We have a leader. I don't care about what people have been saying for the past two seasons, that Yao will finally emerge and "lead" this team. I love Yao, I think he's a great complementary player who creates a lot of matchup problems with his size, shooting touch, and passing ability. But he's not a leader. I'm not talking about last night's game against Detroit--McGrady shot the ball horribly--but I'm not worried at ALL about him. SOMEBODY on this team had to shoot the basketball, and although the shots weren't falling, Tracy had the balls to keep firing. You see the ability in McGrady that you see in other great players--the guy plays with a lot of pride and never backs down. He'll have bad shooting nights--all the great ones have--but we finally have a player who can create offense and take over a game. Again, Yao's great--a wonderful player and a great asset to this team. But this has quickly become McGrady's team. Go Rockets!!!
I think I'll wait for him to lead us to at least one regular season victory before annointing him but yeah he probably will end up that way.
I agree. Even during the last two years, this was never Yao's team. IMO he just isn't a top notch superstar or a leader.
Funny, cause if Stevie were still here and he had the same performance as T-Mac, a lot of people around here would bash him for being a selfish ballhog who lost his touch. But I do agree with you...cause I'm startin to get the feeling it'll become ever more clear that T-Mac needs to lead this team not Yao. You have to play to a player's strengths. T-Mac CAN lead a team. Yao seems to work best as a second option (and I'm not basing that on one game either)
I agree. Even watching the game yesterday with a huge baseball fan - who doesn't really care for the NBA - he made a comment about how Tracy was showing balls out there trying to takeover the game. You could see his pride just come out in the 4th quarter trying to make anything happen. Plus, his defense was downright amazing down the stretch...with a nice strip and block. If you look closely, he and JJ were out there trashtalking in the 4th at Rasheed Wallace and Darvin Ham. Even if you watch the replay of the game, I thought lucky ass shots by 'Sheed was the reason we had the L last night. I just believe we would have won if we could have gotten just two stops...McGrady just looked that determined. But that's how the ball bounces sometimes.
We don't need anyone to show it is their team. We need a squad who can play together like Detroit. There is no I in Detroit's team. You win like a team, and you lose like a team.
I agree, but I do think the idea of PG-on-the-Cheap will haunt us. 8 assists and 16 TO's? T-Mac can be The One, but as far as court leader, a real PG would help tremendously.
I thought McGrady didn't take over enough in the closing minutes of that game. His shot got better in the second half and he should have had a lot more attempts than he did. The closing minutes had too many shots by Jackson and Taylor for my liking.
That could happen too, i.e. too much McGrady. But lets hope not. He does have to share and look for others. The difference is that McGrady doesn't turn the ball over very much, and he IS a shooting guard. Which is what he's supposed to do: shoot. The point guard position is another story. Turnovers is a no-no...and sharing the ball is a must. Not just scoring. So "ball hog" would apply to Francis much easier than Tmac. SF's turnovers made it worse. So, I think that our shooting guard TMac has a little more leeway than turnover-prone-point-guard Francis.
tmac shoots too much. the rox would be a better team if he feeds the big man more, especially the 1st three quarter of the game. otherwise, the rox would just be like the old orlando team with tmac took most of the shots and scored most of the points for three quarters. but, the team would lose because he got tired or missed some shots in last quarter.
They tried to feed Yao last night but he was being well defended so they had to look to alternate routes to score, that is why McGrady was shooting. The fact that yao didn't play much since he was in foul trouble a lot....McGrady too 18 shots and that is not that much by his standards of last year...so i don't agree with your comment.
Leon: "Yea, well there ain't no WE either." Just had to do it I agree with the people who say t-mac is the ONE, Yao has shown glimpses that he can be a good player and even great at times but with t-macs super natural powers to score and good passing with low TOs, he should be 1st option! he can get a shot off any time he wants! can you say the same for yao? No! Until yao finds consistancy with handling defenses why should we sacrifice scoring for yao to "get it". How many strips or blocked shots by earl boykins will it take until JVG realises T-mac should be #1 option. I love yao but he is not the best player on this team, he has shown to be a good nba player but not great, he has potential, but riding his potential may be hurting us. Let's run it through t-mac until yao starts showing what he can do and what he has to do.
And I do not see Yao to stay as a Rockets after his contract coms to the end in case T-Mac but not T-Mac and Yao together become the leader of the team. As humble as Yao might be, I think he is a guy with great pride.
I think it was clear all along that TMac was our best player, and Yao was our second-best, but that this team was special because it had two go-to players, which is a luxury. It seems like teams will still be focused on stopping Yao first, which will help McGrady early in the season. If they change their defense, it might swing back the other way. But in any case, I think this is Van Gundy's team. Anyone who thinks otherwise can go run some suicides.
