McGrady:'When did wanting to play become a problem?' Here's the answer [Chron:Feigen]

We can't take the Rockets Organization completely at their word, but it's also not fair to just use this as an excuse to ignore reality and bash a guy when nothing has happened.

You can't just go "well, we don't know if this is true, so that means it's probably false, which means Tmac is the devil and we hate his guts.

And I don't understand why people are playing the "we don't want to ruin team chemistry". While it's true that the Rockets are playing much better than expected, and we're playing as a team and the offense is clicking. We're also 6-4, and no one is afraid of us.

Excuse me if I'm not satisfied with barely sqeaking into the playoffs and getting swept in the first round.

 

here is the reality:
TMAC stopped being clutch long long time ago.

 

Please.

People still supporting this guy over the team are, in fact, nut-huggers. People still giving him the benefit of the doubt are flat out stupid.

To answer your question, yes I would talk that way if I saw McGrady in person. Why wouldn't I?

 

My immediate objection is that you are assuming facts not in evidence. Yes, Tmac three years ago could have made the play, so could have:
Steve Francis
Glen Rice
Tim Hardaway
Damon Stoudemire
Stephon Marbury
AI

Would you sign any of these guys right now? Yes, the previous Mac would have made the shot, but would this mac? Coach says no, you don't like it, fire Adelman. But this argument is useless because in having we also assume that with Tmac the Rockets still would have been close enough to win that game. Tracy is a volume shooter, in order for him to realistically play he needs to get his shots in, if Tmac did get all those shots, including misses, would the Rockets still have been that close to winning (the first half shooting for the rox was something like 56%, misses would have hurt us and that)? Wait, don't answer that.

Winners do one thing: win. Tmac is not a winner, he's a whiner. He did it in Toronto, he did it in Orlando and now he's doing it here. If he had 10% of the skill he once had he would take to the court and smoke everyone. He would let his game do the talking. Instead, he talks, he cries, he curses. Tmac is a gifted athlete, possibly better than Kobe, but he unlike Kobe doesn't want wins, he wants accolades. If tmac was really a winner, he would look at this current roster and be happy, he would be excited to eventually fall into place, he would be happy to win. Realistically, if tmac said nothing I think the Rockets would play him the second they fell to a .500 record. It's easier to fix a losing team than a winning one, and as long as the Rockets are winning they are in control of their own fate and Tmac's too.

Tmac, show us up, play your heart out, and bring it whether it's a practice, game, or even a championship. Skill doesn't always beat out grit.

 

Well, I wouldn't expect a coach to be anything but PC when asked by the media about how McGrady played but since he is a coach what he says does carry *some* weight. When it comes from a 24 year old who has no experience judging other players (much less those coming off of injury) it carries no weight.

Or does the source of a quote not mean anything to you? In that case let me go on record as saying McGrady won't be in Houston after this season and is done being an All Star level player.

 

Here are the player rankings for the last 5 seasons with Game Winning chances. T-Mac's % for these chances are below .290 success rate. They listed the top 100 players but I only went as far down as Yao Ming.

Regular Seasons: '03-04, '04-05, '05-06, '06-07, '07-08, '08-09 (thru 2/4)
Playoffs: '03-04, '04-05, '05-06, '06-07, '07-08


Game Winning Shot Opportunity = 24 seconds or less left in the game, team with the ball is either tied or down by 1 to 2 points.

Leading "Game Winning Shot" Players

Player Fgm Fga Fg% Ftm Fta Ast T/O

LeBron James 17 50 .340 14 20 6 4
Vince Carter 16 51 .314 10 11 3 4
Ray Allen 15 39 .385 4 6 1 2
Kobe Bryant 14 56 .250 12 15 1 5
Carmelo Anthony 13 27 .481 7 11 1 4
Allen Iverson 13 33 .394 6 8 1 2
Ben Gordon 12 34 .353 6 6 1 4
Dirk Nowitzki 12 37 .324 13 18 1 3
Joe Johnson 12 45 .267 2 3 4 2
Paul Pierce 11 32 .344 15 17 9 3
Dwyane Wade 11 40 .275 13 17 3 2
Jamal Crawford 11 43 .256 4 6 3 3
Rashard Lewis 10 26 .385 10 13 0 1
Ricky Davis 10 28 .357 11 11 2 1
Antawn Jamison 9 16 .563 2 5 0 1
Pau Gasol 9 18 .500 4 6 1 4
Steve Francis 9 22 .409 4 5 2 2
Tim Duncan 9 23 .391 6 7 3 1
Gilbert Arenas 9 28 .321 18 18 0 4
Michael Redd 9 30 .300 8 14 0 1
Tracy McGrady 9 32 .281 8 8 3 1
Kevin Garnett 9 33 .273 3 3 1 0
Hedo Turkoglu 8 16 .500 2 3 3 3
Derek Fisher 8 20 .400 2 2 2 1
Chris Paul 8 21 .381 3 4 5 1
Mike Bibby 8 22 .364 2 2 6 1
Richard Hamilton 8 22 .364 4 4 3 3
Andre Iguodala 8 22 .364 10 11 2 3
Jason Terry 8 26 .308 2 3 5 1
Mehmet Okur 7 15 .467 4 4 1 0
Zach Randolph 7 17 .412 6 8 0 0
Brandon Roy 7 19 .368 3 4 3 1
Baron Davis 7 22 .318 4 4 4 2
Raymond Felton 7 24 .292 4 5 2 1
Travis Outlaw 6 7 .857 3 5 0 0
Carlos Boozer 6 9 .667 1 1 0 1
Jalen Rose 6 10 .600 4 5 0 4
Josh Smith 6 11 .545 3 3 0 2
Grant Hill 6 12 .500 0 0 0 0
Damon Jones 6 12 .500 1 1 1 0
Caron Butler 6 13 .462 6 7 1 1
Damon Stoudamire 6 13 .462 0 0 4 1
Kevin Martin 6 14 .429 2 3 0 0
David West 6 15 .400 2 2 0 1
Tyronn Lue 6 16 .375 4 6 0 0
Shawn Marion 6 16 .375 2 2 1 0
Tony Parker 6 16 .375 0 0 4 0
Tayshaun Prince 6 17 .353 2 2 5 1
Deron Williams 6 17 .353 3 3 5 1
Yao Ming 6 18 .333 9 10 0 1

