While we are talking about our lack of defense from last yr, one thing I have noticed is one of the people most responsible for defensive lapses is McGrady. We like to pick on Yao but Tmac never keeps his man in front of him , he's always trying to reach. He picks up stupid fouls like the one on Mourning in 1st qtr!! And to think of a warrior like Kobe Bryant who takes the challenge of guarding the opponents best player most of the game, and TMAC doesnt even do it once! Can we really win with this guy, was a 1st rd exit our ceiling?
his defense has been very good this yr except for the last 2 games. he guarded kobe for most of the 4th quarter in game 1. he guarded gerald on the last possession. it's just right now when he gets picked off the screens the last 2 games, he doesn't push himself through it b/c of the elbow (IF U WATCH). outside of these last 2 games, i don't know how u can criticize his defense. his defense was great. the elbow is really hurting him more than we all thought on both ends of the floor.
T-mac's D has been pretty good this season on defense,What T-mac needs to do now is make his freakin free throws.
I concur that T-mac doesn't care much about defense. Even though Battier is a good defensive player, he isn't as good as T-mac when he concentrates on playing defense. In the first 3 quarters, the Rockets can put Battier on the other team best perimeter player. However, T-mac should guard the Kobe's, the Wade's and the Lebron's in the 4th quarter.
Rookie status with almost 6k post? Got to be a good reason for that. McGrady has never been a good defender, and if a loose ball is on the floor, I would bet my house that you won't see McGrady diving to floor for that ball!
You're giving him way too much credit. Wow he guarded Wallace on the last possession? Why wasn't he guarding him the rest of the game? The fact that he guarded their "go-to" guy on the last possession shows that they think he's the best defender on the team.. the fact that he rarely guards the opposing team's best player shows he's lazy on the defensive end. Battier is slower and not as quick as McGrady.. but he cares - and that is why he is the "defensive specialist". JVG always said McGrady has the capability to be one of the best defenders in the game.. hell he showed it in Toronto. He'd rather exert his energy on the offense side though, jacking jumpers. Kobe? Plays both sides.
T-mac was a pretty good defensive player, using his quick feet and long arms, when he first came in the league. Playing in Toronto with Vince Carter, he didn't get many opportunities to shoot. Thus, he had to play defense to get playing time.
tracy is not a leader. with trcay in the team, rockets maybe can still come into playoffs, but rockets won't manege to win the first round. in the clutch time of the games of playoffs, i can't not trust tracy,he almost miss every key shot......he doesn't have the spirit of victory like jordan's . and i was disgusting when i saw him blinked at the camera like a girl.......
uh he dived on the floor in this past game so obviously u don't watch. tmac has never been a good defender? he got playing time in toronto b/c he played D. he shut down big dog, chauncey, and dirk in the playoffs. he played kobe well this yr. it's just that w/ the offensive responsibilities that he has had, JVG and adelman are hesitant putting him on the opponent's go-to guy. it's all about the coach's decision on the matchups they want. coaches want to conserve tmac's energy.
T-Mac needs a true pg to ease the burden of him being the pg for this team. RA's offense was suppose to free T-Mac from being the pg. I wish the Rockets could get Jason Kidd but I don't know what it would take to get him?
Why doesn't Phil conserve Kobe's energy? If Tmac is a superstar, why does his energy need to be conserved? Besides, I thought Adelman was going to make life easier for Tmac on the offensive end? Shouldn't that mean he exerts less energy on offense and thus has more for other areas, re: defense? Didn't Tmac say this style of play would add years to his game? Why do you keep blaming the coach? I think you got your Tmac blinders on. Great decision maker as far as passing goes.. shot selection and FG%? Terrible. I'm kind of pissed Morey shot down the Tmac for Kobe rumors so fast.. we wouldn't have a losing record with Kobe. And it's not even debatable.
and how would u know that my friend? why is wade not guarding the other team's best player? why isn't lebron? why isn't melo? tmac's usage rate this yr REMAINS tops in the league at 32.2, which means he still handles more of his team's offense than ANY OTHER PLAYER in this league, and that includes a one-man team in LA with kobe. yes adelman is supposed to make his job easier, but not right now. maybe a few months from now when we are rolling offensively and everyone is on the same page. if u WATCH the lakers, kobe's job on offense is not to create for his teammates. his main job is to score. tmac's job is to score and facilitate. look at kobe averaging 5 less points but still the same amount of assists as last yr and the yr before. his role in the triangle is to score. nothing more.
THIS IS JUST ANOTHER YAO-OF v. T-Mac-OF THREAD IN DISGUISE!!! LOL! Hate these threads, but here is my two-cents on the team's defenses lapses of late: Defense is not a one-man game and one-man's defense cannot win you games alone. If this were the case, Shane Battier would be paid like Kobe or Mac. It's not that Yao isn't playing defense, its not that T-Mac isn't playing defense! The TEAM DEFENSE is just atrocious at the moment. Guards are breaking us down and double-teams are very slow and rotations are even slower. It might be that the team is worrying too much about the offense and their heads aren't in the game on the defensive side. Maybe they realized how much easier it is to just play offense. I can't tell you whats going on. From what I observe is that this team is not really communicating too well on the defensive end. If you watch the last couple of games, Players go by our guards and nobody is communicating where the help should come from. What ends up happening is that Three people end up watching the other team score!
I don't see your point. You said his main job is to score, but you bring up the fact that he is scoring less and averaging the same amount of assists?
what i mean by that is even when he's not looking for his shot, his job is not to create like tmac. in that offense, kobe's main goal is to shoot and score. if tmac is not shooting he has to create and thus he has a whole lot more responsibilities than kobe.
Correction my friend: This is a disguised YAOF vs. TMOF thread. The word "cleverly" does not belong within 100 yards of this thread because their is nothing relatively clever about it.
I have watched Jkidd closely since he was playing at St. Joseph High School. Back then, he had hair and braces and a horrible jumper. Magic improved his outside shooting when he got older, but Kidd, without the J's, NEVER improved. In fact, he has gotten worse these last 2 years. Do we want another PG who's old and can't shoot? The Rockets should put Battier on opponent best perimeter players for the first 3 quarters to conserve T-mac's energy, and put T-mac on them in the 4th unless Battier is able to contain them. However against a player like Kobe, put T-mac on him from the beginning because if team contains Kobe, the lakers will lose.
i think the lakers THIS YEAR has done better when he averages around 25 pts a game. during their recent winning streak, kobe avg 22ppg.
