<br> Yoyo, let's not get way too ahead of ourselves bud. You can criticize McGrady all you want (perhaps rightfully so) right now, but let's give him a bit of credit where it is due. He was in fact the biggest reason we even won two of those games in the 2008 playoffs. Let's analyze: <br> Rafer Alston- Rafer was amazing during this series. I've never seen him play better basketball than he did against the Jazz in the 08 playoffs. I think had he been healthy, we could have at least taken the Jazz to 7 games. However, problem was, he only really played 3 games. He missed the first two, and most of the last game. As you can see, he only played for 126 minutes during the entire series. That's ridiculous for your second option. So, again it was Tracy consistently carrying the burden. <br> Bobby Jackson- He started the first two games for Rafer, and posters were calling for Bobby's head and for Rafer back!! That speaks volumes into understanding just how bad Bobby was during that series. There's a reason too: he shot 20% from three, 20% fg, and 60% from the line!! He made Rafer Alston and Ron Artest look like the most efficient players in the league <br> Aaron Brooks- I thought he did very solid in the minutes he was given. However, like rafer...he didn't play very many minutes. In fact, he avg'd about 8 mins per game over the series and only 4 shots per game. So, what I'm getting at is that he wasn't a factor whatsoever. <br> Carl Landry and Deke- Played their roles perfectly given their age at the time. Landry was a rookie, so his production was that of a rookie. Deke was 5394753957 years old, and outplayed his age by years. Their production was very good given the circumstances. <br> Shane Battier- Shane was his consistently good, but not great at anything self. He did all the right little things like defending, rebounding, making the right pass, etc. However, we all know that scoring is something he shy's away from, so I'm not going to hold it against him. Overall, Shane did an excellent job that series and his percentages agree. <br> Luis Scola- I would say that Luis was the only real consistently good number two option behind McGrady. He was there every game and played his heart out. He gave us very good production on offense and defense. His rebounding numbers were great. Luis really played well against the Jazz. <br> As you all can see, McGrady nearly doubled the amount of points scored of the next best in line (Scola) 162 to 84. He basically had quadruple the amount of assists as the next person, an amazing stat considering he was doing most of the scoring. He also led the team in steals, and was second only to Scola in rebounds. The man averaged 27, 8, and 7 for crying out loud. No one else on the team can even compare. <br> <br> For reference's sake, let's take a look at the Jazz: <br> <br> *I know, this includes their entire playoff campaign, but it was fairly consistent. <br> They had three guys averaging 15 points per game or more, and two more averaging 10. Different players led them in assists, rebounds, and steals. What I'm getting at here is that the burden wasn't on just one guy. It was a team effort. <br> <br> Sure, there's a bit of over-analysis done here, but I think it's safe to say that McGrady did shoulder a huge chunk of the burden. I don't think it's fair to say that he had amazing help. Not trying to throw teammates under the bus or anything, but most of those guys are here to play off of T-Mac and Yao. I would even argue more so off Yao. Without the big guy in the lineup, a lot of their strengths were neutralized, leaving McGrady to have to create almost every single play...
Hamza, Look at the Shot attempts per game, and the minutes played per game. Tmac dominated the ball, he took the most shots, he shots a below average percentage overall, a horrid 3pt percentage and below average FT percentage. If you want Allen Iverson type of play, you got it. I would rather the team be more involved. DD
<br> While you are right, his percentages aren't that great, the production was there. The percentages also did take a hit because he was being constantly double teamed, fighting through every point. Think back to the Lakers series, we hardly ever double teamed Kobe, and that was Kobe! Again, it points back to the lack of contribution from that very team that we all want. I just think it wont be the same this year, because those guys all either improved, or were replaced with someone more competent. All I'm saying is that McGrady did everything he could during that series. He did play his heart out, and like a true superstar put up numbers. If you look at Lebron's numbers during that year they weren't too (and take that with a grain of salt) much different. Depending on how much McGrady has healed, I expect our team to have surprising success when he is plugged back into that unit and isn't constantly double teamed. Scola, Brooks, Lowry, Wafer (or replacement), and Ariza will keep defenses off of McGrady. This Rockets team, playing the very same team oriented ball that you want could be a huge surprise.
