Baron Davis has the same history of injury problems and inconsistent on court play as T-Mac. He just happens to be healthier so far this season. It could easily be the other way around. Look, I agree that you have to take into account both on-court play and the ability to stay healthy. I'm not 100% against the idea of trading T-Mac as a future move. But what I'm pretty certain of is that any sort of trade involving him this season will make us worse in the short term. McGrady is our most important player, and you can't expect to get rid of him and also immediately improve. Also, you know nothing about the state of McGrady's knee. Some guys are just physically more fragile than others. McGrady aggravated his knee last game because he was playing injured and trying to attack the basket. You want him to repeat that mistake? We all wish T-Mac was indestructable, but the unfortunate truth is that he's fragile and we just have to deal with it. When he's playing, and he's close to 100%, there are few perimeter players who can impact the game like him (probably count them on one hand). Let's just remember that, and hope he can eventually get back and stay on the court. But rushing him back and risking yet another injury won't help matters.
Yeah. It's all on Tmac as to where this season will end up. I hope he remain healthy to play at high level for rest of season cuz we can't count on the supporting cast to close out games.
You're right. I don't have any idea of how injured TMAC's knee is right now. I'm just really frustrated mainly because I know this team's potential with a healthy Tmac and a healthy Yao....But it seems like they're never healthy these days. Yao is playing great basketball again and Tmac is not there to complement him. It's just getting old and I don't know if I can live with Tmac's fragileness anymore. We're running out of time.
Perhaps McGrady is practicing tough love on the team by staying away longer than he needs to to let the team really develop an identity without him being involved for now...just a crazy and unsubstantiated thought.
No, McGrady should not lead the team. That's just not his strength and if you demand that of him you are setting him up to fail. Let him be good at what he's good at. Feigen or Blinebury had an excellent point. McGrady's Rockets have looked their best when the team was filled with savvy veterans who didn't require leadership--guys like Sura, Wesley and Barry. They didn't need someone to lead them, they were just going to step up and do their job because they were pros. And that's a very good thing because temperamentally T-Mac is just not a leadership type of guy. Yao will try to step up and lead by example but he's not going to call guys out on the court. That leaves...Alston. The Rockets need a little tweaking.
i know this is a long post, but i have to quote it in its entirety because i agree to every word of it.
How can u stay in shape when u can't run or really execise? Sometimes I wonder about all there threads that pop up for and about nothing. I guess Ray Allen is so great, yet his team has been in the lotto for 2 straight yrs. What about the great garnett that has 1 playoff series win and was in the lotto the 2 yrs in a row. I really find it crazy with the criticisms about clearly the best player on the rox. No one ever realize that this team is not that talented as posters may think. Yao is a really good player with limited stamina. Battier is a role player that can't get his own shot. Hayes should be playing 10 mins a night. Head is a undersize 2 guard that can't break anyone down. I could go on and on, but this team doesn't have enough playmakers, yet people want to get rid of their best palymaker. I mean, what else needs to be said about the roster or coaching. We're not as good offensively or defensively as last yr. We give up easy baskets, and last night was just terrible ,but it was 1 game. Let me pose a question.Why is it always the guards fault when Yao can't get the ball? Has anyone ever watched and thought maybe when yao gets tired, he doesn't fight for position hard enough? I mean, I've seen people on this board bash the guards, but maybe its because Yao is playinh to high and is getting pushed off his spot to easily.Nevermind.
Huh? Before the knee injury he was shooting over 45% (aka his best since arriving in Houston and best since 2002-2003) and like always was low in TO's. T-Mac coming back less than 80-90% to a lineup which had just won 5 games in a row is a VERY bad move, especially since the last 2 games were very winnable without him. T-Mac coming back out of shape is the absolute last thing this team needed.
Ive always been a huge fan of Mac but he is really irritating the hell out of me right now. I will kill someone if he leaves the SA game early.
I would say that McGrady is at a crossroads in his career, but I would say it's nowhere near being in; or even anywhere towards a meltdown. Even with all the injuries, McGrady can still be the savior of this team and even lead this team deep into the playoffs... I don't think he is terrible in the fourth quarter and he is not really the choker. Even though his teams have a history of failing to get past the first round, it's not entirely his fault, since his teams are usually inferior to the teams that they were matched up against in the first round of the playoffs. He was expected to lose against the Pistons and Mavericks, and we were about evenly matched with the Jazz. Houston has always been sort of a two-man team; there was never a true third option on this team or no strong presence on the bench. While in Orlando, he was pretty much a one-man team and had to be dynamic and explosive to win most games. I believe that Houston just hasn't fielded a good enough team for the former Shanghai shark and Vince Carter's cousin... to actually go deep into the playoffs. We've had too many outcasts and players past their prime, to do any real damage in the playoffs: Barry, Bobby, Juwan, Head and Wesley. Don't get me wrong these guys are consummate professionals, still if you compare that to other good teams in the league or teams that won championships in the past. Our roster was nowhere toward an NBA crown.
Perhaps this is true, but its pretty tough to get position when teams know you're the only option on offense and they put a guy in front of you and a guy behind you. It would really be nice if someone on our team learned how to create and take the ball to the hoop to free up Yao or maybe hit a three from the outside. That's Mcgrady's job and it's unfortunate that he thinks taking contested jumpers is our best offense.
This is definitely a 5 start 10/10 post! The wired thing is, after we had 5 winning streak, T-MAC commented it's really the schedule doing us a favor. Then after 76er game, he was the only one with smiling face. WTF!!!
That does't mean anything to me cause he smiles all the time. If you take that seriously, you are gonna have to start a new thread to address this issue. I can't even count how many times he's been acused for smiling.
