T-Mac down in every statistical category since last season

23.4PPG/5.9APG/5.8RPG without Yao...all above season averages.

How can you give more credit to the role players when they rely so heavily on T-Mac creating oppertunities for open shots, and of course T-Mac soley to take over in clutch situations and generate his own points except for those occasional off ball set plays? There is a reason that, despite having Yao for most of the year, he is 3rd in the league in usage rating, only behind Kobe and LeBron.

That is the worst misconception on this board. Want to know who makes within $3 million of his contract? Shaq, Jermaine O'Neal, Jason Kidd, Stephon Marbury, Shawn Marion, Antawn Jamison, Ray Allen, Ben Wallace, Sam Cassell (before being bought out).

T-Mac is by FAR the best player out of that group, which helps make up for the top 17 contracts in the NBA. If you consider T-Mac a better player than Baron Davis, Dirk and Pierce like I do, then out of the top 17 he is the 5th most deserving of the type of contract he currently has.

 

I agree.
Remember new role? New players? New system? New coach?

If T-Mac and Yao alone can take a very tough playoff team like Dallas and Utah to 7 games makes me believe with these new pieces and Yao back next season we will win the west hands down and probably take Boston to 6-7 games. I just dont think those 2 alone and new pieces will be enough to get past their big 3 nucleus and added role players next season untill we find our 3rd guy.

but i do believe that only Utah/San Antonio/Boston is better than us without him more Boston then the other 2. everybody else is beatable.

Even the Lakers can be beat in 7 that team dont play defense worth a crap and Gasol is not your playoff dominate big man.

I believe Denver is better than Dallas right now.
If we can beat Denver and almost beat them on the road without T-Mac then this makes me believe we can beat New Orleans just as well. I believe Carmelo/Iverson is better than Paul/West.
If we can beat Phoenix for 3 quarters on the road and them shooting red hot and with Shaq catching fire from the free throw line then odds tell me we can beat them too.

 

What the hell, man? Do you live in a vacuum? Is your life based purely on your "stats?" What your job is, what your GPA is, what kind of car you drive??? HELL NO....you are judged based on your PERSONALITY, your CHARACTER, basically...the OVERALL impact you have on people you care about, and the world. This has GOT to be one of the most asinine, stupid threads I have EVER seen, and that's taking into account this entire season on the GARM....this team has 52 wins, will probably finish with the top 5 regular seasons in FRANCHISE history, and still has a STRONG chance at getting Home-court in the playoffs, and you're talking about T-Mac's STATS going down?? Who the hell CARES about his stats?? He's the ONLY GUY on this team that draws double-teams now (hence the drop in pts and FG%), he handles the ball more than ANYONE else (hence the turnovers), and he's constantly getting hounded (hence the drop in FT%....he's freaking exhausted!) T-Mac's OVERALL impace on this team is INCOMPREHENSIBLE (especially after Yao went down) and for you to say that he does this team NO FAVORS actually makes me angry. It takes a lot for me to get mad at someone giving their opinion, but right now, you are CLEARLY wrong. Unbelievable....52-25 and you're saying his STATS are down.....GAH.

 

what your basically saying is the team could have gotten 52 games w.o tmac...some stuff you cant find on stats buddy, we are lucky to have tmac, guys like rafer make him look worse, however, you can criticize him on letting guys like that try to take over the game (kings game )...

 

No one should be criticizing right now, the rockets are damn lucky to get T-mac. And you know the reason why?

We basically traded away 3 players for 4 players. That includes t-mac and howard. Right now, if you think about it, the 3 players we traded away.
Francis, Kelvin Cato and Mobley put together are not even worth T-mac yet. And we managed to get 4 players out of that trade?

We're damn lucky to have him. And like I said stats don't mean a thing. Lebron can lead the league in everything and still be a worse team than the rockets.

No, we cannot say the cavs have a better team than us, but they DO have a more experienced line up, as well as 2 previous all-stars. At this level, we have to say the cavs do at least have a bigger advantage than us if both t-mac and lebron were not on the team.

And our team is new as well, and consist of 2 rookies, 1 below average PG and a 41 year old center. You telling me now that Lebron can do what t-mac did if he was in the rocket without Yao Ming, and T-mac was in the cavs?

Stop reading the stats, and do not back up ur arguement with stats. And don't even mention playoffs, t-mac is probably the best playoff performer in the league right now, and one of the best in nba history. He is no doubt an underrated playoff performer, but wont be if hes out the first round.

 

You had everything right on the dot. Im glad you brought up the way he played in the playoffs. Taking the 8th seed magic to a 3-1 lead over the 1 seed pistons! You can exemplify this just looking at how crappy the magic were there second best player was outlaw!. He was a 1 man team doing it all. Unfortunately its the playoffs/7 game series and the pistons finally realized all they had to do was double/triple tmac and they win. Also look at just about all the teams he took to the playoffs went to a 7 game series, he did all he could in game 7 last yr, and im proud of the guy, just wish he would have just as much confidence in himself as he does in his teammates. He has helped develop the team so much this yr, if you notice he tends to get everyone else going in the 1st half and takes over whenever he has to.

 

I was referring to shooting percentages, of course he will get more points and everithing else because he has the ball in his hands more.

 

You said this year he has played the same with and without Yao, and that is simply not true. Playing great basketball goes far beyond purely shooting %'s...

And that's yor only reaction to my post?!?

 

I think he played well with and without Yao, what is wrong in that? i just think that the raise in every category is due to more usage only, decision making will mainly reflect in assist (hollinger PER sub stat) and shooting percentage.

