When I say I don't care, I mean with regards to his future. Due to his age, and the makeup of the team, I think we're a lot better off trading him and just completely starting over. I personally don't feel he will ever be elite again but that remains to be seen. As far as defending him, what can I say, I'm just a stickler for historical integrity. The guy literally carried this team by himself until last year. I respect that and when you try to historically revise his contributions to this team, I feel obliged to correct you.
It's all good. I want him traded too, but if he comes back and plays well.........you know me......it may be time to flip... DD
Back your own data up. I go by the general rise and fall of the past two years and I remember the biggest rise coming with the loss of Tracy. My point is that he CLEARLY does not NEED Tmac to have success and the team makes plays without TMac. (However, I will give you this, the guy had success at a time that he had success. It might not have mattered who was on the court with him. BTW... it's a good idea not to use big words like disingenuous when you have nothing to back it up. Take your wanna be lettuce elsewhere.)
Also, I would like it to be known that I like Tracy and his game. My opinion of Aaron Brook's success does not require me to consider Tracy's amazing talent.
Just to follow up on my previous thought, this isn't aimed at you specifically, but this 'what have you done for me lately?' sports culture just appalls me and I honestly find it disgusting. Up until this year, this guy did everything for this team and basically WAS this team with yao usually hurt. he had the misfortune of getting injured last year and suddenly he's persona non-grata on this board with most wanting to crucify him. i think he certainly could have handled the situation better, and there's always trouble every time he opens his mouth, but damn, that doesn't mean he somehow was the cause of all of our problems in the past or his absence the cause of our recent success. from a practical standpoint, to follow up on a lot of people who had responded to me in this thread, i don't think he can be good enough again to be the best player on a title team unless that team is absolutely loaded everywhere else. the problem is that with yao tying up such a significant percentage of the cap, and my belief that yao will never again be a major contributor, i don't see us being able to assemble enough talent around tracy quickly enough to justify keeping him around. we're honestly better off just starting over.
The biggest rise happened when we had Artest, Battier and Yao healthy. 3 solid players. Aaron Books got older and matured. Scola got more experienced. Landry grew more experienced. They weren't just rookie scrubbs but became solid role players becaue of age rather than lack of T-Mac
I hear ya. At the end of the day, I just want the danged team to win. So from that regard.....GET WELL TRACY !!!! Now back up your argument with Don, because that is the same kind of stuff you tell me to do.....LOL...... Tag... you are it... DD
In the 6 games that Aaron Brooks started with Mcgrady in the back court, we went 5-1, losing to San Antonio 75-77. His averages: 36:54 MIN 14.67 PPG 4.83/11.33 FGM/FGA 2.33/5.5 3PTM/3PA 0.426 FG% 0.424 3P% 4.67 REB 4.5 AST 1.5 TO 1 STL To me it isn't about his averages, but how the team performed. I have no doubt he can match these numbers without Tmac, but on what kind of team? I believe by playing together, they make eachother better players, and become a feasible duo on a contending team. Without playing with a play maker, Brooks can still put up the numbers, but how efficiently will his team play? Will they be able to contend, despite a lack of play making?
I was at that San Antonio game.....we were up about 10 when Tmac came in and took the ball away from Brooks... I can still hear the San Antonio fans taunting me and my wife as we sat there 10 rows up center court..... Trust me, that was NOT a good game....Tracy basically blew it by hogging the ball.....not a good memory for DD. Gonna wash that away with more Pinot.........GO AWAY bad memory...go away !!! DD
Thacabbage has probably spent less than 1/10th as many posts defending Mcgrady as you have bashing him. I don't know if you realize it or not but Tracy's reputation is so poor that hardly anything negative said about him is challenged (except by a small group of extremely loyal fans). Very rarely do we get a rational discussion of his past, present, and future. Actually this might be the first thread since I've been posting under this moniker.
It is nice to know you go by the advanced scientific method of the "general rise and fall", according to your memory of course. Here is some additional data for your memory bank. The Rockets were 9-7 in 07/08 without Mcgrady. The Rockets were 2-9 in 06/07 without Mcgrady. The Rockets were 7-28 in 05/06 without Mcgrady The Rockets were 2-2 in 04/05 without Mcgrady. Collectively that is 20-46 for the mathematically-disinclined. Now last year, we were indeed a better team without Tmac playing on one leg. But historically, I would say he has been helpful. Yeah. That's great. Your point has nothing to do with this thread. No one said he needs Tmac to have "success". I said he needs to play with a play maker to start on a contender. That does not preclude him from having success on his own. This point seems to have gone over your head. "Disingenuous" isn't considered a "big word" to those of us with 6th grade educations.
AB is definitely a point guard with a pop up shooter like Mike Bibby!. Ya i would like to see Tmac bringing in the ball half court and AB will take the rest on the distribution side.
Not sure exactly what triggered that vitriolic outburst, but very well... You entered a thread where the OP's main premise was not that Aaron Brooks needed Tracy McGrady but that Tracy McGrady's presence would greatly benefit Aaron Brooks. This point clearly went over your head as evidenced by your tangential aside referencing the latter's speed: " Speed kills, speed makes plays happen and speed works for my coach. I don't see what your problem is, Tmac or not." The fact that you conclude that he has a "problem" only further underscores this point - you don't have to have a problem with Aaron Brooks to recognize that it could benefit him playing next to a playmaker. You then follow up by saying: "(don't forget that most of Aaron Brook's success has been w/o Tmac)." In the context of the rest of your post, (and in the context of your previously established misunderstanding of the OP's premise), it was safe to assume you were implying that Tracy McGrady couldn't benefit Aaron Brooks as there was already sufficient data to disprove such a potential correlation. Considering that the two have only started a handful of games together and that Aaron faired well in those games (in the event of taking the assumption that you were actually implying that Brooks has been more successful without T-Mac than with T-Mac), that would be a disingenuous statement. Oh, ok. As long as you're admitting that you are basing your conclusion on a basest causal connection in oblivion of other significant factors (overall team talent, Yao's health), then that's fine. At least we're being honest. That's great. I don't think anyone has claimed the contrary on either point.
That was also their very first game starting together. And we can agree that Mcgrady was not quite himself this year. With a healthier Mcgrady, as well as more time to get accustomed to eachother, I am will to bet they would play pretty well.
