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If you could bring one of them back and insert them into the starting lineup today, who would you pick?

for me, its T-mac hands down. 02-03 t-mac would probably take our current squad to the second round at least.

We never got to see prime Penny because of injuries so I guess you have to go with T-Mac. I don't know how good Penny would have been if not for all those injuries but you have to remember he was 1st team All NBA and MVP candidate before entering his prime.

bloodhound wrote:If you could bring one of them back and insert them into the starting lineup today, who would you pick?

for me, its T-mac hands down. 02-03 t-mac would probably take our current squad to the second round at least.

Agreed. If we had THAT T-MAC we'd be a top 3 team in the east.

Elf
Oladipo
T-Mac
Gordon/Harris
Vuc


Ohhhhh man the pick and rolls with Vuc would be deadly

Scratch that we'd be the best team ever assembled.

Penny

Prime Penny is always the correct answer.

You have to assume that anyone that would lean towards T-Mac was not "of age" when Penny was around. We never saw Prime Penny and I would still take what we saw over Prime T-Mac.

Depends what you're looking for. Both are 2 of the greatest talents the league has ever seen. Penny is my favourite player ever so I'm picking him by default.

Im biased in that i like tmac.

Penny. Guy dominated the game so many ways. Not that I don't love them both.

LBPTarHeel27 wrote:You have to assume that anyone that would lean towards T-Mac was not "of age" when Penny was around. We never saw Prime Penny and I would still take what we saw over Prime T-Mac.

I think theres a bit of a nostalgia factor for fans of both eras. Both guys were some of the most popular players of their era, were very entertaining to watch, and didn't reach their peaks because of injury.

I dont think you can just write off Prime TMac. Especially since 02-03 Mac put up 32/6/5 with a PER of 30 when he was only 23 years old . We may never see a player in a magic uniform have that caliber of season ever again

Elaborate

02-03 T-mac singlehandedly carried us to within 1 game of beating the number 1 seed in the playoffs, with a starting lineup that wouldn't even make the cut as second stringers on today's roster (Jock Vaugh, Pat Burke, Garrity).

There was nothing he couldn't do on the court and he was the closest thing to Jordan we got that season (most people favoured him over Kobe).

Explain how Penny would've fared better lol

TMac.

LBPTarHeel27 wrote:You have to assume that anyone that would lean towards T-Mac was not "of age" when Penny was around.

i was "of age" when penny was around. i still think t-mac was better.

We never saw Prime Penny and I would still take what we saw over Prime T-Mac.

pretty sure we never really saw either in their "prime". i'd take t-mac at his best over penny at his best every time, though.

Prime Hezonja.

Just different players. Both could score and facilitate with the best of them if they wanted to, but one was more scoring focused, while the other was more facilitating focused. We don't know what a prime Penny with T-Mac's level of teammates would look like, nor do we know what a prime T-Mac on those mid 90's teams would look like. You can't go wrong with either.

Penny cause of his ability to make teammates better. He would easily have had season of 25/9/5+ for multiple seasons.

Entertainment wise, Penny is just a true showman, whenever the NBA would have those throwback top 10 plays for the week 20 years ago (1995) I swear Penny was atleast in 1 of the top 10, let alone 2+

T-mac's passing ability was underrated, especially since he often commanded double teams.

He was also a better defender than Penny

I pick T-Mac. That man was an absolute beast!

I think Penny was the better player. He is my favorite Magician all time. But the question is for THIS team. We have an amazing facilitator in Elf, what we need is a big time scorer and that is TMac.