Sampson was a monster...one of the most versatile players ever and looked like he would be a hall of famer his first 3 years.
that's why tracy's situation is so sad. it's amazing how good he is still w/ a back problem. i just hope tracy can contain it for 4-5 more yrs to help us win a ring. it's a shame sampson could not reach his full potential.
The year Tracy had in 2002-2003 was one of the best years anyone has ever had..he is still up there with Bryant, Wade and Carter as far as shooting guards in this league..he is no doubt top 4.
28 points 10boards 10 assists 4 blocks... i think yao's offensive rebounding numbers may go down in the motion offense, but he'll still get enough boards to be a triple double threat.
tmac is still a top 5 perimeter player, not just guard or SF. realistically, i only put kobe, bron, wade over him simply they have had more team success. hopefully he'll prove he's still on par w/ kobe and a top 3-5 player overall next yr. that stretch w/o yao, he was def. a top 3 player in the league. then the inconsistency kicked in once again.
Hard to say. Carter scores more and takes less shots but T-Mac is a better defender and passer...it's probably a tie.
there is no way that carter is as good as mcgrady. all this motion stuff is nice and good but at the end of the day options 1a, 1b, and 1c will be to get yao ming the ball in the low post. he has a mismatch in his favor every single night against every single team. where we will benefit from the high post is the times when yao is swarmed or if teams go to constantly fronting him. jvg and co turned him into a dominant post scorer, if adelman can get him at least comfortable in other situations and integrate all these talented players in to a nice offense, then wow.
carter was not a playmaker last yr and avg about the same as tmac. he was more of a finisher than tmac in the nets offense and thus should have scored much more if he was a better scorer. carter is def. not on tmac's level. though tmac played mediocre in the playoffs for the most part last yr, he dominated all the home games. carter had the east, had kidd and rjeff and couldn't advance further.
Carter takes less shots but I think they are about equal as overall players. I believe the Nets were missing their starting center for the playoffs too.
carter has much less responsibility on the nets than tmac was w/ houston. and jkidd set carter up for more easy shots (have u seen jkidd in the playoffs and during the US scrimmage). dude makes it so easy to finish. tmac had to be jkidd + carter for us most of the time, splitting time b/t each responsbility of playmaking and finishing. trust me, u put jkidd on this team, we're going all the way. we will be just as good as the suns when yao is out of the floor.
I think the key for why VC is never compared to Tmac has been a case of versatility. Carter is arguably a better finisher than Tmac. But that's just that. For his entire career, Vince Carter has been known as a finisher, a scorer. Tmac puts up similar numbers, but even in '02-'03 and his early Magic days when he had an in-his-prime Darrell Armstrong running the offense, Tracy was running around disrupting shots, rebounding and making plays. And recently that playmaking ability has come to the forefront even more under JVG. And that's the key difference between Carter. He gets his rebounding and assist numbers, but when coaches think of Vince Carter, it's always his ability to finish and shoot, rarely his playmaking and defense. When coaches talk about Tmac, it's always how good he is if he's committed to defense, how much responsibility he has on the offensive end creating for his teammates and himself through the whole game. Just my 2 cents' worth.
I agree with a lot of it. Whem T-Mac and Carter were teammates T-Mac was the defensive specialist! Carter actually played some PG last year because of the Nets rookies struggles and because at Kidds age he can't play as many minutes but T-Mac is no doubt better at setting up his teammates than Carter.
The thing with Tmac as a defensive specialist is that after he blossomed as a scorer, that part of his game slowly but surely wilted away. I remember when Tmac would sometimes just get up after a guy has released his shot and block it at the apex of it. This particular nasty one was during the best season in his magic days when he wasn't even guarding the guy who shot it, but Tmac just left his man and jumped about 4 feet away and knocked it away. I think he probably got up high enough to grab a quarter off the top of the backboard then. The thing with JVG was that I thought he would drill those defensive instincts back into Tmac and truly make him an all-around player. But all we saw was one season where Tmac averaged a career high in steals per game, flashes of his shotblocking talent, and one series where he shut Dirk down together with Flyin' Ryan Bowen. I guess for all his defensive genius, the biggest shortcoming for JVG was that it was always his way or the highway. He never saw how to use his players. He had a 7'6", 310lbs Yao Ming running around blitzing and showing on pick and rolls for Christ's sake, when he would've been better served camping in the lane and blocking off the rim. That was the stubborness that never allowed the players to truly flourish.
if adelman takes yao out of the low post and operate in the high post next year.... then please trade yao away and dont waste his best years
So you dont want yao having a solid inside/outside game?if yao hot's 18 foot shot, he'll be a nightmare to guard. say someone like shaq is guarding him on offense, he'll have to respect yao's midrange game hence coming out of the paint. this allows our wing players to attack the ring without having to worry bout shaq in there. We know yao will l destroy and shred you to pieces in the low block, but if he is hitting that midrange shot, it will make him unstoppable.
I believe that Yao is about to have his best season ever. JVG's grind it out/pound it out style really affected Yao's stamina and effectiveness. No longer a "wrestler," no longer stuck in the mud pit, no longer using all his energy just to get inside position, no longer trying to emulate Patrick Ewing, you are going to see Yao's passing and shooting skills on display. This will open the lane and allow him to drive unmolested more often. An open/motion offense will allow Yao to conserve more energy. He will still post up inside, but it won't be as difficult.
