Monkey on their backs: Rockets are 11-42 without T-Mac

Tracie's "it's on me" and "I can turn it on anytime" attitude sums up the problem. Tracie can't handle being just a team player, he wants to be the man.
IMO, I'd role the dice send him some where he'd be healthy and put the ball in the basket, it's definitely not Toyota Center. Can Tracie play without dominating the ball and kill the offensive flow? Don't think so. Yao is not the same player he was four years ago. This team needs to build around Yao. Now that Magic called out the Yao/Mcgrady tandem, all the teams should be lining up trying to take Tracie "Fools Gold" Mcgrady off our hands, right? Since from some peoples point of view Tracie is our best player, Right?

 

Merry Christmas! Attack the problem, not the person who's trying to fix the probelm.

 

i'm not talking about his current contract but rather his contract extension after that. and even if he never makes 20mil, i think $ for $ tmac still gives you more talents and wins in return, comparing their records without each other.

 

I see eye to eye with you here. I very much feel that he needs to trust his teammates to make plays for him as well as him making plays for them.

Probably b/c you actually make sense when you criticize him. The other criticizers, not so much...

 

When Yao was out, there was a Motombo, who can really rebound and block.

When T-Mac was out, who can pass? No one. Find one who can run the offense ($10M will be good enough to find one), and I believe Yao's record when T-Mac in out will be much better.

Without Motombo (or others who can rebound inside), T-Mac's record can be a lot worse when Yao is not playing.

 

but then again we would of won even more games than tmac led them to without yao, had we replaced the injured yao with some good big man. argue what you want with all those hyperthetical scenarios, but yao is not going to win this who will carry us to more wins argument. it's not even close.

 

sorry, i'm not buying this Motombo stepping up argument. Motombo was a scrub at the age of 40. the fact that yao's impact can be almost matched by a scrub stepping up doesn't help really yao's case. nobody stepped up for tmac? because nobody else on that team was worth $20 mil of talents. and if you want to replace tmac with some $10M wing player? sure then to be fair you have to replace injured yao with some $10 big man with some decent offense not some scrub like Motombo. I believe tmac's team will still have yao's team beat. if you want to take Motombo out? how about yao's team without tmac and rafer? they'd probably go winless!

 

^^correction: $10 mil big man...

 

Who in this Rockets team can be a solid starter in an average NBA team? (other than T-Mac and Yao)?

 

agree with dadakota...everyone must buy in to the plan and the system...but its also on the coaching staff to sell their plan and system. rudy had to sell hakeem on passing more etc.

 

agree
We have to build around Yao.
At least, like yesterday against Denver ,the team will know what their are doing on the floor.

T Mac never pass a first round in his entire career.
With his salary we can get better players to fight for a champ.

 

Re-motivate T-Mac for the whole season and then for the whole playoff?
Extremely tough task, almost mission impossible.

 

These two statements are a bit contradictory.

If he's played hard in every single game since joining the Rockets, why does he need to be re-motivated?

 

Well...no ****. They sky is blue and the grass is green!

I said with THIS LINEUP.

It's like saying, try putting in Dwight Howard with TMAC....we'd have been victorious.

 

I guess what he implied is that TMAC doesn't buy into the new system, and hence decides to start his little strike.

 

Your logic for replacing Tracy is flawed since, you know...Yao has never passed the first round himself. Tracy's skill level and salary make him very difficult to move unless you plan on rebuilding a little.

 

If you think any other $10-15M big man could do the job, why didn't Rockets trade Yao away? Please do some research, Motombo and Howard really stepped up big when Yao was out last season.

 

This might be a good deal on paper. Let Morey make a call to Orlando to trigger the trade then!

 

They can't win without Tracy, because they're terrible. When Shane, Rafer, Luther and the other perimeter players aren't hitting threes, which is quite often, they are completely worthless. We have to move Tracy just to get some solid perimeter shooting around Yao. Just imagine if we had some good 3-point shooters taking those 34 threes (most of which were wide open) last night. With a team built around Yao, the three will be available no matter what type of offense you are running.

 

I can't imagine anyone saying Yao is not our leader after last night's game.

He is putting up great numbers in the face of constant double teams. If we had some shooters to spread opposing defenders, it would be a whole new ball game last night and the last several games as well.

And to whoever is talking about no one stepping up for TMac....look: Tracy's plenty good; a rare talent, in fact. Trouble is, Tracy doesn't step up for Tracy on a night in, night out basis. He doesn't rely on his own strengths often enough or consistently enough. He settles for jumpers too often that are way too early in the shot clock instead of setting up any kind of offense or slashing to the basket.

I think Magic was right: it sure as hell looks like Yao and Tracy cannot coexist. Win or lose, lots more passing and movement last night. Yes, we lost, but we looked better than we have in quite awhile.