Was T-Mac the best player in the NBA when he was with the Magic?

Tmac was basically the basically a one-man show (yes, probably even more than Lebron is right now to the Cavs) before his last two season with the Magics before they had SOME help from Drew Gooden and that guy from the Jazz (forgot his name). Yes, he had Mike Miller, but he was still a rookie back then; plus he was traded after the 2001-2002 season.
One of the reasons:

^ He was their starting center/forward. Pat Garrity was the other one.
Hows that for a team?
Its amazing how he still managed to get 5+ assists every game with that group around him.
But I don't think he was the best player back then even (that obviously goes to Timmy), but he was dominant, on par with Kobe

 

McGrady was maybe the best NBA player for 1 year on the Magic (02-03). In regards to style of play, stats, and dominance, McGrady that year was the embodiment of Jordan. All his other Magic years though, top 5. I'd still have a tough taking him over Shaq or Duncan even 02-03. I'd have certainly taken him over Bryant.

Not just cuz of "big > small" either, cuz Garnett and Nowitzki would automatically be over McGrady or Bryant. Shaq and Duncan at their apex were just so darn good for their teams in that period, its hard to making an argument that ANYBODY was a better pick.

 

How about saying Yao is still the same player he was rookie year? Passive, and not very good in the post...better? Clearly you have a problem w/ analogies, so my point is you're perception of a player is based on how they played a few years ago.

And everyone knows our most glaring weakness is at pg and he'd be the first person out of our starters we'd like to replace. I think Hughes is earning somewhere in the ballpark of $12 million this year, btw. Pretty expensive for shooting in the mid 30's.

2.5 seconds out of a season

Clearly you'd rather argue semantics now, since all your points are awfully weak here. How many Cavs games do you watch a season again? You've never refuted my statements about watching games to be informed, so I'm assuming few to none. I'm done w/ it.

I'll get back to the topic though: I forgot about KG those years too. There was no doubt Tmac and Kobe were neck and neck at their position, but the top big men (Shaq, Duncan, KG) were at their peak. If Shaq or Duncan were still at their peak they could give Lebron & Kobe a run for their money today.

 

u have to understand that tracy was option 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 when he was on the court. if he was out of rhythm, he could get himself into a rhythm. i remember he had many games where he started out poorly and still could get 25-30 pts.

the tracy we have now must learn how to be effective in a system. he won't get a lot of plays for him to score but he must learn how to find a rhythm. so if he starts a game poorly, hopefully he can get his rhythm SOME OTHER WAY. it's hard for a scorer like tracy to do that. hopefully he'll learn. this is the first yr where he doesn't have to do everything on offense and it's a struggle.

 

I have a problem with illogical analogies.

And sorry, I dont follow the cavs so my perception of them is how i see them currently (not a few years ago). and in their game against us, big Z played well early on and hughes missed a lot of shots.

If you're going to tell me what my perception is, at least try to be accurate.

I havent seen too many rafer bashing threads lately. if he keeps knocking down open shots, i doubt anyone would want to trade him.

hughes is shooting 37.6%. tmac is shooting 43.2% (and making 20 million).

people are paid based on their past performance. and he was pretty good when he was with washington.

btw, i dont think anyone was complaining about his salary when they played the spurs or the magic.

Actually, you said that good shooting and contributing are two different things.

I proved your contention wrong.

And yeah, it was only one shot, but if we had lost that game, what do you think that would've done to the rocket mentality?

I watch them when they play the rockets or come on tnt/espn. if you think lebron's supporting cast is totally inept, maybe you're the uninformed one.

 

Best player? How about Shaq? That was the peak years of Shaq. How about Dancan? How about Kobe? A guy never got out off the first round and even missed playoff was the best player! What a joke!

 

We should rank T-Mac the best player ever played in NBA games. Even Mike Jordan never scored 13 points in the last 35 seconds to reverse a game.

 

Wade is about to lead his team to 19 win season, so does wade consider a superstar?

 

Tmac was pretty beastly those years. I remember watching him vs. Det in 1st round he was dominating them, till game 5 where they would basically 5 on 1 defend him and his team could not make crap, it was sad to watch.

If Tmac would drive like he did back in the day and as often as he did back in the day, geez the Rockets would be scary as hell right now, and I think we would be talking about winning the championship rather than getting into the playoffs.

 

w/o the ref's he is not.

 

If Tmac would have kept his trap shut against Detroit he would have probably beat them by himself.

 

Because everyone looked at his score rather than field percentage. Like Shaq said, he achieved the high score by shooting more (not by efficiency).

 

quite simply............no. And this isn't even me hating on him, considering he was outstanding in Orlando. You still had Shaq, Duncan, Garnett, and Kobe....and some may even argue for A.I.

 

I don't know if people realized that T-Mac was just as much a jump shooter back then as he is now. Fans look at the highlight reels and think he was all dunks. Not at all. Shot selection and everything else is just about the same. He just shot better back then and finished stronger. When he dropped 62, the majority of his shots were fadeaway,jumpers and pull up threes. T-Mac just needs his touch back.

 

All of this nostalgic talks makes me even more pissed off, and kinda depressed at the same time. Imagine, if he never had the back injuries taking its toll on his relatively young body, he would still be one of the most dominant players in the league, perhaps in the same league as Kobe and Lebron (as he was back in Orlando).
But now he's just a shadow of himself, although he is still freakin' good. But nonetheless, he doesn't drive like he used to, or atleast with the same mentality, because his body is the most vulnerable to injuries as its every been. I do get pissed of at him a LOT, but sometimes when I think back how unfortunate the guy is (what with the back injuries and random death of family and friends annually), I kinda have to feel sorry for him.
But I really think we had the last best version of Tmac during his first year here, where we almost beat Dallas (ironically, a rebound away by Tmac in game 6)
I just think that, as amazing a talent the guy was back in the day, he still hasn't reached his full potential yet, which speaks volume about his talent level. Thats why I just wish the best for guy and hopefully he can atleast make it out of the 1st round this year

 

I think everyone agrees that he wasn't the BEST, but he was a dominant player back then.

Btw, you REALLY REALLY have something against Tmac don't you? I mean, to make a Facebook group dedicated for something like that?
Thats the definition of HATER
Its amazing that you can even utter the word "outstanding" and "Tmac" in the same sentence, considering how much you hate the guy.

Jeez. Stop the hating. No one really hates on Yao so no one should really hate on Tmac either

 

A 45+% shooter for ever year except his last year in Orlando before coming to Houston was a volume scorer?

Do you know how insane it is to score 32 points on 46% from the field and 39% from the arch? Go and try to find someone who's scored 30+ PPG in the past 15 years who has done that.

Hint: There isn't anyone.

Are people already forgetting how good McGrady used to be?

 

hint, in stats, you shouldnt round. its misleading.

in 02-03, tmac shot 45.7% from the field, 38.6% from the 3 pt line, and 79.3% from the ft line. (32.1 ppg)

in 02-03, kobe shot 45.1% from the field, 38.3% from the 3 pt line, 84.3% from the ft line (30 ppg)

kobe also beat tmac in every other statistic except offensive rebounds (by 0.3 & kobe had shaq underneath to grab rebounds) and blocks (they tied).

so its arguable that in tmac's best season, kobe had an even better one.