I guess that there's nothing wrong with the poll, but the commentary is laughable. How many times do we have to say it? T-H-I-S I-S-N-'-T H-O-O-S-I-E-R-S Your team doesn't win just because we have a bunch of nice guys who pass it a lot (4 PASSES!!!!!). Maybe we can sign a fan to a 10-day during the game and he can hit a clutch technical free throw under-handed! Without Yao and T-mac we are a lotto team. Why would we hope for options that make us so, like T-mac playing 6th man... Other teams aren't going to give us up and coming stars, so the trading option sounds like a bad idea. The best hope for a good season this year is a healthy T-mac by December with a tough, defensive team that can somehow find a way to plug the gaping hole at the 5 until Yao comes back next year. P.S. I can't believe no NBA team needed a Lebron-like wing for the league minimum.... If only all 30 teams weren't missing the key insights to talent that we're lucky enough to get in these threads.
I think his first game back he will come off the bench and put up 12 points with 3 dimes and 1 board... He will then start the rest of the year, yes he will remain a rocket for the rest of his contract, then he will come off the books creating space for d. Morey to sign Joe Johnson... On the same day Johnson signs with the rockets McGrady will sign with the bulls.
Maybe so, maybe not. Without Tmac and Yao there are opportunities for younger players to step up. Neither you or I know how they will respond, so it is silly to call them a lotto team, when we don't know how the team without them responds. The certainly did OK in the playoffs against the Lakers without them....and swapping Ariza for Artest is an upgrade, IMO. In your opinion, I am hoping to see younger player develop, and the team to move on from the Tmac era...... DD
^agree The Suns are one injury away from mediocrity which pretty much assures us the final playoff spot. Don't underestimate the power of a bunch of try hards!
He said he'd be ready by start of training camp. He insists that he is ready, but the team is keeping him out for precautionary reasons. My guess is that the MRI showed that he still isn't full recovered, despite what he's saying. I'm not going to blame him for that -- none of expected when he got the surgery that he'd be ready for the start of the year. I think he did what was expected from him during the offseason, maybe more.
The gaping hole in the whole (We need Tmac) argument is that it fails to take into account the growth of the young players and the fact that the team got to the 2nd round WITHOUT him last year. Brooks, Lowry, Landry and Scola are all entering their 3rd year in the league, this is usually when players start to really show their abilities. The premise of their argument is "We need a superstar player"......who knows...maybe one of the young guys or all of them combined will add up to a better team than one dominated by a gimpy 30 year old coming off of microfracture surgery. DD
I think the team is being extra cautious for a couple of reasons. 1. Tmac's injury history - no need to take any chances. 2. Get the offensive identity going without Mr. I need my touches in the game. I mean Tmac was already playing 5 on 5 in Chicago, and now he is back to just rehabbing excercises? That sounds very fishy to me. I think Tmac is ready to be playing in training camp....but the team isn't.... DD
I think he'll come back in early november and then lead the rockets to the third longest winning steak of all time, 5th best record of all time, scoring leader, MVP, and shock the world in the finals by scoring 19 points in the final 25 seconds of game 7 to beat Lebron and Shaq by one point at the buzzer... then The Rockets will proceed to sign him to a 5 year 30 million dollar per year deal... after which he will promptly break his leg in 6 places while in a scrimmage game in China by tripping over a 4' point guard named Bro Ken Leg.
1st T-Mac is done with the Rockets. He played his last game as a Rocket. Now guys are predicting his regular season debut??? Wow how things have changed. Its funny how an injury to one player can change a lot of guys minds
His regular season debut is the inevitable, predicting his debut dosen't necessarily change the way someone feels about him. It would've been nice if it was just the injuries, unfortunately it's everything else.
And here I was beginning to think that you were softening up... I would still like to see T-Mac play with this group before everyone continues to say he dominates the ball. If you have other players that demand/command the respect of the defense by consistently hitting their shots and making basketball plays on their own, then you might see the T-Mac that was here pre-injury. Yes, we know his age and his medical status but what we don't know is how he will perform at the NBA level again. Yet, I would argue that the T-Mac "of last year" was still seen by opposing defenses as as much of threat or more than any other Rocket outside of Yao. Yes, they are better as 3 yr players but how much better will they be with the addition of the previously mentioned 30 yr old playmaker? How much better will Scola be when he receives a pass out of double team due to a legitimate perimeter threat? How much better will Brooks be when he doesn't have the pressure of making passes that he has yet to show he can make or even see? How much better will Lowry (who has been in the league longer entering his fourth) be when he has a SG that allows him to penetrate even more than he did last yr or even spot up for a jumper. We all now how much Landry benefited from T-Mac being on the court, even on a bad leg. I don't understand some of the chemistry arguments that are being speculated. Each player does need to do more but that should happen even when the stars are in the game too. This argument takes the role players off the hook. If the stars are expected to elevate their games, shouldn't the role players be held to the same standard? When baking a cake, you don't add the eggs after the batter has been place in the pan do you? So why do we want our team's chemistry to be segmented in this way? Put all of the ingredients in at the same time and then stir like hell. I won't even address the second round argument... If this team is healthy beyond Yao, then they will again visit the second round when having a favorable match up like last year.
