Tracy cannot be defined as a perimeter player. He plays all over the court and takes advantage of the post ups against smaller defenders all the time.
depends on who is on the floor and his back. When TMac's back is right and Yao isn't in there, Tracy is a great post up threat from the high block. He is an outside in player because he is a 2/3 but he is not just a perimeter player as defined by players such as Ray Allen and Michael Redd.
One more thing, Yao at one stretch of last season averaged 26+, I don't see any reasons he can't average 28 if he was the focal point of the offense. Yeah, Yao is that good!
Tracy is the best passer Yao has ever played with, by far. I can't count the times when Yao was not doing well, and Tracy simply made up his mind Yao was going to get the ball in scoring position and the defense couldn't stop him. Tracy will have no problem blending into the offense. He can zip passes from outside to the post, he hits the cutter and he dishes off the drive. Teams MUST double team him when he makes a move and he hits the open man very well. When single covered, he will destroy opposing teams until they adjust. Shot selection has been one of his problems but part of that is he's always the "bail out" guy who takes the shot on bad possessions. With our current roster, that will decrease, along with the need to force things because nobody else on the floor is effective. Don't get over-excited about our offense after 3 preseason games against no defense. When teams tighten up on us during real games, Tracy will be the one to break the logjam and make things happen. The forum is a little detached from reality right now because of the excitement over promising new players. But when games are tight late in the 4th quarter, Tracy will be carrying the water. He, not Yao or Novak or (name your player) is the key to closing out wins against the better teams. He will ensure we don't go on scoring droughts in the last 4-5 mins. My biggest concern is Bonzi blending in. I think it could be a big problem. If Snyder keeps hustling, attacking and playing good defense, we can wait on Bonzi to find his place. BlueChip, I agree with just about everything you said. Great post that should bring some of us back to reality.
JVG did say that Tmac will be the first choice at the beginning of last season, however, he also mentioned that Yao will certainly "benefit from his system" at the beginning of this preseason. So let's wait and see.
As I said in another thread a few days ago. When you have two dominant superstars, one inside, one outside (or everywhere), you don't ask, "Who's gonna be our first option?" As Nero said, you do "pick you poison" offense. You take what the defense give you. There is no way any defense can stop two superstars with a bunch of sharp shooters around them. OMR, it is not too hard for JVG and T-Mac to figure out how to play with Yao. T-Mac has already been the best passer for Yao. In fact, a TMac-Yao pnr with good shooters around will be so unstoppable the league might consider a rule change to limit it. (Okay, a bit exaggerated, but you get my point.) We saw a glimpse in the spring of 04-05 of what having good shooters can do to the Yao-TMac tandom. It was so fun to watch. And it will be better because we have a vastly improved Yao and our shooters now aren't breaking-down old chums. And we have good passers in Billy and TMac and Battier and Snyder. Novak seems to be able to develop into a very good entry passer too. And as I said in the past, the good thing about this team is that our most 3 important players (Yao, TMac, Battier) are all unselfish players. Alston is also a pass-first guy. (I didn't notice Snyder's passing skill until it is pointed out to me.) Everyone shares. That's great. JVG doesn't need to take care of big egos like Phil Jackson did with Kobe and Shaq. This team is special. I am pumped.
^ Well Said. The Pick&Roll will be the bridge that unites both Tracy and Yao's domination together. It plays to both of their strengths while they are on the floor...and it gives our role players oppurtunity to play a part in the offense as well. As Yao and Tracy can run it on one side while Bonzi sets up on the block on the other. A innovative- P&R slash triangle offense collabo. lol That's why JVG is so concerned about zone defense this season. He knows that a 3-2 zone or something might be the only defense a team can throw out to stop such a devastating attack.
thats where our power forward comes in for the alley hoop or the sideline jumpshot to bad we dont have one
Good post - let us not forget who scored 13 in 35 seconds vs the Spurs! I am trying to not get over-excited but it would be nice to see competent role players who play in a disciplined manner surrounding Yao and Tmac. Trrrrrembling like a Chihuahua waiting for Opening Night.
