**Official McGrady/Pistons 2010 Regular Season Thread**

The funny thing is...

HE IS. The Pistons were complete crap, now they aren't complete crap. They still suck, and won't make the playoffs... but they're definitely better than they were before.

 

Hmmm..

Its more to do with the fact that they got Rip Hamilton away from the team (a champion btw) than it has to do with TMac.

TMac is a decent facilitator but only on a garbage team like the Pistons. No team that is actually trying to win would have him starting at the point.

 

I don't know, I think Rip would make them better. Gives them another weapon. TMac actually has better PG skills than some of the starting PGs in the NBA. As of right now, TMac is more effective as a play maker, than a scorer. TMac was most effective in Houston when he was facilitating as opposed to being a scorer.

 

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I like imagining if the rockets had Yao Ming instead to get some boards and get to the free throw line and draw fouls on gasol and odom..

 

Do yourself a favor then.

By the way, I didn't say the Pistons were better than the Rockets. I just said at that moment they look a lot better - and they did. They've been playing awesome against elite teams and we've been sucking up until the past few games.

But I know you like to try to twist and spin people's words so you can attack them. Fortunately, everyone knows your shtick

 

you need to stop watching that Pistons Bad Boys tape, of course Isiah Thomas is better than Aaron Brooks.

the Pistons now suck, I have NBA league pass, Tmac isn't putting people in the stands like they do on this thread.

 

What can you say? Tracy +4 when he left the game and the Pistons lost by 10. I am not saying they were winning this one with TSlack in the lineup but imo they would have had a chance at least.

What can you do? Coach's decision.

 

Also, the problem with TMac seems to be his health. He was supposed to be 100% now and we all know he looked better earlier in the season.

 

Nope.

He's moving better right now.

He continues to improve every month although it's not the McGrady of old.

I thought and I'm still thinking that he would be even better after the all star break.

We will see.

 

5 straight games in double figures. continues to rack up the dimes despite the predictable offense.

with tmac playing the PG role, he always splits b/t either scoring or passing, and it's a fine line.

it's obvious he can score still (at a near elite level? unsure). but i think it's hard for mcgrady to be aggressive looking to score if he's playing PG full-time, which he has been doing.

and tmac always does back cuts looking for alley-oops every game, and they always miss him

 

True.

But how about the games where he took 11 shots to score 21 against the elite defense of Boston?

Taking 17 shots for 22 points on a good percentage is pretty good as well.

He's shown some flashes where he can score really good. Hopefully, he stays healthy the rest of the season so we can see him improve throughout.

I want to see him take 15+ shots a game on this Pistons' squad.

 

Yea, it's nice to see him move around on offense at times.

He can get really easy buckets by doing this, but it seems every time he cuts, his teammates tend to ignore him even if he has that open lane for the layup.

 

I disagree with your statement that Rip would make them better. I feel the Pistons are literally stacked at the wing positions, and they have players like Ben Gordon who are paid a mammoth 11 million salary a year barely playing 25 minutes per game. With Rip out, the rotation becomes more balanced and stable. Austin Daye also needs minutes on the wings and the absence of Rip only helps in Daye's development.

In regards to Rip, its kind of good he's getting some rest right now. He is getting old, and getting a few months extra rest will only help him prolong his nba career, in which he is pretty much in a stage of lifelessness and spiritlessness.

I want T-Mac to go to Chicago and play the role of starting SG. Then Chicago will go to the conference finals for sure. Rose is more of a scoring type and with T-Mac creating for him, the combo will be killer.

 

I don't really want to see T-Mac taking more than 10 shots per game. I think the best number of shots for him per game is around about 9 or 10 shots. But I want T-Mac to handle the ball ALL the time and play as the leading facilitator of the team for 35 minutes a game. There are many many good scorers, but not good passers, on the Pistons team. T-Mac will need to find them in their sweet-spots and fire the awesome McGrady assist to them once T-Mac sees a good opportunity.

McGrady-Prince wing combo is still one of the best in the league.

Imagine if we had Prince in the Yao-McGrady era............

 

I think this season, he needs to stay healthy the entire year. Arnie has done a fantastic job on him. He's one of the best trainers for a reason.

Grover's work may have helped as well as he seems more stable and injury free this season.

You're right, he wont be the scorer he once was. He needs to work hard on the off-season which hopefully he will be pain free. If he adds the consistent jumpshot, he can last in this league for a while with his skill set.

Having that jumpshot (he has shown that it can be there, just needs to be consistent) opens up the ability to drive to the lane.

 

Exactly. People think that all he needs to do is jack up more shots and he'll be 07-08 T-Mac. No, it's not that easy. It takes a lot of energy to put up 15-20 "makeable" shots a night. This version of T-Mac does not have the energy of the explosiveness to get off that many quality shots.

He can milk a match-up for a few possessions, sure, but emjohn is right in that he excels at what he's doing right now as interim PG for the Pistons. If he can recover more of his conditioning and explosiveness, then his scoring will go up.

 

well honestly has T-mac ever came out after a game and shot 15-20 "makeable shots? i dont think so maybe 6 r 6 makeable but the rest or just shots that he could get off at any point on the court even if a defender was in his face. Do i think mcgrady could host that many shots. yes i do. Would it bump up his scoring avg. Yes i think it would. Would his defense suffer. Yes i think it would. Would his shooting percentage go down. yes it would.