LBJ - Yes; I love TMac, but LBJ is a stud and really young. He'll be top in the league for MANY YEARS. TD - NO -- Incredibly BORING game, though he does have the experience and game. I just have no desire to watch the post-up tandem. SO BORING! Kobe - Maybe; I go back and forth between who is actually better, but with TMacs back, I'd probably lean towards Kobe. Wade - No -- He's a great player, but I'm still not convinced he'd be better than TMac, AI - ABSOLUTELY 100% NO NO NO NO NO! He is the most OVERRATED player in the league. ANYONE (that's any good) could put up the numbers he does if they took as many shots. Yeah, he can slash, but he can also jack up and bunch of crap. KG - NO; age (though still young) and lack of experience doesn't seem to warrant a trade of TMac.
This outdated view of Iverson makes me laugh. He's shooting a higher percentage than McGrady this year (43% vs. 40%) so - how could "ANYONE" put up the numbers he does with the same amount of shots, night in, night out? McGrady mathematically could not do so this year. Oh, and Iverson usually tosses in 7+ assists a night from his SHOOTING guard spot to complement that. The fact is . If "ANYONE" who was any good could do that, "ANYONE" would do that. But they can't. Very few players are as tough as Iverson - talk about a guy who overcomes personal problems and plays hurt - he just goes out every night, puts up his 33 ppg, gets a bunch of assists, and does it night in and night out.
What was last season? I guess you're not winning if you finish 7th in the league ? What is this season? A b****. Whiny b****y Rockets "fan" (not you mbiker): ohhhhhh wahhhh tmac doesnt have a title True. But how old is T-Mac? 26. All those guys are older, have had more chances. Give tmac more chances. Him and Yao will bring us a title. Oh and I would dare go as far as to say Shaq, Duncan, and Wallace have had a history of better teammates then T-Mac.
Tmac is fragile physically, not sure about mentally. But all signs point to that direction. Yao looks like another quiet, easy-going "cough" soft "cough" guy. But he seems to have more fire in him, judging from his performance in national team. I know the competition/intensity is not in the same level, but he is still getting double or triple team in the games. And he has the gut to call out his teammates in Olympic, fire them up and backup his words in the games (eg. 39 pts in 40 minutes in one of the Olympic games). Yao is getting more aggressive and comfortable in NBA, on and off the court. I think the day he becomes the #1 instead of #1b option of the team, is the day Rockets officially becomes a championship-caliber team.
Pretty much all the players that I mentioned started their careers with teams that had horrible winning percentages prior to their arrival. During their rookie year they significantly increased their teams winning percentage. Spurs before Duncan .244 / Rookie year .683 Celtics before Bird .354 / Rookie year .744 Bulls before Jordan .329 /Rookie year .463 Magic before Shaq .256 /Rookie year .500 Lakers before Shaq .646 / 1st year with Lakers.683 Rockets before Olajuwon .354 / Rookie year .585
i'd have to go with mcgrady shouldering some of the blame. while posters like pgabriel have no opinion (ZING), they are right in some respects. that is that tracy has to man up and play. fat **** (barkley) was saying the other day that the one place he could always count on being at peace for 2 hours was the basketball court. not that it means much coming from barkley, but in a sense he's absolutely right. can't throw in the towel because of depression and a ****ty season.
That's a point I was gonna make in the other thread. you'd think the basketball court would be a santuary. sometimes its not mcgrady's heart which I question, its his love for the game. everyone in life wants to win. its harder to get up for things you don't have interest in or you are losing interest in.
Iverson got a lot of hype the year he won MVP. And he has a bad rep. But he's one of the toughest and most consistent competitors out there. The so-called malcontent was one of the few stars who went to the World Cup thingie and didn't complain. And the dude weighs about 165 soaking wet. It seems odd to call an MVP underrated -- but Iverson is by many people. Regarding McGrady...RR draws an interesting parallel with Francis's headaches. I hope Tracy gets better soon. Because he's not much use to the Rockets hurt. And he's a tremendous talent. This year he gets a pass. The whole year's been a disaster. But next year he'd better contribute to a better season.
TMac must get more focused and raise his intensity level, but it may not happen this season. A strong supporting cast would be a real encouragement. Obviously, he has given up on making Swift an All Star. Also, I think he believes that the Rockets have not surrounded him with first rate talent as promised, and they haven't. He can't say this publically, but it is a factor. Injuries are a factor too, but they are not the whole story.
this is BS The talent is not ALL WORLD but If he thought he was gonna play with Shaq yao and Kobe everynight then yea. . .be disappointed I was not overly madd we lost in the 1st round last season I was overly madd we got blown out by 40 pts and folx were laughin on the bench The Rockets will make the playoffs. . I have no illusions about that it will happen but TMAC has *GOT TO* step up Esp in the playoffs THE TRUTH IS: If he does not do it in the next couple of years he will not be the MAIN HORSE pulling the sleigh to a championship he will be DREXLER to YAO'S HAKEEM or worse . . . .BARKLEY to YAo'S HAKEEM a contributor . . but not THE MAN to me .. . this season is about TMAC! Next Season will be all about YAO! Rocket River
T-Mac, like Yao, to date have shown that they can be exceptionally talented but not necessarily great players. Until we get to the playoffs and advance deep, it's hard to say that T-Mac will ever be a great player. Health issues are definitely very concerning about his durability as are his mental health problems right now. Of the two, I actually think the latter may be what is also limiting him from greatness. And I think the solution might be PHIL JACKSON. Yup. I just said it. I think a does of Zen could do wonders for T-Mac. Not b/c I'm here to spread religion but b/c I think T-Mac is missing some bit of spiritual strength to take him to the next level. By personality, I can never see T-Mac become a Michael Jordon. All the comparisons made of LeBron with Jordon were lost upon me until I started seeing the attitude of LeBron on the court. With T-Mac I see more of a Scottie Pippen type of silent intensity. And I think Jackson might be the one who can bring it out of him... and Yao too. theSAGE
Yeah, and I'm really happy for him that he's having a good year. That's great for him. Nothing can stop him now. Look at the career stats if you really want to compare Iverson and TMac in a head's up trade: Head to Head, here's who has more/higher of what (and remember that PPG/Attempts balance out, and TO's aren't good): PPG: Iverson Attempts per game: Iverson FG%: TMac 3-FG%: TMac FT%: Iverson Reb: TMac Asst: Iverson Stl: Iverson TO: Iverson Blk: TMac Seems fairly even until you look at the numbers. [Pat-on-the-back] for Iverson for this year...but STILL OVERRATED! As far as being over rated, compare his career to that of Shaq, Kobe, (albiet short) LBJ, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnet, etc. You get the point.
