I sure as hell think he can and plus he has more options What happens when Ariza gets into the lane? He usually does not know what to do because he has horrible footwork and he has no post moves. T-mac on the other hand can probably still fade away, can pump fake, can try to get an up and under, or he can find someone out on the perimeter or inside or something. Ariza does not have this ability. The reason Ariza is getting so many shots is because he is forcing up a lot of shots. He is also jacking up too many threes, sometimes not within the flow of the offense.
Yeah it's the begining of the season and teams usually do not star playing their best basketball till maybe next month. I just know we cant win with Aaron Brooks jumping in the air to make a pass. To's are ridiculous in the crunch with this team. The reason why defenses get a little bit tighter in the clutch. Also are defense will never be in the top 5 again because we run more. We had great defenses because we were walking the ball up the court and playing half court basketball. That's evident by the number of possesion over the years compared to this year. Another point in the playoffs its a totally different game it will be half court basketball we will need T mac or someone of his stature. They command double teams and can make the right play. He is a 27 ppg 5 asst and 5 reb a game guy in the playoffs. Those are close to Lebron and Kobe numbers. So I don't know were people can put the blame only on him when your team was nowhere to be found!
Ariza basketball IQ on the offense havent allow him to be a good volume shooter. Ariza simply put it has 3 moves. His fake and side step is no longer working because he is not hitting enough shots to make the defender fall the head fake. Tmac while taking his 17 shots a game will also create for teamates and is a much better passer than Ariza will ever be. In term of shooting, I agree with you, Tmac might not be any better than him in plain shooting term. But if the ball is in Tmac's hand, he will be able to create more for our offense than Ariza would.
Lets see here.... Our team is not being killed on the boards as you would like to think. Our post defense is not lacking as much as our perimeter defense is hurting due to Yao not being in the middle. Hardly any player can stop Amare, Boozer, Dirk Nowitski. These players have always given us problems and it isn't because we are lacking a good post defender as you would like to say, Chuck is doing fine. You might call it rebuilding year, but the Rockets are in it to make it to the playoffs. Why not give us a chance to go further when we get there? A healthy T-mac will give the Rockets that chance.
yyeeesss. Even at his most inefficient year do you guys see that his PER still rivaled our future "star" players. People just have it in for this guy seriously. would you prefer ariza made 8-22 perimeter shots or t-mac? cause I will live with the nights t-mac goes 8-22 because there are those magical nights he does go 17-21 or something unreal, not as often as it used to be but it does happen. Ariza cannot be the player that tracy was, even in 2006-2007. It's just not in his makeup. Ariza is Ariza, he's not a playmaker, he's not a ballhandler. He's a slasher with an average shot. Statistically the only reason I see a upside in Ariza is the fact he's a steal machine. He's a great 3-4 option but in my opinion Scola is closer to an allstar then Ariza or Brooks. T-mac has universes more offense than anyone on our roster and we have to deal with it, WHEN healthy he can get you 40 points on any night. There's a reason Brook's career high is 33 and t-macs is 62. Lets not forget 51 in 3 quarters, t-mac outscored our "best shooter/scorer".....in 3 quarters. face it, we need him.
He also was a decent to good rebounder for us. As the team recognizes, all five players depending on their positioning on the floor have to crash the boards. So yes, a healthy T-Mac has the potential of helping the team in one of your stated weaknesses beyond being the "volume shooting wing" that you have stated. WE need to become more of rebound by committee team even when we get Yao back and/or another big. The same argument goes in the return of T-Mac, the other players on the team can not fall off from the level they are currently playing e.g., don't become on the floor spectators. And actually, our wing is one of our weaknesses. At least until we figure out how or if all four of our guys will be used. When T-Mac plays and does what you are professing then we'll have a problem. Until then, let's be more balanced in our prophesies!!!
And I would bet my imaginary farm that T-Mac would get the phantom fouls that this current doesn't get right now. That's an undervalued perk.
He doesn't get fouled nearly as much as people think. At least from what I've seen, I haven't seen many fouls. Yesterday might have been an exception, but for the most part he gets some calls and other times there aren't really many calls to make. I guess yesterdays game was just very inconsistent reffing wise.