I think you know by now what the premise of most of these arguments against Tracy McGrady are all about, pdewalt. People don't like McGrady, so there's no way around that. These discussions don't have anything to do with the Rockets. They have everything to do with whether or not you like or dislike Tracy McGrady. He hasn't done anything even remotely close to hindering players or undermining his teammates or gut-punching the organization. The same people who watch and spend time with McGrady have had ample opportunity to get his cancerous self on the first tomato truck out of town anytime they wanted. In fact, any player I've seen over the past few seasons who was on the outs with an organization was given the heave-ho, no matter what the excuse was. Nobody around here has had the idea to put McGrady on the IR, or buy out what's left of his contract, or trade him for pennies on the dollar, if he's really not worth the "trouble" he causes? It's a matter of getting something of value for him? Despite the fact that he's worthless in any situation? Despite the fact that the consensus is to move him around for whatever's out there? The organization and coaching staff "say" the right things in front of cameras and microphones in order to sucker somebody into taking McGrady off the Rockets' hands? Really? Why? Anytime a professional disagreement gets personal, you sever ties as quickly and as amicably as you can, pdewalt. That isn't what's happened with the Rockets and McGrady, but because of personal bias around here, that won't be accepted. Playing some kind of shell game at the expense of the rest of the team just smacks of people who have more opinion than sense. Look. I spend more time than it's ultimately worth to turn the other cheek in McGrady's defense from time to time. McGrady has a lot to do to improve as a ballplayer. If he's willing to listen to his coaches, and if he's healthy enough to perform, I don't see that as being a problem. McGrady is not like a Stephon Marbury or an Allen Iverson, who'll defy authority before they do what's best for the team. Despite his ego, McGrady will do what's asked of him. He needs to be a better player, particularly from the perimeter. But his teammates are improving to the point where he can focus on being more consistent at manufacturing offense for a team that will have its problems scoring. Nobody's cared or paid any attention to how poor the talent on this team has been outside of Yao Ming or McGrady prior to the '07-'08 season, because McGrady was always here to get on someone's nerves. McGrady has distracted everybody except his coaches and management and teammates with his selfishness and cowardice. Go figure. Maybe instead of softball, McGrady should be an illusionist when he's done pulling the wool over our eyes on the basketball court...
If you picked sometime in December....come on down...get yourself a prize 101 clutchfans for the win. ANYONE VOTING NOW....is just trying to cash a check they didn't earn...lol So far we have made it through the first 6....and it has gone down just as DaDaCayce predicted......can we get all the way? DD
I picked it on the first day of the thread.... but out of this list of 104, only 102 were on it when I decided to copy the names... honest much? 3franchise, AXG, Big MAK, bigballerj, BizzleRocket, bobby6186, BrooksBall, CheezeyBoy22, clos4life, Convictedstupid, Crudder, cson, DaDakota, DFW_Rockets_Fan, DILLIGAF, Disciple of RP, don grahamleone, dream2002, ElPigto, Evan, evo8jp, faraza84, fayesun, Firebomb525, Fullcourt, GladiatoRowdy, hans, Hayesfan, HeyDude, Houstondiva, hsf09, htownfan911, IROC it, ItsMyFault, jackie_moon23, JBIIRockets, jevjnd, JoeBarelyCares, jr249, JuanValdez, karthik.08, LCII, Malcolm, MambaJoe, mazinger, Melechesh, mi0304, mirror_image, mrdan, nejyh, nEwsKool, Noob Cake, n_naik1, ojmayo_lebron, PanchoVilla3504, PigMiller, QiangDi, Red Blue Blur, rimbaud, robbie380, Rocket4Life11, RocketBlood, Rockets420, rockets4life!, rocketsregle, rockets_fanatic, Rockets_Truth, RowdyRicky, Sam the Ram, Samar, shawn786, Shay, shortfuse3, SmoothOperator, Someguy1229, soysauce, Spacemoth, TapeFreak, teemacatac, texanskan, thcdrummer007, The Rock MVP, theimpossibles1, the_hustler, throwedyung14, tinman, Title99, tobepg, tom110758, treyk3, TriCkz, ts79, Turpis, txppratt, VBG, vci_guy2003, vpyingyang, waytookrzy079, xouterheavenx, xxdjwitflaresxx, Yaojig, Zer0, zhangch, Ziggy
