Ok so do we give Tmac another year, or shop him this summer?

i meant with his overall game...

come on man...tmac is still a very good player. his shot selection wasnt good last night but he put up other numbers.

shouldnt the coach tell him to drive more any ways ?

i think JVG had a better way of utilizing TMac. Im not saying he is a better coach than Adelman (although not having Deke and Hayes in there at the end was a huge blunder)

What happened to the play where he would come off screens shooting? (catch & shoot) I liked that play

 

he may not be a "scoring" superstar, but tell me who else is putting these overall stats right now in the playoffs (outside of lebron):

23.3 ppg, 8.5rpg, 7.8apg, 2spg, 1bpg

we all know he cannot be the main guy you go to offensively for 4 quarters. he's a great first option for 2 quarters now b/c he can only dominate with his offense for stretches, not the whole game.

but that's why you need a more balanced team. tracy can dominate in other ways right now if you decrease his burden.

you guys simply look at offense (and points per game).

 

um tmac cant shoot anymore

he is something like 2-15 from behind the arc this series... Probably similar for his long 2 heat checks and it appears he has has been taking free throw lessons from the chuckwagon

 

he was talking about 16 foot jumpers comming off the screens. I also like that play and right now we could even see it more often because since Rafer got back Tracy has been playing off the ball a lot.

his 3s are not going in, neither are free throws.

 

I'm a rockets fan and i like yao alot but are you deep in your cups?

 

I like that play as well... But Tmacs jumper has been so broke lately.

 

Why are we paying him 20 million a year then? I'm sorry, I'm just not okay with a part-time superstar. Saying "he's tired" in the 4th quarter - that is absolutely pathetic. He's not a superstar, and he'll never have the mentality to be one. Boozer came in early and shot FT's - has Tmac improved his FT's in the last 2 years? Tmac doesn't even come in early to get more shots up. He doesn't have the work ethic you expect out of your 20 million a year player.

And he would be lucky if we "only" looked at offense - because he's been worse at defense. B!tching at the refs, not getting back on defense and costing us a layup by his man. He just doesn't play well unless he's mad, and then he only plays well for a few minutes.

We need a star PG. We need Derrick Rose. If NY gets a top 2 pick, something like Tmac for Crawford, Curry, and Rose would be ideal. Or a S-n-T with Miami with Marion + Rose coming over in exchange for Tmac.

 

a superstar is simply not just scoring. he can dominate the game scoring for 2 quarters, then fill up the stat sheet the entire game.

next yr, tmac's stats should be 21-22, 7, 7.

you do know KG makes more money and is shooting 40% right now right in the playoffs, putting up 18 and 10.

but hey, nobody is freakin' complaining b/c HE HAS A BETTER TEAM.

 

give tmac and yao one more year together with adelman, after that wholesale changes coming if you are healthy and dont get past first round and into the west conf. finals

 

LOL i apologize....i so meant to put "...dominant centers in the NBA" i was venting and put that instead

 

Exactly...with a slight twist.

They need a PG upgrade. Whether you add that to Yao/TMac or add that to only one Star is not important. It's just PG IMHO is what should be the focal point slightly ahead of getting taller, quicker and more athletic.

 

I agree that a superstar is simply not just scoring. It's leader and defense as well - two qualities that Tmac lacks. He's just going to get older and less athletic from this point on out - we NEED to trade him this off-season and land a top-flight PG.

Your example is pretty bad. You say that being a superstar isn't everything, then say Tmac isn't worse than KG because KG's only putting up 18 on 40% shooting. Here's where you went wrong:

1) KG is averaging 22 PPG, not 18 - 1 less than Tmac
2) KG is shooting .446%, Tmac .393% - which means:
2a) KG is averaging 18.67 shots a game, Tmac around 24 shots a game
3) KG makes a lot bigger difference than Tmac does on the defensive end/leadership side

My point is, it's not OK to have your star player getting tired in the 4th. Is he not in good enough shape? Is he too old? That's a huge reason for concern when your best player is saying he gets tired in the fourth quarters - that's where the great players make their mark.

