Actually, no, Reggie didn't need a double team. he just had a double screen! Indy's supporting crew was quite good, but synergistically very flawed. Rose is a talent and a half -- but always for losing programs. I doubt the coincidence.
Joey: Wait a minute. I know you. You're Kareem Abdul-Jabar. You play basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers. Roger Murdock: I'm sorry son, but you must have me confused with someone else. My name is Roger Murdock. I'm the co-pilot. Joey: You are Kareem. I've seen you play. My dad's got season tickets. Roger Murdock: I think you should go back to your seat now Joey. Right Clarence? Captain Oveur: Nahhhhhh, he's not bothering anyone, let him stay here. Roger Murdock: But just remember, my name is ROGER MURDOCK. I'm an airline pilot. Joey: I think you're the greatest, but my dad says you don't work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times, you don't even run down court. And that you don't really try... except during the playoffs. Roger Murdock: The hell I don't. LISTEN KID. I've been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I'm out there busting my buns every night. Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes.
Yao and McGrady command double teams respectively, I didn't see many times they doubled Miller or Smits, if at all. That basically sums it up.
There wasn't much point in doubling Miller. His role was either to park outside and wait for the kick, or to run through a picket of teammates. Neither would have been really helped by doubling, and it would have helped the Pacers incredibly. Essentially his role was a less ( though not too much) well conditioned Hamilton with longer range.
Not entrirely true. Miller was rarely doubled ( maybe in last second shot deals) but Smits often was. Virtually any center with better than average offensive ability has been doubled fairly often in the modern era. Having had Hakeem for so long spoiled many a Rockets fan.
T-mac is considered to be a top talent in the league comparable to Kobe before he came to the Rockets. Now that we have him we're comparing him to Reggie?
Sabrik, That is an excellent post. Or was until someone edited the Magic fans comparison between Kobe and Tmac. I would like to post it again, unless some feel it is innappropriate...I found it enlighting and even handed. DD
Yao is better than Smits, but he is no where near Jabbar. It still amazes me that people compare him to Jabbar who was probably the second best center of all-time behind Wilt. And if you really wanted to make a comparison with Jabbar in it, it would be Jabbar and The Big O. But still, Yao is no Jabbar.
big differences, Yao doesn't wear long socks like Smits and T-Mac doesn't sit down to pee like Reggie
let me see, one guy has some of the most clutch performances in playoff history, and the other quit and got his coach fired. Who sits down to pee?
Well, you kinda answered your own question: 1. T-Mac has been averaging 28ppg since leaving Toronto. And while Reggie use to be a very good scorer, he was never as dominant as T-Mac has been the last couple years. 2. Smits shot 14.8ppg for his career, Yao is already a better scorer and still has the most potential in the NBA. Smits only averaged 6rpg while Yao is pulling down 9rpg and can only improve. While I see your reasons for comparisons, T-Mac is a much more gifted scorer than Reggie ever was and Yao is already more dominant than Smits ever was. And above all, T-Mac and Yao are still very young and have much, much, room for improvement.
Where exactly did those clutch performances get Miller and his Pacers? You should take a look at the damage T-Mac has done in the playoffs. In his playoff debut with the Raptors against Reggie's favorite, the Knicks, Tmac put in 25-10. Fact is, McGrady has averaged 8 more points a game in the post season for his career than Reggie, and has done things like put up back to back 40+ performances, and even scored 20 pts. in a row for his team. To indict McGrady by praising Reggie in the playoffs is silly. Francis isn't coming back and Miller, great as he was, isn't McGrady.
If anyone can get pgabriel a sense of humor, you can. That's why you get paid the big bucks. Now, get to it.
Where did they get McGrady? As far as Francis is concerned, I'm not the one who brought him up. I just didn't get the joke about Reggie, whose playoff performances have shown him to be standing over the toilet. You Francis bashers seem to be the ones who can't stop talking about him. Whenever someone says something critical of the new team, you guys immediately respond, "what about Francis". Excuse me for not annoiting this team a dynasty yet like some have foolishly begun to do in other threads.
You crack me up, it's hard for some "fans" to consider the fact that we may not win the next 10 championships. Reggie may not be T-Mac, but he is far better than the one trick pony that people label him as.
