A piece I wrote 2 and a half week ago for another site: Tracy McGrady.....He's a Keeper He's never been out of the first round. He's always injured. He plays with no Heart. 19 million dollars!?! Trade Him. When Tracy McGrady first arrived from the Orlando Magic, he was widely perceived as "the Savior" who along with Yao Ming would bring relevance back to a team that had spent several years sputtering away in the doldrums of the NBA. As time passed, what were seemingly small chips in the paint begin to form cracks in the walls. Like meeting a fine girl for the first time, one is oblivious from the flaws that have yet to be exposed. Tracy McGrady is fine player. He is a 7-time All-Star with 2 Scoring Titles to his name and if you were to ask the players that have played against or with him, they will tell you that he is one of the most gifted players to touch a basketball, EVER. With his immense talents, he likewise has his flaws. Tracy McGrady is a human being, like you and I. He's well aware of the media that questions his heart and the bandwagon fans that scream "OFF WITH HIS HEAD, TRADE HIM ALREADY" every single time the Rockets stumble through a rough patch in the road. Because Mr. "It's On Me" carries a 19-million dollar price tag and the distinction of being the "Greatest Player to Never Make It Out of the First Round", people have come to the conclusion that Tracy McGrady is a loser, and even worse, a "Player with no Heart". I beg to differ. In his 4 seasons with the Rockets he along with the Rockets have amassed a regular season record of 192-136, a .580 winning % along with 3 competitive, yet heartbreaking trips to the playoffs. To put that into perspective, in the FIVE previous Stevie "Franchise" Years the Rockets amassed a record of 195-215 with a .475 Winning % in the regular season with one, ONE, read, UNO playoff appearance which pretty much ended before it even started against the Lakers. So who's fault was it that the Rockets were simple marginal-at-best and at sometimes unbearable to watch during the seasons preceding McGrady's tenure as a Houston Rocket? Rudy Tomjanovich? Caroll Dawson? Steve Francis? Since people seem to believe that there are 19 million reasons to fault McGrady for the team's lack of playoff success and label him a loser, let us take a peek around the league to see who else should be labeled a LOSER and only returning "2 cents on the dollar" shall we? Top NBA Salaries 1. Kevin Garnett Boston $23,750,000 2. Michael Finley Dallas / San Antonio $21,696,750 3. Stephon Marbury New York $20,109,375 -. Allen Iverson Denver $20,109,375 5. Shaquille O'Neal Phoenix $20,000,000 6. Jason Kidd Dallas $19,728,000 7. Jermaine O'Neal Indiana $19,710,000 8. Chris Webber Golden State $19,596,244 9. Kobe Bryant LA Lakers $19,490,625 10. Tim Duncan San Antonio $19,014,187 -. Tracy McGrady Houston $19,014,187 12. Baron Davis Golden State $16,440,000 -. Shawn Marion Phoenix $16,440,000 -. Steve Francis Portland / Houston $16,440,000 15. Antawn Jamison Washington $16,360,095 -. Dirk Nowitzki Dallas $16,360,095 -. Paul Pierce Boston $16,360,095 18. Ray Allen Boston $16,000,000 19. Rashard Lewis Orlando$15,600,000 20. Ben Wallace Cleveland$15,500,000 21. Elton Brand LA Clippers $15,344,000 22. Michael Redd Milwaukee $14,520,000 23. Mike Bibby Atlanta $14,175,000 24. Yao Ming Houston $13,762,775 -. Amare Stoudemire Phoenix $13,762,775 26. Pau Gasol LA Lakers $13,709,375 -. Andrei Kirilenko Utah $13,709,375 28. Lamar Odom LA Lakers $13,524,000 29. Joe Johnson Atlanta $13,488,377 30. Zach Randolph New York $13,488,377 Looking at the makeup of the NBA’s highest-paid players, there are 10 players that make more money than Tracy McGrady. Of those ten players, only three of them (Garnett, Bryant, Duncan) can arguably be said to make significant contributions to their respective teams. And if you look about two spots below McGrady…you see…let’s not even go there. I mean the guy was riding pine on the Knicks and was paid $30 million to LEAVE the Blazers… However, onto another point, since everybody seems to define success by playoff success, let us analyze a little further shall we. Of those ten players, only four of them are still playing in the playoffs this year with two of them representing the same team (Spurs). While KG has two other budding All-Stars (Pierce and Allen) to help him carry the load, Bryant has finally found his Robin (Gasol), and Duncan likewise has team of International Superstars (Parker and Ginobili), McGrady has…a streetball legend (Skip To My Lou), 1000 year-old Relic (Mutombo), Flava Flav (Bobby Jackson, but that was definitely Flav that showed up in the Playoffs) to work with. Every single night McGrady is asked to score all the points, help facilitate the offense, be a great defender (not saying he is), I think there may be SOME reason as to why he may “run out of gas” in the 4th Quarter. Nobody in the league, and I mean NOBODY is asked to do more for his team than Tracy McGrady. Some of you may say, what about LeBron James? What about LeBron James? His team won 45 games in the (L)Eastern Conference while the Rockets won 10 MORE games in a more competitive conference without significant pieces cough*YAO