exactly. that guy is too unrealistic in his assessment of tracy. what's the point of having a star if all u want is a balanced team? there should never be the hakeems, jordans, kobes, brons... might as well get a bunch of rip hamiltons and tayshaun princes on your team. we pay tmac and yao to step up in crunch time. the point of getting adelman and improve our team is so our stars don't have to do a lot in the first 3 quarters. therefore in the 4th, when the pressure increases, the stars have the energy to take over. last night was the first time this year where i saw a very hesitant tracy to even SHOOT, not just score. there was one drive in the 4th where he had the damn layup and ended up passing to yao, and it got kicked out by a kings player. but he was never involved all game and he has to learn how to play a team game in the first 3 quarter and then dominate in the 4th. the old lakers team went to kobe late. the heat went to wade. the mavs go to dirk. the suns go to nash and amare. the spurs go to manu and duncan. a lot of those teams are balanced, but stars are stars. tmac and yao must step up in the 4th (b/c we've shown our team is good enough to dominate for 3 quarters without one person dominating). stars are what separate a good team from a great team.
T-Mac looked a little bit lost in that game, I think he needs to do a couple of things: 1. Practice shooting, improve his percentage when open. Right now I just don't have confidence when he shoots an open shot. Of course, whenever you are open, you should take it. 2. Practice FT. 75-75% for a swing man is too low. In clutch time, we will need him to drive/shoot, and FT would be critical. 3. Involve in the system. Probably it takes time to adjust, as he is used to dominate the ball, it would take time to become totally comfortable to current system. In past games, it shows that he is trying to do this. With new system, we don't need him to create every shot for the team. This just will not work for the whole game or for the whole series. But at clutch time, it is very important for star to create shot for either himself or for teammates. So I hope he can use the new system and it will take less drain on him physically and yet still play better.
I can absolutely expect the Rockets' offense to function, no matter what the other team does. It's called having a game plan and sticking to it. If one player decides that it's not going to work and that he's going to try something new it's going to be a disaster. What works is five guys on the floor at the same time on the same page and working together. Four guys on the same plan and one guy off by himself doing whatever is a sure loss. The fourth quarter meltdowns have been just that, mental breakdowns. One person, no matter how good, is never going to be able to carry a team by himself if the offense as a whole malfunctions. If it's the fourth quarter and it's Tracy against the Spurs, or Tracy against the Lakers, or Tracy against the Sun, forget it. Tracy's not going to win. Even if it's Tracy plus Yao, the Rockets are not going to win. That's the real lesson from the last few years, which is why I'm so surprised to find people in denial that team ball is really the only path to playoff success.
u would make for a good coach for an elementary basketball team. with you as their coach, there will never be superstars or all-stars in this league and everyone will be on the same level. there will never be teams over the cap limit; we will never see favoritism on ESPN and every team will be on national TV...
I wont say T-Mac is this or that. But T-Mac really needs to find a balance of his game between scoring and play-making, and between shooting jumpers and driving to the hoops. 20 millions player should do more than passing the ball, I guess.
What you don't understand is that five ordinary guys working together will always beat five "superstars" who are on the same team but are just doing their own thing. That's been the lesson of international basketball for the last few years. It's obvious you're a big time TOF. What's really sad is that the Rockets have been kicking ass these last few games. They won every game in the home stand by double digits leading into last night and they probably would have won last night's game by double digits if Rafer hadn't gone on vacation one quarter too early. This is the most impressive basketball the Rockets have displayed in some time and you can't be happy because T-Mac's numbers are down. I hate to break this to you, but T-Mac's individual stats are inconsequential compared to the team doing well and winning.
and enough with the flaming TMAC threads . . give it a rest, IMO . . we should be fortunate to HAVE TMAC . . i honestly don't think we'd be 32-20 if we didn't have TMAC doing what he does . . i have faith in not just TMAC, but our new rockets team . . we are supposed to support our team, not bash them . . TMAC has his moments . . i'm just happy he's not using his 110% energy, cuz we're still winnin ball games, and that energy can and will def be used in the playoffs.
um, i have said numerous times i am willing to trade tmac for artest and bibby b/c i believe that will make the rockets better. tmac is my fav player on here, but he is not the rockets. what i have a problem with your post is that it's too IDEALISTIC. it doesn't work in the NBA. and u comparing it to international ball just compounds my point. the NBA and international basketball are 2 different things with different rules and different styles of play. PS - we didn't even send our best players out there for the olympics/international play.
