I understand that players lose some of their explosiveness as they get older, but watch some of these highlights from his Orlando days. It seems like he was a MUCH better ball handler back then. He gets way too many turnovers these days when he is trying to penetrate. I wish we still had this guy. He definitely played with alot more effort... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVueyvpGlqY
McGrady would probably be a better shooter if he would come in a little more before he fired them off. Settling for shots so far away from the basket negates his height advantage.
Ordinarily I would agree, but he has been as bad from 18 as he was from 22. I really think its his shoulder. Its not doing something. It may not necessarily be painful, but its not going where it should be and its making his shot off.
He doesn't wanna risk himself by taking it in a nd getting hurt. Whenever he's gotten hurt it's been from attacking the basket, and that's where he got his shoulder injury he currently has. He doesn't want to risk more injuries before the playoffs, so he saves it for the playoffs, and simply explodes there. If you remember him last year in the playoffs, he was simply amazing.
That's the only reason he isn't as aggressive as usual. Not because he has no "heart". Jut wait till the playoffs when he's gonna burst off, just like last year where he lead the team, but the team simply wasn't good enough. Remember game 7 last year with Utah? He had 29 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists, and was aggressive than ever. So no more dissin' T- Mac please.
For the sake of accuracy, it was actually 29 pts, 5 rebounds, 13 assists, and he didn't shoot over 50% any game that series, including game 7. As for the original post, it comes on too strong, but some of the arguments are valid, which brings me to my next point... People need to respect other people's right to complain, and to call out our players when they under-perform. If it's after a loss they say "it's just one game, where were you last game when we won?" and if it's after a win they say "why can't you just enjoy the win? Someone's always gotta bring up something negative...". So basically, everyone is just supposed to drink the kool-aid 24/7 and never criticize the players? That's asinine.
the thing that bothers me the most about people who post negative criticism about tmac are the people who seem to just be jumping at his throat any chance they get. sure tracy doesn't shoot as well as he used to, get over it he's getting older and he's been through his fair share of injuries. no he doesn't play as well as kobe bryant but he brings different qualities that kobe doesn't have (mainly the vision to make the right pass) the issue about his shooting % going down was stated earlier before in this thread, that post mainly blamed yao 's injury for his lower shooting % and that's a valid argument. my problem is that these threads that always bash tmac always show up when we lose and never seem to appear while we're winning. tmac isnt the same player he was when he was in orlando but he can still put up rebounds, assists, and points at a decent rate. come play off time he'll get his fair share of points ans assists but what really tends to matter in the game of basketball is that this is a TEAM sport. outside of kobe and Lebron James no one person is really able to carry a team to wins. actually i take that back outside of lebron james, see the road for the cav's last year and how james willed himself through past the pistons, there isnt really anyone who can take over the game as well. you have kobe, someone who can put up numbers in a hurry but even he didn't lead his team past the first round for two years (granted james plays in the eastern conference, he still single handedly dismantled the pistons in the eastern conference finals) while james did. getting back to my point, tracy isn't going to take over games like he used to as often as he used to. i'm sure he'll have a few games where he'll set the tempo but just keep in mind... if the team is relying on one person for their offense load, the rest of the team's offense kind of turns stagnant and tends to lose on alot of occasions. you really want a balanced offense contribution where everyone is able to score and the ball is moving around freely. i don't know why you guys want tmac to score 30-40 points and have the rest of the teams offensive rhythm halted.
You would have to be ridiculously biased to say that McGrady hasn't been playing poorly. Also, it's insulting to his talent for you to say that this is normal.
i'm not sure that everyone here wants him to score 40 points - i think people just want him to (1) take smart shots and (2) play like he cares. you say that TMac has a vision for passing that Kobe doesn't have; that may well be, but that's all the MORE REASON for him to USE IT. when he doesn't use it, and he instead chooses to shoot terrible shots when his FG% is already dreadful... sigh... when you suck at shooting outside shots -when nothing is going in from outside - that's when you drive INSIDE. you are NOT supposed to come down the court and shoot a 26-footer with 16 seconds still left on the shot clock. TEAM basketball, as you point out, is when you share the ball multiple times to get the best look at the basket. today, i saw Kobe get stuck on Tony Parker, who was hot at the time, and Kobe hounded him until Tony committed a turnover (a bad pass). contrast that with TMac, who often just leaves his own man, and then is seen barely walking towards him if the player is getting off a shot.
"Explodes" like losing game 7 at home like last year vs utah? or "explodes" vs dallas by losing the series after winning the first 2 games on the road? So I guess "Explodes" with mcgrady context is "eventually losing" or "disappearing in money time"..
Forgot to mention that if you protect mcgrady by saying the other players in his team sucks, Then I will remind you that 23 yo lebron james took a bunch of r****ds to the nba finals (beating detroit otw). Varejao? Gibson as a rookie? Pablovic? give me a break every role player we have is twice as good as those noobs there.
I'd say most rocker fans are acting pretty moderately towards mac. If my superstar showed no effort, heat, sleepwalked through certain games and shot 42% during the season then i'd be protesting infront of the general managers office. It is pretty sad how much tmac has declined .As many recall, i've defended him in the past but i've had it. He is simply a disappointment.
We have one week to go before playoffs. It is really time for Tracy to work hard on his jumpers, 3s, free throws. It is time to pick up his game to the high level.
I don't think it is fair to just look at his FG%. I know there is some tool that is able to incorporate the 3 point shot into a players FG%, making the 3 hurt the player that much less when factored into the FG%. I'd like to see where he ranks when you do that. I'm sure he's not way at the top, but I think it's only fair to look at it that way. The other thing to look at would be points per shot. Since he hasn't been driving (or hitting his ft's, when he does get to the line, on a consistent basis) as much, I'm sure this is considerably lower than his previous years. I just think that when you're looking at star players who are constantly covered and double teamed, and take a decent amount of 3 point shots, you have to look at it this way. Now if someone could just find this information, I'm sure it would give us a better overview. Pugs
Tmac is coasting, you can see it....... I expect a much better Tmac come playoff time.... Heck, I hope for a much more focused and caring one tonight. DD
He did seem to drive to the basket quite a bit last night. Unfortunately, he wasn't getting many calls driving to the hoop and more often than not seemed to be stripped of the ball. Then again, most of the Rockets last night were terrible with the ball in their hands. Look at the number of turn overs the team had. McGrady seemed to either get stripped of the ball or hammered when driving in the lane, and if he dished the ball to another Rocket they just couldn't get a handle on it. It had to be frustrating for everyone. I get frustrated with Tracy's shot selection quite often and really concerned when he is absent until the 3rd/4th quarter (nothing like letting your team get behind the 8-ball), but last night's loss was a team loss. Turn overs and early foul trouble (as well as Battier/Jackson being out) spelled doom for the Rockets last night. The Rockets couldn't get into a rhythm last night because of this and the Nuggets just poured it on since they had the most to lose with needing to clinch a playoff spot.