MING*cough for extended periods of time. OK then, what about Kobe Bryant? HAH, Kobe may be the best damn player in the league, but prior to this season he never ONCE took the Lakers past the First Round of the playoffs following the departure of Shaq (its also covenient when you've got a Gasol and swiped in for nothing). It is also my understanding that Kobe wasn’t exactly shy about calling out teammates (BYNUM),management (KUPCHAK), and even the coach (JACKSON) when things weren’t going the KOBE way. He had pretty much bailed on his own teammates this past off-season and was playing hard-to-get with management until they finally were able to dupe the Grizzlies into giving up Gasol for a little more than a bag of chips. Now Houston fans, for a player that “plays with no heart” and is a “perpetual loser”, you have to admit Tracy McGrady is one, pretty resilient guy. Despite the unfortunate events (i.e. injuries to Yao Ming) and what can only be described as a rag-tag group of professional ballers, he has never ONCE complained about his role on the team or come even remotely close as to TURN HIS BACK on his team. When Yao Ming went down last year, he rose up to the occasion and led to the Rockets to a playoff berth it what ultimately was a heart-breaking 7-game series (extra painful for me as I was actually at this game). When he had “accepted the role” as the team’s leader and declared that it was “On Me”, he was absolutely VILIFIED by a media who had decided to exploit the “2nd Round Virgin” tag and portray him as being pompous and selfish. However, let’s be honest here, if the Rockets were to lose and they did, Tracy McGrady was due for beat down from a self-serving media and un-knowledgeable fans (The one’s that say he shoots too much when the Rockets win, but doesn’t shoot enough when they lose; YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE). Fast forward to this year, amidst a season-high win streak of 12 games, the Rockets receive the devastating news that Yao Ming was finished for the season. Playoff hopes were thrown out the window as analyst upon analyst (Charley “Rockets Hater” Rosen, Chris Hollinger, Stephen A. Smith to name a few) had declared the Rockets, “deader than dead”. With solid contributions from the team, Tracy McGrady was able to lead the team to not only the top of the Western Conference at one point, a miraculous 22-game win streak that made the team the talk of the town, and another trip to the playoffs where the Rockets would do battle against the much-hated Jazz. After being bounced from the playoffs in the 1st Round, fingers are a-pointing and once again we are back to exactly where we were a year ago. Trade him. For whom exactly? The number of players that possess Tracy McGrady’s size and offensive prowess are few and far between. On top of that, how many of those guys also possess the court vision and the unselfishness to help make their teammates better. One, maybe two. LeBron and Kobe (the jury is still out on him as for the unselfish part). You are obviously NOT going to get those two players in return. In other words…how about let’s NOT be Memphis and shoot ourselves in the foot. If you were to trade Tracy McGrady away for say the likes of Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, or Shawn Marion; who’s going to be able to feed Yao the ball or get the whole team involved? Rafer Alston, the only other person who has been scrutinized by Rockets bandwagon fans as much as McGrady? Flava “Always Looking for My Own Shot” Flav? Or maybe Luther “the Whole World Cringes when I put the ball on the Floor” Head? I didn’t think so. Sometimes, the best trades are the ones never made. But he’s ALWAYS injured. More injury-prone than Chris Webber, Jermaine O’Neal, Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Francis, Baron Davis or maybe unproductive like Stephon Marbury, Ben Wallace, Michael Finley, and so on. As you can see, the Rockets don’t have it NEARLY as bad as some of the other teams in the League and maybe Tracy McGrady does do more than MOST of the players making similarly gargantuan amounts of money. If you watched the Rockets-Jazz series; you witnessed a man playing with a torn labrum (shoulder) and essentially one leg averaging a near-triple double for the series trying to “impose his will” as he likes to say on an obviously over-matched Rockets team so they can extend their season one more game, while delaying the on-slaught of Tracy McGrady bashing following an inevitable end to a spectacular season. The Rockets certainly made a believer out of me. Tracy McGrady made a believer out of me. Tracy McGrady has flaws. He is after all, human; like you and I. He is also an immensely talented basketball player who due to his deceiving “sleepy-eyed” look often has people questioning his heart and desire as a player. If you even watched the Rockets-Jazz series this year, you saw a player who laid it all on the line for his team and for all Houston Rockets fans. While he may not be perfect, how many of us actually are? Tracy McGrady is human. Tracy McGrady is a basketball player. Tracy McGrady is a winner (at least in my book). But most importantly, Tracy McGrady is a Keeper.
