When he first came back from his back spasm, he was on fire, dropping 40 and 30 points games left and right. However, when Yao came back, Tmac's personal problem started to surface. During the time span, while the Rockets were beating up on the sorry teams in the league, Tmac's play has been very subpar. He rarely goes to the basket and the charity line anymore, and his outside shots have been very poor in general. His clutchiness is gone, and he seems to lack effort in many games. In the meantime, he got destroyed by Kobe Bryant and Shawn Marion. Now, here is the question, is he still injured? Is this a physical thing or mental thing? He made tons of reference to his personal issues, and made no reference on his injury. He looked fine in the allstar game with all those dunks. But, he also said he has exorcised his demon, and now his mother-in-law has already passed away. So, based on what we understand, he is fine, both physically and mentally. So, what's his problem? Is he still injured? I think if he is, if after another 10 games stretch, and we are sure not being able to make it to the playoffs, we need to shut him down for the season and make sure he is healthy for next year. Because right now, it is obvious he's not the Tmac of last year. Remember how awesome he was last year? We need that Tmac to be able to succeed, not this one.
Just my own guess but one thing is I think he is unwilling to drive as much because of the nose hammering he has been taking and the unwillingness of the refs to call them all, and no-one like Oakley or Sura on the team to watch his back. We need a hammer on this team. Deke's elbows seem to have been surgically removed by Gundy.
