Interesting points. Can only speak for me. Never expected Grady to be Kobe at the time of the trade to Houston. But I also thought it was foolish to continue to build around him after one of his injuries got you a #8 Lottery pick. At what point would any reasonable Rockets fan assume an injury-free Grady after the trade for Battier? Me?...never thought it. Enough current talent to win a ring? IMO...no. You're rolling the dice on the health of BOTH Grady and Yao. Something I just can't buy into.
Oh yeah, well repeating the exact same thing again to seem clever is so overused that I just threw up in your mouth.
PS, Angkor Wat, the above post is intended to be extreme sarcasm and read in a whiny voice.. not serious.
I don't think anyone expected so many injuries to Yao or T-mac. It's always unfortunate, but all too common with star players. There's a long list. Rare are the Kobe Bryants, MJ's, and Stockton/Malone's of the world. Unless you have Lebron, Kobe, or Michael....winning a ring is always a roll of the dice. It's not something controllable. You can pick a great coach, try to build around guys, and so on, and still it can unravel. Miami rolled the dice with Shaq and got lucky one year, and unlucky the next few. Wade hasn't been able to lead his team into the 2nd round now without shaq has he? Is he t-mac? will he become t-mac? Is it fair to say these things? I have no idea. There's a reason Phil Jackson won't coach without the best player in the league. Because it's that hard. Now, you can win without the best player...examples are San Antonio, Detroit, and even the Celtics (although they had 3 very good players). But injuries wiped out two of those teams (Spurs / Celtics) from advancing past the 2nd round just like us. People also forget that the first half of this season wasn't just about t-mac, certainly his injuries an dbeing in and out of the lineup created problems...but consider also that Battier, Yao, and Artest all missed time with injuries. Really, the health of this team wasn't there until after the all-star break. It wasn't just a with or without T-mac situation. Either way we have to roll the dice next year. We can roll the dice on t-mac's and yao's health. And that's definitely a roll of the dice. But moving t-mac won't secure yao's health. And as a matter of fact, take out t-macs knee, if he does recover, his healthy shouldn't be an issue next year. But try to reorganize this team, and that's a big risk as well. This team has shown as built, without Yao and T-mac, it can still do some pretty impressive things. 2 years ago, I wrote that there were too many scrubs for Yao and T-mac to carry this team deep into the playoffs. Now, that's not the case, this team we saw against the lakers is a solid team of role-players. The chemistry is there, the desire is there. The passion, all the ingredients are there. The right coach, the right owner, the right mix of talents. Only thing we need is a back-up C and to get our stars healthy. A big ? for sure....but I think it's a bigger role of the dice to break-up this team and try to move either Yao or T-mac. For every Boston, there are 10 phoenix's. You see what they did, and what happened. That's more likely the outcome. I think it's pretty likely for T-mac to be back to a very good player. Perhaps not a super-star, but certain enough for what we need - enough to still draw double teams, and we sorely miss his ability to pass and create as a triple threat player. For me...I say, we roll those dice but give ourselves an out in case it doesn't work. That's why you wait until the trade deadline in Feb. You give him until then, that's the way you hedge your bet. Frankly, all the anger directed towards t-mac i realize isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think this experience, and I really hope, will make him a better person in terms of how he deals with stuff. He's a good guy, who's clearly affected by the pressures of living up to a greatness. He's flopped it, and unlike Orlando, there really aren't many knew fresh starts. He's worn out his welcome in Toronto and Orlando. But I really am impressed that this time, he wants to stay in Houston, he doesn't want out. He wants to stay. Despite being unpopular, despite all his failures...he wants to stay. That alone to me shows there's more in t-mac that he is credited for. A loser would blame the owners and such, and try to get out to someplace new to poison. He didn't pull that card, and had many chances...if anything, he sabotaged a trade. And frankly, I think he realized he wasn't playing at the level to make a contribution, and did the right thing to get surgery and fix the problem. He handled it poorly, apologized for it, but at the end of the day, the decision to get surgery was a wise one.
The rockets are currently built that if you took any star player and stuck him in our system, it will be successful. We have a bunch of gritty and scrappy role players that play with amazing heart and relentless determination.
I was working on this a while ago for the photoshop thread, but what better time than to post this now.
Its clear though that threads started like this always turn into a Tmac hate thread. Posting that he went to Vegas has no significance. The season is months away. Look at Yao. He has a broken foot. He isnt rehabbing, he went to China. Who cares.
I stopped giving a damn about T-Mac after he tanked and trade possibilities. At this point in time if he comes back decently healthy, that is great! If not, aside from T-Mac fanboys sniffing his dirty boxers, who cares?
I liked that one but I like the sleeping one better particularly because he is still mad in bed and has white hands.
I know these guys are overpaid, but if you want them to work out / practice every waking minute, what's all that money good for? And if you say early retirement, remember that we want to spend money and have fun while our bodies are still young and healthy. P.S. I hope T-mac really does work hard this summer, from what I have seen and heard, his workout ethic is very weak. Being his contract year, I hope he can either get himself into great playing shape or at least look good as trade bait.
Your post speak the absolute truth. But it's sad though that what you are saying is falling on deaf ears. There is too much Tmac hate in this board. I don't bother anymore with the insults anymore. It's all up to Tmac to prove everybody wrong. For Rox fans, it's championship or not. With Tmac, it's damn if you do, or damn if you don't. Tmac knows that and so is every other superstar in the NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL etc. If LA loses to Denver, everyone will point the blame on Kobe. And Kobe knows it. Such is the life of a superstar. What I disagree though is some of the hate on Tmac is unnecessary.
lol @ the person who created THIS thread. god forbid T-mac for being human and wanting to celebrate "something" be it his b-day or whatever. OP, how many years have u been in the NBA again?
