So Lets List All the Positives That Happened Today..

Here's a positive: In the long run, we aren't screwed. Look at the Mavs, look at the Suns. They are going to be mediocre teams for 2-3 years because they screwed themselves with bad contracts, same with Golden State (although they were always mediocre). The Knicks and Kings are JUST now starting to come out of that funk of bad contracts after about 5-6 years of suffering through it.

Lets just say Tmac finishes the season shooting less than 40%... we can trade him in the offseason as an expiring if we want to get back in the playoff hunt. We can sign and trade Artest if we wanted. Or if they miraculously pan out, we could keep them. Or we could let them both walk and we'll have cap space for 2010.

Tmac had a bad game, but lets give him a little credit. He's at least been average since he's been back. And there is just no excuse for that defense.

And as bad as Tmac has been playing this season. There are a lot more places to look before you should throw it all on Tmac. Battier is shooting less than 40% now. Considering all of his shots are open 3s, this is terrible. Artest is playing statistically worse than Tmac. Less assists, less points, lower FG% (higher 3p% tho and rebounds). Alston is somehow playing worse than normal (but so is Brooks, which is why Alston is still starting).

Not trying to defend Tmac, but you gotta start putting some blame on these other guys. If Brooks was hitting 45% of his shots, if Battier or Head were playing well. Hell, even if Artest was doing well, I would be perfectly fine with getting rid of Tmac. But unloading Tmac isn't going to make Battier or Brooks make their open 3s. It's not going to make Artest shoot a better percentage.

 

But with tmac 's salary (highest paid), you just expect more from him. So yes I would blame him. Three points....

 

I understand, but people will say "well, if we trade him for anything, we'll be fine". Or "well, if we bench him, we'll be fine". People like to think that Tmac is the reason the rest of the team is playing bad, but I'm not buying it.

 

to me it's the chemistry issue. very very stick to solve imo.

and granted if 2 people don't like or feel for each other, it's hardly anyone's fault per se. but if 10 guys on a team have issues with one guy, chances are that one guy has more issues.

 

for McGrady backers = his 1-9 isnt that much worse than 2-8 or ZERO-3 from the field. There's blame to go around.

I saw that the 2nd unit actually gives a damn about playing, within the coaching system they're given. And they looked healthy and active doing it. And I didnt get the impression a player had something against another player.

 

Marbury for Tmac. Do it. Dont ruin next season too.

 

Yay~~ it's more likely we'll have a trade! That's the only possitive I found.

 

All I'm saying is, Tmac is playing bad. But if Tmac leaves the team, Battier and Brooks aren't going to start nailing their 3s. Artest isn't going to start hitting his old FG% again. Alston is going to continue to somehow play worse than his career FG% this season.

 

Somehow, the Rocket's shooting percentages go up when TSlack doesn't play. Can you explain that?

 

Von Wafer gets more minutes and he is currently our best peremeter shooter... by far. Scola gets more touches and him and Yao get more touches when Tmac isn't playing.

Tmac shoots less than 40%... I wonder why our percentages go up when he isn't playing. We also shot better without Artest, we should probably try and solve that mystery while we are at it.

Its actually pretty easy to explain if you just... use your brain.

I'll reiterate my point: We can get rid of Tmac, but we aren't going to get out of the 1st round with a starting line-up of Rafer, Wafer, Batter/Artest, Scola, Yao. Only 3 of those 6 players average 40% shooting. Throw Brooks in there since he is probably the next player off the bench and its 3 of 7. Thats just horrible. With Tmac gone, we'll just realize that the rest of the team isn't playing worth crap and get pissed at them.

 

So what your saying is, the offense runs smoother and better shooters get better shots without TSlack. Okay, we agree.

We aren't even going to the first round with TSlack. We need to get sit him down. He is hurting the team on average.

 

Thing is, you could make the argument to say the same for Artest though. Thats what I'm saying... if we are going to just bench everyone that is playing like crap, we'd have no point guard. Landry would have to play SF because both Battier and Artest are sub 40 shooters.

 

I didn't say bench everyone. Bench the guy whose backup has played quite well. I don't care what the salary differential is.

 

Positive:
we weren't nuked by a nuclear bomb yesterday

 

Ok... but why are you benching Tmac? Because he is playing like crap? Then why not bench Battier? Why not bench Artest (actually Artest is already benched)?

You aren't going to really solve the issue by just benching one guy that is playing like crap this season. You have 4-5 guys playing like crap. Benching 1 doesn't help.

 

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/featur...ms=10~10~21~10~21~10~17~17~17~17~21&te=&cash=

Finally, The team manager make up his mind to make this trade

 

Battier doesn't demand the ball and take bad shots. He'll play in the offense. Plus, he *does* play defense on every possession. I agree, that he often isn't very effective, but he doesn't damage the Rockets as much as TSlack does.

 

In spite of everything, the Rockets can still win 50 games by going 19-11 from here on out. That's doable and will probably put us in the middle of the pack for seeding.

 

I'm not really comparing Battier to Tmac and saying they hurt us just as bad. Obviously when you have a guy putting up 10+ shots a game and making less than 40%, he's going to be much worse than a guy like Battier that takes maybe 5 shots a game. But... if Battier was making 45% of his shots, I would feel much better trashing Tmac because you could say "well, everyone BUT Tmac is playing good".

But you can't say that.

 

I think they need to just bench the players or player that play with little effort and very little heart. That would be ok with me.