QUOTE=CheezeyBoy22]It's mental. There's no way that he can drive like he did in the Phoenix game. No way... He needs to work himself back into shape... Mentally.[/QUOTE] Ummm, have you guys not noticed that he is driving EXCLUSIVELY to the left so he can jump off his right leg, and not his left. I've seen him jump off his left leg ONCE so far this season.
Great he has $20+ million more reasons to do it this season too. Agreed, which leads me to believe he is babying it....and needs to just let it fly. DD
Pain? Not very possible. I think we have already known that.Maybe the knee ain't 100% physically yet, but come on, it is all in his head. He thinks now with Artest and Yao and pretty deep team he can sit and just get his confidence. But he can and probably needs to go through it. Forget about it RIGHT NOW and damn play. But play agressively, drive to the rim like you used to do. The knee allowed him to drive simply every time (at the beggining of the season when his shot was flat) so he can do this now as well. As I said, FORGET about it and play.Andone night you will realize there is 'NO PAIN'
Nobody ever questions Yao's commitment, effort, and DESIRE TO PLAY. And besides, a broken bone is a bit different than being sore. McGrady's approach to basketball and playing through injuries lends itself to second-guessing. The same can't be said for Yao.
DaDa you have to put up a third option. Although most people would probably vote that. I do believe his knee is hurting him. I do believe it's limiting him. There is something mental there too, though. You don't just turn it on some nights and off the others. And the knee "having good days and bad days" doesn't account for that. He's not actually injured anymore right? It's just that his knee is still really weak and it pains him to play on it. Correct? If he's going to take some time off, fine, but he better be working efficiently to rehab that knee asap. He can't just take games off and chill and expect it to get better. A little rest, mixed with a lot of rehab, is what he should be doing if he's taking games off.
noone knows wuts going on with t-mac's knee. he doesn't even know. he says shut it down and the docs say to keep playin.
I agree with you...you don't just miraculously play well on national tv and then on puny little local tv play like you don't care or like you're hurt. That's too big of a coincidence, to me at least. Here's another shady thing that'll happen if he "shuts it down"...there's almost no chance of him sitting on the bench with teammates like Battier, or even Francis during home games... He's not INTERESTED in the early part of the regular season for whatever reason, hurt or not. If he didn't have the offseason surgery crutch to pawn everything off on, it'd be some other knick knack injury that would cause him to take some extended time off.
More mental than physical. Many NBA players play through pain and injuries. Except you don't hear them complain to the media about their injuries to the extent Tmac has, but I believe it is bothering him. We never heard anything about the severity of Yao's foot troubles last season until the news dropped like an atom bomb. I don't mind Tmac taking a reduced role, but the truth is we also need Yao to play reduced minutes. This is a step in the opposite direction. And Tmac himself said it's something that will probably always linger, so I'm not sure if taking games off will help the recovery or not. The past two games have shown Tmac can be a big contributor w/out exerting himself too much. It's not like Tmac has been a hound on defense, and w/ Battier back it makes his job even easier. I guess the big question is will playing through it or resting help?
Against Dallas, he sat out all of crunch time because he wasn't needed, but still finished the game with 16 points (10-11 from the line = being aggressive), 7 assists and 5 rebounds. I'll take that. And against the Lakers, the entire team didn't play well, much less him. And we all know Kobe tends to shut him down anyway, and McGrady generally just accepts it. Now let's look at the rest of the national tv games... Portland (TNT) - 30 points, 7 assists, 8 rebounds Phoenix (ESPN) - 27 points, 2 assists, 5 rebounds New Orleans (NBATV) - 18 points, 4 assists, 9 rebounds Washington (ESPN) - 20 points, 3 assists, 4 rebounds (lead the comeback charge) Orlando (NBATV) - 17 points, 2 assists, 3 rebounds The latter 3 came in 30 minutes of play. Gotta come at me harder than that. You = fail.
The Lakers game was not on National TV. I agree though the whole National TV conspiracy is garbage. Against Phoenix he scored most of his points off jumpers because he was hot. Against Washington he didn't drive to the whole once, all his points came from shooting jumpers. Against Portland he drove the most but he certainly wasn't blowing by anyone. The difference this year between T-mac's scoring is if his jumper is on he is scoring a lot if it's not on he's not scoring a lot.
New Orleans - 18 points,4 assists, 9 rebounds isn't really proof he goes hard on a National stage. Those are not great T-mac numbers Phoenix - He got hot, shot a lot of jumpers. Washington - All Jumpers Orlando - All Jumpers, drove 1 time and those numbers are far from Great when it comes to the great games T-mac has had. That isn't proof that he was going hard on National T.V. I will give you the Portland game and some of the Phoenix game.
My hope is that combination of Wafer and Battier can replace TMac's job, so TMac can rest a few games. Do not know if this is good or not for the team record, but Tmac seems to want to sit for while, then you can not force him too much. My think is that the team may have a better record without the injured TMac during a few weeks.
Now my opinion on the subject is he should just play and try to strengthen it. RA said he thinks T-mac should just play through it and I agree with him. If T-mac knee was injured I would say yeah let it rest but it seems like it is just weak right now. Also to sit when Battier gets back worries me because Battier can't just come in the 1st game and be the same Shane Battier.
Being someone who's had 6 knee surgeries (5 on the right knee and 1 on the left) I can tell you it's both physically and mentally. There are some days you feel like you are your old self and then there are those other days. There are days you don't even think about your knee and you are just playing the game and then there are times when you are mentally terrified. So for T-Mac it's probably 80/20 or 70/30 Mentally/Physically and unfortunately it's going to take a while to get over the Mental part... T_Man
I think 'pain' shouldn't have been used in the poll option. There's a huge difference between playing in pain and playing with a leg that is weak and not responding the way it used to. I'm sure it's a fair mix of both, but in the end - what does it matter? Whether a guy is fragile physically or lacks mental determination, the result is the same. McGrady will play when he's ready to (physically or mentally). McGrady will play hard when he's ready to (physically or mentally). Quibbling about the root cause gains you nothing, unless you're rooting out something to gripe about. Clearly, I have far less faith in McGrady to give his all (on the court, rehab) than I do in Yao, Artest, Battier, Rafer, Scola, etc. I think he's demonstrated that very clearly in his time with us - at least as far back as the Jeff Van Gundy year that he had to publicly call out McGrady for trying to get an in season vacation in April with homecourt still very much in doubt. But hey, he is who he is. The more important thing to focus on is maximizing the output of this team. And one of the choices Adelman has to make is whether to drag McGrady on the court and watch him phone in half his games or to sit him and play with a main option on the bench. Evan
I think it hurts but he's afraid of extreme pain. He probably remembers certain moments where he overworked himself to where it hurt real bad and compensates to avoid it