You have just articulated everything that I thought when I read the original post. I had a problem with "Last night Tmac didn’t play and the offense ran smoother without him". While this is true, the offense was arguably even more potent the 1st couple of games when Mac was on the floor and Yao was nursing his big toe. It goes both ways. The thing is, Mac played very well with the athletes. They were all (Mac included) superb on defense and were able to run and score on the break due to their stifling D and athletic prowess. Now, when Yao was on the floor with the shooters, he was effective because the game slows down so Yao can get position and the shooters can spot up. It was like watching two different teams when Mac was running the show vs. When Yao was the focal point. The one thing I do agree with is that JVG is going to have an interesting task in deciding what kind of offense to run now that he has the atheletes and defenders to run with mac, but the shooters to put around Yao. It'll be easy when one star is on the floor, but when they are both on the floor, they kind of look lost. Yao cant run, and having mac stand on the perimiter limits his abilities and turns him into a jumpshooter. I'm sure they'll gel in time as mac learns to drive more and they run the PNR more, but as of right now, the team is running more smoothly when the stars are seperated with the right kind of role players surrounding them, rather than when they are playing together.
Man I really liked this post. One of the great things about October is the bbs gets a lot a fresh new faces....the best time of year, imo. And some oldtimers whine about the good 'ol days. That whine is the equivalent to a french wine lover saying how much wine was better in his day...like back when he used it during his day to pick up chicks. i'm certain that's a truism of life: when you don't properly make use of the wine anymore, you'll whine about the good ole days of wine. hmmm....where was I? oh, yeah, I agree, there is no TMac dilemma. Sounds more like a personal storyline gone wild resulting in a new thread.
Something I've said earlier about TMac-- TMac's strength isn't scoring a ton of points efficiently. Looking over TMac's careere numbers in TS%, it's been rather low compared to other "volume scorer Superstars" like Lebron, Kobe, Ray Allen, etc.. He really just had that one great year in terms of TS% shooting. He kinda got forced into that role due to Grant Hill's injury in Orlando, he can score, but rarely was efficient at it from a statistical point of view. One could argue he forced shots due to playing with inferior talent, but guys like Allen, Kobe, Lebront, etc also played on losing teams before and still have higher TS% than TMac. TMac's "special power" is helping other players score more efficiently. He draws heavy attention and passes out to teammates in the right moment for him to score. That's why guys like Garrity, Barry, Padgett, and even Yao have had great TS% years playing with TMac. Particularly, Yao's TS% in 04/05 was flat out amazing-- higher than Shaq's during any year in his career-- thanks to TMac feeding him easy baskets. Anyhow, I look for TMac to have the ball on offense quite a bit, but as long as the shooters are firing on target, I doubt TMac takes that many shots unless the opposing team decided to stick to Novak, Head, Snyder, etc and dare TMac to beat them single handedly. (a distinct possiblity). The scoring might end up being balanced, even with a couple of Superstars around. Yao will get his post ups, too... but the offense isn't going to him all the time. No sense tire him (or TMac out) for 82 games. Need them for playoffs.
What I remember seeing last year was a lot of Rocket players missing wide open shots. To me that says coaching was not the problem.
I doubt the "act" is fake... he had his whole team, including MJ, believing in it, or atleast the overall philosophies encompassing it - I remember MJ and Pippen say it was the reason they were able to keep their composure in any situation, and invariably pulled them through in the clutch... whatever works...
AFAIC, this is a non-issue. McGrady himself stated that they will be depending on Yao as their #1 option this season. He said that he thinks Yao is "ready for it". T-Mac will defer to Yao as long as it works to the Rockets' advantage, he has done it in the past when Yao wasn't ready yet to become the #1 option on the team. He's far from selfish and has shown that throughout his tenure here, but I guess some 'fans' still choose to believe otherwise, despite evidence to the contrary. Yao wil lbecome our #1 option on offense this season. The only exception will be if we have a 'repeat' of what happened early on in McGrady's first season, when Yao just wasn't ready yet to carry on that type of pressure/role. Now he most likely is ready and able to carry the entire franchise on his broad shoulders...except that he has plenty of help. It's not a Yao vs. T-Mac situation, these two guys are very selfless on the court and love sharing the ball.
