Paul Pierce or Tracy McGrady

He was excellent at the start of the season, and was most people's pick for MVP but then the nagging injuries

No he's not overrated, well depends on who you ask

 

i think i've already said it once in this thread, but i'm gonna do it again for good measure.

Tmac is FAR superior to paul pierce. Tmac is our entire team when Yao is down.

 

Let me just say while the numbers are in my favor like a vaWHATchina that I'd rather have T-Mac than PP. Not only as a Rocket and Celtic fan but as an empiricist. No duh, T-Mac could rule the land with KG and Ray Allen... not to mention Sam Cassell and PJ Brown and co...

Yes I will defile the Celts in favor of our divine and destined Rockets. Every number of times!

 

it is more likely thatTMac's lack of heart, determination and overall dedication will clash with Garnett strong will and competiveness.

 

The posts on this board are becoming laughable. "Tmac is our entire team when Yao is down"? Get real. The last few weeks of the season, Tmac's fg% was downright embarassing.

And why do you think tmac is far superior to pierce? Its always best to support your assertions with analysis.

 

Were we winning with Tmac? Yes.

Yao as of right now is not even in the same universe as Tmac when it comes to carrying a team.

And I aint no TMOF or *** or Yourmamaonlyfan of any kind.

 

There are so many flaws in your logic that I dont know where to start. First, Winning with Tmac doesnt not mean that he carried the Rockets. Look at the Laker (last game of our win streak) game if you want proof.

Not even in the same universe? Its actually much closer than you think. Tmac is more dynamic which enables him to do more with less. However, if both Yao and Tmac were given teams with consistent role players (imagine the 1994 Rockets' role players), Yao's team would outperform Tmac's IMO.

On any given night, the odds are that Yao would destroy his opponent if he were under single coverage. This would necessitate a double team which would lead to an open shot. You're probably thinking that Yao gets a lot of turnovers. This is true, but its not his fault. Many times I've seen a weak side defender come and steal the ball. Its his teammates responsibility to warn him of this. If he had quality role players, it wouldnt happen so frequently.

Tmac does not command the same type of defensive attention as Yao. If his defender plays physically, then Tmac can be single covered and he will have problems. Do you remember the Kings game where Novak hit the game winner? We lost our big lead b/c of Artest. Tmac was guarding him, and Artest was scoring at will. Playing physically against Tmac will wear him down through the course of a game and he will be far less effective.

 

illogical; Yao and Yao only is responsible for his TOs.

give some egs.

 

You're saying that T-Mac's submissiveness will clash with a player whose main criticism is that he doesn't demand enough shots. If anything they'd be Rick Adelman's dream team. Add a third star, we're in business if we ignore the possibility of injury.

You didn't say "submissiveness" but I think you need to be more specific with the assertions you did make. They're too nebulous and I think you got them from ESPN.

 

Nope, you are 100% wrong. Teammates are supposed to warn other teammates when defensive help is coming (i.e. a pick).

With his style of play, he did have success with our feeble roster this year (after Yao went down). I don't think Yao could've achieved the same type of success if Tmac went down (mainly because we have inconsistent shooters).

 

Actually, what I think he's saying is that Garnett, being very competitive, would want Tmac to spend hours at the gym working on his free throws and conditioning. Tmac, being very lazy, would not.

 

first off, tmac would thrive in a situation like boston.. he loves to defer, b/c w/o pressure, he is liable to be the best offensive player in the nba.. yes, up there with kobe... w/ pressure, it's harder for him to excel the whole game.

with a kg and ray allen, it'd be over i think.. t-mac has a way of looking down on opponents, and when he does, it's usually over.

That being said,

Tmac is the better overall player while paul pierce is a little bit of everything... will, skill, athleticism, etc.

Tmac is talent-based, Kobe is mental-based... pierce is in between..

with kg and allen, talent-based would have to be the best choice. plus tmac's mentallity is getting stronger. but his body isn't keeping up.

I TAKE TMAC

 

He definitely did not say that. But since you did...

It would be nice to think that practice makes perfect in every situation. We're all equal in theory as an ideal. In reality... not so much.

Can you be really sure that laziness is the culprit? It could be something going on in his head but you can't just take an omniscient leap and say he sucks at FTs bc he's lazy.

I think their styles would work wonderfully together. If there were too many deferrals, obviously that's the coaches job to get them to shoot more and find a nice intermediate.

 

I agree that Tmac is a better overall player, but I think the disparity is very small. Tmac is a better playmaker and seems to move faster, but Pierce also has the ability to get into the lane. He's an inferior passer but a better finisher. In general though, Pierce is the better scorer. If you factor in their health, its plausible that Pierce will prove to be the better overall player next year.

 

Free throws are all about repetition. The more you practice, the more you get used to the motions. Why do you think Jordan was able to make free throws with his eyes closed?

Not quite an omniscient leap. More like a logical deduction.

 

if FTs and 3 pt shooting weren't the case, it wouldn't even make sense to compare the 2. PP passing isn't close to T-MAC's passing.

Coming from a hardcore PP fan 2 yrs ago i still think that T-MAC is a whole lot better. If you watch some of the games PP is totally nonexistent on doing anything, he coasts a lot.

 

yip, it would be unfair to no-D TMac, where D=defense and dedication.

for a guy who shows no D, and one that has never advanced pass the first round of playoff, even when teamed with an all-star Center, he sure gets lots of unwarranted credit

as compared to the NoD TMac, PP is a dedicated hardworker.

 

Tmac wouldn't win anything in Bostom anyway, you forget Boston is only in the finals because of Paul Pierce's clutch games. I highly doubt Mcgrady would come up with as many clutch performances as Pierce, like you said he likes to defer. He can't close out games like Pierce.