I think sir charles said it best, "the rockets are a better team with tracy mcgrady, the people who think they are better without him are idiots"
How many times has Kobe gotten out of the 1st round without a team with a lot of talent? (Was great with Shaq and veterans and with Gasol, Odom, and athletic role players). Dwade...none. (Only times was with Shaq and veterans on his team) Carmello...none. (This year was the first, with Billups and an improved Nene). Paul Pierce didn't have a lot of talent in 01-03, but his team was good enough to get a top 3 seed in a very watered down Eastern Conference (Jkidd's nets were the best team easily in the East then). But he did get them to the 2nd and 3rd round those 2 years. Lebron may be the only player in our era that has been able to take a team of nothing anywhere in the playoffs. Obviously Lebron is better than Tmac, so that is why he is able to do that. If Dwade never gets out of the first round again with Miami, what would people make of his career? Wouldn't they say he can't win without Shaq? I'm not trying to make excuses for Tmac, but his teams were overmatched by depth and talent every year. The one time he was favored was because of home court advantage, not because we were the more talented team. We had 2 players that had superior talent, but overall, they could play 8 deep, where as we were trying to get as much out of Yao and Tmac with a bunch of mediocre role players. In all honesty, who did Tmac and Yao really have that they could depend on? Nobody (offensively). This is just the truth.
Not to defend McGrady too much but this is flawed. McGrady was hurt plenty in the 07-08 season and was only playing at about 75% THAT year too. His shoulder was messed up along with other injuries. The ONLY thing that was healthy was his back for the first time in 2-3 years. Also, including 07-08 and before, the Rockets were something like a .700 team with McGrady and a .300 team without him, with significant number of games both ways to prove the Rockets were a MUCH better team with him than without him. THIS year is the first year they were better without him, and this version of McGrady was basically a walking zombie.
While it's not fair to blame everything on Tracy, it is also not wise to blame everything on the teammates. Remember, Tracy is (a big) part of the team that lost those series.
You are completely making excuses for him. I don't care about any of those other players, we are talking about Tmac, and for you to toss his teamates under the bus is typical Tmac speak. He is the LEADER of the team, it is his job to lead....if the team goes down fighting, fine..... But the problem with Tracy is when the team wins...it is "I imposed my will"...when the team loses it is "Landry took a wrong angle on the rebound".... Never mind that TMAC tipped the ball way from Landry...it is NEVER his fault. Sometimes, there are players that tempt you with their skills, you think...wow...he is really good....why don't his teams win? Tmac knows how to score, Tmac knows how to pass, Tmac knows how to do everything on the basketball court...but one thing.....WIN ! Is it completely fair to blame Tracy....no, it is a team game, but you can not come out and say "It is on me" then later go..."It was never on me"...or...."If I played with better teamates".... That is beyond stupid....because what would happen if his teamates said...."If we had Lebron, or MJ instead of Tmac we would have won".... Tmac has too many excuses, he has run out of them with a good majority of the fans in Houston. It is fairly clear that he is talented, but when the team gets out of the first round with Ron and not Tracy.....that speaks VOLUMES.... Is it fair, or an apples to apples comparison....no, not completely, but Tmac has to take his fair share of the blame...he has earned that.... For me, and it is clearly just my own personal belief, the guy is a loser, a player who has loads of talent, and a lack of grit. He is the typical front running player, but get physical with him, and he backs down. I hope that Morey can trade him this offseason, for TMac's own good and for the good of the Rockets. He had his chance......here.....now it is time to move on. DD
The fact that the management tried to trade him this year showed that his negatives is considered to outweigh his positives (with his salary considered). There is not much to argue about. He is a great player when healthy skill wise, but he hasn't shown any leadership when a playoff game is on the line. His stats during the playoffs says he is a great basketball player (which he is, individually). But his failure to pass the first round and off court comments (such as, if you put me with Shaq/KG etc...) says he is not worth the max salary. He would be great to have for around 6-8 mil a year and come off the bench (or starts if he commits to defence).
Tmac was brought in to get us out of the 1st round we were in the 1st round . . .against a team with 4 hall of famers and we never Faced a better team than that 4 hall of famer team in his tenure and we never beat those teams Period So the trade . . TMAC for SF3, Cutinno and Cato was a lateral move. . . no improvement End of Line Rocket River
do we just go back and forth in circles with these arguments whenever a tracy thread comes up? answer the OP's question.
The ball moved during the 22 game win streak. The guy was hurt at the end of the season during the play off push. He had to have injections to take away the pain from his knee and shoulder. T mac on this team we win game 2 of the lakers series, but its all wishfull thinking. Rockets ran into a better team and the Lakers don't deserve to win a championship. Every playoff series the Rockets have lost with mac an important guy was injured. Against Dallas it was Bob Sura. The first series with Utah there was nobody injured the Rockets bench was outscored by wide margins. Utah the second time Rafer Alston was hurt and that pretty much sealed our fate because T mac needs to play with someone that can handle the ball. The Rockets are just better defensively without Yao. They also need to push the ball because when t-mac was the scoring champ he ran the break. Blame him or blame Van Gundy, he needs to come back in shape and get on the break. If we get Nash then watch our players get easy looks. Except for Yao because that giant is soft ans will break a bone again. Call him Mr. Glass like Bill Walton or Rik Smits. Yao's a third option on this team. I'd rather go to Scola at least he goes to the rim instead of shooting fadeaways. Yao' hand's are not that great as well. He is not the centerpiece of our championship team. Go Denver! I hate the fakers!
