Will TMac buy into Rick Adelman's system?

[rocket_zoom]

Since TMac's injury, the Rockets have been playing well except for their game against the Pistons, and except for the 4th quarter against the Warriors.

After the disappointing slump following our 6-1 start, we are finally able to see Rick Adelman's offense taking shape, especially with the cutters, slashers, and easy layups. At the same time, the defense has improved and is beginning to look like last year's defense. And finally, our role players are stepping up and contributing consistently.

Now, the question is, when TMac returns, will he buy into Rick Adelman's system? TMac complained that the team had "no identity" before his injury - most likely a criticism against Rick Adelman and his system.

The rest of the Rockets have bought into Rick Adelman's system (Yao included), and the dividends have paid itself in the latest wins. I would love to see TMac show some faith in Rick Adelman because this is the one thing that the Rockets lacked in the playoff against Utah - a fluid offense and smart ball movement.

If TMac buys into Rick Adelman's system and the team plays as well as it is now, the sky is the limit.

Rocket Zoom

[Iggyemu]

Been discussed already. The main thing he has to do is as our best open court player he needs to run off of misses and get himself some easy layups and trips to the foul line.

He also has to cut better..especially off of Yao.

[nyk_buc]

why do people think that he can't?

watch the first 5 games of the season. he was the ONLY person who ran it to perfection. he was scoring of screens/picks (off-thedribble) to score. he was scoring at the wing and dunking at least 1-2 times a day. he was getting 2-3 easy transition basket a game (he DID run).

but EVERYONE ELSE WAS NOT PICKING UP THE OFFENSE. so adelman used some of JVG-plays and it totally messed up the team b/c they are now thinking of 2 different styles. that put a lot of pressure on tmac and he became frustrated. he had a few bad games (esp. the raptors game) where he jacked up a lot of wild shots.

but the 2 games he played when he tried to play hurt (chicago and detroit), he ran the offense PERFECT again.

he just had a 4-5 game stretch where he was really frustrated with the lack of help outside of yao and bad shooting by the guards that he took a lot of ill-advised shots (add to that he was hurt for 2-3 games of that stretch).

so relax. don't worry about tmac. we need to worry that the rest of the team don't get intimidated and use tmac as a crutch again.

tmac can adapt to any system. he's not a system player where he needs a particular system to dominate. he's simply a great ball player who's out there to make plays.

[teamny1]

I don't get how only one person can "get an offense" yet the entire offense is still effective. Everyone on the court has to get the offense in order for an offensive set to be able to be ran, otherwise none of the cuts will be open, no spot ups will be open, etc.

Anyway I think he will just for the simple fact that if he doesn't everyone will see his "true colors" so to speak and if anything that's not something McGrady's about to do. Tracy did admit to quitting but that was because the team wasn't good. I don't think he'd be mad that the team was actually doing good without him. If anything he'll defer too much and become like Luther Head 2.0 or something.

[Baller 24]

I think he will, the offense is mainly focused on him, and the way Rafer is playing and handling the ball, I don't see why he won't.

[McTracy]

Morey was on radio, said Tracy will not play for about 5-10 days. Morey said Tracy felt a little bit pain but is workin' on his ft's.

[Iggyemu]

By every account McGrady works hard on FTs. Feigen was talking about it the other day. He has a coach for that stuff and he still shoots a piss poor %. I don't understand it.

[BaYBaller]

By every account McGrady works hard on FTs. Feigen was talking about it the other day. He has a coach for that stuff and he still shoots a piss poor %. I don't understand it.

T-Mac has always been more of a scorer than a pure shooter, and scorers usually have abnormally low FT% compared to our offensive output. The interesting thing is that Morey said T-Mac is finally starting to take some advice from the coaching staff on his FTs and expects it to improve. That would be pretty surprising since I can't really remember many people who improved their FT%'s this late into their careers.

[MaxRider]

-= original quote snipped =-



T-Mac has always been more of a scorer than a pure shooter, and scorers usually have abnormally low FT% compared to our offensive output. The interesting thing is that Morey said T-Mac is finally starting to take some advice from the coaching staff on his FTs and expects it to improve. That would be pretty surprising since I can't really remember many people who improved their FT%'s this late into their careers.

there's always room for improvement
one example is Baron Davis
same age as T-Mac
also a scorer (volume shooter)
used to be mid 60% but once improved to mid 70% and dropped again
now he's back to the mid 70%
if T-Mac worked on his FT and concerntrate more when he shoot it
there's a chance he can bring it up to mid 70%

[NYKnick87]

Yeah, if he's not lazy.

[grond]

I don't get how only one person can "get an offense" yet the entire offense is still effective. Everyone on the court has to get the offense in order for an offensive set to be able to be ran, otherwise none of the cuts will be open, no spot ups will be open, etc.

Yeah, agree. I'm not about to go back and look at the first 5 games, but I remember them being won playing mostly JVG style ball with only brief flirtations with Adelman's stuff.

