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

zxcvirgin · Dec 22, 2007

Fuse said:

Are you kidding me? I thought he made all the right plays to get us the win even though his shots didn't fall. His fts, his blocks, and his passing. What more do you want from him tonight? If anything, I think you've made the wrong choice in using this game as an example.

And for the record, he did do other things to impact that game... 25 + pts, 19 rbs, and 6 assists, on only 2 T/O.
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Exactly! whatelse could we expect Yao to do? He's good enough for the team and what the Rox short of is another playmaker, but obviously that one will never be the soft T-mac. if he wanna get injured when the game is tough, then just get "injured", without soft Tracy, we will be much more tough!

BTW, Yao should dunk a bit more when he chose to layup. By his "tank" weigh and height, I believe there is few person could stop his dunk.

Matchman · Dec 22, 2007

leebigez said:

This is just a question for any basic hoops player. A 7'6 guy gets the ball 8ft from the basket, is it better to pass out to a open teammate 23ft from the basket or shoot the ball over a guy 7 inches shorter? I mean some people that talk on this board dont see how not taking a great shot is just like taking a bad shot. Think about it. How many time have we watched Hakeem get the ball that close kick it out? Isn't that what the scorer/low post players are supposed to do. This team cant suceed if yao doesn't dominate. You can look at the stat line and say he had a good game, but how many point,rebs and blocks did he have in the 4th qt and ot? How many time did the offense stagger because he was fronted and didn't know how to pin najera or camby. next time the rox play, count how many times yao gets the ball less than 10ft from the basket and kick it out. I dont know about you, but if any center/post gets the ball that close, its a score,foul, or shot. watch,dunacn,howard,brand, or even kaman and see how many times they get the ball that close and it comes out. Opposing defenses know this and the team doesn't adjust. People can say what they want about T-Mac, but yao missed 30 games last season and the team won 20. Tracy missed 7 and they were 0 fer. Thats simple math no matter how u look at it. I agree this team needs a 3rd scorer and always have needed one, but to say this team would be better off with redd,allen, or whatever shooter u want to give them is false. There isnt a gm in this league that would trade Tracy for anyone other than Kobe,Lebron,wade, or pierce as far as wing players. Now if you want to tell me the rox should package some players to get that other guy, i agree.
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NO, you got it all wrong and u put the blame on the wrong guy. Even if you got the ball 8 to 10 ft from the basket, if u are being double teamed, you are suppose to pass it to the wide open men out because they are suppose to hit the WIDE OPEN three with consistency (plus u get 1 more pt). next time the rox play, count how many times yao gets the ball less than 10ft from the basket AND GETS AN INSTANT DOUBLE-TEAM. Thats simple BASKETBALL no matter how u look at it, you get double-team and u kick it out to a wide-open shooter

Hydhypedplaya · Dec 22, 2007

whats up said:

The reason why we are so terrible without T-Mac is that he is the only player on the team that possess PG passing skills. None of our guards (nor anyone else other than T-Mac for that matter) are adequate passers for a PG. In other words, we don't have a true PG(obviously) who creates easy shots for others when T-Mac is not in the game!

1) A true PG is capable of passing to the player MOVING/CUTTING to the basket on a pick-and-roll.
2) A true PG can dribble penetrate AND execute an accurate pass to a MOVING/CUTTING player.
3) A true PG can draw defenders to free up an open teammate AND THEN pass the ball to that said teammate.
4)A true PG has above average vision and is aware of where his teammates are on the court so he can make passes that INDIRECTLY lead to open shots.
5) A true PG in a Rocekts uniform will drive to the middle when Yao is being fronted and then pass to him for from that angle (or drive to the middle AND have Yao run towards the basket to receive the pass).

Rafer Alston, Luther Head, Mike James, Tyron Lue, David Wesley, John Lucas can do none of that!

Wonder why Rafer's A/TO ratio is 3 and yet T-Mac's A/TO is 2 when they are about equally as good in handling the ball? It's because Rafer RARELY attempts to pass to players ON THE MOVE CUTTING to the basket, whether it's a P-n-R or dribble penetration, while we have often seen T-Mac passing to Yao and Hayes for dunks and lay-ups!

