Tmac is not a competitor

maybe you missed my point or maybe i wasn't being clear. i agree with you that our team as a whole failed miserably in the 4th quarter. i had thought this team made some progress against the warriors when rafer and others started attacking when the defense was keying in on yao, but there was none of that aggression in the 4th quarter last night. to that extent it is wrong to single tmac's play out. but in crunch time, when the offense breaks down and nothing's open, i want tmac with the ball making plays or taking shots, not passing up a contested shot for an even worse contested shot by a lesser teammate. that is when we need tmac the most; not when the team is rolling and tmac is just making an extra pass on a fastbreak for a nifty play. several times down the clutch tmac didn't even look like he wanted the ball. by the time he started making moves the rockets were already up against the wall and my point is that if he had been more aggressive earlier the rockets wouldn't be in a position where they need a miracle 3 from a guy fresh off the bench.

i'm not one of those people that is going to criticize tmac's every move; on the botched yao pass, if he had taken that layup and missed i would have lived with it. i only highlight it because him passing it off, in my mind, evinced excessive passivity on his part that was taking place the entire game and especially in the 4th. and regardless of how well the team plays, tmac being passive is not what's best for this team. i might be wrong, but i firmly believe we need tmac attacking and scoring and not simply being another role player who happens to be a really good passer. the rockets with a passive mac are playing like a B+ team; if tmac is a scoring threat we become an A team.

as for the last play, the only reason i even discussed it was because someone else pointed out that if rafer had the ball instead of tmac, we probably would have lost the game. i agreed but pointed out that rafer should never be our go-to guy in the last possession. tmac made the right play at the end by passing to novak, even if novak would have missed it. i'm not criticizing that at all.

 

I agree, but you are assuming that the last quarter against Sacrametno was an aberration and I don't believe so. He should look to score when his team is struggling in order to stem the tide and he should pas the ball when they are rolling. That's the balance we are talking about. Role players tend to miss shots in the 4th quarter.

 

McGrady has yet to find the balance when Yao has it going. He is too often content in being a spectator. Five of McGrady's twelve shots last night were three pointers ... that is terrible and a sign of his passivity. That has nothing to do with Adelman. That is all Tracy.

At the same time I think the change of the rotation hurt the team as a whole offensively in the fourth. I was screaming from the stands to get Scola in for Novak. Seven minutes of Novak, and not one shot taken by him until the last possession. And we all know what he gives up on the other end. Adelman had a brain fart.

I thought Chuck being in the lineup burdened Tracy when he played without Yao. He got pressed a couple of times 23 feet from the basket. They weren't even guarding Chuck. It made for the offense to stall before the half and at the start of the fourth quarter.

The collapse wasn't all Tracy's fault. He had a couple of plays were I thought he wanted no part of the ball. He looked like Yao did in Minnesota.

We need a playmaking point guard real bad. Rafer is good through the first three quarters. But during winning time, he is not much of a threat in creating plays for Tracy or Yao. They pretty much have to do it themselves.

 

Tracy was getting pressed throughout the 4th quarter, even when Novak and Yao were on the floor.

 

Novak didn't make himself an offensive threat. He wasn't aggressive and seemed out of position with the spacing. So basically they were again playing 4 on 5 again for like seven minutes in the fourth. At least until the Rockets made Sacramento pay in the last possession.

 

This is correct. The problem was in the 4th quarter, Ron Artest shut Tracy's offense completely down (with some help) while dominating him on the other end. He basically kicked him backward and forwards. Instead of a $20MM role player, we need a dominant superstar who will take it personal and refuse to be outplayed in crunch time (which Tracy will do on a selective basis). I hope getting outscored 26-7 (until 2.5 seconds remained in the game) was a wakeup call for the Rockets.

It wasn't all on Tracy. Adelman deserves his share of the blame. The insistence funneling every single play through Yao when other teams are determined to stop him is insane. It often means we waste the first 20 seconds of the shot clock before giving up. Keeping Novak in the game, especially when he is scared to shoot, was crazy. Scola should have been in there because he could have made the Kings pay for doubling up on Yao & Tracy.

Someone has got to tell Novak to calm down, not run away from the ball to where he cannot receive a pass and not to stand 5 feet behind the 3 point line when his defender is 10 feet away. He should run off picks, park himself AT the 3 point line and ask for the ball when his defender sags off. It's like his main goal on offense is to avoid making a mistake. Props to him for hitting the game-winner but it never should have gotten to that point.

 

I answered your question indirectly if your reading comprehension is good enough. The two questions I asked you indicated that Yao has been the 1st option (or THE man of a team) just this season, while TMAC has been playing this role for the past 7 or even more seasons. That's the exact reason the media asks "1st round "question to TMAC but they seldom ask Yao the same question. Look, Melo is conceived as a superstar right now, and he has never passed 1st round either, just like TMAC & YAO. But why media seldom asks him the question "why Melo you hasn't passed 1st round yet?" The reason is simple, both he & Yao joined the league much later than TMAC. After another 3 years, if Yao or Melo still can't pass the 1st round hump, media will sure ask them. But for TMAC, he played in this league much longer time, totally different story, so it's fair to ask him the question right now rather than waiting for another 3 years.

 

Well, it happened with Bonzi in there as well. My point is, I don't think its fair to put the responsibility for the traps against T-Mac on Chuck when it was happening consistently throughout the quarter.

