Third stop the charm for wayward star McGrady?

http://www.sportsline.com/nba/story/7460325

June 29, 2004
By Mike Kahn
SportsLine.com Executive Editor
This was inevitable.

Tracy McGrady, now 24, was unhappy with the second team of his career and had to go. It's hard to believe, considering the Orlando Magic play just about a 7-iron from his hometown of Auburndale, Fla., but this is just the way of the NBA star in 2004.


The Rockets hope Tracy McGrady can help fly them to an NBA title.(Getty Images)
Evidently, Orlando didn't end up being any more fun than being with his cousin Vince Carter playing in Toronto.

On to Houston, where Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley, while explosive offensively and fun to watch, drove a fundamentally grounded basketball man like Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy close to insane.

And once Francis overcame the nausea of leaving the guarantee of playing with Yao Ming as a possible championship contender -- and getting comfortable with the future of the Magic -- the deal had to fly.

So that means McGrady, Juwan Howard, Reece Gaines and Tyronn Lue go to Houston, while the Magic get back Francis, Mobley and Kelvin Cato in a blockbuster that has been talked about for weeks.

The Magic also have prep sensation Dwight Howard, the top pick in last week's NBA Draft, to build around in the frontline. And yet, this deal cements that they still are a backcourt-oriented team and soft up front. Cato remains nothing more than a marginal, if sometimes tough, player. But it would figure the juice from Francis, Mobley and Howard will at least make them exciting ... if still not a playoff team for coach Johnny Davis.

The Rockets will be more interesting too. McGrady will fit on the wing, presumably opposite Jim Jackson, and now the Rockets have to figure out who their point guard is going to be.

Will it be Lue -- a limited, erratic player in his career? More likely, they will throw a long-term mid-level deal at the likes of somebody like Derek Fisher or Brent Barry, or maybe even Troy Hudson, who doesn't fit quite as well. Or, they could move Maurice Taylor in a package deal if there is somebody else they would like to land.

Still, you now have a much more consistently effective star in McGrady fitting with the rapidly improving and dominating Yao. T-Mac also fits more what Van Gundy wants on the wing as opposed to the dribble-fest Francis laid on him every quarter of every game.

It was a deal the Magic had to make considering McGrady tied up new Magic general manager John Weisbrod like a pretzel forcing him to make a deal to Houston since that was the only team he said he definitely would re-sign with. So, yeah, Weisbrod did OK getting an All-Star in return.

But this is about where the Rockets are going and how McGrady wants to be an integral part of it. And that works.

Then again, wasn't that the same song he sang in summer of 2000 when he signed with the Magic?