This is such bull****. Does anyone here think for a minute that Carroll Dawson or ANYONE in the Rockets organization would turn around and hammer a former player the way Weisbrod does? Of course, they fail to mention that Orlando is not built to be a contender. No one honestly thinks they will have great success in the playoffs where slow-it-down, half-court basketball and tough defense are prevalent. They can score points in buckets, but just like Memphis last year, they are a paper tiger. I've always liked Stevie, but he and Grant Hill do not equal Jordan and Pippen.
Wrong forum !! Just kidding, Clutch. In all fairness, I think the trade was good for both squads, while I don't expect Tmac to score 40+ every night , having him be the first option is EXACTLY what should happen, and it will allow Yao to just go get his own...something he needs to do as well. Until Yao is a consistent post up force, make him earn it through occasional post ups and put backs. DD
Well, yes...I don't understand why there is the negative connotation with this. The guy is primarily an offensive player, and a freakishly good offensive player at that. Yes, he's not a bad passer and he doesn't turn the ball over very much, but he's a ****ing SCORER! OBVIOUSLY he needs the ball to be effective, the same way that Shaq needs the ball to be effective and Jordan needed the ball to be effective. And yes, the same way that Francis needs the ball to be effective. If Steve didn't ever touch the ball, he'd pull down half a dozen rebounds a game and sit on the end of the bench. And by the way, any GM in his right mind would have made that trade--and as much as I love Steve Francis, I'd rather have a guy who can score 40 any given night in McGrady than a guy who has a assist/turnover ratio of 3 to 2. Averaging 6 assists and 4 turnovers a game is still not as amazing as everyone wants to believe.
You're right but it's not hard to understand why there is so much bitterness in Orlando toward T-Mac. After all, he basically quit on them last year and forced the Magic to deal him while tying their hands in the process. Next he burned (nuked actually) every bridge by saying that the guys he played with were "losers" and how "glad" he was to be gone from there - comments guaranteed to leave a lot of hard feelings in their wake. Not exactly the type of behavior that one would catagorize as "diplomatic".
Orlando Sentinel are comprised of desparate writers who lack class. I still think John Weisbrod is an idiot. Our season isn't over yet.
Before we all talk about how admirable the Chron is, they've had their share of crack backs on players. Hell, Dale Robertson got his face punched by Dan Pastorini back in the Luv Ya Blue days when Robertson wrote a particularly harsh diatribe against Dante. Granted, the Orlando Sentinnel is, in some respects, only slightly more of a real newspaper than the Waco Tribune-Herald (no offense to the Trib), but all papers have their problems. I will say this. They sure do enjoy kissing up to Weisbrod.
Grant Hill. So much for that issue. Now, I agree DaDakota, TMac should be the first option. Ming is not comfortable in that role, which is disappointing, but just keep him involved. In research you don't base your conclusions on limited sampling. Let's wait and see where Orlando and Houston are come playoff time. What if Hill goes down again? What if, miracle of miracles, the Rockets actually get a real PF. More data is needed for a valid comparison and appraisal of the trade.
When Barkley was traded for 3 players to Phoenix, who got the better of the deal? When Shaq was traded for 3 players, who got (has gotten) the better of the deal? History has shown that trading several players for a MVP-level player has, in the large majority of cases, turned out more favorably for the team with the MVP. Not always, but in many cases, particularly in basketball. I don't know why everyone thought this would be an even trade in the beginning. You've got 3 guys who have played together for several years and are good, if not very good, players. Why wouldn't Orlando start out faster? I expected this all along. This happens EVERY YEAR in basketball. A team like the Sonics or Mavericks or Kings or Atlanta (back in the day) comes out of the gate steamrolling, and everyone is ready to pencil them in as the NBA Finals representative. There was actually an article about the Seattle-Indiana game a couple of weeks ago entitled, "NBA Finals Preview?" OK, right. Yes, Seattle will certainly beat the Suns, Spurs, and Kings- all in 7-game series. McGrady seems like he has more drive than people give him credit for. Yao is, perhaps, not the second coming of Hakeem, but so what? If he gives you 20 and 10, even barely a 20 and 10, he's a good person to help build a team around. He's going to get better, you're always going to get effort, and teammates will enjoy playing with him. They just need more time together and better pieces. Mark my words- Orlando will NOT be winning a championship in the next decade, but the Rockets will. Gonna happen. Maybe not this year or the next, but it's gonna happen. It's a small world, after all.
everytime i read something like this, it makes me really dislike Orlando, the Sentinel and the Magic.
Anybody remember "The Hallucination"? The Chronicle has a history of very insulting uninformed articles too (read: almost every Fran Blinebury article ever written). I think it's pretty much a sports editorialist's job to be a total sensationalist @$$hole! With that said, man this Sentinel guy didn't even do a good job of taking quotes out of context. Reading them, I didn't get any sense of whining whatsover.
Think what the Rockets would have been like last year with a healthy Grant Hill, young Mr. Howard at the PF spot, and Hedo coming off the bench along with Mo.... as long as Gundy didn't make it all too complex for anyone to implement....
What I emailed this doofus: You losers in Orlando still don’t understand anything remotely tied to the game of basketball. Once you realize that Tracy never had the opportunity to play with half the guys on your current team including Grant Hill, then and only then will your hypocrisy fall apart. I have never seen a city or organization take the anti-high road as much as Orlando. Please recall that we gave up three legit starters for one superstar and three guys who wouldn’t crack your rotation this year. This has nothing to do with McGrady and everything to do with the raw sewage we received as compensation. If you want to proclaim the “Orlando got the better end of the deal story”, that’s fine. I have no problem with that, but keeping your fans in Orlando in a world of fantasy and disillusion is by far the most amusing thing this Houstonian has seen since Nick Anderson bricked those Free Throws in the NBA Finals. Now that was funny. Dave
That should be the wise approach like a few others have expressed aptly. But unfortunately for the pre-schoolers and naive amongst us and in Orlando it is not the case. Why exactly is everyone running over themselves to say I miss Steve or I told your so? Is February, March or April too far away for you ADD behinds? Trust me there will a whole lot of time to tell if this trade was right, wrong, good, bad or a wash for both sides (even if it takes years). Just like someone said earlier as well, the test is in championships and playing championship basketball. I am confident that our team is on the right path to securing or 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th......championships with this current core. But for now I will leave it to time to sort out...
When you say core, do you mean TMac & Yao? Or the entire team? But there is no way this current team gets homecourt advantage in the playoffs, we might drag ourselves in like last season. The lack of a real PF assures that alone.
OOOOOOHHHHHHH! OUCH! That one just sounded like it would hurt if I were a Magic fan. I busted out laughing when I read those last 2 sentences. BUUUUUUUUUUURN! But in all seriousness, you stated facts to go along with your hurtful last 2 sentences. Excellent response. I hope he reads and it hurts.
This is ridiculous. They're team is justifying the trade on the court. What the hell do they need damage control for. They're one of the best teams in they're conference. The Rockets and the Houston media are in damage control mode.
