rockets better off without tmac?

[2fast4u]

what do you guys think? i think they're 15 or 16-4 since tmac had called it quits. they're playing more of a team right now, kinda reminds me of the pistons 3 yrs ago, where they really have no "superstar" just 5 guys playing their hearts out and a bench that's just the same. More intensity, a lot of hustle and determination

[TMU]

I'll reserve judgment until the end of playoffs.

[Iggyemu]

For this week we actually looked like we might be. But prior to this week when Yao was turning it over and getting taken out of games....Brooks was cold and Artest was chucking...well lets just say we need more of what happened this week to happen. We need what happened this week to be what we are about. If we manage to do that....well yea we would be better off.

Although the emergence of Scola...especially that 15-17 footer that he has on lock would make a McGrady/Scola PnR near impossible to defend. Gotta keep in mind that McGrady has never played with Scola the way Scola is playing right now.

[tisbee]

The team is certainly better off w/out the crippled McGrady of this yr wandering in and out of the lineup. But I strongly doubt it's better than it would be w/a healthy McGrady. Altho the issue of compatibility between Yao,Artest and McGrady has to be considered.

The team has to go 8-2 the rest of the way to match last yr's record,and the Playoffs will be the final exam.

[TMACFORMVP]

Without an unhealthy/heartless McGrady? That's not even a question, it's obvious we're much better, with a healthy McGrady of the past seasons, especially 06-07, then I'd doubt it, but he's not that player right now, and is not healthy, so I'd say we're better NOW.

[PocketRockets]

Hurt or not hurt, Tmac takes a lot of shots. That means less shots for AB and especially Scola. "Tmac has never played with scola the way he's playing now" well you could say Scola would never play this well if Tmac was playing due to the lack of shots Scola would get with Tmac here. Tmac, Ron, and Yao and no wonder we never knew how good our team really was. =/

Basketball is a team game. There's no doubt in my mind if you had a team of bench players, give them a great coach and they could do better than some teams in this league. It hurts you sometimes when you have too many stars.

[dunleavyjr]

This season the Rockets are playing better without T-Slack.
During the Van Gundy era, Rockets sucked without T-Slack.

Rick Adelman is a genius.

[King Roosk]

For this week we actually looked like we might be. But prior to this week when Yao was turning it over and getting taken out of games....Brooks was cold and Artest was chucking...well lets just say we need more of what happened this week to happen. We need what happened this week to be what we are about. If we manage to do that....well yea we would be better off.

Although the emergence of Scola...especially that 15-17 footer that he has on lock would make a McGrady/Scola PnR near impossible to defend. Gotta keep in mind that McGrady has never played with Scola the way Scola is playing right now.

I think the reason Scola has been playing so well is because Mcgrady is out of the lineup. With Mac outta there it gives Scola many more opportunities to fulfill his potential, and he's done exactly that in Tracy's absence.

[King Roosk]

This season the Rockets are playing better without T-Slack.
During the Van Gundy era, Rockets sucked without T-Slack.

Rick Adelman is a genius.

Different coaches have different philosophies.

JVG also had a roster that was far inferior to what we have right now. Our PF rotation used to be Chuck Hayes/Scott Padgett/Clarence Weatherspoon...give me a break.

I do love Adelman though; his approach to the game of basketball is very smart and creative.

[YoungMoney23]

We still need a closer, The Pistons had the same problem every year as there wasn't a super star to close the game out.

[Jaykoolzboy]

I agree with some of you guy's point, Tmac is at the best when he is willing to pass the ball with him being double teamed, but fact is that he always chuck those shots instead of passing the ball to his teammates. I wouldn't mind that we trade Tmac for some serviceable role player this off season.

Mike Miller
James Posey
John Salmon
Roger Mason
Joe Smith
Dice
Korver
Chris Anderson
Trevor Ariza
Boris Diaw
Rudy Fernandez
Thabo Sefolosha
Craig Smith


Something like that, I think it would be great if we can trade Tmac for 2 of those players listed above.

[YoungMoney23]

I agree with some of you guy's point, Tmac is at the best when he is willing to pass the ball with him being double teamed, but fact is that he always chuck those shots instead of passing the ball to his teammates. I wouldn't mind that we trade Tmac for some serviceable role player this off season.

Mike Miller
James Posey
John Salmon
Roger Mason
Joe Smith
Dice
Korver
Chris Anderson
Trevor Ariza
Boris Diaw
Rudy Fernandez
Thabo Sefolosha
Craig Smith


Something like that, I think it would be great if we can trade Tmac for 2 of those players listed above.

We can't trade him if hes injured can we?

[jackeyok]

We still need a closer

totally agree.if we can get a hand on Ben Gordon offseason,this team will be unstopable.

[Baller 24]

Better without an unhealthy, fat, and out-of-shape T-Mac, yes. But McGrady healthy can do wonders for this team, remember the 22 game winning streak? Well his shooting percentage was up to 44% (highest since '03), until his shoulder got injured. Not to mention his play-making (assist percentage) has been one of the biggest assets he brings to the team, also a terrific ball handler. Not to mention, prior to entering this season, the Rockets had just a 30% (over 60 games) winning percentage without him, so his impact when healthy was quite big. I wouldn't mind him being back healthy at all, he's a phenomenal talent, remember '07? Where Yao goes down for 2 months, he leads the team to a 20-12 record, while over a month averaging 30/7/7/47%

[tombattor]

Rockets are much better without that ballhogging Trash-Mac. Now everyone on that team is flourishing. Unless you are Jordan, if you're killing the offensive flow by trying to go one-on-one on every posession, you're not going to win. And Trash-Mac is far from Jordan. Hell, at this point, he's not even John Salmons, who is having a very good season. There is a reason why Trash-Mac has never gotten out of the first round.

