if anyone ever had a 'straight line' shot it was Clive. Tracy's jump shot has way more arc than Drexler's.
T-Mac is the same way though. This is what is driving me crazy. Drexler shot about 40% for his career yet people are saying he was streakier. T-Mac is the epitome of streaky. And he is the epitome of falling in love with his jump shot.
shows how much knowledge in basketball you have if you only think dunking is the only measurement of athleticism. Drexler was a better north to south player.... When he ran with the ball looking down(what gaurd does that anymore) he was like barbosa is today only a MUCH better finisher. Mcgrady on the other hand has a more lateral game. He is more agile in the fact that he can move east to west better and has the ability to stop on the dime from a full on sprint.... Plus mcgrady is no slouch when it comes to jumping either.... It seems as if none of you guys have seen mcgrady before he became a rocket. He was every bit as explosive to rim as Drexler was in Orlando. I agree, as a Rocket he dropped off a bit in the explosion department. T-mac IS a better jumpshooter and has more range. His fg% is not indicative to how good a jumpshooter he is.... Tracy just suffers from the worst shot selection in nba history... Mcgrady's fg% would be much closer to Drexler's if he didnt hoist up those long range bombs coming up the court.
Those numbers dont tell the whole story. Clyde played in an era when every team ran and Tracy doesnt, so Clyde's number is inflated compared to Tracys. I have watched both guys growing up, and if you think Clyde is even close to Tracy in terms of ball handling/play making then you are just flat out crazy. If you compare both guys at their prime, Tmac is a notch above Clyde IMO.
old man rock maybe a grumpy old man, but he knows rockets history like the back of his hand. of course it was sarcasm
ah, it was a dig at mcgrady. i'm not familiar with his posts even though he's been here since 1999. should have checked the reg. date.
I'm baffled by the continued citation of McGrady's shooting as a reason for his superiority. I don't know who was more effective with their athleticism to which direction on a compass, but I do know that Clyde scored at a much more efficient rate. So maybe T-mac can go East to West better, but since most people don't drive to the basket sideways, that doesn't do a ton of good in scoring points. McGrady is great at pulling up at shooting. He can get his shot off better than anyone I've ever seen. He just doesn't make enough of the ones he does get off to make it matter more than Drexler's ability to get to the basket at will.
Again, if you watch basketball back in the late 80s to mid 90s, you would know why Clyde had a higher shooting percentage. Almost everyone averaged 50% shooting the ball back in the days, so you cant use that as a gauge and say that he was more efficient.
I guess you never saw Drexler play basketball, I on the other hand I have seen both play before they were Rockets. Agility? nope. Lateral movement? Nope again, did you ever see a Drexler spin move to the basket when he was facing his defender? I have. Yes, I would consider jumping ability to be a key ingredient in athleticism, especially when Clyde could jump and make adjustments while he was still in the air. Would you say that Michael Jordan wasn't athletic? In their prime, Clyde was widely considered only second to Michael Jordan in athletic ability as a guard. I don't discredit that T-Mac has agility, explosiveness, etc. I just disagree that he is more athletic than Drexler in his prime which is the point. Hmm, sounds like your making a point for Drexler being better.
Thats because the game has changed. Earlier when Clyde was playing, role players were much better, they were able to shoot and score thereby opening up the floor for guys like Clyde. The game changed after the Pistons changed the way defense was played. If you look at Clyde's stats after the 90s, you see that his shooting % dropped considerably.
Jumping is a huge factor in athleticism, but it isnt the most important. Tracy moves around the court much more fluidly than Clyde ever did.
What are you talking about? OK, can we stipulate that Larry Bird was a significantly better shooter than either of our guys? Bird's career total shooting percentage is .496. He only had 5 out of 13 seasons where he cracked .500 and two of those were .503 and .504. 49.6% sucks. He can't even do what everyone was doing. How about one of the greatest shooters of all time? If everyone is hitting 50% of their shots back in the day, Alex English should be way up there, right? Career average of .507. Sweet-shooting Rick Barry? Career average of .456. He only cracked 50% once. All-time great scorer George Gervin? Career of .504. You would expect him to be way above that paltry number if everyone was shooting 50%. Conclusion... not everyone shot 50% back in the day... in fact, very, very few people did.
I've watched Clyde since high school and he was always an athletic freak. Playing under GuyV really helped him develop his game. We played Drexler's style( up and down) but he also he learned to function with a quality big man early on.It helped him in the halcourt more than many think.Tracy was mopping up ironically enough in Portland in the beginnning instead of competing for championships each year.Drexler developed that edge early. Defensively Clyde was a monster...so was Tracy pre back injury. He dominated Kobe when they would be head up. Now Clyde could really play the passing lanes too though,he just had great instincts and an overall understanding of what the team was trying to do early on. Another thing is that when Drexler hit Portland...AFTER WE DIDN"T DRAFT HIM!!!!,Geoff Petrie helped him improve his shooting in a big way. I really like the comment about Clyde being able to post up smaller guys too. And another thing,even though he dribbled with that head down Clyde would invariably make great passes on the break....usually a split second later than you wanted but the end result was fantastic. Drexler did it over a long career,went to the Finals twice where if they were playing almost anyoone else in history they would have won.Still he came home and finally won that title. Clyde WAS driven and as bandied about a consumate pro.He got the most out of mad skills. Pre injury Tracy could do amazing things,but Clyde is the more well rounded player....definitely in the top 3-4 deuces to ever lace em up.
