T-mac is scorer. he is at he's best when he is looking to score. remember that stretch without where tracy was told to go and look for you're shot?. he avge almost 30 points a game. he was putting up 40 plus games with realitive ease. he is still one of the best top 5 scorer's in the league. in a system where defense was considerd the cornerstone of the ranchise he avge 25 points a game. i dont think it's inconcivible to think he can raise he's avge to 28 to 30 under Adelman.
Sure he's played the point part time in the past. But what's is your point really??? Just get to the bottom line for a change. With DD's and the thread starter's projected lineup, who's going to bring the ball up for the rockets? T-mac. Do you guys honestly see Tmac or Shane trying to chase down those little point guards? Don't you think that will be a waste of talent and resource? Like people have said, he's a scorer (with great point guard like skills) and he needs to score to be most effective for the team's sake. When he gets trapped, who the hell will handle the ball? Shane and Bonzi got bad handles. Yao is Yao. Scola won't have handles like Juwan. What's going to happen? Some of you guys are underestimating the importance of having someone bring the ball up and setting up the offensive sets.
Battier, Bonzi, and McGrady is 3 players, And they're all versatile. I dont see how that "points" (hardy har) at anything besides a vague picture of him at the point full time. That could just mean they're gonna use that combo some time during games and mix and match other players with them. Doesnt even mean thats a starting lineup. He COULD be a point, but then they could just add a point guard out of the many on the roster and it'd be the same 3 players mentioned (plus more than likely Yao). They could put Mike James and Snyder in then it'd be McGrady at the 3, Bonzi at 4 & Battier at 5 (ha, not happening...) I wouldnt be opposed to McGrady at the point time to time. Seems whatever position he comes in at the ball's gonna find him and he'll take on a lot of ball handling duties anyways
So you want TMac to to have the ball in his hands? You also want him being agressive and attack the rim to create "more open looks for everyone else"? You just described the PG position. Like someone else said eirlier you are putting to much infasis on labels. Ill take the wait and see before I label him "not as agressive as before". I think that might have had to do with the way VG ran his offense? TMac would get the ball out at the 3 point line then turn and face a defense that was already set in a zone. Attacing the basket in that situation is a tall order for the even the best of players. IMO this offense is taylor made for TMac and will work with him either way. By either way I mean attacking the basket or taking open jump shots. Defenses will have to adjust. Hopefully in AD system he is going to get to run around picks and screens and get alot of open looks. Give TMac some space and he deadly from inside the arcs. If teams dont rotate defensivly TMac will light them up if he is given open looks . Also playing off the ball will be better for his back. Trying to break down a zone with dribbling for long periods of time has to be harder on your back than running around picks and screens.
what a brilliant post. ppl forget that the screens play for tmac was basically non-existent b/c no one else could score besides him and yao in the jazz series. as a result, he had to have the ball in his hands. tmac has to play off the ball more. look at kobe w/ phil. dude just camps in one spot in the triangle, gets the ball, and looks to score.
It is highly unlikely for T-Mac to bump his average to 28-30 pts a game as long as T-Mac and Yao are in the same lineup. If you look at the majority of the top scorers in the league, they came from teams with essentially one option. We you add another top scorer, it should make everyone's scoring average decrease at least some, but their scoring efficiency should increase (see AI and Anthony last season). Additionally, this team should have Yao as their leading scorer because of his high scoring efficiency (pts/shot or the PER, whichever you prefer). If Yao and T-Mac take the same number of shots, on average, Yao will score more. I think a five point increase is highly unlikely. A 3 point increase might be more realistic, but we also have more scorers on the team this year (James, Scola, an effective Wells) to take more shots than the role players from last year. Of course, with Adelman, there will also be more shots to go around assuming a higher shot rate than under Van Gundy's system. After looking at JVG's and Adelman's rates over the last five years they coached, you can expect approximately 5-8 more possesions per game over a JVG team. T-Mac accounted for about 1/4 of all the shots on the team in a given game. 1-2 more shots a game for him based on that extrapolation. At a 50% clip (closer to his true shooting percentage taking into account 3's and free throws) you can expect tmac to average 1-2 more points a game under Adelman. I personally don't think it is unfeasible for T-Mac to shoot a better percentage in a more free flowing offense, so we'll spot him aother point (BTW, his shots per game last season was almost a career high [23.3:24.5], which means he wasn't only looking to pass all the time). 2-3 points per game increase without taking into account the extra shots to be taken next season by the likes of Wells, Scola, and James. Will we see more shots out of the PF position? Less from the PG position, or about the same? Who knows, but you assessment that T-Mac could feasibly score 3 more ppg next season is not unfathomable.
Perhaps I did put too much emphasis on the defintion of a pg, because what you described to me was really more of a scorer that can pass. To me, a pg is the primary ball handler that brings the ball up the court and sets up the offense. If the offense is the high screen and role, then the ball is passed off to T-mac, but that doesn't automatically qualify T-mac as a pg. Based on that logic, Jason Kidd would also be considered useless, since he usually just dribbles up the court and passes it off to either Jefferson and Carter after directing the traffic. If T-mac got tired from dribbling around screens, do you think he can make it pass the 3rd quarter being the primary ball handler? Regardless of our disagreements over definitions. I do agree with you that I want the ball out of T-mac's hands as much as possible. To me, he is more effective as a finisher, instead of juggling between being a playmaker and a scorer. It will also make him more durable in the long run due to the lessened workload. I think we have the pieces and system to do that, so let's just cross our fingers and hope for the best.
McGrady averaged 20.9 shot attempts per game last season, which is tied for the lowest amount of shot attempts per game in his career as an all-star. With McGrady more likely to play off the ball and get more points in the paint, I wouldn't be surprised to see his percentages jump up to around 45% which would result into around one more field goal made per game, which right there is another 2 points per game (this is assuming he gets the same amount of shot attempts per game which isn't too hard to think he wouldn't since he should be even be more focused on offense). Then you never know playing more off the ball may get him to the line more, so like you said in the end, I think it's very possible McGrady could jump his scoring averages over 27 or 28 points per game. Oh well, as long as we win, who cares right?