Rafer gets his assists numbers mostly from passing to the obvious open-man for an OUTSIDE shot while T-Mac gets his assists mostly from passing to cutters for easy LAY-UPS! Rafer is not a true PG and this is why we do so bad when T-Mac is out! Take last nights game against Denver for example. The many times that Yao set a pick for Rafer, he never received a pass when he rolled to the basket. The only times he got the ball after a pick was when Yao was standing still near the 3-point line. And I don't recall any of Rafer's assist that came from passing to a cutting man for an easy basket in the game. I wouldn't fault Rafer for this because he just doesn't have the creativity in making those passes where a decent passing PG can!

Let's take a look at the seven games Yao played last season without T-Mac. FOUR of those would be wins if we actually had an adequate PG that can give us TWO or THREE EASY baskets! That could have been a 6-1 stretch instead of 2-5!

1) LAL L 94-102
2) @ GSW L 107-109 (lost by 2 points)
3) @ LAL L 101-112 (lost in 2OT)
4) @ LAC W 108-103
5) @ POR L 87-89 (lost by 2 points)
6) @ SAS W 97-78
7) LAC L 93-98 (lost by 5 points)

T-Mac can shoulder the PG duties if he decides to and when he's healthy! However, when he's out, we just don't get the four or five easy baskets that T-Mac creates. Also, there's a slight problem with T-Mac handling the ball so often because he'd look to score more often keeping his eyes on the basket instead of looking for open teammates. Until Rafer learns to pass, we need to trade for a passing PG. I think Adelman should have Rafer practice the P-n-R passing to the cutter. It doesn't take much brains to run it properly. If he can execute the P-n-R the right way, that'd be a huge!
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Great post! Its been a while since I read a quality post that was well thought out.

Your dead right about rafer...he may set the offense up well but he just does not create for cutters/easy baskets. Tmac is our play maker and a damn good one, he makes the game easier for everybody else (that is why they rely on him so much) by playing PG. The only problem with tmac being the main guy to orchestrate the offense is that he is a scorer first. And a pg who is a scorer first than a play maker will always take ill advised shots. This team just needs a decent pg, if we could get that then our team would be scary.

koreyby · Dec 22, 2007

Clutch said:

Since they acquired him in 2004, the Rockets are 11-42 when Tracy McGrady is out. They are 10-30 when T-Mac is out but Yao Ming is playing.

2004-05: 2-2
2005-06: 7-28
2006-07: 2-9
2007-08: 0-3

They have lost 8 straight with T-Mac out and 20 of their last 24. This season the Rockets are 0-3. Yao Ming is averaging 17.3 points on 36.4% in those 3 games.

Nothing I want to see more than the Rockets showing T-Mac they can win without him.
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Last season, T-mac quit when Rockets had tough schedule on the road and came back when the team had built some chemistry. T-mac has been cheeting several times for his injure. I am tired of seeing him!

Rockets1616 · Dec 22, 2007

Matchman said:

This team is designed to have two playmakers because we have two offensively limited players in our starting rotation. So anytime either one of them is out, we are going to be in trouble.
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That isn't true at all. When Yao went out, we did fine.

Shroopy2 · Dec 23, 2007

whats up said:

The reason why we are so terrible without T-Mac is that he is the only player on the team that possess PG passing skills. None of our guards (nor anyone else other than T-Mac for that matter) are adequate passers for a PG. In other words, we don't have a true PG(obviously) who creates easy shots for others when T-Mac is not in the game!

1) A true PG is capable of passing to the player MOVING/CUTTING to the basket on a pick-and-roll.
2) A true PG can dribble penetrate AND execute an accurate pass to a MOVING/CUTTING player.
3) A true PG can draw defenders to free up an open teammate AND THEN pass the ball to that said teammate.
4)A true PG has above average vision and is aware of where his teammates are on the court so he can make passes that INDIRECTLY lead to open shots.
5) A true PG in a Rocekts uniform will drive to the middle when Yao is being fronted and then pass to him for from that angle (or drive to the middle AND have Yao run towards the basket to receive the pass).

Rafer Alston, Luther Head, Mike James, Tyron Lue, David Wesley, John Lucas can do none of that!

