This is off...when McGrady came to the Rockets, that is what I thought he'd be--a chucker like he was in Orlando....I was wrong. Between 04-08 he had a keen sense of when to shoot and when to pass. Even JVG noticed this and said he was the best decision maker in the league next to Nash. The chucking that might have stuck with you happened at an acceptable percentage for an elite player.
LOL! I'd say t-mac is a top 10 talent ( and I say talent! this has nothing to do with winning) and probably was somewhere in the area of top 3-5 potential. The dude was out of this world when he wanted to be...
You can't even compare T-Mac in his prime to Melo at any stage of his career. T-Mac was in another stratosphere.
2005. First round playoff series vs the Mavs. T-Mac sucks the gravity right of the building. He was amazing. He blew my mind. That little finger swag he had after he hit the pull-up game winner. Dude was amazing. Safe to say things went down fast. Carmelo is one helluva player but T-Mac in his all-to-short prime was a top 3 player. I'd say Melo is more of a top 10 category.
In 2005 the talk was "Who is better? Kobe or T-Mac?". In 2010, most people don't even put Melo in the top 5 players in the league. However, a part of me wants to say Melo simply for the fact that McGrady has always been on losing teams. Melo won a national championship at Syracuse. He won a Gold Medal in the Olympics. And we've all pretty much forgotten how terrible the Nuggets were before he arrived. He made them a serious team in the West. McGrady never seemed to be able to do that and I have a hard time believing that's all just lucky circumstances for Melo. He seems to know how to win.
TMac is Comparable to KD now Tracy has an edge in passing and court vision but Durant is a better defender/rebounder .. For their height they have amazing handling skills and speed ..
I voted for Melo, no doubt at this point. Melo had lead his team to be one of the top teams in the west and won multiple playoff series.
Well, the team back then relied heavily on him to make plays. Yao was still so-so and everybody else was old. The only defense the opponent played was "keep Tracy off the ball by always having a man chase him around and double-team him if he does get it;" so no surprises he didn't get a lot of off-ball opportunities. That said, the supporting cast that year was tailor-fit for Tracy: a bunch of ballsy three point specialists. Barry, Sura, James, Wesley and, to a lesser extent, Padgett, made the kick-out game easy money and just shoves crap down the throats of those who say JVG can't coach offense.
Put it this way, Melo's own coach wanted him to play more like Tmac. Granted that was a younger Melo but even 2005 Mac was declining.
I voted for Melo. And I did so b/c I think there's something to be said of a player whose stock is rising (Melo) vs. a player who is in decline (T-Mac). Fact is, T-Mac even in 2005, as many have astutely pointed out, was already in decline. His golden years were arguably his early years in Orlando. So while he was putting up respectable numbers, there's no arguing that the scoring efficiency, with which he had in Orlando, simply wasn't here in Houston, under JVG. Yet T-Mac had all the opportunities in the world to further pad his numbers under the JVG system imho. imho, take a young player, who has talent, bravado, and is CLEARLY getting better, stronger and more confident, and that's one scary player to play against. And that's what I see in Melo who hasn't yet peaked imho. Not to mention the fact that in his young career, he has proven to be extremely durable. Where's his peak? I dunno. But it's unlikely to be the '10-'11 season. Or the '11-'12 season either. T-Mac in '05 reminds me of Vince Carter in his later years in Toronto. Still viewed as a talent, but opposing teams would be OK with Carter putting up his numbers so long as he was shooting under 45%. Also - T-Mac put more effort on the defensive side under JVG. Yet for his wingspan, speed, and size, I acutally think Melo has more upside even as a defender. On speed alone, I give the advantage to Melo. And for this, I think he in '10 is still the superior player to Mac in '05. theSAGE
McGrady is probably the most talented player in basketball history. Unfortunately he had no love for the game.
It's true. Brian Cook was a god in his prime. 2005-2006 Cook > 2009-2010 Yao for sure. Yao is better than Cook in pretty much every way just like T-Mac is better than Melo in pretty much every way, except the one way that matters the most: Cook and Melo have taken their teams deeper into the playoffs.
I admit it... I changed the channel in disgust and was preparing for all the phone calls from the spurs fans .. then i flipped to see what the final score was and right then mcgrady shot the 3 to win it .. and I was in shock .. I remember when Kobe wanted to be traded, I think at that time if we had offered tmac for kobe they might have taken it .. thats how good tmac was, his numbers both in regular season and playoffs are phenomenal .. I was and fill forever be a TMac fan.. my second favorite rocket of all time behind the great one ..Dream!
