady's shooting percentages improve if he makes a pass and a guy can make the shot, or McGrady doesn't have to handle the ball as much in anything other than a scoring role. Yao's hands and post position doesn't matter if his teammates make the opposing defense pay for gimmick defenses. I don't know why it's so hard for people to see that, whatever's not right about either Yao or McGrady is a whole hell of a lot easier to compensate for with better teammates than with worse ones. That's why there's this stat that analysts float around, saying that when Kobe Bryant takes 20 shots or fewer, the Lakers don't lose. But when Bryant takes more shots than that, the Lakers are about .500. No matter how good Bryant is or what stretches of the game that happens in, if his team is no good, he's not going to win. I love how Mo Williams in Cleveland said that he had enough shots in game one of the Cavs/Magic series. He just didn't make them. LeBron james was going to be LeBron James. Everybody else has to come ready to play. My only question is why that took so long the brain trust around here to figure that out...
I'm afraid I have to disagree. Aaron Brooks is a better go-2-guy. McGrady's ability to creat space for his teammates has been on a steep downhill due to his injuries. He can't penetrate & get into the lane that much as before. Sure your passing skill is superior,but u need other guys to be open to make the pass. With Battier/Artest/Yao's poor movement w/o the ball,I don't see McGrady's presence make the offense much better. I'm more comfortable when the ball is in Brook's hand in 4th quarter. Can't expect more from this sophomore. These playoffs experience is most valuable to a young PG. Sure he was streaky,So was Rajon Rondo last year. Look what Rondo had done in the series against the Bulls & the Magic this year. I'm expecting Brooks to be real good next season. I don't wanna see T-Mac dominating the ball with the others standing like logs anymore.
The go to guy means a guy that can score at will when the offense is stagnent or is just not making there shots...when u see those times when rockets are having trouble scoreing and are scoreless for like 5 min..that go to guy makes it happen.
hold on that triple threat thought on ab. his passing is really suspect. and his ft's in the playoffs were not stellar, either.
t_mac1, you've missed one important point in evaluating Tracy McGrady's passing. The good passes Tmac has made in the past seasons have been primarily related to his scoring ability which presents a great threat to the opponent team and they had to double him all the time. With his attraction of double team and with his height and court vision he could then consistently do the excellent passes we've witnessed. However, with a much regressed Tmac here without his normal explosion and quickness in finishing, people would be reluctant to double him anymore. I am eager to see if he could maintain his high level passing in such occasions.
Never said he was a great passer and he normally hits his ft's. He's a decent passer even you don't think he can get it to yao. He didn't have a problem feeding scola. Its the threat of dribble drive, pull up, or dishing.
it's funny every reaction from you when talking about ab will somehow lead to yao. lol. listen, if a pass means connecting 2 dots, then sure ab can pass. if it means "dish" it to somebody open or in scoring position, ab is very primitive. if it means drive and dish in a conventional way, he's horrible. so there goes the triple threat theory. ab CAN be PART of the future; but he is far from THE future.
Go-to guy is much needed when the game is really close in the end of the game. None of the games against LA were close games. But that's very rare in a 7 game series. Go-to guy was not needed in that series doesn't mean go-to guy is not needed at all.
If i ask you how many times he missed player x open, you wouldn't ever give me a answer, but i'm sure player x missed would be yao which is most people's gripe. Assist needs people making shots. Brooks can drive or pick and roll with scola or landry and they seem to do well, but when its Yao involved, he always misses him. The go to guy has to have the threat of all 3. he doesn't have to be great at all, just good. A guy like baron is a closer because he is a triple threat. He's a erractic shooter at best,a good passer, avg ft shooter and good driver, but he int great at any of them. Its more of being a threat in all threat and being respected to do all 3 is what makes a guy a closer.
having a go to guy is more than just about staying even or losing a 4th quarter, sometimes it takes winning it in the fourth to get to the next series and win a championship. Some one who can lead the charge to a dramatic, come from behind victory, that can ultimately prove to be a turning point in the series. I think all rockets fans, whether you pro or anti-tmac, can admit that tracy is capable of producing such efforts. as previously mentioned, he can either get his shot off, or creat a much better/easier shot for his teammates, than they would be able to get with out him on the court. When you have multiple guys like that on the floor (yao, tmac, brooks, even scola) it makes your team so much more capable of going on one of those runs that turns a 15 pt deficit into a close game at the end (rather than what we had in the lakers series where the 15 pt deficit turned into 20-30 pt losses).
Closer means someone who will get the ball to the high percentage shot if that's either you, yourself shooting it..or passing it to open hot/hot area shooter. He creates penetration and he has perfected the skill of accurately passing. More importantly he gets the ball to yao. If I counted right, Tracy has had 5 career game winners: With the Rockets: La Lakers, Dallas Mavericks, SA Spurs With Orlando: Detroit Pistons, Philly 76ers
