The T-Mac experiment has been a failure up to this point for reasons inherent to him and also outside of his control (Carrol Dawson as a GM). But what has happened after the trade in no way should be reflective of the trade itself. It was highway robbery and one of the greatest trades in team history.
You don't seriously think that do you? That team was going nowhere. Perhaps they could have traded those guys for someone other than McGrady, but the Rockets were going nowhere with Steve Francis. Just in case you take this route, a competitive series against a highly favorable matchup in the Lakers is in no way probative of improvement.
Please do not turn this thread into a "should we have traded Francis et al for McGrady" thread. That question could serve as a preschool admissions test. I would have done that deal even if the Magic had insisted we take Juwan Howard's two sisters with 2 years left on their contracts. The question on the table is whether you think we could get more for McGrady in trade than we could get by resting and rehabbing him and bringing him back for a playoff run. I'm saying that if we set aside our accumulated annoyance and fatigue and look at the question afresh, the answer is, do the latter.
2001-02 28-54 2002-03 43-39 2003-04 45-37 They had been improving. Maybe not as fast as we all would have liked, but you can't really blame Steve for the boneheaded drafts we were doing back then.
It's not just a question of T-Mac getting healthy though. He's also got to commit to sharing the ball. He's also got to commit to playing Adelman's offense, and that means cutting hard without the ball. He's also probably got to commit to being second fiddle behind Yao. Is it really likely that all of those things are going to happen? I think McGrady's just too old of a dog to learn any new tricks. Finally, my guess is that if the Rockets do hang onto him they're going to be dealing with his antics next season too. "Typically moody McGrady" is how Feigen put it.
Where did you see improvement coming from? CD was still GM so we weren't going to upgrade our overall talent. Francis was on the decline. Mobley played great under JVG but was 30 and wasn't going to improve. Yao was improving but everyone knew he wasn't a Shaq that was just going to take the team on his back. So where was the improvement going to come from? T-Mac atleast gave us a major talent upgrade, a lot of hope, and some 50 win seasons. I'll take that.
And zero playoff success. If T-Mac gets traded off tomorrow the McGrady/Yao era is going to be remembered as a bust.
it wouldn't have been a bust if yao was healthy last yr and you know it. it's been a bust primarily of injuries. there's still time for tracy to do what he was sent here to do. the season is not even close to being over. just gotta get his mind straight (like he did around this time last yr) and get back to playing good solid basketball. regardless of what you see this year, we still have a BETTER record when tracy plays this year than when he isn't. and he hasn't even been close to playing well.
Fully agreed since the team doesn't perform well with TMac on the court. Let him rest, do strenuous rehab, treated by a shrink. These are the workable means that he can come back with confidence. We need a strong (mentally/physically) TMac in the playoff.
Yeah, I agree that if Yao had been healthy last year it would have been a very interesting post-season. He wasn't though and the T-Mac/Yao era in Houston is one of tremendously disappointing underachievement. In terms of biological freakishness T-Mac and Yao are two of the most talented individuals to ever step onto an NBA court but neither of them has gotten past the first round. As for getting his mind straight--that's the problem. Not only does the guy need a medical doctor he also needs a shrink. As a human being I have a lot of sympathy for the guy if he's dealing with depression or whatever. But as a Rockets fan the team would be better off without all the drama.
Only ISO loving Francis nuthuggers would say this. Even after so many years passed, you still can't handle the fact that your mancrush Steve Francis was traded for TMac, therefore you take it out on TMac every chance you get. Neverrmind that Tmac is easy fodder for criticism these days, but Francis isn't even as much as a blip on the NBA radar. Cry about passion and heart all you want about what Francis supposedly has and what Tmac doesn't, but the cold blooded truth is that TMac is a better basketball player and that's why he's here instead of Francis. The ISO Francis era was an ugly period of Rockets basketball with unwatchable basketball being played. I honestly am puzzled of the fans who cling to that period.
yao didn't tap his potential until just 2-3 years ago. we didn't make the playoffs that first yr he truly tapped his potential (05-06). and he was injured the entire 2nd half of last yr. a lot of things come into play when you talk about this partnership. like i said, we should have gone farther in 04-05 if the reffing was decent (and the refs admitted that was one of the series that was rigged). and we should have gone farther last yr if yao was healthy. so a lot of things come into play. but it's unfortunate people don't care about all of those things.
Wow. You are delusional. Nobody wouldn't do that trade, even retrospectively. Every player the Rockets traded are out of the league.
trading superstars who have a "tarnished" reputation rarely leads to anything positive for the team parting with the star. You look at history...and the cardinal rule is you get very little in return. There are a few reasons for this: 1. Usually the team trying to trade away a superstar does it in firesale mode 2. There is rarely another superstar available to complete the trade 3. The team usually acquires a group of role players who are either on the decline as well or don't have much potential. Look at the Barkeley trades, the Shaq trade (do you remember what L.A. got in return for Shaq and how many years it took for them to build a contender?), you look at what Memphis got in return for Pau Gasol, what Portland got for Clyde Drexler, what Orlando got for T-mac (3 starters who aren't in the NBA anymore!), what philly got for Iverson, what minnesota got for Kevin Garnett and so on.... In other words, you trade away your stars when you have no other choice and are deciding to rebuild. If the Rockets want to take that route, you dump everyone from Artest to Yao to Hayes. You hold on to Brooks and get draft picks. Keep Landry and Scola. Anyone older than 29 though gets traded. Yao doesn't have the longevity to last into another rebuilding cycle... My friend, you have to be realistic. If you want a hustle team that you can be proud of that loses in the first round, maybe the 2nd - that's great. I appreciate your love for how basketball should be played. But the rest of us want playoff success....and right now, our best chances for that is the devil we know, not the ones that we don't. I'll put my chips on T-mac at this time. To do otherwise would be a risky gamble.
I don't care how healthy he gets. He is a loser. At 100% he is still a loser. You don't get it. He doesn't have it upstairs to be a main contributor on a Championship team. This team has a better chance of winning a Championship without him. I know the chance is very, very, very small without Tracy but with him it is even smaller because he is bound to crumble when things get tough and his team mates lean on him. That's what he does. He plays well and sucks everyone in. Then, when things get tough he crumbles and the team is lost because everyone is accustomed to a level of that he can't achieve when the pressure is on.
In your haste to make yet another Steve-bashing post, I think you have forgotten (or perhaps never knew) that it wasn't a straight-up Francis for McGrady swap. Back on topic, Dave_78 has pretty much hit the nail on the head.
I like how AntiSonic tried to kill one of the few threads intelligently discussing the Tracy McGrady situation. He's probably thinking "What? where's all the bashing? Well we can fix that." Well played.
