tmac dosn't have the metal toughness kobe does. Also i DOUBT if he practise as much as kobe doe either. Look how kobe shoots free throws in those games, he always go sth like 15-16... tmac wise, it will sth like 10-16...
yup, exactly.. the point is, both kobe and tracy are very good in their own ways, if they had each other's talents, then they would both be Jordans.
in the past, t-mac was a better shooter than kobe, but not now. kobe has improved tremendously. every time he shoots with or without guys in his face, it seems like the ball is going to go in. t-mac, on the other hand, is missing many wide open shots. i would expect his FG % would be improved playing with yao, who set all these nice screens for him. another issue is kobe is much stronger physically than t-mac. you can tell no. 24 spent countless hours in the weight room in the off season.
Kobe is only better than tmac in two things: scoring and the free throw shooting, the only thing I would put kobe in tmac or yao will be the free throw percentage, kobe is very automatic in that department, that one reason he scores a lot of points, and shots a lot. But I prefer tmac than kobe if I want to build a team. And another reason why he is scoring a lot is because he is the only good player in that team, with shaq kobe rarely scored above 40.
wow. so ur saying yao's mentally tougher than hakeem? than patrick? than shaq? b/c his ft% is higher? ur saying steve nash has a better mental toughness than kobe? does melo have a better mental toughness than tmac? wow at some fools measuring mental toughness w/ fts. i'm sure if u look at 82games, kobe has the worst fg% of anyone taking game winning shots the last 2 yrs at around 23%. is that enough mental toughness for ya? just admit tmac's bad at shooting this yr. we'll see how he shoots in the playoffs.
It might start with taking the ball to rim after getting fouled hard. You know, turning the intensity up a notch when the game gets "chippy" instead of going with 20 ft jumpers for the rest of the night. Look, I like Tmac but he really does "shrink" if you give him a hard foul. I'm sure a lot of that is his back but that is life. Kobe, on the other hand, is coming to dunk on you the next play if you foul him hard. If he can't dunk on you he smacks you in the face later in the game just to be nasty. I like that about him.
then i'm sure u like how he alienates his teammates. how he didn't lead his team w/o odom and walton. look man, that's just personality. but u don't know his character. lebron is the same way as kobe and yet ppl question his toughness. KG's the same way and yet ppl question his toughness. that's just who kobe is. he's cocky. that's not a killer instinct but it does help him in INDIVIDUAL battles. kobe gets heated if he gets beat in any way and he takes it personal. that's an arrogance that tmac does not have. tmac is NOT going to go out of the team aspect to embarrass u back if u outdo him. that won't happen. but kobe will do that. does steve nash do that? does wade do that? does yao do that? does hakeem do that? does duncan do that? does magic do that? i can name u TONS of hall of famers who don't go back and "choke" their guy after they've been beat... ESPECIALLY DUNCAN, the current great player w/ 3 rings. u can outscore him by 20+ individually and duncan still plays his team game.
There our a Few blind Tracy haters on this board. Liu, Pyruen,Cheng and few others. the tracy taking jumpers in the clutch is lso noonsense. during that 22-10 run without yao, he was getting to the line like 4 times a game. in the magic game in orlando he got 19 free throw attempts.
Honest and non-jhomer answer is NO. But what we fans care about iis Championship. And Yao/Tmac can deliver for us.
i admit tracy doesn't take it to the rack a lot of times and relies on his J sometimes too much. but i admit his back has a lot to do w/ it. patterson said if tmac has a "hard collision" the back spasms will come back. if ur tmac and u want to stay healthy to help your team, what the hell do u do? u want to go reckless like kobe/wade/iverson and potentially sideline urself and ruin a possible "dream" season? again, tracy was NEVER a high ft attempt guy. only ONE time he shot more than 7.5 ft and that's in 02-03. this yr he's averaging 6.8 which is decent, not great. but that's his game now. do we blame yao for not being able to log 38 mins every night? do we blame yao for getting tired whne playing phoenix? do we blame yao for the fouls he gets at times? no. that's who he is for being 7'6. there are some things yao can't control. but we embrace his "other" gifts and what makes him a dominant superstar. tmac has his back. it has admittedly limited in how he plays the game physically. next yr he might finish his layups easier as he learns to play "without" contact more and more as he drives. but he is who he is. he's not gonna give u 10+ fts a game consistently. but u embrace what he does give u and that's a lethal scoring + passing game with the ability to dominate ANY WAY u want him to at any time.
People dont understand it's called body management. shaq does it, duncan does it and tracy does it. guys who tend to get nagging injuries if the over extend themselves in meaningless games, will pickup silly injuries that will in- effect destroy there teams chances in the playoffs. now whitohut yao, tracy stepped it up a few notces because e had to, but with yao back, tracy is back into getting he's body ready for the playoffs mode. think long term people.
and again i say, didn't people forget what tmac just did w/o yao? 28ppg, 5rpg, 6apg. didn't they jsut forget that along w/ the 21-10 record? i mean seriously, how can a player that saved the rocket seasons get this much criticism when all he's doing is letting yao do his thang, conserve his energy and be as healthy as he can be going into the playoffs.
Watching the Lakers the ast couple of years has shown me that Kobe and T-Mac are really different players. T-Mac is a creating and WILLING passer. He just gets the whole offense going even when he's not scoring. You simply CANNOT double T-Mac (all teams do though) because he's such a great passer. You can double Kobe and there are times where he's doing it all by himself. When he's on a roll like now, great, but what about that bad stretch the Lakers had and Kobe was still taking shots. Sometimes you see him force the action unnecessarily, given sometimes he succeeds because of him incredible scoring ability but what do his teammates think? What about those nights when his shot is off? Best individual player: Kobe. Better team player: T-Mac
i would argue that IF tmac HAD to score, he would put more of a fight. but he doesn't have to. what kobe is doing is great for HIMSELF. he's getting the attention and get talks on sports shows. but what's the lakers' fate? odom doesn't get his; walton doesn't get his => first round exit. i guarantee u if odom played w/ tmac, odom would be an all-star.
i don't mind him b/c he does give info on yao, esp. during yao's injury and yao's TREMENDOUS work ethic. as a fellow asian, i love how yao represents us people--humble, hard-working... he's a great role model. and there's a reason why the team doesn't talk about tmac's struggles. he impacts the game in too many ways for them to criticize his fg%.
I think a better question is McGrady the second best scorer in the game. Is he better than Anthony, Arenas, Wade, Iverson, James, etc. in terms of one-on-one scoring. I say yes.
