Has T-Mac declined? Examining 02-03 T-Mac from 07-08 T-Mac....

Yea not much needed to be said other than the truth, besides I wrote a ****in essay give me a break

 

No I just happened to agree with you on his questionable shot selection, but that magical year he was making so much more of his chucking.

Look at every game in the season, he still athletic enough to get a shot over anyone and have it be a decent look but not with the same consistency, aside from his midrange shot, thats become his best weapon.

Yea I never considered Tmac as primarily a slasher in the Pierce/Melo and the difference is pretty miniscule but he still attacked the rim more in 02-03 and went to the free throw line because of it.

Agreed

Thats true

You expect them to be lower when hes on a better defensive team and not gaurding the opposing teams best scoring threat. In Orlando he did that with good regularity and shut down star scorers, I have not seen that from Tmac this year.

That was 05, he didnt do squat in the series against Utah

Thats because they were able to hide him for much of the series on AK47, his rotations were ok but I didnt see the same clamp down mentality that Ive seen in years past.

I never said he was only good at help defense though it is by far the most important aspect of team defense. Being able to recover on your man and making timely rotations are all aspects of team defense. His on ball D was great he was just on a bad defensive team though he really clamped down on anyone he was gaurding in the playoffs those years.

No he wouldnt, but Wade is still an effective defender

I dont agree with you, he still gambles too much on his man defense and that gambling mentality is why he gets blown by, luckily they rarely have Tmac gaurding anyone of importance so it doesnt effect the team much, and to his credit he doesnt gamble on the few times hes switched onto a star scorer. Tmac has had 2 horrible defensive seasons, his last in Orlando and his injury plagued one 2 years ago. I remember the poll when they asked every player in the NBA whos one of the easiest guys to score on and they included Tmac, but he was playing with a balky back half the year. I just hope this year isnt a repeat.

Yeah you broke down their tendencies very nicely my only problem is thinking that those tendencies correlate to him being the same player. The thing is not only did he get assisted on more of his jumpers but he joined a team where he need not score 32+ a night, YET hes not producing at a more efficient rate. Usually you can replace quantity with quality, Tmac has not done so, his rebounding has declined, his defense isnt as sharp as it was last year, or his first in Houston, hes not getting to the line as much and his overall shooting efficiency has decreased add it all up and you have a less effective player.

Hes passed more and created more for others, but he is NOT the same player he was in 02-03 when he was arguably the best player in the league.

 

Tmac is a selfish player. This guy has other agendas.

 

players that take nights off and dont play with heart night in and night out will never win a championship. Also, when you watch tmac play against scrub teams he doesn't try his best... but when he goes up against players like kobe and lebron he decides he has to show he is the better player and actually plays hard.. one good example of this was against the kings when artest was hounding him down he wanted to prove a point... that artest cant hold him even if he tried his best and did a good job of getting his point across but while he was busy getting his own we were losing the game... i never realized this but tmac could care less about a regular season game you can just tell by his body language and demeanor on the court especially on the defensive end... he wants to just relax until playoff time, or if its a regular season game and their losing, the fourth quarter when its too late! i guess he likes playing hero... dont no wut else it could be.

 

How easy of question is this..

YES!!!

 

Tmac will have spurts where he looks like Tmac of 02 but he still falls well short of that on a daily basis, you put that Tmac on this team and the Rockets sport the best record in the league. But thats the only year I consider untouchable, if you wouldve said 03 or 01 I wouldve been inclined to agree but that year was simply unbelievable, best season on the perimeter since MJ.

 

Nitro, this was a very INTERESTING read. Thanks for the analysis. It's nice to see a thread worth reading and thinking about. I'd love to see your comparison of Kobe vs. TMac. 5-stars for the effort.

As far as Kobe's "intangibles," uhhh, yeah exactly what has that gotten him since the BIG TANGIBLE (Shaq) left? Jack S#$t. Maybe if he brought that vaunted "killer instinct," they wouldn't have blown a 3-1 lead to the Suns?

I think breaking up Yao and TMac would be a colossal mistake. Things aren't right with the Rox right now, but it ain't because of TMac or Yao, that's for sure.

 

I guess that excludes Game 7 of the first round because he QUIT on his team and stood around like one of the fans on the sideline.

 

LOL...exactly....I don't care about tmac's efficiency, or any other obscure percentage...I just want the guy to show some damn heart and take responsibility for his short comings.............

Kobe = winner...Tmac = loser.

 

Is that the year we swept their whole division?

Rocket River