I understand what you're saying. But an injury is seldom isolated. Imagine if you are HAVING a knee injury (or something is not perfect with your knee), you don't move like how you would move under normal circumstances. It's a mental thing. Say you're TMac, your knee is not right, you need to pay attention to it whenever you make any move. So you go up for a dunk or a layup in practice. When you come down, ooops the leg with the injured knee is going to touch down first. So, automatically your mind tells your legs to switch roles when you are already in the process of landing. You lose balance and land on your back. Back spasms.
The time is Yao. When you're a max player, you need to be able to carry us through tough times. That means scoring 25-30 ppg. A tall order, but it's what we need, and I think he can do it, if he lets himself.
I really think Wesley should go...hmm Do i smell something named Sprewell? JVG really needs to activate Baxter. He would be our rugged player out there. We don't have the likes of West and PJ Brown in the Hornets game...
The thing is that Yao was really having a great all around game (14 boards, 7 blocks and only 1 TO). It was so frustrating to see him missing one after one shot in the 4th.
holding him out of practice would hurt him more than help him. Any player that has played the game will tell you that even one day off can set them back for weeks. TMac wwanted to go in practice. If you didn't want to go, Coach might have set him down But Tmac knows that he needs as much time on the court so he can get into his groove.
not only that, if he got hurt in practice what's to prevent him from getting hurt in the game. maybe we should hope to make the playoffs and only play him then.
This is a good test for this team. If the Rockets can't play .500 ball without MacGrady - I think we know this team is not a contender.
at least there is no IL anymore, so he will rest as long as it takes, but if he improves faster than doctors predict, we can get him back into the lineup whenever he is ready...
This injury sucks but on the bright side its good its coming early in the season and rest for the back might let his knees heal up too. Also early season adversity might be what the Rox need to toughen up for the second half of the season.
The one bright side of this is that T-mac can finally rest his aching knees. With tendonitis, there's really only 1 thing that can help it - REST. It might prove to be a blessing in disguise. Plus as others have said, it'll show us what Yao and the others are capable of.
I honestly have a hard time seeing this team winning a game without McGrady. The reason is that this team was built the right way. It wasn't built with individual parts ala Miami where individual players can step up their individual games and try to compensate for the loss. This team was built around a system in which McGrady is the focal point and every single player, Yao included, plays off of McGrady's greatness. They need him out there to play off of. As well as Yao has played so far, he is not a traditional #1 option. He can't sustain the energy and focus necessary throughout an entire game to have a team continue pounding it into him expecting to get results. This is what I get for thinking the Rockets could actually burst out of the gates for once.
I don't know but maybe JVG needs to watch a few tapes of CNT and run the current TMac-less Rockets team with Yao as the focal point, especially on the offensive end. I mean what worse can come out of giving it a try?
Call me crazy but I kind of like this. Of course, seeing your franchise-top 3 player in the league-superstar being injured isn't enjoyable BY ANY MEANS, but given the uncertaintly with his health from the preseason up to this point, I would rather see him rest now while the season is still young rather than chance it when he isn't 100%. The real thing to enjoy is the challenge this presents to Yao. Any pundit/expert who rags on Yao (which is just about everybody) always points out the need for him to step up his game. The obvious truth here is he's going to have to carry this team while T-Mac is out, the way a true All-Star/max contract player should be able to. Everybody always likes to compare the T-Mac/Yao combination to the former Laker model. Well the fact of the matter is the Lakers sucked when Shaq was injured with Kobe running the show and were still dominant with Kobe out and Shaq playing. Here we have a reversal of roles and it's time for Yao to step up & carry this team until T-Mac returns.
Oh God, they just showed Tmac on Fox Sports Extra right now leaving the Toyota Center, and he was walking like a 90 year old man. He looked very bad.
Nothing new really, just mentioned that he was out for 3-4 weeks. It was just shocking how bad he looked.
Tmac needs to lose weight, work on his abs, Les needs to open up his wallet and get the team a hyperbaric chamber.
