well if the warriors are a mediocre team, I would say we are a mediocre team as well without tmac. I mean last night's game sucked, but I would put the blame for the victory on two very unlikely events happening in sequence. battier fouls mike dunleavy for the and one, and baron davis makes a shot from the parking lot to take the lead. i think it would be hard to argue that the warriors are a better team than the rockets without tmac. plus any team with yao ming averaging 26 and 9 can't be BAD can they?
couldn't have said it better. especially in a league now that's made for guards/forwards. centers are becoming extinct like dinosaurs and nba is doing nothing to protect them.
people would assume its his scoring but I think its the passing, defense, and defensive rebounding we miss most
I just hate people saying we can't win w/o TMac. It is so misleading. TMac has been playing subpar. Trading him with some other good players, we would have won more games so far. The problem for Rox is that we need to two good jump shooters. Right now, we only only a deadly 3 pointer shooter named Luther. No one on Rox team can shoot mid range jumper. Put Yao on any other team other than named Rockets, the team would be contender.
That's it in a nutshell. At least as far as their 0-2 record this season sans T-Mac is concerned. The Rockets have given up an average of 105.5 points the last 2 games. That's not gonna get it done. It's not like they're having trouble scoring without McGrady. They're averaging 100.5 points themselves. But when you're missing one of your two superstars, the way to win without him is to maintain your defensive intensity and try to make up for his point production elsewhere. They're doing the latter, but forgetting about the former. Yesterday's game was not lost because of Horse Tooth's lucky 3. It was lost when they let a double-digit lead get cut to 3 going into the 4th quarter thanks to bonehead personal and technical fouls in the last minute. And when they continuously gave up 3-point plays on weak fouls in the 4th. It's all about defense. Tonight's game against the Fakers really shouldn't be that difficult. They're without Odom, so the Rockets theoretically should be able to focus all their attention on Kobe and barring a 50+ point outburst from the dude, they'll emerge with a victory. We'll see whether or not they bring it on that end of the floor tonight.
Easy: first this is a guards league now. If it happened 10 year ago, YAO could easily carry the team to playoff. But now it's so weird to see your big man to finish the last shot in the game Second, we have 20 millions sitting on the bench. switch TMAC and TPARKER, we would win both games
without mcgrady facilitating the perimeter offensive game, we are left with three point shooters only. and our contract situation is tough. we don't have the depth of other teams. we also run our offense 100% of the time through yao or mcgrady. when one is out, it makes it easier to stop the other. bonzi could have replaced tmac here, but it is too bad he is not really up to par yet. isn't this exactly the reason that we were excited to get bonzi? so that he could fillin for tmac when he's injured? BONZI we need you! get back your killer instinct! ****!
Not when you have Yao Ming. The next step in the development of Yao Ming will be learning how to lead his team and win games like all other great centers have done throughout their careers. Generally speaking, teams with dominant centers have an easier team winning games than teams led by dominant backcourt players (look at Shaq with the Lakers when Kobe was out, or how Dream led the Rockets without a second superstar caliber player by his side). It's just part of his development, it's something he hasn't learned to do yet, but I think he will eventually get. But yes, 9-32 record without McGrady is beyond ridiculous. It's quite disturbing that this team depends that much on McGrady's presence on the court and his ability to 'close out' games. In the short term, we will probably struggle because T-Mac is the facilitator of the offense, he pretty much runs our team and he is a superb decision-maker with the ball. The problem now is that no one on this team has that ability -- certainly not Rafer. We will get there, but in the present we will continue to play hard and stay competitive in game until the very end, only to lose the game because we can't seal the deal. I was pretty disappointed in the loss last night because the Warriors are not a good team; I could forgive losing to the Lakers, who're a good team, but the Warriors are very beatable and we had a lead and let it slip at the end. A closer, this team needs a steady hand -- someone other than T-Mac -- to take over the game and lead his team to wins.
Not a 'bad' team, but a subpar team I would say. I guess we would be sort of like the Miami Heat without Shaq.
because Baron Davis hit the game winning shot. That's all. Oh yeah, and if you haven't noticed, Yao is picking up the slack and so is Head. I'm wondering who will Phil Jackson put on Head actually, since (I presume) our starting lineup will be Yao Hayes Battier Head Alston Will Kobe be guarding Battier or Head? For some reason, I really can't picture him guarding either (probably because of his all-star statsu ). I'm hoping it would be Battier (to me, Kobe is a bit of an underrated defender).
It's always been my opinion that McGrady is a very underrated defender. I am not even talking statistically, but his lengthy arms make it 1) difficult to shoot over him; and 2) it gives us much more size in the backcourt that gives us a distinct advantage over most teams. McGrady is just very versatile, and he is a terrific man-2-man defender (which IMO is much more important than a guy who plays the passing lanes).
It's not the scoring we're missing the most, it's his mere presence on the court, his passing (the most deadly weapon he has, IMO, even more dangerous than his scoring as of late), his rebounding, AND his defense.
if tmac can come back with no rush and stay back for the rest of the season and no continued slide down the standings while he is out(looks like the slide MAY end tonight) this tmac vacation can help develop bonzis game(he showed flashes of brilliance tonite) and jl3 and luther head.....
That would be a 'best case scenario', but in all honesty, I doubt McGrady will be 'healthy' at all for the remainder of this season. I think the key this season was keeping his back from going out at ANY point, because it seems like once it strikes, it will definitely strike again and will probably be a reoccuring problem. In all honesty, I feel for McGrady, I am sure it's incredibly frustrating having to deal with something like this that keeps popping up and derailing your season, the team's hopes, and possibly threatening your career. On a side note, it's anything but a 'vacation'...there is absolutely nothing tougher/harder on an athlete than rehabbing from injury; I think McGrady would happily play 48 minutes a night for the rest of his career if he never has to go through another rehab.
Simple answer to the thread: Tracy can hit clutch shots cuz his a SG. Under JVG, Tracy takes down the stretch shots. He makes some; we win some; he misses some; we lose some. Without Tmac, JVG tries to play Yao in the clutch. BIG MEN ARE NOT REGULAR CLUTCH PLAYERS! NEVER EVER! We will keep losing close games if JVG keep calling the same play over and over again at the end of games (Yao low post, turnaround jumper, clang! no foul no pts, game over). Yao as a center can only carry the team to the 4th quarter in which he has done a great job. I am proud of you Yao. However I will take Head over Yao in the clutch simply because Head is a SG.
