Check here http://www.82games.com/0708/0708HOU.HTM http://www.82games.com/0809/0809HOU.HTM Surprisingly, TMac of 07-08 season (the healthy TMac), only has +1.4 on/off difference, while Artest of 08-09 has +5.9 this season. So Artest makes teammates better more than Tmac.
If, If, If....that's all we get from McGrady apologists. "If Tracy comes back healthy" "If McGrady had better team mates" "If Tmac gets the fire back like he had in Orlando" Give it a rest. He had his chances and he failed. The team not only succeeded without him it thrived.
And please don't take offense when I say this, but HAVE to know that is not, as McGrady likes to say, "all on him." And you have to know that those numbers aren't as simple as that. They really aren't. You, as I'm sure you know, have to look at the factors there. The teammates he had. People were up in arms about his comments. Was it very teammate like to say? nope. Is it far from the truth...not really. The last couple years he finally had a pretty nice team (I also thought the 04-05 season there was a good one). Last year, the team (notice i didn't say "he") lost Yao. This year, he was out. Every year the Rockets made the post season since he's been here. They missed the year he was out more than just a few games. This year, he was out what was it 60+ games? But they still made the playoffs and actually had some success. Me thinks his team was finally better now. You really think if he were healthy and on the team they would have been out of the first again? Come on man...
Uh.. you're putting my if into the wrong context. What I'm saying is we WOULD HAVE won the playoff series against Portland with McGrady... there's not way we would have lost with him if we won without him... Keep hating... I'm not a T-Mac fan, but some people's reasons to hate T-Mac on this board are completely ridiculous.
Well not as a rookie he didn't.......come on....how many more excuses can people make when the truth is what it is..... Hey, maybe if Tmac played with Shaq or Allen and Garnett or.......... DD
I don't know. I don't know if Scola, Brooks, Wafer etc. are all such important parts of the offense if McGrady was on the team all season taking most of their shot attempts and reducing them to being spot up shooters only or in the case of Luis, a rebounder only. I don't know if Ron ever gets comfortable with the team or if he and McGrady kill each other on the court. I do know the team defense would not be what was had McGrady played. On that note, who knows what Roy or Kobe do if McGrady is in the game and is forced to guard them. People, for whatever reason, think you can take this Rocket team and all it's success and just plug McGrady's stats in and the team automatically gets better. Basketball is not that simple.
Wasn't Dallas one of the, if not the top team of the league at the time? Nearing 60 wins that year, and I believe even getting 60 and 68 wins in the years following? I believe the poster said "Portland was a young team with inexperience and a young coach." ie. there were two points, and the first being the larger one here. Just saying.
We're not better without Tracy. We're not much better with Tracy though. His playmaking skill is overrated. With his scoring skill declined after those injuries,his lack of movement w/o the ball really hurt the team sometimes. If he was that TMAC who used to be as good as Lebron,do whatever u want on court. You don't force a well-contended shot when u're not that good anymore.
Nate McMillan isn't a rookie coach. I was just saying he was a young coach, not a rookie coach... McMillan had a lot of mistakes in our series, you honestly can't compare his mistakes to someone like Avery who won 67 games in his second year and went to the Finals the year before.
2 things 1. That was with JVG . . .meaning an offensively challenged coach 2. That was BEFORE RON Rocket River
Ok... let's go by the stats then, do you want to go down that road? I promise you, I will destroy you with the numbers... if you dont want to embarass yourself, save it. I'm tired of people on this board with their arrogance, and I'm pissed off at people that think they know it all but obviously they don't watch much basketball.
I certainly don't think it's that simple. Just as it's not as simple to say 0-3 in playoffs vs. 1-0 with/without McGrady. Scola depends on Yao mostly to demand attention, so that Scola can be free to pop that mid range jumper he made most of his living on this season. Wafer also depends on others to create soft spots in the D so that they can swing the ball to him and he can take advantage of an out of position defender to pop a 3 or drive. Brooks scored well on his 3 point shooting. So I'd be ok with him being a spot up shooter in a sense (not too much though). Artest...well he will do what he wants to on the offensive side of the ball. I would argue he would be more of a reason that the team would fail than McGrady. McGrady just makes more smart plays than Ron does with the ball. I mean if you want to bring in someone else with McGrady's play making ability, I'm alllll for that. I just don't think that can happen anytime soon. We have what we have. And I think this team can have more success with McGrady than without. I don't deny there are both pros and cons. I just think with him, the pros outweigh the cons right now. Next season will hopefully tell us more.
Look, Tracy is a flawed basketball player, he gets the biggest contract, so he gets the most blame and the most applause. It is a team game, but when the team succeeds after it's alleged leader goes down it forces management and fans to take a good hard look at just how valuable the player really is..... Tmac is under the microscope, he has great talent, but he is not a leader, and I think the organization is taking a good hard look at what h brings to the table... DD
Thank you! The only constant with McGrady is a first round exit. For all the fanboys pointing to the Rockets regular season record with/without him, take a look at the sobering playoff numbers: With McGrady: 7-12 Free From McGrady: 7-6
