T-Mac is the best player on the team and when he's hot there is no one harder to defend in the league this year. end of story.
McGrady last year: played in 67 games, averaged 28 ppg, 6 rpg, 5.5 apg. What a quitter. That's like us accusing Steve Francis of quitting a few years ago. It's so funny how McGrady carried that franchise for years with Grant Hill on the sideline, Orlando has one bad year and all of a sudden his is a quitter and cancer and is "MeMac". A guy that averaged 5 assists per game for Orlando and consistently carried them to the playoffs with a crappy supporting cast is "MeMac".
Would like to see analysis of this argument that the best team on the floor would be a team minus Yao and plus Mutombo. I hope its not an analysis based on one or two games because thats obviously statistically flawed. Lets see the results for the entire season. Also, I have heard this unsupported hypothesis about Yao being untouchable because he is such a cash cow because he is Chinese. How much do the Rox make in jersey, Chinese fan ticket sales, Chinese company advertising etc. Basketball is all about winning and Yao can/will be traded if the right deal comes along, maybe Yao is the first player in history that you keep around because he can sell a few jerseys but I can't think of a player in NBA history that was kept around unless his team won.
Despite playing injured,Tracy is putting us on his back now.The first part of the season the Rocks were attempting to run most of the offense through Yao.Yao's injury prevents this for now,so TMac is giving us a look at SOME Jordan - like ability to take over games/ killer instinct.We are witnessing something special as these guys adapt/find chemistry,and are made even better by Tracy.We're also seeing the question about he and Kobe begin to be answered.Personally,I think the Rockets are at the frontend of a huge roll(toss in a 4),with MeMac and Yao leading the way.
Hotballa, feel your pain bro. They called T-Mac Me-Mac in Orlando for a reason. I know these posters read or heard about the SI interview where T-Mac said he coasted during some games and didn't give 100% effort, so I don't know why you are getting this abuse. That said, you have to go with it, the Rox are winning by feeding the ball to T-Mac. His teammates see him as the first option, when he knocked that down that three with about a minute left yesterday, I thought Sura was going to dump it off to Yao in the paint but he passed it out to T-Mac. So its not T-Mac being a ball hog and just jacking up shots, his teammates trust and want him to take the shot. His shot selection is a function of the team defense played on Yao, I think T-Mac would love to dribble/penetrate more for the high percentage shot, but with teams routinely collapsing on Yao the spacing is better for the outside shot. I like what I am seeing now, the Rox have found some chemistry and rhythm now and one of the ingredients is to feed T-Mac. This team might go deep in the playoffs if Yao can get untracked.
