Tracy is almost all the way back to his MVP form from when the season started, he's just missing 1 little thing... Watching Tracy against the Kings tonight, he looked good energy wise and health wise. There were times when he got the rebound and sprinted down court to start a break, there were times when he played tough D on Artest (well the effort was there). His athleticism seems to have returned as well, the botched alley-oop attempt showed us that he still has great lift. The only difference between this Tracy and the MVP Tracy is his free throw attempts. Looking back on his great month of November, Tracy shot 95 FT in 14 games, slightly less than 7 per game. This month, Tracy has only attempted 20 FT in 7 games, around 3 per game. The last time Tracy took more than 6 FT in a game was December 12th (right before his injury). So what is missing from his game? Some people here say he has no will to win, he has no heart. I think all Tracy needs is to get his confidence in his own body back. Tracy has averaged 7 FT/game since he's gotten to Houston, that's not quite James/Pierce/Wade, but it's pretty good for a man with major back problems. During the 4th quarter against the Kings, Tracy drove to the basket and dished to Yao, Clyde Drexler said all he needed to do there was bull his way into the defender and get 2 free throws. Don't we think that Tracy understands this? He's been the leading scorer in the league before (when he averaged close to 10 FT/game). He knows the deal when it comes to drawing fouls. Tracy is just not comfortable enough to do it, yet. We killed Tracy for not driving to the hoop enough against Jazz in the playoffs last year, but he averaged more than 8 FT a game and had 10 FT in game 7! What I'm trying to say is lets give him a little more time to get his confidence back, the guy's history shows that he'll get to the foul line, and I believe he'll do just that in the 2nd half, unless he gets injured again of course.
T-Mac definitely looked different tonight. Sure his jumper was not falling but he was confident. He attacked the rim more and even wanted the task of defending Artest. Ran a couple fast breaks too. The energy was there and the swagger is starting to come back. Haven't seen him hit a three from Baytown in a while.
oh man someone with an asian nick posting good things about tmac. Yang is more of a hmong last name isnt it?
I saw a lazy tmac on defense. On offense someone who look hesitant and scared like he rather not ruin the teams chemistry by forcing shots. When it came down for him to do anything he would jack up his long two, foot on the line. He has all the talent in the world but his desire is as much as Adonal Foyle.
I don't know what to think of Tmac. His struggles may be physical. It may be mental, with him thinking that he has physical problems. Maybe his physical problems are getting worse due to his mental approach. Or maybe a combinations of things....
Good thread. He's still getting in shape. This is preseason for him coming back from a 3 week injury. Rick Adelman said tonight that the only way he'll get in shape is by playing big minutes like he did tonight. Once he gets to full strength, the Rockets will take off.
don't want to be ignorant but from the look of the box score it seems like rafer played exceptionally well and tmac had a bad shooting night...damn depth perception, its improving rafer's shot
Just watch the FT numbers, when Tracy gets back to averaging 7-8 FT a game, he will be over whatever problem he has, physical or mental.
his defensive intensity was on throughout the night. artest was just too strong and one of his "out of the world days." u really think artest can make those shots on any other games? he's known to be a rocket killer. like jason terry, regardless of who guards him, they own the rockets. tmac at least made him take tough shots. he dived on the floor. he got rebounds. and yes, he did run the break. the thing i'm worried with tracy is that he's a RHYTHM player. with this offense, he's not going to dominate the shot attempts. therefore, he won't be in a good rhythm all the time. i wish tracy can find someway to be able to be dominant in this offense. he has never played in an offense where he hasn't created every play. hopefully as we go on, he'll learn how to be dominant in this type of offense.
yea, i noticed tmac has been playing 39+ mins a lot lately. i guess adelman has used the games to get tmac in shape. o well, we'll see what tmac can do after the break. the good thing is, this team looks like one of the top 3-4 teams in the L. the 4th quarter tonight was just a debacle. we haven't had a 4th quarter like this in a LOOOOOOONG time. it's fine if u go through one of these quarters ONCE in a while and we did. it's good with this game b/c we know we have so much to improve upon.
I'm not sure we saw the same player in the fourth quarter. He played like he was tired ... I'm sure he was tired. In the fourth, he didn't want to force things and the Kings were defending him tightly. But he didn't have the same explosiveness he had 3 years ago to be able to drive around his man and the help defense and get to the basket. It doesn't have to do with desire or competitiveness necessarily; I just don't think the ability is there. Particularly when he has to do it against Artest. On defense, he didn't play well. He had to guard Artest out of necessity, because Battier was on Kevin Martin and neither Wells or Hayes were in the game. Not only was it a complete physical mismatch, he did a poor job contesting shots as well. I thought his defense was lackluster throughout the second half.
Tracy is one of the greatest scorers ever. He can score in any offense. Every scoring champ knows what to do when their J isn't falling, they all know how to create rhythm, go to the bucket, get fouled, you'll get your points and your rhythm. Tracy is just hesitant right now, he doesn't trust his own body just yet, he'll come around soon.
Tmac has only averaged 14 points per game over the last 5 on 27-73 shooting. In comparison Rafer has made 2 more shots than Tmac on 10 less attempts shooting 29-63 and Yao has shot 43-73 over the same 5 game stretch.
There's nothing mental, he has made good decisions during this stretch. It's all physical. He's out of shape, Adelman said so.
I remember in the 3rd quarter when he had a fast break and was one on one with Brad Miller. He had Miller backing up and all he needed to do was run into Miller for the sure whistle and possible And1. Instead, Tracy tried to lay the ball in around Miller and missed the shot. In that same situation, Tracy from the beginning of the season gets to the line, Tracy from last year gets to the line, and I believe Tracy from 2 weeks from now will get to the line. In the NBA, sometimes it's not even about ability. Superstars have an advantage that average players don't have: when a superstar gets aggressive, they get to the line, it's really that simple.
are you stupid? you think the only people who think tmac's game is soft are the chinese? there are 50 million white, black and latino NBA fans in the US who are convinced tmac's never going to make it out of the first round and there are PLENTY of houstonians who hate tmac. and tmac has a ton of asian american fans too. dont be a tool and play some race card if you dont know wtf you're talking about