Before Trash-Mac went down, I had my doubts about the Rockets about whether they can finally get out of the first round, but now I think they will be playing the Lakers in the Conference Finals. Great job by the Rockets' front office for some great pickups who can play their role. I even like that NBDL kid they picked up. He'll be a great asset for the Rockets.

[Gold Chain]

Rockets are much better without that ballhogging Trash-Mac. Now everyone on that team is flourishing. Unless you are Jordan, if you're killing the offensive flow by trying to go one-on-one on every posession, you're not going to win. And Trash-Mac is far from Jordan. Hell, at this point, he's not even John Salmons, who is having a very good season. There is a reason why Trash-Mac has never gotten out of the first round.

Before Trash-Mac went down, I had my doubts about the Rockets about whether they can finally get out of the first round, but now I think they will be playing the Lakers in the Conference Finals. Great job by the Rockets' front office for some great pickups who can play their role. I even like that NBDL kid they picked up. He'll be a great asset for the Rockets.

Wow....I sure hope Houston can get out of the first round, but you should be very careful saying they are going to get to the conference final. The Rockets have choked every year in recent memory in the first round and will need to prove it to the league, that they are at minimum a second round team. Don't jinx your own squad bro.

[red96]

Were better off without an injured T-Mac. Why is everyone acting like this year was an average T-Mac year? No one was complaining at this time last year. Talk about a curb stomping when your down. He didnt handle the deadline well though.

[red96]

This season the Rockets are playing better without T-Slack.
During the Van Gundy era, Rockets sucked without T-Slack.

Rick Adelman is a genius.

No, Darryl Morrey is a genius.

[tombattor]

Were better off without an injured T-Mac. Why is everyone acting like this year was an average T-Mac year? No one was complaining at this time last year. Talk about a curb stomping when your down. He didnt handle the deadline well though.

You are right. Trash-Mac has been injured this year, but his playing style doesn't bode well in the playoffs. First of all, he needs to understand that Yao is the most unstoppable player on the team and the Rockets' half-court offense should always run through him. He draws automatic double-team and draws a ton of attention from the other 3 players. Yes, he sometimes has trouble sealing off his man to get the passes in the post, but the man is shooting something like 55% from the field and 85% from the line. Get him the ball!

It's okay to go away from Yao from time to time, but with Trash-Mac, the ball sticks to him way too much. And there is way too much one-on-one with the rest of the team standing around. Just look at how the shots are distributed now vs. when Trash-Mac was playing. You just can't win with him constantly going 8-22 while no one else is getting involved. We see how good Artest is now, but when Trash-Mac was playing, Artest never got into the offense. The problem isn't that Trash-Mac can't play any more. It's that Trash-Mac is still trying to do it himself, even with great teammates.

Just look at Pierce and the Celtics. When Paul had to do it alone, they were horrible, but as soon as he got great teammates, he started taking less shots, playing more in the flow of the offense and started concentrating more on defense. The result was their 17th championship. I see the Rockets having enough talent to make a deep run in the playoffs and I finally see them play some good team game.

[Iggyemu]

Although the emergence of Scola...especially that 15-17 footer that he has on lock would make a McGrady/Scola PnR near impossible to defend. Gotta keep in mind that McGrady has never played with Scola the way Scola is playing right now

I think the reason Scola has been playing so well is because Mcgrady is out of the lineup. With Mac outta there it gives Scola many more opportunities to fulfill his potential, and he's done exactly that in Tracy's absence.

I disagree. Scola still scores a lot of his points off jumpers and hanging around the basket. The only difference is he is much better at finishing now than he was last year and his jumper is much better. Yes he'll get his a few post ups but he got those with McGrady as well. I don't really see a difference in the way Scola plays now than he did last year other than the fact that he is just better at it now. And right now nobody can run a legit PnR with him. I see us having Battier run PnRs with Scola and he completely misses him especially on the baseline...not to mention the fact that Battier is a not a threat to drive or pull up.

And this is part is not at you KR...I am generally speaking here....

I just don't think we should forget what a healthy T-Mac is. Don't forget that we were not #2 in the West last year around this point...we were #1. We won 55 games. We are at 45 now. The roster was much worst..we had no Yao and Scola wasn't even close to this good....

What is such a big difference from last year as opposed to this year? What have we accomplished this year without McGrady that we didn't last year with him? In fact we are gonna probably get swept by the Lakers in the season series whereas we won 2 from em last year. We beat the Hornets, Spurs twice...we did that last year too. We were better against the East last year than we were this year...

I am actually gonna jump in with TMU on this one and reserve judgment until the playoffs. Because there is nothing this team has done this year that we didn't do last year...now if we finish with a higher seed than 4th...and we win a playoff series...oh let the trade scenarios begin because even Tracy McGrady himself will want out.