So you're saying that you prefer Player A going 8 for 22 over Player B going for 8 for 22 BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE THAT SOMETHING MAGICAL IS GOING TO HAPPEN? hahahhahaha I've been watching NBA for all the wrong reasons. Instead of watching because "I LOVE THIS GAME!", I should watch it because it's "WHERE AMAZING HAPPENS". 8 for 22 is 8 for 22 no matter who chucks up the ball. El Pigto: I left my response simple on purpose. You asked who would I rather have SHOOTING. And I answered that, at this point, whatever McGrady can bring into the game is probably not better than what Ariza's been giving us. I didn't go into ball handling, driving, etc because you asked about SHOOTING/SCORING and nothing else. No one is going to be dumb enough to think that Ariza's lack of ball handling skill is going to trump McGrady even on one leg. A chucker can score 25-27 points again if he jacks up enough shots. What's your point?
People need to stop playing "the-grass-is-greener" after each loss. Seems like some posters don't remember T-Mac's faults... yet I am sure we would see the same type of posts to get rid of T-Mac right after every loss if he were back with the team (and we have, historically). The Rockets play an uglier, lack-of-offensive-sophistication, hustle style of ball and it clearly brings out sentiments of needing changes after every loss. But the fact remains that the Rocket's record is one of the better in the West, and they just took a 9-2 team into the 4th quarter into a competitive match. Get a grip guys.
oh, so you're just going to ignore his rebounds and assists? this thread doesn't necessarily mean we need tmac to score points. it's his playmaking ability and ability to draw double teams that this team sorely lacks.
I didn't ask about all those extra things because I still rather have McGrady take those 22 shots. He has a lot more moves and his jumper still looks better than Ariza when he is trying to create for himself. If Ariza stayed within his limits, then give me Ariza all day, unfortunately that has only happened like 3 of 11 games.
Trevor Ariza is averaging 5.5 rebounds a game with 4.2 assists a game. Surprisingly for the uneducated, are pretty damn close to the numbers that McGrady puts up during the regular season the past 3 seasons. Playmaking ability and commanding double teams? I'll hold my judgement on the former but the latter, at this stage of his career, will be close to nonexistent.
Some truth to that, but you know Tracy does play a team game. He seems to love to pass. Rebounds is an effort stat (in my book). Sure some will fall in your hands, but you do have to put forth the effort to go and get the board b/c you know your opponent is going for them. Assists for Tracy is an effort stat b/c as you all love to point out, he dominates the ball. He's not just making an easy pass for an easy assist. Let's not forget all the "hockey" assists Morey mentioned back in the day and making the comment that McGrady lead the team in that stat by a long shot. McGrady makes this team better. Do people really believe that if he was healthy last year we would have not made it out of the first round with the level of talent we seem to have now? It's one thing to try and blame one guy for 1st round exits, it's another to look at last year and say they got past the 1st round BECAUSE he didn't play. I know, off subject, sorry. And yes, there is a difference between one player putting up an 8 of 22 performance. In this example, Ariza can put up 20, maybe even 30 on a good night. I haven't followed Ariza much, but it's said that he has basically been a spot up shooter his career. Probably a reason for that. McGrady, you can almost bank on 20 a night, and a good night is 40+. Oh, and throw in the rebounds and assists. Near triple doubles in a season where many claimed he was the worst he's ever looked by far. Gah i've babbled nonsense too much here.
like i've said before, no one knows how tmac will perform when and if he comes back, but as a rockets fan, it's worth giving him a chance to see what he can do for us, am i right?
Let me ask you this: McGrady comes back, uses his moves and his jumper and still shoots 8 for 22. Are you going to say "Even though he went 8 for 22, boy those jumpers sure look better than Ariza's" and be satisfied, that at the end of the game, 8 for 22 that "looks better" still gets you the same amount of points no matter how pretty or ugly it looks? I know you're getting at, I really do. But to think that McGrady's 8 for 22 is any better than anyone else's 8 for 22 is absurd. There are no consolation prizes for poor shooting. I wholeheartedly agree with you that Ariza's "on the ball" game is atrocious but it's equally as bad as McGrady when he decides to hurl heatcheck shots when he's obviously cold.
