I bash Grady as much as anybody but this story sounds completely fabricated - NY sensationalism at its best. Have you ever seen Grady's teammates complain when he takes as many shots as he wants? All Rafer does is look to get him the ball when he's on the court. Yao has never complained, either. Battier loves NOT to shoot, so I'm sure he doesn't care. Scola is a willing role player. Artest has never done anything but compliment him. Landry plays off other players. Barry is as unselfish as they come. Brooks is a willing shooter but he won't hesitate to defer to Grady, either. The bottom line is that Grady could take 30 shots a game and nobody on the Rockets would stop him or complain about it. He is physically unable to beat his man or create space off the dribble with any consistency. He is slow and his body isn't cooperating anymore. Those are the reasons why he isn't shooting as much. On top of that, he's struggling to accept the fact that he is losing his athleticism and his ability to take over games like he used to. If Grady plays, everybody tries to give him the ball. He's been willingly deferring to Yao more than ever because of his physical limitations. There have been games this season where he has treated the ball like a hot potato. I think he's embarrassed and frustrated about how bad he's playing but this story is BS.
I'm also finding fault with the actual discussion itself... when people assume that this team will be just fine without McGrady, minimizing him to simply a "distraction", and not realizing that he's a vital skillset that this team actually is lacking. They don't have enough talent to simply play "team ball" and succeed. They don't have enough speed/athleticism at the wing spots. They are a team full of extremely inconsistent non-pure shooters. Their "team" game plan largely ignores and neutralizes their supposed "best" player (Yao). Their overall defensive intensity flat-out sucks now. Their PG play is atrocious. Their game-in/game-out intensity lacks any degree of focus. If one thing is proven in the NBA is that stars are what lead teams to the promise land. Yes, those stars need to both be playing at a star-like level, AND have surrounding capable parts with an executable gameplan. Right now, the Rockets have only one star playing at an above average/consistent level (even if he's capable of more... in Yao). Their surrounding capable parts still have a big question mark. They don't execute gameplans with any degree of consistency. And, their other stars aren't playing at star-like levels. So, yes... I'm finding fault with the actual discussion itself.
and i think that's why morey and adelman sat him down for: to say, just fight through it. and i think that's what the players have talked to him about too jon feign said in his recent blog (a few days ago) that tracy is finally getting over that frustration so i look for him to compete harder.
You could see him playing well in Oklahoma City and in the 1st half of a game on Philly. Why? Because he is finally finding a way to overcome this, he is finally finding his way to be effective. His knee will get better, but it doesnt mean he can't play well when it is not 100%. When he is agressive he can be as great as he used to.
This is just not true, what skill set? If you mean a healthy TMac that buys in then you are right, but if you mean a Tmac that wants to dominate the ball even though there are other options now then I would argue they are not better off with him playing that way. I think they do have enough talent especially when you consider they might be getting someone like Shawn Marion for Tmac. Detroit played as a team and won, the Spurs have stars, but they play as a team and won. The problem is that this team can not, will not win, with Tmac dominating the ball, we have 11 years of data to prove that...it is not hopes and dreams, it is what it is.... A TMac led team will fail......I for one, would like to see what a team would do if Tmac was part of the solution and not the main problem. DD
If this is true, which I can actually see, it's just another example of t-mac laying the blame on everyone else but himself. I think he's getting uncomfortable with his increasingly marginal role on the court and in the locker room. I do think Yao is too soft. He's bigger than everyone on the court--he should be knocking people around every time he posts up. But if t-mac is calling yao soft, has he seen the Toronto game where he was playing hot-potato with the ball three feet behind the 3-point line? Or when he just let the breakaway go without at least wrapping the dude go? That's what's soft. T-mac needs to man up for once and see his own failings.
You need to take a break. You're acting hysterical over a New York Daily News article. Go take a nap.
Sorry B, it is not the article per-se, I am just fed up with: 1. The organization letting it get to this level 2. Tmac being a wussy 3. His teamates calling him out 4. Expectations for a special year hitting a realism wall. DD
Alright, but the season is not over. Some positives: 1. The Rockets are probably overachieving given all of the injuries and the challenging schedule. The schedule will be on our side from here on out. 2. McGrady looked better in the last game. He looked for his shot while still setting up his teammates. Even if he never gets it back all the way, he comes of the books during a great free agent class, so it's not like we're stuck with him for five more years. 3. The back-to-backs will be reduced in the coming weeks. 4. Battier is back- he really helps our perimeter defense. 5. Von Wafer is a nice player and is a nice substitute for Luther Head. 6. Luis Scola is better. 7. Adelman is playing Brooks more. 8. This is supposed to be fun...last night was fun. 9. Yao Ming is still 7'6" with skills and a great work ethic. 10. There is no clearly dominant team out there. Everybody has issues.
