Whether people like it or not, McGrady will finish his contract here for good or bad. The bad would be if he cant play 65/70 games a year. The good news is that when his contract expires, Yao will be 30 and the Lebron/Carmello/Wade/Bosh class will be free agents. Can you think of a better scenerio to be in?
Thank you, I was ignorant of the fact that Watson was so highly compensated by the Sonics. I am now wondering if Lewis being out for 8 weeks would strenghen our hand in such a proposed deal. My main concern would be that especially until Lewis was back we would have a gaping chasm at the 4, I'm not sure I would want to see Padgett logging 20 minutes a game out there...
Even i wanted to see that to happen but Gordon's stock is rising and there is no way that the Bulls will be willing to give away on a trade that's not even worth to giveaway their very own productive scorer.
I hadn't thought of that but Yao should still be at the top of his game, so we could have a potential championship run of 3-4 years starting in 2010 if we could lock up one of those superstars... Worst case scenario, Yao's championships will be delayed until TMAC retires...but remember it took Hakeem that long to win his also. I am still expecting 2 if not 3 titles for the Rockets during The Great Wall's tenure in the paint.
The negativity on these boards reach such heights at times that you'd think we were 9-17 or something. Seriously, the negativity is only outdone by even more outrageous negativity. When people are still complaining that trading Gay and precious little Stromile for a member of the elite Team USA was a mistake 8 months after it happened, you'd have to assume that Battier has been a horrible failure for us if you didn't know better. Of course he hasn't been, he's been exactly what we thought he'd be and has helped make our defense the best in the league to boot. You'd really rather have a rookie with some major talent but some serious flaws that is gonna take time to develop and STROMILE SWIFT instead of Shane the brain Battier? And don't give me that, "well gay could be our number two option with tmac out like this." Uh... hmm, yeah right. He could be I suppose, if Bonzi, Luther, and maybe even Skip or Juwan weren't around. Gay would be riding the pine everyone, getting spot minutes and maybe playing 15 minutes a night by the end of the season if he were lucky. The only reason Gay gets so much play with the Grizz is cause why not start him... when you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose. Also, to even suggest we aren't as good as Golden State or the Blazers borders on stupidity so massive, monolithic, and stupid it must have taken 5 generations of inbreeding just to create it. We have lost to those teams, yes... but we are much better than them even with T-Mac out. Hell even with Yao and T-mac out, Chuck Hayes starting at Center and Bonzi Wells fighting the good fight for 35+ we might still beat those teams if both sides are having mutually good nights. The Spurs lost to the Bobcats... are the Spurs not on par with the lowly Bobcats? Has Tim Duncan lost sleep over his envy of Adam Morrison? Seriously, a bad team beating a good team doesn't suddenly make a bad team good. Sometimes (fairly commonly) the better team loses, yet they are still the better team cause they simply ARE. The Western Conference power ranking goes: Suns, Mavs, Spurs... after that its wide open. To me... our team, the Jazz, and the Lakers all have legitimate reasons for being 4th best. Being on the second rung of teams in the ridiculously talented West is about as good as being 20-6 in the East. We hit a bit of a rough patch immediately after losing Tracy, but the thing is all those games we lost (the 2 losses to the very skilled Lakers for instance) could have easily gone our way with something as simple as just a few more free throws going down for us. It's not like we lost T-mac and then got blown out by the Lakers 110-61, followed by a crushing 30 point loss at the hands of the mighty Blazers... I mean, get real people. Despite losses there is reason to be hopeful. We destroyed San Antonio last night without T-mac. You know what that says to me immediately? Our guys are getting more comfortable with each other, and we're starting to adapt better and better each game to the loss of T-mac. And of course... The Bonz. With Bonzi back and getting back into his groove, the prospect of Tracy being out more than a few games doesn't seem as scary, does it? Bonz isn't gonna score as many points as T-Mac, or get as many assists as the great one, but what he does do is take pressure off of Yao and more importantly off of our roleplayers. When our roleplayers aren't forced to try to score more they can focus on their roles. Negativity aside, I think we all agree we can't win the title or even get there without a healthy T-mac. We might could make the playoffs with Bonzi/Yao and the RPers but we'd almost certainly sink against a team like the suns, spurs, or mavs. T-Mac is gonna remain imporant to this team at least for the next couple of years. It's gonna be interesting to see how McGrady's back affects his role with the team. Does it mean resting him more and giving him closer to 27-30 minutes a night instead of 35+ and then playing him a lot of minutes come time for the playoffs? Does it mean putting him out there like normal and just hoping for the best? Does it mean making him the sixth man (though that is blasphemy and whoever it was that suggested it knows that)? Personally though, I still believe T-mac can, and will certainly in some way, reclaim his former glory and return to form. Remember how he was playing in the couple of games leading up to the spasms? If he comes back like that... watch out. Lastly, what bugs me is how quickly rockets fans can turn on players or JVG... not even T-mac is safe from ridiculous criticism. Trade him to Seattle for some random young players? What? T-mac has one really crappy injury heavy year and has missed two weeks this season and the naysayers are ready to trade him for the best deal we can get. This is Tracy McGrady we are talking about, you realize? Like even if he doesnt come back dropping 28/7/7 a night, watch what he'll do down the stretch and in the playoffs. That makes it all worth it to me. And when T-mac does have his return to glory, either after this latest sabatical or next season, it will be all the sweeter knowing there were actual diehard Rockets fans wanting to trade him for some SuperSonic chumps that can't even get it done with their own team, much less ours. Don't forget the 13 in 31 comeback or all of his other miracle plays and miracle comebacks... miracles are T-Macs speciality and he is always capable of them. Always. So I'm going to end with a radically bold prediction: I think when he does come back in the next couple of weeks, there will be plenty of whispers among the media about if he's washed up etc. Those people will be silenced though, when T-mac leads the Rockets through the playoffs, through the Suns in 7 in the WCF and wins the Finals MVP. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST, EVERYONE.
*Standing Ovation* for this post. I agree about the ridiculously reactionary nature of some on this board. If it were up to them we would seemingly turn over half our roster after every loss. Only one stipulation...I think Yao will actually be finals MVP. He sat in the first chair on Jimmy Kimmel Live...
I never bothered to look at this thread because of the title. In my mind I already knew what the worst case would be and I had no interest in reading any discussion on it. And then a night like tonight against the Clips happens. Hello the truly Worst Case Scenario.
Type errors... just got a $200 ticket 2 days ago as a holiday gift for the game in Feb when Rox visits us. Hope I would not fall asleep like the couple showed on TV last night.