I edited it becase basketballboard's site was blocked with **** and I couldn't link it. I'll post it again because it was so well written. It is from a magic fan comparing Kobe to T-Mac. Mods, please feel free to remove if it is frowned upon. link That post of yours just tells one side of the story. There's no way that the comparison of T-Mac and Kobe can be viewed as a one-sided issue, or a clear cut one way or the other. The next few years should tell us a lot, as T-Mac finally gets to play with another good player, and a good center in Yao Ming. Kobe's had the benefit of playing with Shaq his entire career, chances are he's going to have to do it alone this time. If you ask me, I expect Kobe to have very comparable successes/failures as McGrady on a team with little to no help. Unfortunately, for purposes of this argument, I don't see that happening. As it is, no matter where Kobe ends up next season, as long as it's not prison, he's going to have a much better supporting cast than McGrady had this past season, and the past few seasons where he led the team to the playoffs. Whether it's with the Lakers, Clippers or even the Suns, he'll have Antoine Walker and Jerry Stackhouse, or maybe even Dirk Nowitzki, or he'll have Corey Maggette, Elton Brand and Chris Kaman, or he'll have Steve Nash, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion and Amare Stoudemire. As it is, in all likelihood Kobe will still have a better supporting cast than T-Mac this season, but you can't blame McGrady. T-Mac was unfortunate enough to go into a great situation in Orlando with Grant Hill, widely considered to be the best overall player in the league at the time until his injury, and of course we all know the rest of this story. McGrady was forced to play with an expansion team-like roster and salary cap, due to Hill being unable to play the great majority of his time in Orlando. Still, McGrady made it to the playoffs in every season he played in Orlando until last season, when it was just impossible. How can you realistically expect anyone to win with Tyronn Lue, Keith Bogans, Andrew DeClercq and Juwan Howard(cancer, who's been to the playoffs just once in his entire career, and has been on the team with the worst record in the league 2 straight years) as their starting lineup. As a result, T-Mac literally had to score 45 points just for the Magic to have a chance to win the game. Hell, he scored 51 points one 20-30 shooting, 8-11 from 3-point range, and the Magic still lost. Even the game where McGrady scored 62, he had no help whatsoever and the Magic were only able to beat the Wizards of all teams by a mere 9 points. Even against Kobe and his All-NBA First team defense, 37 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds, the Magic still lose. McGrady has the ability to be just as good of a defender, if not better than Kobe. Look at his days in Toronto, or his first season in Orlando, his defense was very good back then. Due to being forced to do everything for the team offensively, T-Mac has slipped considerably defensively over the past few seasons. Now that he's on the Rockets, playing for a real coach and with NBA-quality players around him, his defense will rise to a level we may not have seen from him yet. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if after next season most posters would find McGrady and Bryant's defense comparable. T-Mac has certainly shown that he is capable of playing great defense, it's just impossible for him to be the entire offense for the team and play great defense at the same time. In Houston, he won't have to worry about that. As far as offense goes, McGrady is the better all-around offensive player. Both can effectively create their own shot, they're equal in that area. McGrady probably got a total of 3 open shots during his stint with the Magic, due to having no other offensive weapon to go to. T-Mac is a better long range shooter than Kobe, and is much better at rising over his defender to take a shot. No one in the league is even close to as good at elevating over a defender for a jumper than T-Mac, Kobe included. With that said, Kobe is a distant second, and is very capable in that area as well. Both have nice mid-range games, but I give Kobe the slight advantage. Both also excell at penetrating the defense and getting into the lane. I'd say they're equal in their ability to do so, but Kobe is better finisher in the lane, T-Mac is a better distributor off their penetration, so no one really gets an advantage in this area. Overall, McGrady is a better passer than Kobe. It's simply pathetic that McGrady averaged more assists than Kobe last season, given their supporting casts. The assists don't even tell the whole story. If you watch them both play, I think it's fairly obvious that McGrady is the more willing, and better passer. The point I'm trying to make here is not that McGrady is a better player than Kobe, but that the two are certainly worthy of being compared to one another. While Kobe has the upper hand in the minds of most, it's mostly due to the situation Kobe was put into as opposed to the situation McGrady's been in. Both were by pure luck, nothing more, Kobe's happened to be very good luck, McGrady's luck was awful with Grant Hill's ankle. It's not at all absurd to say that McGrady is a better player, because the comparison is certainly worth making, that's why you see it pop up on these boards so much. You're certainly entitled to your opinion that Kobe is a better player, but when you say that it's not debateable, and that no one can make an arguement for McGrady, you're wrong.