Talk about over-reacting. You are responding like this is TMac writing. I am not TMac. I don't know TMac. I have never met TMac. My comments are suppositional. I am guessing how he MIGHT feel. After training my butt off for the season, having my back go out, experiencing a variety of personal problems, watching the "greatest acquistions in Rockets offseason history" play poorly and inconsistently, I (not TMac) might be discouraged. As to making the playoffs, the team will have to put together one of the greatest runs in Rocket's history. Possible, but not likely. Without a significant trade, I am looking for them to finish out at about a .500 clip or win about half of their remaining games.
I think that 36 points and almost double digit assists in the Allstar game will get him motivated for the second half of the season. He seemed happy and into the game as he was with his brothers and they were their for him and I think that made an impression that will him finish the final 29 games strong. Lets get off Tmac's case and embrace him as our brother because like it or not Yao is a huge part of our success but we go NOWHERE WITHOUT TMAC. Remember that. Go Rockets!!!
LOL....sounds like the last year with my ex-wife. I chose #2 since T-Mac (and Yao) is the man and the main man always gets the praise AND the blame. But I wouldn't trade him, no way, he is not the problem, nor is Yao or JVG as some would lead you to believe. It all falls back to the role players......to parlay off the above quote, do any of our role players give you a Big Johnson when you watch them play alongside Yao and T-Mac??? #12 - Rafer Alston (keeper as either a starter or reserve) #8 - Derek Anderson (bust) #20 - Jon Barry (great bench energy but needs better players around him) #10 - Keith Bogans (has a good NBA body but too soon to tell - TBD) #40 - Ryan Bowen (great bench energy but can't shoot) #44 - Chuck Hayes (undersized at PF but brings energy and seems to always be in the right place to get the rebounds) #2 - Luther Head (keeper as a bench guy and possible starter) #5 - Juwan Howard (keeper but needs to come off the bench to maximize his productivity) #? - Maciej Lampe (TBD) #55 - Dikembe Mutombo (keeper off the bench but getting older) #3 - Bob Sura (does this team miss his fire or what.. ) #4 - Stromile Swift (bust) #7 - David Wesley (undersized at SG but a keeper coming off the bench and will take him as a starter given the other choices right now) Shoot I'd trade Stromile Swift, David Wesley and a conditional #1 pick for Chris Bosh straight up right now. This teams needs an enforcer to work the glass and play interior D and a more consistent shooter from the outside who can move without the ball. Right now I just hope that we can finish the season with our main guys healthy, maybe make a trade before the deadline on 2/23 if we can get somebody to help the team this year and for more to come and try again in the offseason. I think the Rafer Alston trade was the right move to make but clearly the Stromile Swift experiment is a bust, but hey 1 out of 2 ain't so bad. GO ROCKETS!!!
How so? Of course, he failed to mention that Duncan's rookie year was such a vast improvement since the year prior David Robinson went down for the entire season and that was WHY they sucked so bad, and got them Duncan in the draft. So that right there dismisses his first one. As for Shaq, that's why he's the most dominant and one of the greatest players in NBA history, because his impact is so vast on any team he goes to, even at this point of his career, any team Shaq goes to is immediately a playoff team and more likely than not to be considered a "contender". You can't say that about any other player in the league besides Shaq or possibly Tim Duncan (although Timmy has never been on a bad team and has been blessed with a terrific team throughout his career, but I do still think he's effective and dominant inside player but not nearly as much as Shaq was during his prime). This is also why dominant centers are always more valuable than dominant guards. Jordan struggled around .500 for most of his first few years in the league and didn't have any notable success until Pippen came along and the likes of Rodman/Grant and Paxson/Kerr and Kukoc joined him. T-Mac carried a horrendous Orlando Magic team to the playoffs three out of four years he played there, netting his coach a "Coach of the Year" award when no one in their right minds thought Orlando would be a playoff team; that team overachieved and netted McGrady a nomination for the MVP award as he led the league in scoring. To somehow attempt to say that McGrady isn't an impact player is ignorant to say the least. He's a franchise player, very few players in the league could be dubbed with that title. Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury and Ray Allen and Michael Redd and Joe Johnson and a bunch of other max-contract players are not franchise players, yet they're payed the max and I haven't heard anyone complaining. If you don't like McGrady or even Yao for that matter, put them on the market tomorrow and may be then you will realize their true value as players, because the rest of the league sure do, just ask Popovich of the Spurs who confessed to having "nightmares" whenever he plays the Rockets because of T-Mac, or George Karl or Doc Rivers or Phil Jackson even, ask those great coaches what they think of this guy that apparently some Rockets fans don't think much of.