I NEVER said he doesn't deserve any blame, because basketball is a TEAM sport and everybody does deserve some of the blame. I am just tired of people blaming TMAC and TMAC ONLY for the losses. I am fine with people blaming him to some extent, because he and Yao are our best players and that warrants a little bit more blame. However, 2 players can only do so much, that is all I am trying to say. Those 2 guys ALWAYS showed up in the playoffs. They couldn't afford to not show up, other wise we had no chance of winning. I also said many times before I don't agree with everything that he says, but he isn't paid to talk. He can say whatever stupid things he wants to, as long as he performs on the basketball court, in my opinion. I only care about what he does ON THE COURT. I can care less about what he says, or what any NBA player says, as long as its not racist, sexist, or offending any group of people in any way. (Barkley, Tim Hardaway etc.) If your going to talk about players being good teammates and not making excuses...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZpWJtgvm5Q Theres last years MVP talking about his center aint worth a damn. I don't think thats good leadership, but I could care less, because Kobe still produces on the court. My last point to your post is that, can't you accept the fact that we got better as a TEAM? We added Ron Artest who brought mental toughness and physicality to the Rockets. We never had a 3rd option on offense before this year to take pressure off of Tmac and Yao. We traded Rafer and we got younger, more physical and better defensive version of Rafer in Lowery. We also had a better offensive point guard who wouldn't kill us with his shooting. Lowery + Brooks >Rafer+(JL III or Bjax) or (Sura + MJames) Scola and Landery developed, and became very solid power forwards in the NBA. Scolandry>>>>>>(Howard+Hayes) or (Ryan Bowen, Scott Padgett and Weatherspoon) Wafer, although one dimensional, is still a better option off the bench than Luther Head. Wafer> Head, Wafer<Jon Barry (better passer, shooter, but MUCH less athletic) Add all of those pieces to Yao and Battier, and thats still a pretty good team, without Tmac. Add a healthy Tmac to that, and you have a contender, instead of a solid playoff team. Add to that, we played a team that wasn't deeper than us in Portland. They were much like the 06/07 Rockets with 2 stud players, but very little support from their role players. Roy and Aldridge played brilliantly during our series, but who else did? Blake, Fernandez, and Outlaw had a good game or 2, but thats it. Our team had depth to withstand 2 players scoring barrage. When we matched up vs. Dallas and Utah, we never had that depth. They had more depth to withstand Tmac and Yao's scoring abilities.
Great post once again. But I think I might have to disagree with you on one thing. Thats Von and Head. I think the only difference with them is their height. They both attacked the basket and score but no defense. Von just had the height thats all. Well in my eyes thats what I see. I just hate the way guys treated head on this board. Everyone loved him sometimes during the season but the playoffs everyone hated him. Its not his fault that the Jazz are a bad match-up team for him. Last but not least I have to agree with you on who cares what McGrady says. Guys should care less on what he says. He is payed to play ball. He can talk all he wants as long as he is ballin hard on the court so what. The guy just gets hated on for no reason and thats not fair.
Going 2-2 against the lakers are you saying that RON/Scola/Brooks is better than the TMAC/Rafer/Yao ? go on continue to THROW TEAMMATES under the bus IMO . . Brooks and Scola developed BETTER without TMAC If he were in . . i doubt we would have traded rafer Rocket River
LOL...you're going to destroy me with stats? Give it a rest son. I already posted the meaningful stat and that was playoff wins. You can show me all the stats you want but I'll keep looking at wins.
Yes, I can. Can you accept that part of them getting better as a team was TMac being out and the TEAM sharing the load instead of one guy dominating the ball? DD
Are you serious??? Scola was still consistent when McGrady was playing. Did you not see how he played during the 22 game winning streak and even after that. Even in the playoffs. The only thing i can say is without McGrady this team found a way to win.
I think everyones hate for T mac has came from a trade rumor. Odd no one knows that Vince carter was actually going to be traded for T mac. Les Alexander said he would not trade him and the rumor at first was for Ron Artest not T mac evryone is allowed their own opinions, but I just hate how negative everyone is on this board about one guy, when they were chanting mvp a year ago. But I guess thats why we are just forum posters and don't get paid to do this.
This is a myth. We get blown out in game 7s when he is playing as well. (see Dallas first round series). "Getting shots of their own" is insinuating that McGrady is capable of doing that ... well, if you think long contested 2s are creating shots, then I suppose that is true. Artest seems to fill that role of spotty shot selection just fine though.
