[Yahoo] Rockets don't want McGrady back, continue to try to trade him

sorry man, although his stats might be good. Stats aren't the only thing that make a great basketball player. His lack of effort and how he handles himself (such as telling the media about the surgery 1st) is horrible. Orlando obviously saw this early enough to get his sorry ass out of there, and now i finally see why. T-mac is a proven loser. Just so happens the year he's out, we got out of the 1st round.

 

I am ok with Tracy sitting on the bench in street clothes for the rest of the season. I like our current generic no name team. We are a better team without him on the floor...

 

Help me see the light and explain this. He supposedly "quit on the team" last year. Simple question: how? He quit because he couldn't play hurt? Or is it that he was never really hurt and the whole thing was a charade?

 

Do you not recall him standing at half court tossing the ball around in the Toronto game?

What about when JVG benched him for quitting in the GS game after they clinched the playoffs?

Look, you are making decent points but you are ignoring warts that some of us believe are inexcusable....

LOL - I Love your nickname.....LOL....

DD

 

If the Rockets excuse for not playing McGrady is that he "quit on his team", then that's pretty damning. It has to be about more than a few assorted low-effort plays over the years, under circumstances where (a) the stakes weren't high, or (b) the player was not playing at full health.

And you know I appreciate hard working players as much as anyone. But I also appreciate quality basketball and winning. Adding a healthy McGrady, a player who has a great feel for the game, is a very good passer, and is a potentially explosive scorer, will make this team better. I just can't put my mind around accepting losing more games just so you don't have to play a guy who has some flaws character-wise. Is this a professional NBA team, or are we Milan High School?

 

so who says Mcgrady is ready to play? that he can go full contact in practice?
Mcgrady says that, and thats all.

i don't want someone demanding the ball that is not able to compete on a daily basis. adleman teams have started slow every year he has coached the rockets, and i really do believe this team can make the playoffs and have a few up and coming 20 point scorers. i think Tmac wants a new contract, and he is thinking about himself, i also think he is deliusional, not many players come back from that sort of surgery. all of you Tmac fans are wishing that he can be the player he was in orlando. it may or may not happen... but he has to be FULLY healthy and ready to go every night if he hopes to crack this rotation.

its not like he is 100% healthy, ala marbury, and the coach just hates him.
i am thinking more of allan houston everytime i hear about this saga.

 

I seriously doubt it was not so much about coasting in some games, it has to be a lot more than that.

Did you ever think that maybe they are tired of him going to the press to put pressure on them to play him?

Everytime Tmac doesn't like something he runs to the press, I can see where that would piss them off. Maybe the "I need my touches" bit the last two years, was a problem, maybe the organization bending over backwards to try to suit his whims was a problem.

Tracy is his own worst enemy, he was run out of Orlando, his teamates didn't like him there either....

There is no doubting his talent when healthy, and he is not healthy, so that ends the play him now argument.

If the Rockets have decided to get rid of him, then there is a LOT more than what is being said, they don't take their case to the press.

Ask JR Rider, Steph Marbury, Allen Iverson, Latrell Sprewell, at some point, the whineyness catches up to all of them and what they can do on the court diminishes some to where the attitude is not worth it.


DD

 

Here's the thing: We have both media reports and those with some "inside knowledge" on clutchfans telling us that the team doesn't respect McGrady's approach to being a professional baller. Now either these reports are all wrong, that all these teammates/coaches/front office types are being unfair, or there is really something to this. I vote for the latter possiblity since it is the most likely.

 

fool me once, shame on you
fool me twice, shame on me

The rockets are in control of the situation this year as opposed to last season. Until he can prove he belongs on the court, he will be in street clothes.

His word can only take him so far, but with his history there's no reason to give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

I said he was part of the streak I just believe that the insertion of Scola inthe starting lineup and his production was a bigger factor in the team's success

got confused with the years playing against the jazz -sorry-(god I hate them so) but that was dumb to say especially afterwards when he deflected it off on his teammates when the team didnt advance

what about saying things like "if i had played with a duncan, or KG and ray allen" or picking the opponent to win a playoff series are those signs of strong leadership too?

it does account for a lot, and I have supported McGrady tremendously in the past as well and will never forget the moments he has had here in Houston he has done a lot of good for this franchise but his time here is done. It could have been more special and still could be going if he backed up all his lip service with actual action.

I've said several times too that when everyone credits Artest for leading the team past the blazers it was nonsense that it was everyone playing well (scola, yao and brooks in particular) and a favorite matchup with portland that factored into it. if artest was replaced by mcgrady they would have still won in my eyes.

He has gotten far by his own strengths like most superstars do, but has he bought into the team idea like other superstars have? Hakeem won two rings when he bought into the team idea when he had himself and a bunch of above average role players or 1 second tier star.

McGrady's peers are the same way...