I wouldn't take what Jazzhole fans have to say very seriously, but either way it's interesting to know that they feel that way. I'm willing to bet that their GM might view things a bit differently, but I guess we might never know (or we may, should fans here get their wish and the Rockets end up moving him). As for your "people overvalue him" argument, how is that so if this very poll on a ROCKETS FAN FORUM shows that a good chunk of his own fans would pick Manu over him?! If anything, I would say it shows that the guy is severely undervalued by his own fans, but as the saying goes, the grass is always greener... Either way, to each his own. My contention here is that you don't replace a franchise player (and yes, he's a franchise player, I think he's shown that over the last couple of seasons when Yao went down for an extensive period of time) with a Leandro Barbosa or a Manu Genobili type; it doesn't improve your team in the short-term, which is probably the only thing the Rockets have considering Yao's repeated leg/foot injuries. Want to really see what our guys are capable of? How about adding someone to the "Big Two" to make it a "Big Three"? Considering the NBA landscape and the fact that a team of "Big Three" improves your odds of advancing in the playoffs, then how about we get these guys some help for a change? And no, I am not talking a Bonzi Wells or a Mike James, I am talking someone who's significantly better and is still, preferably, somewhere close to his prime. Just a thought...
Manu wouldn't have averaged more than 8ppg against the Jazz if we made this trade. If all they had to do was stop Manu, it would have been a sweep, that is if we made the playoffs. DaDakota, stop playing fantabasketball. It's time consuming. The random trades that make sense for both teams are good to read sometimes, but these threads get boring and repetitive. Tomorrow DaDakota will probably start another trade Rafer/Head/Jackson for Juan Carlos Navarro and Jose Calderon thread. Sometimes you guys act like other NBA teams want to make us contenders.
My post has nothing to do with disliking Manu Ginobili. He is one of my personal favorite players. With that being said, he should not be put in the same category as Tmac. As yall saw yesterday with the game vs. L.A. he put up only 7 points, with a horrible shooting night, and could not affect the game in any other ways once he was shut down from the field. Now, would that EVER happen to Tmac in the playoffs?? A player who averages 28 ppg in his playoff career? Even with his entire left side of his body injured (shoulder, thumb, and knee), still manage to nearly average a triple double, without very much help at all. Replace TD with Scola and TP with Skip, and see how well Manu does. Tracy McGrady is clearly a much better player than Manu Ginobili. Ginobili is similar to Pau Gasol. On a good team with a proven superstar, they are great as a 2nd or 3rd option. But if you were to ask either one of them to be the number 1 option on a team and expect them to lead that team to the playoffs, yall would be disappointed. This thread is the equivalent of asking if we should trade Yao for Pau Gasol. Not to take anything away from Gasol, but he's just not on Yao's level. Manu Ginobili is not on Tmac's level. Very few shooting guards are. Kobe and Lebron are better than Tmac right now. Dwayne Wade (when healthy) is on the same level, possibly better. Paul Pierce and A.I. are just slightly below Tmac. Anybody else people may mention as far as shooting guards and small forwards are below Paul Pierce and A.I. and that includes Manu Ginobili. The people who are on the same level as Ginobili are Rip Hamilton, Ray Allen, Caron Butler, Brandon Roy, Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson, Kevin Martin, Ron Artest, Hedo Turkoglu, Shawm Marion, Carmello Anthony and Michael Redd. Whats similar with all of these players?? None of them could win a scoring title even if they were the best player on their team (Tmac 2 scoring titles) these players could only dream of what Tmac can do physically... and most of them with the exception of Brandon Roy, Joe Johnson, and Kevin Martin have not to lead their teams as the 1st option. How do those 3 fair?? No playoff appearances and a 38 win playoff birth in the eastern conference. Most of these players are also one dimensional as well (mostly scorers, not asked to do anything else, but score.) Tmac is a special and unique talent as a 6'8 shooting guard, who can effect the games in many ways even if his shot isn't falling. He can affect the games the same way Kobe, Lebron and Dwade can. Hopefully people saw yday that Manu is a great 2nd or 3rd option, but he can't lead a team. He is simply not that talented like the great 2 guards of the NBA today.