I don't know what happened to tmac. I reallly think the Detroit series when he was in orlando took something out of him. When he was arrogant and then lost in the end. I miss the tmac that would trash talk glenn robinson and then made him his b*t*h. If we play the kings again, or play artest again, I want to see tmac redeem himself by taking it right to artest.
did u forget the mavs series in 04-05? that was his best playoff series ever. and that's as a ROCKET. did u forget him scoring 40 pts 2 straight times against artest spanning last yr and the first game this yr? tmac is just struggling to score MAJOR and it's obvious he's struggling not getting alot of plays called for him. he was the same way last yr when he was deferring.
I got news for you - every team gives up leads at times. Boston did it many times this season. Phoeniz has done it. It happens - offenses stagnate sometimes. But here's something to consider. We were having 4th qtr collaspses pretty much every night while t-mac was out. They have become far more infrequent of late. And even tonight...when he wasn't able to carry the team he still manage to make the play necessary to win. Now I don't know if you know this - But LeBron James failed to carry his team quite a few times in the playoffs last year, and fails at times in this regular season, but he's under consideration for MVP. Michael Jordan had a commericial about missing 38 game winning shots. Ya know it's not always about succeeding. That's not what a super star does - a super star is the guy who isn't afraid to take that burden, and at the same time is a very good player. T-mac accepts that heavy burden, one that he only shares with Yao. No one else has it on them. That's a superstar
For some reason, most people here either feels that Tmac is hopeless in last nights game or could not see anything wrong. As some have already pointed out, 20mil guys are expected to do more than just make the game winning pass. I guess my expectation of Tmac, the superstar of this team, needs to take over when the kings were catching up, instead of doing something in the last seconds of the game. please don't feel that I am bashing Tmac, without him, this would probably resulted in a loss as I feel that no other player on our team could have made that final play. For some reason, I feel that Tmac should be the guy who stops or prevents the 'final second shot' situation. Off course the kings are playing great, but shouldn't we be the superior team?? Not stepping up when the opposition makes up for a 17 point difference is not what a superstar should have done. Just my thoughts
TMAC is not durable, not competitive, not a leader, not tough, has a terrible contract all are true but we need him because we have so much $$$$ tied in his contract.
awesome. his best playoff series ever and he couldnt get us out of the first round. yeah...and how has gundyball worked for us these past few years? if he plays good, he plays good. if he plays bad, he plays bad. dont make excuses. and even if you insist on making excuses, "not getting a lot of plays called for him" is a terrible one. do you realize how many touches he gets?
The point that you're ignoring is that it's been working for the Rockets over the last three or four games. All throughout this home stand they've been playing team basketball and they've been winning comfortably by double digit margins. Maybe you don't believe team basketball is the way to play games. Maybe you don't believe the United States actually landed men on the moon. Maybe you don't believe the world is round. Whatever. But this last streak has been the most impressive basketball the Rockets have played in a while. Until there are signs of trouble there is no reason to change up the game plan. As for the international basketball roster, are you nuts? Here's the roster for the 2004 Olympic team that lost in the semi-finals and ended up with a bronze medal: # Centers: Tim Duncan, Emeka Okafor # Forwards: Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Richard Jefferson, Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire # Guards: Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Stephon Marbury, Dwyane Wade You really don't know what you're talking about, do you?
I remembered he missed the game in game 7 against the mavs. I also remembered artest never quitted and didn't kings won one of those games? He was barely even trying last game against the kings in the fourth quarter. He handled the ball as much as anyone on the court, if he has had an ounce of pride, he would have forced the matter into his own hand. When he saw that it is like the 6th minutes mark and his team has only scored like 1 pt. He ought to have done something.
