Ric Bucher: I dont see a Tmac-led team winning a chip, EVER

Game 6 and 7 last year are extremely close in the deciding minutes. Those are killing minutes.

Now there is a mountain of burden on T-mac and Yao in the first round of the playoff, you do not want them to play game 7 ever again in the first round. I think if they have to play game 7 again, they will lose again. Psychologically, they can't conquer it. But once they can pass game 7 of the first round, they could go all the way.

 

It's simple, he's never once been on a team that was as good as the team he lost to in the playoffs. Never. People keep saying the Rockets should have beaten Utah, but the fact was Utah was better, and yes a lot of reasons like coaching moves and injuries caused that. But regardless the team he actually had at his disposal was not as good as Utah.

And the Pistons, Mavs, and Jazz despite all being better teams were taken to 7 games, and I don't buy the game 7 at home argument, because Utah was the better team.

This year there is absolutely no way in hell if the Rockets stay relatively healthy that they will not be clearly better than their first round opponent. Once they get past the first round Yao and McGrady will be much looser and more free.

There is no guarantee of a title, but they should be right there with the Suns or Spurs.

 

I am obviously a huge Rocket's fan and I like TMac, but, you know, I have to agree. Yao and TMac too often seem to lack the "inner fire" in crunch time. They especially seem to wilt when they get banged around. The team desperately needed some "attitude" kind of players that get more determined in adversity. I think we got them.

 

It speaks volumes about Tmac's heart that many of the Tmac fans here keeping saying "how can we let Tmac see this?" or "let's send Tmac a copy!" Wow, we need to send our best player newspaper clippings to motivate him to play hard? Doesn't sound like a Champion to me.

The guy is a franchise player with a max contract and more talent than anyone in the game. He's also been in the league 10 years and blown three 2-0 leads in the playoffs and has yet to sniff the first round. Honestly, what on earth makes any of you think this guy can lead a team to a Championship? He was defended by Derek freaking Fisher for much of the Utah series and failed to capitalize. Derek Fisher!!!

I said he couldn't lead this team to a ring LAST off-season but he kind of made me a believer when Yao went out and he started playing like the MVP but come playoff time it was back same old soft, bad shot-taking, run his mouth Tmac. By your 10th year in the league you are as good as you'll ever be and in Tmac's case your best days are behind you.

The guy has conditioned himself to losing. I don't even think it bothers him now as much as it used to. He runs his mouth, plays like **** with the game on the line and then makes excuses and says "I'll be back" or whatever. Repeat process every season.

 

True indeed he needs to be quiet for a change and let Yao or james,francis,wells do the talking. T-mac starts to talk and then it leads to him making excuses. T-mac needs to let his play define him and quit talking so much.

 

You are not only possibly the worst McGrady only fan on this board, you are also a YOH who belongs in the same sentence as Charlie Rosen. You're clearly not a Rockets fan.

Bill Simmons is a blatant McGrady fan and doesn't view Yao terribly fondly, do I call him an idiot? I will say that I love his columns, even the ones I don't agree with.

 

thank you.

 

I think How far Rockets can go next season somehow depends on Tmac's FT%. Tmac didn't penetrate at clutch time because he didn't have confidence in his FT (around 70% last season). Mentality is built on ability! He should work very very very hard on his FT this summer. I believe If his FT get 75%, Rockets can past first round. If it is over 80%, Rockets can reach west conference final!

 

Yao is not a leader material either unfortunately.

 

there could be arguements made either way the past two playoff series for the rockets but they had 2-0 leads and lost them both. i think the jazz series really exposed the rockets lacked of playmakers. some of that should fall on jvg's stubborness and some on management on not trying to get other types of talent. this years team is a lot better on that front. do i think the rockets were a better team than the jazz last year? i think they were about par, but the rockets were missing that one "playmaker" piece that the jazz had. I believe you take the 05 team and have them play the 07 the 05 team would win because of the abilities of james,sura,barry and wesley to even an extent. but we'll see how the season plays out

oh yeah i agree with bucher i dont see a tmac led team winning a championship

i see them winning several championships

 

I think T-Mac will lead the Rockets deep into the playoffs..more than once

 

I haven't seen Tracy in a play off round that he should have won!

 

agreed...big time talent, but it has to translate into big time winning plays....game 7 was there for the taking as was game 6

 

Sportswriters are no better than sports talk radio hosts, they just blow way out of proportion what has already happened. There's not a single person out there with an ounce of foresight; they all just say "I saw it coming" after the fact.

The Rockets haven't won anything yet with this cast, but isn't that the way things usually go? Champions exist to be dethroned, and new winners take their place. So don't expect any of the East Coast-biased writers to give any credence to the Rockets this year, just keep it in mind when the bandwagon gets crowded with all these "I told you so" no-talent artards after the Rockets "surprise" everyone with their performance this year. As long as you believe now, then you can bask in silent pride knowing that you really DID know it was going to happen.

And in case you actually need evidence, here's five potential sources of improvement in this year's cast: 1.Adelman's offense; 2.Luis Scola (the next Pau Gasol?) 3.Aaron Brooks 4.Steve Francis (did he pull a Vince Carter the past two years?) 5.Yao Ming (he's FINALLY getting tips from CD and Olajuwon, why did it take so long!). There's really no ceiling to this team with Yao Ming healthy and hungry. And for those who keep bashing McGrady, remember that: a.)Utah is the cheapest team in the league and they literally hacked and clawed their way past us; b.)the lane will be SIGNIFICANTLY more open this year with our motion offense so he just might take it to the lane again; c.)he finally found a consistent remedy for his back; and d.)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJHQ0MlceiQ. So simma down now, haters.

 

I believe that's due to his back condition.

 

maybe i'm missing something, but didn't tracy have almost a triple double in those last 2. didn't he put up like 10 asst one game and pull down 10 rebs in the other?

 

who cares. he just needs to admit he is a donkey when the rockets win it all this year.

 

Agreed. He's a great NBA reporter and is very respectable. It's not like he's pulling this out of nowhere. It's been 10 years and McGrady hasn't led any of his teams past the FIRST ROUND. That's just a fact.

 

That's why the James and Francis pickups make atleast a bit of sense. From a leadership standpoint, they're solid.

 

when has a shooting guard led team ever won a championship(besides MJ, I'm not even going to talk about the choke Mavericks).