Kobe well he has a loaded team now but even he plays within the triangle and breaks off from it when the team needs him to

Pierce..bought into the defensive mindset and help stop Lebron and Kobe and won his first ring

Anthony...last year played his butt off on both ends and after a brief spat with the coach fell into line and help the nuggets reach the WCF for the first time in how long? this year it seems he is on a mission to get them at least to the WCF if not further

Lebron... the guy being the best player in the league finally gets some help and they go and produce the best record in the season last year.


all of these other players played within their team's offense...if that offense meant for one player to dominate the ball (Kobe, Lebron, Wade) then thats what they had to do but at the same time they did what was needed to win and all of these players have advanced further and won than McGrady. Melo is a good example of a team changing its style of play (after Billups arrived) and him buying into it

Now when JVG was here the offense was through McGrady and a lesser extent Yao which was fine. I dont think anyone here was upset with that. But they didnt win playing that way. whats the point of playing the same way if you dont get results?

Adelman is changing the offense and at least last year the team got much better results even after Yao went down. The team is going in that direction Tracy isnt when he should

/QUOTE]


of course tracy is talented and this team needs more talent but this is not like a video game where you can put in any player and make it work.

The rest of team (ie not just the coaches but actual players) arent too fond of Tracy at all (this is from what I heard take it fwiw). Throwing him out there, while he is talented will be counter productive since the rest of the players will be upset or not care as much.

That was my point of the team needing MORE talent and tracy's contract is the best way to get it. Because there is no arguement from me that Tracy is the most talented player on the roster.



<note: i dont know how DD can argue all day long sometimes here I tried doing it for this one thread and I am tired from it...I mean I have my opinion I probably wont be changing it and I highly doubt anyone will have their opinions changed by me>

 

I really don't see what was wrong with the "its on me" quote. Why? Because people on this baord act like he was the only one that failed in the utah series. They never speak bout rafer,chuck,hayes,and shane being basically zeroes on offense. They never speak about how yao had 12 rebs combined the last 2 games and avg 5 to's a game for the series and shot 44% and let okur single cover him. No matter what anyone else did or didn't do, the blame always goes to the highest paid player and thats cool. I'm more with durvasa on amnesia on this board and of course DD and i disagree, but thats what this voard is about, disagreements on topics. No matter what anyone says, i have a hard time believing that he quit first and that he fit 2nd. People always want to bring up the toronto play and i think he could have put forth more effort for sure, but then go look at the rox v lakers game when kobe gave von a pass for a dunk and it was worse than that play. People will justify it by saying kobe is a champion, which i agree, but what were people saying when he was basically calling out kupchak? Like i said, we could on and on and the "people in the know" will say totally different things.

 

Allen Iverson won four scoring titles and at least made a finals appearance, so what's your point?

Besides, correct me if I'm wrong, but the 2nd time he won the scoring title, the Magic had a 19 game losing streak and finished with a 21–61 record

 

Rookie go eat a cookie.

 

I don't see how moving Scola from the bench to the starting lineup could in anyway be as impactful as adding a Tracy McGrady to your lineup. Its not like his minutes changed that much. During the first 12 wins of the streak when Yao played, Scola as a starter averaged 25 mpg. In the 5 preceding losses before the streak, again when Yao played, he averaged 24.3 mpg. In fact, Scola actually got more minutes in the losses than wins in the dozen or so games preceding the win streak. In particular, he was the one on the floor in the two fourth quarter collapses, not Chuck Hayes, prior to McGrady rejoining the team.

I fully agree that McGrady has little to no leadership skills. But I get why he'd try to deflect criticism away from himself, sensitive as he is to the deluge of media scrutiny over him losing yet another first round series. He's human. Take Battier and Scola. I consider them great leaders, but we'll never know how they'll respond under the pressure and scrutiny that McGrady has had to deal with in his career. They've never had that burden, and they never will.

You know, truthfully its difficult for me to process all the various angles in this T-Mac saga what with all the mixed signals from the Rockets and my own wishful hope that McGrady could somehow still redeem himself. Maybe I'm off-base. Maybe I'm deluding myself.

I just hoped McGrady would be given one last chance to make up for his past failures as a Rocket. Some say that McGrady quit on his team in the past. I don't know about that. I'm just saddened that the Rockets have apparently decided to quit on him. I never wanted it to end this way.

 

at least mcgrady didnt demand a trady like Kobe

 

i ment trade

 

Wow, the perfect post.

When McGrady shut it down last year he basically ended his relationship with the Rockets. He is being Marbury-ed for sure. Can't say I blame the Rockets one bit.

 

So i guess he shouldve kept playing even if it meant more damage like grant hill and for what? The guy couldnt move side to side on a consistent basis yet he was suppose to keep playin g and maybe end his career?

 

I wonder if all this mcgrady talk will end if he plays later this month.

 

(i went for dinner and so many quality posts popped up? that's a surprise.)

on "it's on me", there was nothing wrong to it (it could actually be a sign of leadership under certain circumstances). the problem is that he whined about it after the defeat. i'd like to hear him (or anyone who said "it's on me") just say something like "yes, it's on me and i failed to deliver". just my personal preference, though.

a yet bigger problem is that 2 years later he publicly said "had i had kobe, kg..." or something to that effect. that was a no no. that was child-like weak mentality, and very disrespectful to all his teammates and coaching staff. unprofessionalism (if there is such a word) at its peak, imo.

also, it's not fair to compare the pressure or scrutiny he had to take and those of role players (such as chuck or battier). yes, it's a team failure, but mcgrady (or any franchise player) is the one with the most talent and highest paid player on the team. had we passed the 1st round and done some more damages, he'd be the one given the most credit for.

take it like a man - especially you pre-announced "it's all on me".