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

i'm saying half the people here are full of back spasms to think he was the best player , which is exactly the question presented.

i don't care what Tmac drives, a Porsche or Toyota Prius.

 

individually, tmac was the best player in 02-03. the way teams defended him was unreal. the zone defense was put onto him solely by EVERY team in his first 10 games until he adjusted. no other perimeter player faced the type of defenses he faced the year after 02-03.

but to be a consensus best player, u have to have team-success. that's why dwayne wade was considered the best player after he won the championship in 05-06 by many in the media when he clearly was not.

but again, that was the past. i only care if he can bring the rockets some success. what he did for the magic is irrelevant to me.

 

to me,
he's a better player now than he was back then. He's not playing selfish, he knows his role and he's trying to make his team a better team.

That to me is the better Tmac, not the scoring title Tmac. who cares if he scores alot of points, its not fantasy basketball.

 

u gotta understand that scoring tmac could win u 3 games BY HIMSELF, which was what he did in 04-05 v. the mavs (and the reason i began to like him).

the tmac playing RIGHT NOW can't do that (unless he finds a way to get more effective in this system with less touches).

we would have won any of the last 2 series had one other guy just dominated one game for him while he was struggling.

but again, hopefully he'll find a way to be effective and hopefully we'll do big things. as long as this team does big things when april rolls around, i'm a happy man.

 

There is no way Mac is better now than he was then. If you honestly think this Rockets team would be better with this Mac as compared to the T-Mac in Orlando then I don't know what to tell you... What exactly do you think he does better now?

It isn't only about scoring alot of points, it's the fact that he was a vastly superior player in nearly all facets of the game at that point. If he had stayed healthy and put up seasons like that consecutively we would be talking about a top 15 player all-time.

 

how many titles did he win with Orlando? did he make it past the first round?
the "IF HE HAD STAYED HEALTHY" argument could me made for basketball players back in the day, what if Reggie Lewis didn't die, what if Len Bias didn't die, what if Sampson didn't tear his knee

obviously a Tmac homer. he was a great TALENT in Orlando, but its about winning games which it appears none of you have figured out.

Lebron took a crap team to the Finals. its about results dude. Winning the scoring title doesn't make you the best player in the world.

IF IF IF IF IF IF IF IF IF = NOT LEGIT ARGUMENT

 

I don't know why people are bringing up Kobe in the argument. Gotta ask if he was better than Shaq or Duncan, and I'd say no.

 

Can you give me a solid argument without a 'WHAT IF?'

so far I have from you:
Scoring title

How about I randomly use a top 15 player as DESIGNATED BY THE NBA.
Hakeem Olajuwon, he didn't win the scoring title..

MVP
Defensive Player of the Year
Finals MVP X 2
2 NBA Championships
ACTUAL TOP 50 Players of all time

No scoring title, and no 'what ifs' those are real results

 

i think hakeem is a tee bit higher than that don't u think?

 

he's definetly better than TMAC even "What If, they gave HGH to TMac in Orlando so he doesn't get hurt like Mr Glass, scoring title Tmac Only Fan feels important than championships" scenario

Top 15 of what? not the NBA
what = ain't no country named what

 

If we talk about pure game, Kobe has been the best player in the league in the past 7-8 years, hands down. T-Mac wasn't ever close to being the defender that Kobe has been and won't ever be. T-Mac does not have the drive to push himself to the limit a la Kobe, Yao, Iverson. Don't get me wrong, he is a phenomenal talent, and we may even win championships with him, but he could be an even better player than he is right now.

 

i love yao, but he has not proven himself either. he also hasn't gotten out of the first round either. both of our stars have a lot to prove.

 

thank you.

i love both of these players, but I have zero satisfaction as a Rocket fan knowing that Tmac was a scoring champion and in some crazed people's minds that he is a top 15 player better than Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan..

I'm not an insecure fan of the Rockets. I don't need to make wild what if scenarios to justify my players not having any playoff success.

I can take a dump on the Was T-Mac the best player if he ____ this and that

I only care about WHAT IS THE BEST NBA T-E-A-M the Rockets NOW can put on the floor so we can WIN a CHAMPIONSHIP.

I don't care if Tmac is the main reason we win or if Yao is. I only care that we win NOW.