GATER: How do you feel about going after Rose with everything outside Yao? I think he's probably the best PG we could hope for - I don't see any of the Nash's, Parker's going anywhere. Calderon a possibility as well.

 

tmac's defense in this playoffs has been fine. he has given a few easy layups to brewer but even when battier guards him, we have purposely ignored him to help out other guys. tmac's overall defense v. utah has been pretty good. when guys challenged him like ak or harpring, he has shut them down.

again, i am open to trading tmac if it will only take this team further than what they are right now.

also do you really think tmac will land you the top 3 pick? HELL NO.

be realistic in your proposals. if we can have a PG like calderon, i would love that but we don't need to trade tmac to get calderon. we can prollie trade battier for him and i think toronto might accept that.

we have 2 stars who have struggled in the 4th/under pressure. that's why it's key that we alleviate the responsiblities (you have to admit tmac is being asked to do too much right now and the same with yao when he does play) and hopefully they'll be fresher later in the game.

realistically, our stars aren't the problem (if we had boozer on this team, i'm sure we're all gonna bash him too after his performance so far). we need more consistent role players.

 

If Rockets want to keep T-mac they have to realize he can NO LONGER be the 1st option. He's getting older and less athletic. We need to surround him with good players. Of course with his current $20 mil contract that won't be possible.

And would T-mac accept being the 2nd or even 3rd option in the future?

That being said, whats wrong with this team is the lack of quality role players, not the stars. Our secondaries perform like scrubs in the postseason...Hayes, Head, Novak, even Alston at times ?? The only quality role players we have are Battier, Scola, Landry and Deke (except Deke can't play more than 15 minutes without getting pulled). Cmon, we need way better role players than those.

 

tmac has admitted publicly many times yao is the best player on this team so i doubt he cares what role he plays.

all i want for him to do this offseason is improve on his shooting fundamentals. the other parts of his game are fine. just practice his shot and perfect it.

 

Yeah I actually do, but it really depends on who gets the top 3 picks.

For instance, Seattle/Minnesota/Memphis would have no interest in McGrady.

NYK/MIA would have interest - pairing Wade and McGrady would boost them back into the East's top four. I'm not sure what Walsh is going to do in NY, but McGrady would be looked at as their savior. (Look at how much love Randolph got)

Clippers/Bobcats could potentially have interest in landing someone like McGrady as well. Basically, I think it all depends on who gets what draft pick.

I agree with you on Calderon, but disagree on one part: this board is notorious for undervaluing other players. I think Calderon is a budding star, and it would take more than "give them Shane" to get it done. That said, I think we could possibly get it done without Tmac - but we'd probably have to give up a 1st rounder and possibly Landy/Scola

We've been wanting that since the day he got here. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen. He doesn't have the work ethic of a Yao Ming. He seems to be content to be the player he is - it drives me nuts that he's like that.

 

you do know these young guys in rose/beasley are 18-19 yr olds right? they might not even trade those picks for kobe dude.

HOWEVER, miami is the only team that might pull the trade. they want to contend now and having a tmac-wade duo might intrigue them.

calderon is good, but he's not that good. the reason it will take more than shane is b/c PGs are such a valuable position right now.

 

I honestly think deep down that T-Mac wants to easy way out and wants to be traded to a real good team. Forget about being nice, get the best we can for him even if that means he has to go to a crap team. We freakin sent Hakeem to Toronto, send t-mac to a lottery team so he can't ride some other players past the first round.

 

you saw how harder he has been working this yr. he could work harder, but he's showing signs.

and i'm sure after this season (where he has publicly admitted how pathetic he has played offensively), his pride will kick in.

remember, he ended last yr w/ 2 of the best games of his career (26 and 16 in game 5, 29 and 13 in game 7) so he thought he's still great offensively.

this yr it's not the case. his bad shooting has gone one for months now. he WILL work on it i'm sure.

 

Will he accept such a role?