Wonder why Rafer's A/TO ratio is 3 and yet T-Mac's A/TO is 2 when they are about equally as good in handling the ball? It's because Rafer RARELY attempts to pass to players ON THE MOVE CUTTING to the basket, whether it's a P-n-R or dribble penetration, while we have often seen T-Mac passing to Yao and Hayes for dunks and lay-ups!

Rafer gets his assists numbers mostly from passing to the obvious open-man for an OUTSIDE shot while T-Mac gets his assists mostly from passing to cutters for easy LAY-UPS! Rafer is not a true PG and this is why we do so bad when T-Mac is out! Take last nights game against Denver for example. The many times that Yao set a pick for Rafer, he never received a pass when he rolled to the basket. The only times he got the ball after a pick was when Yao was standing still near the 3-point line. And I don't recall any of Rafer's assist that came from passing to a cutting man for an easy basket in the game. I wouldn't fault Rafer for this because he just doesn't have the creativity in making those passes where a decent passing PG can!

Let's take a look at the seven games Yao played last season without T-Mac. FOUR of those would be wins if we actually had an adequate PG that can give us TWO or THREE EASY baskets! That could have been a 6-1 stretch instead of 2-5!

1) LAL L 94-102
2) @ GSW L 107-109 (lost by 2 points)
3) @ LAL L 101-112 (lost in 2OT)
4) @ LAC W 108-103
5) @ POR L 87-89 (lost by 2 points)
6) @ SAS W 97-78
7) LAC L 93-98 (lost by 5 points)

T-Mac can shoulder the PG duties if he decides to and when he's healthy! However, when he's out, we just don't get the four or five easy baskets that T-Mac creates. Also, there's a slight problem with T-Mac handling the ball so often because he'd look to score more often keeping his eyes on the basket instead of looking for open teammates. Until Rafer learns to pass, we need to trade for a passing PG. I think Adelman should have Rafer practice the P-n-R passing to the cutter. It doesn't take much brains to run it properly. If he can execute the P-n-R the right way, that'd be a huge!
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Of all people, Clyde DREXLER inadvertently said the most sensible thing about Rafer and the guards.
When the Rockets lost games with Rafer out and he came back, Bill Worrell said say what you want about Rafer's shooting, of all the guards the makes the offense operate at its best

Drexler - Rafer does a good job of bringing the ball up the court and getting the team into their offensive sets..."but thats NOT A HARD THING TO DO..."

Aaron Brooks isnt the purest point guard, but he gets so much separation from his man with his exceptional quickness that it helps him see the floor better and FORCES opponents to react. Brooks isnt that good at the Rafer style, passing it from a stationary position to a stationary player in an offensive set. His passes are after he penetrates and kicks it out to someone. But he's the one Rocket guard that DOES penetrate and USE it to pass, instead of just drive in to score like Mike James.

I need a bigger sample size from Brooks but I don't see why he should get minutes taken from him now as the backup guard.

fleshbody · Dec 23, 2007

I KNEW it when we lost to the Nuggets that although everyone was praising YAO and the team for their great effort and toughness and teamwork and ...whatsoever,it's gonna be just a LOSS on the record of our team WITHOUT the GREAT T-MAC as the season goes one

James23 · Dec 23, 2007

fleshbody said:

I KNEW it when we lost to the Nuggets that although everyone was praising YAO and the team for their great effort and toughness and teamwork and ...whatsoever,it's gonna be just a LOSS on the record of our team WITHOUT the GREAT T-MAC as the season goes one
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Unfortunately, NOT-SO-GREAT T-mac has not and will never take the Rockets past the 1st round, not to mention the finals. Therefore, the team has to trade him now before he quits on the team. In return for T-mac, the Rockets should get good players to support the timid giant. The 7'6" will have to step up; otherwise, get rid of him too.

The Rockets is a middle-of-the-pack team. It makes the playoffs, but won't contend for the champion. That sucks! I rather see a team either a lottery team that's rebuilt and going in the right direction or championship-contending team.

thiuronium · Dec 23, 2007

It just means with a 49million payroll, we hardly can beat teams with more than 60 million dollar's payroll. No more, no less

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

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