Tracy clearly would have to adapt to Adleman's system if he wants to be a Rocket again. And playing well with the Rockets is obviously his best opportunity to get another high dollar contract. I think if he developed a better back to the basket game and worked harder on his midrange jumper then he could be very efficient for another 3-4 years. Gone are the days when he could sore and score 40 points on any given night. He could still be a 20ppg player in about 35 minutes. Its how he gets those points that matter. Jacking up outside shots is definitely not going to help. Play closer to the basket and bring that field goal percentage upto around 45%. Tall order for Tmac but I think if he worked hard it can be done.
I don't think the addition of T-Mac improves the team. This current team has stamped their own identity now ie.(tough and hard nosed) and I don't see Morey-Adelman messing with it. Still think T-Mac will never wear a rocket uniform again. T-Mac is at his best when he's attacking the basket and with less athletism due to micro surgerey and being weak mentally, I don't see him attacking the hole to be effective enough as a elite player in the league anymore. Also he doesn't play hard every game. I lossed alot of respect for him this season. I think the rockets need to move him and try to improve the team using his contract.
The real question is will the 04/05 version of TMAC help THIS team? Yes he will give you 27/6/6, but will the Rockets as the team score more? How much our defense will suffer? TMac + Yao have turned everyone else into spot up shooters in the past. I really do not want to have that offense back, and I really LOVE the defense/heart/hustle of this team.
Its nice to blame Tmac for all of this. But I think it had alot more to do with Van Gundy's unimaginative offense. Basically give Tmac the ball and move the hell out of the way. Is Tmac completely without fault? Of course not. I prefer not to count this year at all. Last year he was the main cog in a team that won 22 straight and the ball movement at that point was at its best. All that said I think Tmac will get another chance with this Rockets team and its up to him to fit better. Clearly Tmac needs Rockets alot more then we need him. He has to come back healthy, strong, and committed to playing both sides of the court. Tall order for Tmac but I think (or rather hope) he can do it.
Someone already said it, but when the shot clock is winding down and the offense breaks down, that's when you need TMac to generate offense IMO. I think it's a better alternative then Ron dribbling in circles and into traffic. But I guess the negatives outweigh his positives now.
I think some people are exaggerating the height issue. Brooks is an inch shorter than Chris Paul and actually has a longer wingspan and the same standing reach. There have been plenty good playmakers that were undersized: Paul, Brevin Knight, Jameer Nelson, Mugsy Bogues, etc... Brooks' biggest physical issues is his small frame. Here are Brooks' pre-draft measurements compared to a few other mini guards (from left to right the measurements are height w/o shoes, w/ shoes, weight, standing reach, wingspan): http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-draft-measurements/ The problem with Brooks is he doesn't see the floor well, doesn't control tempo well and doesn't make good decisions. If he was 4 inches taller, I think he'd have the exact same problems. For Brooks to succeed as a starter, he has to become an elite scorer, meaning he needs to score a lot and do it efficiently. At the same time, he needs to at least marginally improve his decision-making, defense, etc... If he doesn't become an elite scorer and improve to about average in those other areas, he'll end up being backup material in this league. He may be able to accomplish those things but he also may not. We should know better by late next season, whether he's still a Rocket or with another team.
I think the biggest question you have to ask is DO YOU THINK TRACY WILL EVER BE HEALTHY AGAIN? If the answer to that question is no, then he will never help the bottom-line for this team. He has never been the type of player who ups his intensity and focus when he's hurt, and that forces him to become passive in his play. However, I believe that if he DOES come back 100% healthy (he still won't ever be the same player he was), there is loads of potential for him to help this team win. Like many people have stated before, it's his ability to close, and his playmaking that make him a valuable asset to any team. His days of being a scoaring champion are long-gone, but this very well could be the beginning of the second chapter of his career, a la Grant Hill (which is ironic, because Hill is the player many blame for why the Magic never panned out).
I honestly hope that Tmac can return to just 80% of what he was in 04-05 and help out this team.. if not, trade him for competent offensive players that can also D up.. I'd love to get Tayshaun and Rip hamilton.
