Kenny Smith is not a hater. Look, the real problem here isn't with T-Mac at all. You've got to give him a lot of respect for playing today and really making some good plays in the fourth quarter. But Smith's point is that it's not T-Mac's fault, it's not Yao's fault, but somehow something isn't clicking. Yes, the Rockets are a better team when T-Mac plays. But they're not significantly better. When Yao and T-Mac are on the floor at the same time it doesn't look like there's two superstars out there. It looks like there's one superstar and four other guys. Everyone on this board knows there's a problem where one guy goes off for 30 points and the other guy scores 12. So, no fault of T-Mac's, no fault of Yao's, but maybe they'd both be better off and more productive if the core was broken up. The TNT guys have been pretty consistent in pushing this line in the games where I've seen them comment on the Rockets. Personally, the question for me is how long do you give this roster the chance to try and make a deep run into the playoffs. Next season? The season after that? It's a tough call. I'd say that Adelman's offense is the first time I've seen Yao being productive while the rest of the team, minus McGrady, is also productive. Maybe it can work with T-Mac too once he's had a little more time to adjust.
One more thing: what really makes me wonder if the problem is fixable is that it's not consistently one guy or the other who has a monster game while the other suffers. Sometimes Yao will get 30 and T-Mac will get 12. Then the next game it's the exact opposite. It's not a question of one guy dominating the ball--that would be easy to solve.
why do Rocket fans hate their players? better question, are you really a 'Rocket fan' if you hate the player(s)? only fans: are obviously player only fans. meaningless to engage them in any TEAM oriented perspective. they simply lack the vision to respond in theme ... its way past time to be shocked that they exist! player only fans are a different breed, willing to discredit any player deemed to blunt their fav's sunshine. geographical fans: my 2'nd fav kinda fans! da team is closest by geography and by god and all thats holy they support & represent! only downside to geo-fans, they completely lack the ability to appreciate non geo-fans ... historical fans: my grandfathers team & my grandfather's grandfather team. the purest kinda fan, the most loyal, absolutely my favorite kinda fan. nothing dissuades this fan. they may be current lunar residents but their loyalty is undiminished! depending on the team, i fit all the above categories ... what did i miss?
You're exaggerating. One may score less than the other, but its rare that one has 12 and the other has 30. For the most part, they each score in the twenties, or one has an above average night and the other has a point total in the high teens (usually Yao). They've been one of the higher scoring tandems in the league for a while now, so I don't buy that they can't co-exist. I'm not going to listen to some analyst who doesn't take into consideration the entirely new philosophy that a new coach brings with him, especially when philosophy is as different as night and day. All this 'they're not meshing well' talk is kind of premature, if you ask me.
jsut felt obliged to say I have much respect for TMac for showing up and playing his 30+ minutes. I don't know what they showed on tv, but they did a closeup on him when he first got there on the jumbotron...and he looked absolutely terrible. But he showed up and he played and even though he didn't score a lot he rebounded hard, and when we needed him the most (coming out of halftime) he stepped up and made sure we got off to a good start. So all you Tmac haters droppin the shemacs and lady mcgrady's go spend a day in the hospital being pumped full of crap then try and to anything...Much love tmac, much love
I was at the game, he was grimicing in pain everytime downcourt, he looked pale, and he just looked really sick. Much props to him for showing up.
I was glad he was in the game. He really rose to the occasion hitting some big shots (the one fadeaway in the corner hounded by the D was clutch). I know he didn't have a great game shooting, but he played a good game overall considering his condition. My only real concern is that his illness is contagious, and our team really can't afford to be hit by the sickness that has now hit both of our allstars.
It is premature and idiotic considering they are 14-3 in their last 17. It is obviously not working. Some of these "ANALysts" need to take a look at their records when both Yao and Tmac play since they have been on the same team. Oh well, I just hope a majority of the fans understand that if they watch half or more of the Rockets then they know more than these guys because I guarantee they don't watch but 10-15 games all season and base all of their "facts" on those few games. That is why I like guys like Collins who do all their homework before calling a game so at least he has some idea what the team is going through and even some of the players.
i think tmac only played because the game was nationally televised. if it wasn't he would not have played. drama queen is like that and that's one thing that i hate about him. his passion is suspect.
If it isn't more apparent of the Damned if you do, Damned if you don't now, i don't know when it will be. If he doesn't play, he's duckin the game or is being lazy, faking, etc. If he DOES play, it's b/c he is selfish still for other reasons. Never ever, could it be that he really wants to not have this season be a failure. Nah, COULDN'T be that. I mean he's been so criticized his whole career. He wouldn't want a chance to to try and silence some of that hate. Nah, he'd rather watch the season slip away and not even make the playoffs. Yeah, that's sounds about right...
What's our record since he returned from injury? that should quiet the bashers for a while. of course, they don't care about wins, they just care about ripping on someone
Perfectly put. T-Mac can't do anything right these days. "Fans" will bash him no matter what. He could score 100pts next game and all people will talk about is how he took too many shots and should have stopped shooting at 90pts. T-Mac could have the cure for cancer and all anyone would say is that he's putting all the people researching the cure for cancer out of a job.
both tmac avg 25 pts a game in the playoffs last yr so apparently they BOTH can put up big numbers. in game 7, both guys put up 25+ pts. it's the role players. b/c they are so inconsistent, teams can either focus primarily on fronting yao and neutralize him. or teams can let yao play straight up for the most part and deny tmac. that's the thing when your players don't show up consistently. let's just hope that with the improvement of the role players, our stars will have more room to work with.
last playoff: Yao, 25.1 points, on 44%. 4.7 TO per game. TMAC, 25.3 points, on 39.4% , 3 TO per game. big number, yes, but both are horrible in efficiency and defense. again, dont put everything on role players or we will see another first round exit.
Actually, the fact that we hardly got anything from our role players is a big reason we lost last year in the first round.
Again, that's the problem. The team doesn't look like it has two superstars on it when both Yao and T-Mac are on the floor. They didn't do a particularly good job of making the game easier for each other in the last playoff series. And there are way too many games where one doesn't make his season average. The team's not exploiting the capabilities of both stars. At this point you're relegated to hoping that Adelman is the missing ingredient, because Yao and McGrady have been together for a good number of years now with nothing to show for it in terms of post-season success.