 

the real problem with last night was our offense stagnated because we took so long to get the play started, we didn't get the ball moving until less then 10 seconds left in the shot clock.

 

Don't be so quick to throw Rafer under the bus when talking about the second half. Rafer had 11 in the 3rd quarter, which was more than T-Mac had in the entire game.

 

You realize Mcgrady has never lost a playoff series in less than 7 (or 5 if you go way back) despite the fact every team he has lost to post Toronto has gone to the Conference Finals or NBA Championship? It isn't like he's been losing to scrubs.

Mcgrady has been in the league MUCH longer than Yao has - that's why he's constantly been harassed about it. Considering the competition he has faced it's ridiculous to blame T-Mac for those losses. Prior to this season and last no one ever doubted him; he had that killer instinct, he could take over games nightly.

Mac can't stay healthy, and as a result his play has deteriorated... It's ridiculous that people trash him when it's obvious he isn't healthy. Hell, he isn't even in shape currently.

 

Thanks!

 

I'm beginning to think the problem with Rafer is all mental.

He doesn't choke in the fourth quarter of every game. When the game is tight he'll keep on fighting.

But going into halftime out of the second quarter, ending a game--if the Rockets have a big lead and and Rafer relaxes he's got a huge problem turning it back on again and being competitive. When he takes his foot off the gas pedal and the other team fights back he's shocked and for whatever reason mentally he just can't turn it back on again. At that point he needs to either come out of the game and sit for a few minutes so that he can collect himself or he needs somebody else at the other guard position that can help him out. Adelman's played Brooks and Alston on the floor at the same time and he's talked about what a luxury it is to have two guys on the floor who can handle the ball. T-Mac can also help to fill in.

 

I've actually been pleasantly surprised by T-Mac's actions and words over the last few games. It looked to me like his body language was really positive during the Blazers' game.

There is a segment on this board that will just hate the guy no matter what. There's another chunk that's unhappy with his scoring. Give him time. He's plugging into the system now and that takes time.

 

How can this Rockets team be up by 13 at the half and up by 19 at the end of three and just self-destruct in the fourth?

If T-Mac steps in and tries to score a whole bunch to cover up the choking in the fourth that's just masking the problem. The problem is the choking in the fourth. In a perfect world T-Mac wouldn't need to come in and save the team in the fourth because they wouldn't be choking in the fourth.

I'm not content to have a T-Mac band-aid on a serious problem. The Rockets need to figure out that they have a huge problem with taking their foot off the gas pedal, and not just in the fourth. You also see it in the second quarter when the Rockets have a big lead and they're headed into the halftime break. I really believe that when Rafer relaxes, and he's probably not even doing it consciously, he needs to come out for five or ten minutes so that he can refocus instead of getting completely frazzled/flustered on the court.

 

Tracy's back prevents him from having consistency on his J,makes it impossible to drive and finish in traffic,and has affected his D to the point of being a liability some nights.There was a time when Tracy was superior to Kobe......a long time ago.
The Rockets have changed coaches,offenses,etc......but I still don't have faith in Tracy staying healthy enough to perform,finding his role and sticking with it,and also don't like the attitude.
I know we have momentum as a team,but in all honesty,I believe we'd be better off taking .75 on the dollar right now.....integrating the new talent in and moving on.All you have to do is watch when Tracy's not in there and you can tell the ball movement is good and we flow much better on both ends.
I applaud him for playing sick,but I'm tired. of seeing 30% shooting nights out of him.
If he is dealt,we MUST receive athleticism in return as he provides much of what we have.
You integrate the guys we get back into the lineup and this team will be a fluid machine......consistent.....and we sure as heck won't be giving up these fourth quarter leads.Yes,the young guys are taking awhile to adjust/mesh,but there's enough talent to where we should be right there.
So yeah,I say deal him.


IF HE COULD ADJUST TO A ROLE THAT FULLY UTILIZED WHAT HE HAS LEFT THEN GREAT BUT I DON"T SEE IT HAPPENING.

 

What does the Rockets barely beating a below 50 percent team have to do with TMac sucks? yeah, he created the game winning shot for Novak which is the only good play he had the entire forth, so that's good enough for the Rockets to pay him 20 million a year? Throw another big name guard into the lineup and this would be a blowout game. This guy constantly gets the easiest defense assignment every night and still can't do squad on offense, imagine what Kobe, Wade or even Lebron will do if they're assigned to guard Moore and occasionally Miller. He did guard Artest for the last few possessions and you saw what happend? He almost scored every trip against Tmac. And Artest is not Lebron or anything close to it, this guy averge 19 FREAKING points! He is a nightmare for the Rockets bc nobody ON THE ROCKETS team can guard him, that's it.
Bottom line is: if the Rockets fail to get out of the first round, TMac is GONE! not Yao.

 

You are being unrealistic. One of the main purposes of having superstars is for them to carry the team when everyone else is choking. For some people, that is THE definition of superstar. Lots of players have good stats but it's the players who predictably raise their game at crucial times who belong in that select category. You cannot expect the Rockets offense to function at it's best when the other team is playing great defense. It just doesn't work that way. When the going gets tough and the offense doesn't work according to plan, that's when we need Tracy to take over the game. It isn't a "band-aid"; that's the way crunch time in the NBA works. Forget the "perfect world". If we make the playoffs, this perfect world you speak of won't happen. Weaknesses get exploited to the max and what worked great before doesn't work the same. We found that out in the first round.