 

Stop the bull whining about putting t-mac over the team. Its freakin tracy mcgrady. His name alone is going to be over the team. he cant help that. I will just say shut the hell up and just wait until he proves himself on the court. Meanwhile you can stop being a Jackass.

 

I agree, Feigen is not the guy who has been reporting some negative things for a player or coach, if he did report something, then likely he know something that we do not know. Clearly he is more close to the Rockets organization than most of us.

 

not true at all....when healthy he DEMANDS a double team as much as anyone in the league...at a minimum he would have got to the line for 2 free throws..stop denying it..unless youd rather have chuck hayes taking that shot for the rockets

 

I didnt see anything negative in Jonathans blog. I would rather hear that t-mac has to work himself into shape, than to hear that the knee is still bothering him

 

at a minimum he misses the shot and game is over....same result as without him.

whats wrong with landry or ab taking the shot?

 

except it's now ariza who probably guarded him. And ariza probably knows a thing or two about guarding elite players

 

he also has confidence in having his teammate take the shot if he draws the double team.

 

A few things:

1) You talk about how Tmac can't make those kinds of plays anymore. Maybe Tmac isn't the All-star Tmac anymore, but right now we're relying on guys like Brooks, Ariza, Scola and Landry to put up 20 points a game every night in order for us to even have a shot at winning the game. And I'm not saying they suck or that Tmac is good... but if we can get production out of those guys, we can get production out of Tmac. And say what you want about Tmac but he's been there before. And I don't mean the second round of the playoffs, I mean he's been in that scoring role. We trust Brooks/Ariza/Scola/Landry to put up 20 games and this is the first year for them to be in that role.

2)Tmac isn't Tim Duncan or Kobe Bryant, but he isn't AI or Marbury either, all of this talk about "this is how you act if you are a winner" could be applied to most of the players on our team right now.

3)One of our weaknesses right now is halfcourt offense during crunch time. If we can control the game and build a good lead, we're fine. But if the game is close we struggle to score. The first time we played LA it was close and we lost in overtime. Against Phoenix we struggle to score and Phoenix pulls away at the end. Atlanta did the same thing and we had to rely on a very good effort out of the team to tie the game before losing to Smith's putback dunk. And here you have a guy that has experience being the go-to guy sitting on the bench. I'm not saying he should be playing tommorow... but I think it's only fair to give him a shot at some point in the season.

4) And finally... I'm tired of hearing about how we're playing as a team. Don't get me wrong, we're playing VERY well as a team and I'm enjoying watching these guys. But we're 8-6... thats barely playoff contender worthy. And with the exception of Scola and Hayes, basically everyone on the team is playing at a higher level than they were last year. We're getting career numbers from half of these guys.

 

We're losing games that are close in the fourth. Maybe McGrady isn't Kobe Bryant in the 4th quarter, but he's closer to it than Aaron Brooks and Co. are. I don't mind Aaron Brooks taking the shot, but it's kind of sad that when the game is tied and there's two minutes left in the game. These are the people who we are looking at to score.

Anyone else remember the 22 game win streak? Those last 10 games then Yao went out for the season... we'd basically be that team right now except with better role players (Landry much more improved, Budinger instead of Head, Brooks/Lowry instead of Alston/Brooks).

 

And for you, "true rocket fan," a dose of common sense. Mayhaps Adelman and Morey are looking to develop other players into being skilled and confident enough to handle those situations? This is a year of development, let the team develop. If McGrady impresses Adelman and Morey by showing how he can benefit the team in practice, he'll get his shot at playing, and possibly taking those sort of shots. If not, well I trust the judgment of the Rockets' management and I also personally look forward to the development of players like Brooks, Landry, Lowry, and C-Bud. We may have stars in the making there. Let's allow them to experience these situations and learn from them.

 

(Seriously) What do 'they' (and who are 'they' ) want us to think?

I think they want the best possible for McG; parsing that: the best possible deal for McG.

 

I agree 200%.

 

Not in his career, no. But he was yesterday. He said mostly the right things in that interview. If you think he didn't... what do you want him to say?

"I want him to say nothing": fine, except in an interview usually saying no comment can be a bigger media controversy than actually answer the question.

"He shouldn't have drawn attention to himself in the first place.": Once McGrady started working out with the team, his impending return was going to be a story no matter what.

What do you want him to do? Really? Say that he doesn't want to get on the court?

I would want him to say "I want to play, but I will do what my coach says." Which is basically what he DID say.