While I'm inclined to agree with DD, you do have a point. There was a time when McGrady's passing options were Mutombo, Hayes, Head, and Alston. I think that lineup might force me to chuck up a few bad shots myself. Hopefully that is a legit excuse and he uses our vastly superior team to his advantage.
easy solution, cut down his minutes 28-30 regular season 30-33 minutes during potential playoff games
The solution is to get Tmac to trust his teamates to make decisions with the ball and make his job and the team better overall. If he can do that, the team is much better off. DD
It's mind boggling that you still cling to this argument. Please pray tell who it was that you wanted to get more involved? Was it a rookie Aaron Brooks? Perhaps Bobby Jackson didn't get enough touches for your liking? Maybe let Shane go one on one a few times? Hilarious.
(PS: That was a rhetorical question considering that you somehow answered in the affirmative to the exact same query with regards to the likes of David Wesley and Jon Barry in '05.) Your response that you would have liked Barry/Wesley to have been given opportunities to create made for great sig material at the time.
I disagree, Tmac did trust his teamates and they let him down. Too many sub par and one dimensional players who were extremely easy to shut down with a proper defense. Think back to those playoff teams, outside of Tmac who could do anything with the ball. Rafer was terrible, could barely score. Luther was awful, was a turnover waiting to happen. If he wasnt hitting his shots, he was worthless Howard was old and slow. Mike James was decent and was probably the only other guy who could score the ball on a consistant basis Bowen was offensively inept I can't wait to see what Tmac can do, uninjured and with a full compliment of well rounded players. JVG built a JVG team with JVG players. Lets face it, those players were not very good. Look at the turnaround on the team, nearly all of them are gone and benchwarmers now. Tmac has always been a willing passer, just think about to how well he set up Yao in the perfect spots.Of course he is going to dominate the ball, who else was going to handle it?
<br> Exactly, I don't think this was a testament to McGrady being selfish, but the quality of the supporting cast. Aaron Brooks and Scola weren't 20 point machines back then. Yao wasn't there. Battier wasn't even attempting to score and was content with letting McGrady do most of the work. Who else was there? I think if you watch McGrady on the court, it can be seen that he does play selflessly. He doesn't hog the ball, or at least doesn't do it more so than any other elite wing player. As far as the shot attempts, the most important offensive threat on your team is always going to have significantly more shots than your role players for any team to win.
It is always good to hear news like that especially in the offseason like this one. We may not belive McGrady and it is allright but what Tim says should be gold for us. This guy is the best.
Don't waste your breath attempting rational argument on this. Folks like DD aren't capable of distinguishing between the past and present so in their witch-hunt crusades against T-Mac for his lackluster effort last season, they just retroactively revise his contributions to the team over the duration of his tenure. The best part of this is that "changing circumstances SHEESH!" is ironically DD's retort of choice when called out on his numerous flip-flops, yet these same "changing circumstances" somehow don't apply for an honest evaluation of Tracy McGrady's annual contributions. It's great, really.
Haven't I heard this garbage from him before? If this were not a contract year I may have given him the benefit of a tiny sliver of doubt. Go already McGrady.
Your posting of the averages for the series will not show how McGrady was absent for the 4th quarter of just about every game. Or how he played zero defense the whole series. Or how his gaudy numbers in the final game were achieved in garbage time. This is akin to posting McGrady's career numbers in the playoffs for his career to prop him up (while conveniently leaving out the shooting percentages) -- like his fans love to do constantly -- which on the surface are impressive but of course fail to tell the whole story.
You always go back to last year's play. All the other years he played well when healthy. In hamza's stat sheet he averaged nearly 7 dimes and 8 rebounds during the playoffs last year. Does dishing 7 assists per game with inefficient team mates make him a lesser team player? What numbers do you want him to put up? Let him play with Gasol, Odom, Bynum and Ariza and watch what comes out. Point Forward FTW
He is no longer the clutch player he once was but when motivated he had games shooting 50 percent as I recall. Once he even came off the bench for a stretch of games. He did too much during the playoffs in crunch time that I give you but I too hope he start shooting less because he does not have to. There are other options.
I don't buy the huge assist numbers for the same reason I don't buy people wanted to trade Brooks because he has low assist numbers. The reason TMac's assists are so high is because he was the focal point of the other team's defensive scheme, and the man he passed to was bound to be wide open. Bing! Open shot made: assist: McGrady. This isn't a criticism, just the way I see it. Also, you didn't address the issue of the amount of Artest/Iverson-type forced shots that Tmac takes. Those are the heart of the problem.
In fairness to Tmac in that series, do you really expect him to be a lockdown defender, scorer, rebounder, and passer? If you look up and down the roster of that team, it is pretty amazing that we even took the Jazz to 6 games.
Excellent point. He's also tall enough to pretty much see anyone on the court. His bball IQ is seriously overstated and overrated.