Then my bad cause it's bad - I think every time when Rockets get knocked out of the playoffs people start threads that have no point. What Manu, what trade, about what are we talking here?
Typical ignorant post of a ***. What about free throw %? 3 pt %? FG %? Steals per game? At least do a little bit of research before you post.
Haha typical Wacko post, leave hater. Any ROCKETS fan wouldn't be stupid enough to make this trade. This would be so much more lopsided than the Gasol robbery. And DD, TMAC is public enemy #1 in utah, you should know that. You know why?
From a cost/benefit ratio I don't think there's any choice you'd have to make the trade. Manu's salary is only around $11 million/year. After the trade you'd have mad money left over to beef up another spot, the PG maybe. As for T-Mac and Utah, they're 2 and 0 in the last two series. That should be the bottom line.
DD you were the one that posted on Jazzholes.com ? Dude thats dissapointing. I still remember you posted a thread of telling the jazz to get their brooms after they won the first 2. Show some faith
i disagree with the guy, Ginobli definitely does some things better. But, percentages and per game averages don't make someone better at anything. There are guys who are better shooters who happen to have lower percentages. There are guys who are better at stealing the ball but have less steals per game. This isn't baseball, there are alot of things that affect these stats so you have to take them with a grain of salt. If you look at this past year as an aberration (because of the injuries he needed immediate surgery for) than Tmac has always been a much better mid-range shooter than Manu. Ginobli is a much better driver which can set up his three ball (along with having Tim Duncan and Tony Parker). In addition, he has a much more developed triple threat and post game. Ginobli's good but everyone can see what happens to his game when he doesn't have the atheleticism he needs to blow by his man (when watching the playoffs and when someone defends him properly). I agree with some people here, Manu is actually close to Tmac. He's been underrated for a while and he's one of the top SG's. I just don't think he's better.
from a cost/benefit ratio, yes. so given anotehr $9 milion, who else can you get? the spurs have duncan AND tony parker. yao is comparable to duncan offensively. battier is like bowen. we could be like the spurs if we can get parker's production from the PG spot. manu has proven he cannot play a lot of minutes consistently and he cannot start consistently. he's a 6th man, that starts in desperation games here and there. but people on this board are arguing trading b/c manu is "close" to tmac, which is very false. you do not compare a guy that plays 30mpg that a lot of times play the 3rd-tier role on his own team to a guy that plays 36-38 mpg that usually plays the 1st-tier role on his team. i don't care what assumptions you make but you just don't make that extrapolation. it's like saying stuckey of detroit, if he started, could avg 17-18 ppg and be one of the best PGs after what he has done in this playoffs. the spurs are not going to give up parker so if we make this trade with the spurs, we would be worse off and the spurs would go back to being easily the best in the L. their big 3 would be offensively more potent than anybody. so cost/benefit, tmac makes $20 mil. manu makes $10-11 mil. to make this trade happen with the spurs, we have to take back contracts that make up the difference. and parker won't be included. so no, you would not make this trade.
$9 million isn't chump change in this league. I think that's more than TJ Ford's salary this coming season. Just for the sake of hypotheticals if it was T-Mac for Ford/Manu I'd pull the trigger. Obviously that's never going to happen. Any trade for Manu is probably never going to happen.
You guys can't be serious. Why would anyone even CONSIDER trading TMac is beyond me. Manu? The 3rd best player on the Spurs for the heart of the Rockets? If the Rockets are dumb enough to even think about doing something like this, I'll be turned away from basketball for a very long time. I agree with ReD_1, TMac is, in every aspect of the game, better than Manu. I don't give a crap about percentages. TMac will wreck Manu any day. Read cooliobob's post on TMac. He's got some good stuff there.
a lot of players get overpaid nowadays. tj ford and manu for tmac -> how about a hell no. both of those guys are max 30-32 mpg. you would need a really deep bench plus better production from everybody else. like i said, to get manu, we trade with the spurs. tj ford is not on the spurs. i'll trade tmac if we can get parker and manu, which won't happen.
Of course Tracy for Manu and Ford --> hell no I don't mean Manu is bad, he is a great player, great guy who can score, can shoot. But I just don't see him being able to be the leader of a team. In San Antonio he has got Duncan, Parer and he doesn't have to carry the load by himself. He can be a great 3rd, even 2nd option but I don't think he could be a good leader like Tracy can be.