I don't understand why people think the Rockets will get further in the playoffs without tmac. Yao- Has never shown he can produce in the playoffs yet. Rafer/Brooks - not exactly at the top of the pg chain. Landry/Scola - against guys like Amare? Dirk? Gasol? Wafer - He's like the poor mans Trevor Ariza. Artest - Definitely a winner here Battier - He's like Artest but with less offense. So if you get someone that produce less then Tmac, how exactly is this team better? Because they will play better team ball?
Dude, don't you know that anything negative written about T-Mac is 100% fact. And anything positive written, is just somebody going against popular opinion.
This "story," is almost as bad as the TMac will "ISO," Yao story was. That was the joke of the year last year. During the OKC broadcast, the Thunder announcers said in the 4th quarter, "Hey, I just heard McGrady tell Yao to get into the post and he'll get him the ball." Gee, sure sounds like a jealous guy to me.
I'm talking about the T-mac that ALWAYS finds the open man when double teamed (which is almost every single time when he has the ball). I'm talking about the T-mac that can actually create his own shot... more so than ANY other current player on this team. I'm talking about the T-mac that gets Yao the ball faster and in better position than any other player on this team. If that is what you refer to as "dominating" the ball, then so be it. The Spurs have Parker and Ginobili who can both create AND get their own shots whenver they want. They have Duncan as the anchor they can go to. If it was simply about the game plan, they wouldn't have started the year so atrociously with the guards injured. So, they add another player who is an inconsistent shooter, shoots waay too many 3's at a low percentage, doesn't create for anybody, can't get his own shot when he wants to, and has been totally neutralized in every playoff series he's been in. Detroit still had a host of players who could get their own shots whenever they wanted. Rasheed, Billups, Prince, and Hamilton could all break down a defense on their own. The fact that they combine that element along with a team game is what makes them so good. I already mentioned how the Spurs do that above. You take those teams and put Wafer, Barry, Alston, Brooks, and Battier in place of their current stars, and you don't get anywhere close to the same results... just like the Spurs found out early this season with the same "team" gameplan. And you have 100+ years of basketball data to prove that talent and stars combine to win more than simple game-plans. The Adelman Kings, while ultra-talented and supremely coached, still couldn't beat a team with more pure star-power... whether it was the Lakers, the Mavs, or the Spurs. There in lies your true bias. The above statement implies that T-mac, at his physical peak, would still fail with this team. I'd still much rather take my chances with T-mac at his true physical peak (the triple-double threat/scoring machine that came here in 04) paired with an experienced Yao and viable complementary parts (not the host of below average role players this team has had since 04)... than a team full of tweeners, who are largely non-athletic, don't do anything particularly well, and still have major defeciencies when compared to other elite teams.
Why would we want Marion? We see how much he struggles in a half-court offense and as long as Yao is on the team, that's mostly the way the Rockets are going to roll. But the worse is getting stuck with a mediocre team for a long time. And I lived in NYC long enough not to take the Daily News too serious.
My beef is we're still talking about it. I highly doubt he's talking about Yao behind his back and if he had his game together and was tougher, he has a right. Larry Bird wouldve called the whole team sissies and everyone wouldve take it in the bunghole. That's because Larry showed up and po'ed up. Yao is soft, tracy is soft, scola plays hard but is soft, Battier is soft, rafer can't play. So what, I said it. Lets talk so hoops and turn Jerry Springer off. DD- Are you back from your nap yet?
I'm not surprised. T-Mac does seem like the gossip type considering his feminine attributes. He has also shown his ability or lack there of for being a leader so why not?
I think when people get pissed about t-mac (like DD or myself for that matter) is like that one scene in Good Will Hunting when Matt Damon says to Ben Afleck that he doesn't want to take any of the high paying jobs and maybe wants to just keep working in construction with Ben Afleck. Ben Afleck turns to him and says that if he's still doing construction in 20 years, he's gonna kill Damon because he's sitting on a winning lottery ticket and not cashing it in is an insult to people like Afleck who don't have a choice. T-mac has a much talent as anyone in the league, but it pisses the hell out of people like us who obviously don't even have the talent he has in his gimpy knee. We're stuck here venting online while this dude gets paid 20 mil for playing a game and he can't even get up for that. I don't really have that much patience for that and I don't know why anyone would still be a t-mac apologist until he proves he'll put in some effort.