Not going back in time in Orlando and pretending Tmac was the best player in the NBA or going back in time thinking Yao is better than he really is.

if you want Tmac to win the MVP in Orlando, there's a playstation or xbox game you can rent.

 

Okay, I respect you tinman, but to call him "unselfish" is typical of bandwagon nba fans that just goes by the stereotype that a scoring champion is unselfish. If he was unselfish, how did he manage to get 5+assists every year? Thats amazing considering his "Shaq" or "Zdrunas" (don't wanna look up his name) was Andrew Declerq-Gooden was a godsend compared to him. Mike Miller could've been some help but he was still a rookie and was traded two years afterward. Next to Tmac, the only real athletic guy they had besides him and Gooden was Deshawn Stevensen
Now tell me if that supporting cast sounds real appealing to you.
If he would've had Yao Ming then (somehow), they would've OWNED the the East.
Its a common misnomer that Tmac is a unselfish basketball player and can't play defense (he CAN-he just doesn't have the energy left after carrying a stinkin' team like that). Every coach who has ever coached him have said he is unselfish and has excellent court vision and always willing to give the ball up. Unfortunately in Orlando, he had no choice but to force the issue sometimes.

 

^ lol i feel i the same way.

i hate it when tmac only fans get irritated when people say it's yao's team or when yao fans get irritated when people say tmac should be the main guy down the stretch of games or it's him that will lead the team.

people need to understand nobody in houston cares what tmac did in orlando. unless something has happened within the past few days where the rockets have moved to orlando or something that fans on here would care about his history with the magic. he's a rocket. he has promised "big things" for this team. i haven't seen anything yet. he has a great supporting cast this yr so if he doesn't lift this team again, i would have to say we would have to let him go.

tmac IS a great talent. if he just stays healthy and learns how to be effective in this offense, he can still be a top 5-7 player no doubt. he just has to stay confident (and his confident is as wacky as a depressed hormonally raged women post-menopause).

yao IS a great talent. but he has to step up when it matters. last yr was his chance to put his imprint on this league and say, "shaq is gone, and i'm the next dominant big man and nobody can stop me." he didn't do that. i still see lapses of weakness in yao at times, but he has improved.

ultimately, BOTH of our stars are not guys we can count on (they can be, they just have to prove it). but going by history, both guys need others to cover up their weaknesses b/c they sure do have a TON of them. hopefully, the role players can continue to get better. tmac and yao continue to stay confident and dominate when it's time for them to.

the reason hakeem is so glorified and god-like to houston fans is b/c he gave this city and team something we never had: a championship and a winner.

but he was also criticized when he failed to earlier in his career. so tmac and yao can change A LOT of people's views if they can lead this team somewhere the team hasn't sniffed in 10+ yrs.

this yr, i'm satisfied with a WCF appearance b/c i feel u need more than one year to get adelman's offense. but anything less than that, i would be highly disappointed.

 

why do you guys go on the wild what if stories?

As a Rockets fan, I could careless what other people's perceptions of Tmac was in Orlando. I only care about what he does with the Rockets.

If he's a top NBA player than he better start by getting past the first round of the playoffs.

if it makes some fans feel better that they perceive Tmac in Orlando as the best player in the NBA and one of the best of all times, thats great.

I feel the Oilers were the best football team of all time and that what if many things happen the Oilers would have been the best of all time too.

 

Are you saying I'm a tmac only fan?

Because I would be extremely offended in that case

 

i was responding to tinman

 

i liked how Tmac defended Dirk in the playoffs.
However I didn't like last year's Tmac vs the Jazz. That wasn't good.
but then again, it was the entire team's lack of heart for that loss. The defensive rebounding has to improve.

 

Why do you think nobody rounds stats? Theres a big difference between shooting 99.5% and 100%.

Of course I understand. But the poster I was replying to was spouting off stats. He was saying that statistically, no one was better than tmac.

So I gave stats as a rebuttal. Do you not understand this?

All that is true, but dont forget, he's in the eastern conference.

Do you not understand that when a star on your team sits out, it changes the entire dynamic? It changes the game plan. The team was built around shaq and kobe. If shaq sits, of course kobe is going to have to player a greater role. And since he had to face better teams than tmac did, its no surprise that his numbers fell.

Wow...didnt realize that having shaq made the lakers a faster team than the magic.

Ask anyone in LA