[NBA Fanhouse] McGrady wants to resign here

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/12/17/mcgrady-wants-to-re-sign-with-houston/

DENVER -- Not only does Houston star Tracy McGrady not want to be dealt by the February trade deadline, his first choice is to return to the Rockets next season.

You read that right. Despite all the friction McGrady has had in the past year with the Rockets and despite the fact he will be a free agent next summer when many teams will have salary-cap room, McGrady said he wants to re-sign with Houston.

"Yeah, if it all boils down to me making the decision, this (Houston) is where I'll be,'' McGrady said in an interview Wednesday night with FanHouse.

"I feel we can be a competitive team night in night out and compete with the best of them. ... This is a great fit for me. My family likes it in Houston, my wife and kids. And this is where I want to be.''

But what about money? McGrady is making $22.8 million this season and surely would have to take a huge pay cut to remain with the Rockets.

"Money is not an issue for me,'' the swingman said after going scoreless in a 111-101 loss to Denver at the Pepsi Center in his second game this season after missing the first 22 while coming off knee surgery. "If it boiled down to it, I got a great, great adidas contract. So money is not an issue. I just want to win. That's my main focus.

- Tracy McGrady "At this stage of my career, it's all about winning. I don't care about a max contract or nothing like that. I want to play basketball, and I want to win. ... There's no question (about wanting to return to Houston). I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket, but definitely this is where I'd love to be.''

While the general assumption is the Rockets might not want McGrady back next season, Houston coach Rick Adelman was noncommittal when asked by FanHouse if he sees any chance of that occurring.

"I think it's just common sense that people are going to write that,'' Adelman said of McGrady not returning next season. "And it doesn't surprise me because he's the highest-paid player in the league and he's coming off a major injury. What's going to be the future for him and for the team? I don't think anybody can answer it. Certainly I don't know if it's going to be 20-plus million dollars (McGrady makes next season).

"Look at the Allen Iverson situation. The landscape has changed. I can't answer that question." Adelman said. Iverson made $20.8 million last season but settled for $3.1 million to start the season with Memphis. After being released from his contract with the Grizzlies, he signed for the league's minimum with Philadelphia.

Adelman continued: "We're trying to see what we have as a group and then make the best decision. ... He's been a great player. It depends on how far he can come back and where the organization's vision is as far as this team. So I think we're just looking at the whole situation. The unknown of the injury is huge.''

McGrady tried to play last season on a bad left knee and was in and out of the lineup, appearing in just 35 games. He eventually had season-ending microfracture surgery Feb. 24, 2009.

McGrady didn't return until logging 7 minutes, 44 seconds Tuesday against Detroit while scoring three points. Adelman, who used McGrady for 7:35 Wednesday, plans to play him around that much each game for most of the rest of the month.

It's been widely speculated the Rockets are showcasing McGrady for a trade. Adelman disputed that.

"The impact of the media nowadays is so huge,'' Adelman said. "You just look at the stories and you say you can only do what's reality to yourself. You can't worry about what everybody's writing.''

Even if the Rockets, who will play all season without injured star center Yao Ming, are auditioning McGrady, he said he doesn't want to go anywhere.

"I have not once said that I want to be traded. This is where I want to be because I love every guy in this locker room. I love playing for these guys and competing with them."

- Tracy McGrady "Not at all,'' said McGrady, 30, who said he would "make the best'' of it if he were to be traded. "First of all, this is a great group of guys. We've got a young team, a very competitive team, a very good coaching staff. This could be a competitive team despite what anybody thinks of us.

"I've never said that I want to be moved despite going through a lot of drama the last year. I have not once said that I want to be traded. This is where I want to be because I love every guy in this locker room. I love playing for these guys and competing with them. It's definitely not on me to be moved.''

There's indeed been plenty of drama with McGrady in the past year, although he believes some of the incidents have been misreported (more on that later). McGrady admits now he's not too fond of Adelman limiting him to around seven minutes in his initial games back, but he doesn't want to rock the boat.

"It's tough,'' said McGrady, who had little role in the offense Wednesday while playing the final 5:59 of the first quarter and the first 1:36 of the second quarter, missing a three-pointer on his only shot attempt. "I'm not so worried about coming off the bench, but seven minutes, it's kind of tough to really get your rhythm. ... I didn't make the decision. Whatever coach wanted to do as far as fitting in with those guys. We've got a bunch of young talent, and I'm just rolling with it.''

McGrady, who asked Wednesday and was granted the task of guarding Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony (and then had heaps of trouble), admits he won't return to full strength this season.

"Definitely I'm saying I'm pushing 90 (percent now),'' McGrady said. "I won't be 100 percent this year. It takes a year with microfracture surgery to really get back to yourself. But I'll be pretty doggone close.''

McGrady insists he has no rift with Rockets officials. McGrady last season put the news on his website that he would be undergoing season-ending surgery before Adelman knew about it, irritating the coach. But McGrady doesn't believe that was his fault.

"The report got printed wrong,'' McGrady said. "I definitely notified the team before I was going to do my surgery. ... Maybe they didn't communicate with the coach. The coach didn't know. I told who I was supposed to tell, which was my training staff. ... I sure did (put it on his website on Feb. 18 after saying the training staff had been notified). But I was the bad guy. It kind of bothered me a little bit that the reports got out there that I didn't notify the team, which was so far from the truth. That's not my character. That's not me.''

McGrady also believes he was made out to look "like the bad guy'' due to a Nov. 9 Yahoo! Sports report that he would make his season debut Nov. 18 against Minnesota. That Rockets then put out a statement that no timetable had been set for McGrady's return.

"I told Yahoo! it was a target date, that's all,'' McGrady said. "I even talked to the coach about that. I told him before I'm targeting (Nov. 18). ... I never said I was going to play. I just said this was the date that I'm targeting. I didn't guarantee and say, 'Yeah, I'm coming back the 18th. I'm suiting up in Minnesota.'''

Four weeks went by before McGrady got into a game. So what took the Rockets (14-11) so long?

"He's been hurt for over a year and then really hurt for two years because he played hurt last year,'' Adelman said. "We've waited a while until we're sure. We wanted to see. I really wanted to see what we had (with Yao also out) and how we were going to come out as a team, and we're still learning about our guys. We've had so many guys who are taking on different roles. And Tracy has been out a long time. For me, we're just trying to evaluate and see where he fits. We have so many unknowns.

"We're trying to change the way we play a little bit and get our younger players to improve this year. And, if we can keep improving and keep being a factor and effective, then we start adding good players back and we're a better team than we were before.''

Adelman, whose team has gone to more of an up-tempo game without the 7-foot-6 Yao, admits it's hard integrating McGrady back into the lineup. Team captain Shane Battier believes, though, it will happen.

"I think that Tracy can come back and help this team,'' Battier said. "He's got to change his game obviously in terms of when he played here the last couple of years [when] it was a slow-it-down-halfcourt-grind-out team.''

For whatever it might be worth, Battier, "I don't think there's a rift at all'' between McGrady and Rockets officials.

McGrady doesn't believe that's the case either. But it remains to be seen if there's any chance next season of McGrady still being with Houston.

 

Everyone is of course entitled to thier opinion, but McGrady for the minimum is a ridiculous bargain.

 

heh, I have no idea, guess we will see how it all plays out.

 

Well the Rockets would probably low ball him with a one year contract like they did Artest expecting him not to take it.