If a player raises his USG with constant production in other categories he will raise of course his assists, points, (rebounds and also TO) while shooting % does depend mainly oon playing better and taking better decisions.

 

Decision making changes with and without Yao. Without Yao he gets doubled a lot more, forcing more difficult shots.

And there is nothing wrong with it, but before you were comparing his stats to people of similar contracs and saying they arent impressive, and that is simply false. That is why I am going at you like this.

Again, he's not only getting more minutes, but the whole complexity of the team and how defenses defend T-Mac changes as Yao is out...he has a MUCH more difficult time scoring the ball without Yao.

 

T-mac is the only superstar on the team, so he will be pressured more often. There is absolutely nothing wrong if he has a bad shooting percentage as long as he rebounds, assists, and flows with the offense and don't try to be the offense.

 

As long as we are winning, I don't care if he averages 10/2/2.

 

You don't have the right to call other players bandwagon fans. Why? Because if thats the case, RA should be on the ride, since he expected his NUMBERS to go down. Why do you have to be so stubborn. And how can you start changing your opinion on t-mac and start acting like you've been supporting t-mac all along. You haven't, you've been hating, and talking smart does not make you a non hater.

If rockets are down 6 and 7, right now, Im damn proud because we're still in the playoffs, and we proved haters wrong. If he isn't shooting well, he passes and flows along with the offense. Whats wrong with that? Do you want him to be Kobe and make 33 shot, only to hit 11 of them? And Yes, t-macs FGA has gone down. He used to take around 25-27 shots per game, but lately (except for good defenseive teams like SA and BOSTON, which you cannot include in ur arguement) He has taken more than 20 WHEN he has a bad shooting night.

And you don't make any sense. T-mac makes his players better, and somehow that means his FT% will go up? If his FGA goes down, that DOESN'T mean his FG% goes up. If takes 4 shot attempts and only hits 1. That means he is shooting 25%. Have you thought about that? The less shot you take, the lower your FG% tend to be, depending on your shooting night.

And once again you go stats. You know not everything can be proven statistically, THATS WHY YOU WATCH THE GAME. Can you statistically tell whether Kobe is better than MJ. Cause if you can, Kobe should be above MJ right now.

And right now, the team is doing good because T-MAC is playing team ball. He is the only superstar on the team, so hes bound to be most heavily defended. How do you expect his FG% to be so high?

Your arguement is too statistical and statistically one sided. Statisically, I believe stats can't statistically tell you whether a player is better. A player can be bad for a year statistically, but does that make him a better player?

Remove stats out of your arguement, and you have nothing to say. Please watch some games first. Cause statistically you're posting one-sided statistical stats that are statistically too statistical to prove anything.

 

Stuff not shown in the stat sheet:

FGA in the flow of the offense and percentage of FGA in the flow of the offense

Hockey Assists (Pass before the pass that gets the assist)

Distracting the defense

Playing thru injuries(ya know, like he has been doing the past 5 or 6 games)

 

I can't statistically offer any statistical analysis of this sentence to further the statistics.

 

McGradys' never gonna earn his money, just not. You think he's gonna go back to 33 pts a game next year to "earn" the $22 million he's gonna get? Should Shaq cut his pay in half so it accurately affects his current stat line?

Not many top payed players earn their money really. Are Joe Johnson and Rashard Lewis as good as their pays? The top 15-20 players might make twice-three times as much as the next 35, but in reality their actual stats might only be 15% or so better than the next 35. Hedo Turkoglu puts up stats in McGrady's neighborhood. So should Turkoglu "earning" his 8 mil be a benchmark used against McGrady?

On McGrady's actual decreased production, I agree he could stand to be a little more sharp on his shooting. He's slow as crap running back on D also. Regardless if he's hurt or not or just lost a step I hate seeing it. But McGrady's a guy you REALISTICALLY figure for slightly diminishing returns rather than coming in stronger and better.

 

Well Problem is, you may have mentioned that stats don't tell you everything, but the problem with you is that stats tells you everything about the player. Do you really think, objectively that the rockets will be about the same if he was replaced by players like caron butler or maggete?

This isn't about stats anymore. Its about chemistry. Your definition of an all-star is a player with good stats. Thats your opinion, and that is why you are wrong. Wade has pretty good stats as well, but how come miami sucks so much? Why isn't he worthy of all-star this year?

And come on, you're being Mr. Statistical but then you choose to refer to your own knowledge in basketball? You really think that if T-mac dominated the ball less, his legs would be fresher? And his FT goes up?
So you're telling me now that if the cavs rest ben wallace for 20 mins, and play him for the final 5 minutes, he can make 10-10 shots? You got some problem son. If you've played basketball before, you should know that free throws require minimum leg strength, and t-mac hardly bends his knees as well.

Like I said, if you think the rockets would be anywhere right now if T-mac was replaced by butler or magette, then you should properly request this thread be locked. O wait, that is what you think. O well, your reliability = fail.
Im not gonna repeat myself because you won't change your mind. But T-mac can lead his team like Garnett, but he doesn't show it. Its in his game. He passes, he flows with the offense.

You think RA gives the team the game plan, but its up to a PG to run the plan. But our PG cannot do so, but Mcgrady can.

As Deke once said "I don't care what the others think, all the critics can kiss my black ass". T-mac NOR the fans take into account what you think, he did a great job in leading (not carrying) this team to 52 wins, with the roster that we have. IMO he couldn't have done any better. So if you want to talk about stats. Talk 52 wins, talk 16-5.