If anything he'll defer too much and become like Luther Head 2.0 or something.

hopefully not. He's not the shooter Luther is. Like everyone else says, run more, cut more, shoot less, pass more, be our 4th qtr ball handler. Could throw in 'become a lockdown perimeter defender' in there as well I suppose - but that's really being hopefull.

Anyway, I think Adelman said in the chron that his minutes are going to be limited when he comes back as a precautionary measure. I wonder if that's code for 'doesn't trust him fully' like Bucher implied.

[DraftBoy10]

Grond, actually the first 7 games of the season were Adelman's philosophy.

With that stated, yes, T-Mac can get into it, it's just at the expense of Head's minutes, some of Battier's(hopefully), and a little bit of Brooks's. I mean T-Mac does command about 36, 37 minutes a game so I'm thinking we are going to need to cut someone's. That's my only probem with T-Mac coming in, but then I'm hoping Luther can duplicate his starting success on the bench, cause with Brooks/Luther/Scola/Bonzi off the bench that's one of the best in the L.

[nyk_buc]

By every account McGrady works hard on FTs. Feigen was talking about it the other day. He has a coach for that stuff and he still shoots a piss poor %. I don't understand it.

he does NOT have a coach. what feign said was during this injury, he has seeked "advice" from others.

before now, he only worked on him himself.

[tha_rock220]

If he's willing to accept the fact that he's now option no. 4 behind Yao, Bonzi, and Rafer then bring him back. Otherwise trade him or wave him.

[biscuitsNgrady]

^^LOL. we're gonna need TMac to play and play well if we have any chance to get past the 1st round.

[grond]

From the chronicle today (Fran Blinebury's blog):

http://blogs.chron.com/franblinebury/20 ... on_or.html

More or less what we've been hashing over in this thread. Of interest was :-

"Despite what he says publicly, McGrady does not appear comfortable with the offense and, based on some things he's said privately, may not be fully committed to making it work."

Hopefully, that's BS - I dunno how reliable this guy really is. But if not, it strikes me as something T-Mac might have said before he went down injured (ie frustration talking). Wish the author had qualified it with a time reference.

[BaYBaller]

I believe that T-Mac's "comments" that Blinebury refers to is from when the team was struggling to run Adelman's offense, not recently. Or at least I hope that's the case.

[nyk_buc]

From the chronicle today (Fran Blinebury's blog):

http://blogs.chron.com/franblinebury/20 ... on_or.html

More or less what we've been hashing over in this thread. Of interest was :-

"Despite what he says publicly, McGrady does not appear comfortable with the offense and, based on some things he's said privately, may not be fully committed to making it work."

Hopefully, that's BS - I dunno how reliable this guy really is. But if not, it strikes me as something T-Mac might have said before he went down injured (ie frustration talking). Wish the author had qualified it with a time reference.

that was during when he was playing with the injuries. he's looked very excited on the sidelines last night v. the knicks.

but fran is a HUGE tmac critic so that article is not unexpected.

[Teckon]

I believe Adelman already has the plan on how to deal with Tmac. Using the reason that Tmac has just recovered, Adelman will limit his minutes in the 1st few games and see how Tmac play and react.

If Tmac flourished within the offensive flow, Tmac get his minutes increased. Otherwise, Tmac's minutes will be limited and even benched using medical reasons that Tmac still need sometime to heal his knee or other part of his body. However, in any event, rockets management will never publicly said Tmac is not happy or unable to work within the flow as such message reduce their bargaining position to trade him (if unfortunately necessary).

My personal opinion, even if Tmac is buying in to the offense, Rockets should not over play Tmac like they have been doing to Yao. Yao has a higher durability than Tmac and Rockets can hang with most team with just Yao (note i say hang with not win over). Rockets need Tmac most in the 4th quarter to close the win. A fresh Tmac will be great in the playoff. So i say play Tmac to ard 28-30 min thereby leaving some minutes for Heads, Brooks to continue to develop. Rockets should also consider to play Tmac at the SF position giving more backcourt minutes to the Aslton, Wells, Head, Brooks.

[nyk_buc]

"I'm never worried about getting a guy who scored 25 points a game, was your leading scorer and assist guy back," Adelman said. "If we can have everybody with their confidence at a higher level when he comes back, it has to help the team.

"We've been trying to implement a system all year long with more ball movement. He has seen our guys grow in the last two weeks as a team. I think Tracy is the type of player, when he gets on the floor, he sees that. He's a very unselfish player. He is willing to give the ball up to people. Other people are doing their job; he is more than willing to do that.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/spo ... 45711.html

that's all it is people. that's the difference earlier in the season when EVERYBODY outside of him and yao sucked balls. everyone shot 30%. how the hell can an offense look good if all the damn role players shoot 30%.

now they are doing their job. tmac won't force so many things. sometimes it's as simple as making the open shots that u have.

tmac will not have to adjust one bit. just go back in and play basketball. play exactly like he started out the year.

like adelman said, as long as the role players don't use him as the crutch when he returns, we should elevate to another level once he gets his conditioning back.

it's strange that just last yr, everyone praises him for his unselfishness (and it helped his assist #s that our 3pt shooters shot 38% or better for the most part). this year, the shooter started out the year BAD and they say he's selfish.