3 Constant FACTS....... 1. A go-to-guy at towards the end of the game. 2. Creates for others. Around 6 assists a game for the last 3 seasons. 3. Draws the double team. Also, Aaron Brooks, Von Wafer and Luis Scola are NOT efficient scoring options. When Aaron Brooks is on he's virtually unstoppable but when he's off he makes other mistakes such as poor decision making skills, stupid passes, general turnovers and shows his inexperience or lack there of. Von Wafer is a 1 trick pony. Scola is effecient in terms of his rebounding and hard nosed play night in and night out but there's several games where he too struggles offensively. Although I'm very Pro-Mcgrady I could care less if he came back or not. If he does I'd want him back only if he's fully healthy and committed ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BALL and committed to playing ROCKETS team ball. I know that's a lot to ask for of Mcgrady so I'm not holding my breath. Make no mistake though he's an asset to our team 1 way or another in 09-10. He's going to be looking for 1 last contract. He'll have had plenty of time for rest/rehab (NO EXCUSES). He should be returning with a chip on his shoulder watching the Rockets push the Lakers to the Max WITHOUT him. If all else fails we got 20 some odd million reasons to trade him.
The problem is that Mcgrady is not going to be able to regain his past abilities, and this is why the question was brought to light. Mcgrady is never going to be as aggressive as he use to be and thus limit his playmaking abilities and restrict him to being a jump shooter. Realistically speaking, Mcgrady as a jump shooter is really not going to provide much for this team and thus I think is time to move on.
Besides all the numbers, Adelman's system requires the ball movement, you can hear he was talking this all the time. Tmac is a player who does not like do this thing, so chemistry is another issue when you have TMac and Artest on the floor at the same time too.
I honestly don't know. I would like to think that getting a player of T-Mac's caliber back would improve the team, but I'm not sure. But I think that if the Rockets keep McGrady, he should not automatically get his starting spot back. The starting five with Battier and Artest playing was too good to break up without assurances that it would get better. So if McGrady comes back, he should come off the bench until he proves that he can play defense and play within the offense.
HEY PEOPLE? DO YOU REALIZE HE HAD NO BUSINESS PLAYING LAST YEAR WITH THAT KNEE. BUT HE DID ANYWAY!!!!!! HE WAS PLAYING ON ONE LEG!!! OF COURSE HE WAS GOING TO BE BAD!!!! Simply Put, He played injured last year and his numbers dropped.... Who do you played with an injured knee and his numbers didn't drop...... I swear some of you can't realize that, He played horrible last year because He was hurt. He Tried to play when he shouldn't be playing, HE TRIED TO HELP HIS TEAM!!! Unfortunately he was hurting it because THE INJURY MADE HIM PLAY POOR!!!!! (but he has no heart)
Clutch, You know those stats from the past two years are not indicative of how a "healthy" Tracy Mcgrady helps this team.* He has had a noticeable limp for that entire time period. Yet, even while shooting poor from the field in seasons before that he helped the team. Our record without him was horrible in his first couple seasons here. He is not a high percentage shooter but i think the "healthy" Tracy Mcgrady has shown that he can help the team much more than hurt with his playmaking. How do you feel about Chauncey Billups? He's even worse in terms of scoring efficiency and he's a finals mvp helping his team to the western conference finals. I truly believe that a player's FG% has become the single most overrated statistic in basketball. *Before anyone replies, I understand that we have not seen this "healthy" Mcgrady in quite some time and the likelihood of him returning is very low. Still, I assume the only Mcgrady the rockets would consider playing is a fully healthy one.
He didn't give effort when he was playing and that reflects in his stats. That Toronto game he didn't even guard anyone. It is a contract year so he might show up, and if he is motivated Tmac is a good player. If we had rafer last year we might have had a chance against the jazz.
Too much credit has been given to T-Mac. The team average FG% has no significant improvement with T-Mac. oh, as pointed out already, the team actually has better FG% without T-Mac.
Driving to the hole has alot to do with mental toughness and I don't see that in T-Mac. Carrying two injury prone superstars in Yao&T-Mac is to much of a gamble for me. Move one of them and build around the other that has a better attitude is pretty much all the rockets can probably do right now.
