Mcgrady's knee and shoulder still a problem

[Transistor]

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=4tGot5cNYdU
Same ol story

I'm all for limiting Mcgrady's minutes earlier in the season

[ShaY]

This is sad!
I will seriously consider sitting him out the 1st month and let him get back to 100% , we will be ok.
I don't want him playing 70% the entire season.

[Iggyemu]

I keep forgetting he had shoulder surgery. He said his knee shouldn't bother him but says he needs another surgery on this shoulder. He and Battier have a month to get ready. Hopefully they can do so. Tough West...if we want home court for the 3rd straight time we gotta start well.

[TMU]

It's his fault.

[jove9]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6030550.html

Injuries already a concern.

[Guy986]

I'll be estatic if he plays over 60 games this season. You can already see Tmac lacing up on the excuses. I guess its just tracy being tracy.

I like our team on paper very much. But unfortunately, the Rocket threesome of Tmac, Yao and Artest are extremely fragile. Tmac and Yao are both made of glass and Artest can implode in any given time. Its frustrating....

Dear Santa: All i want for this christmas holiday is a healthy season for the Rockets.

[YoungMoney23]

how long would it take him to recover if he had shoulder surgery to remove the arthritis?

[kwelis fiasco]

i hate talking about this

[Iggyemu]

how long would it take him to recover if he had shoulder surgery to remove the arthritis?

Said it will bother him but not enough for him to miss games (his words not mine). Plans to have surgery to deal with it after the season. Said his knee will be good by opening night but that it would be December until his knee is 100%.

[Baller 24]

Sigh, what else is new?

[kwelis fiasco]

ron can play heavy minutes at the start of the season along w/ eveyone else and we can let tmac heal his fragile ass body as much as possible.

poor tmac. every season he plays hurt, yet he still puts up superstar numbers. thats wat it is homebois. hopefully after the all star break he can be 100% or the closest to 100% his body can get to. hopefuly we have yao by then, and artest hasnt been suspended.

[PocketRockets]

how long would it take him to recover if he had shoulder surgery to remove the arthritis?

Said it will bother him but not enough for him to miss games (his words not mine). Plans to have surgery to deal with it after the season. Said his knee will be good by opening night but that it would be December until his knee is 100%.

So you're saying that T-mac will get better with more pounding on his joints from the NBA games and will heal more as more grueling games accumulate? This dude (T-mac) is on crack!! Like Guy said above, T-mac is just making excuses. If he does well then everyone will say..."Oh he's playing well, imagine if he was 100%" if not, "ohh he's hurting, that's why he's sucking it up." WTF I would think he'd be excited for this upcoming season b/c it'll be his last real chance at winning a championship unless he goes to the celtics/lakers when his contract is up. T-mac disappoints again =/

[Alex_De_Large]

"My knee should be ready to go by opening night."

[ShaY]

If he decided to do the surgeory now to get rid of the arthritis , how much time will he miss?
Just let him do the surgeory now , that way both his shoulder and knee will be 100% , I am guessing 3 months will be enough for him to fully recover.

We will be ok for the 1st 2 months of the season without him , it will be the same team from last year only wirth Artest instead of T-Mac and we also have Barry.

we will still be good.

[cavsfan_osiris]

The great thing about acquiring Artest is the team doesn't need to depend solely on TMac as much this regular season. His minutes should be cut down. They will need everyone healthy for the post-season though.

[Iggyemu]

If he decided to do the surgeory now to get rid of the arthritis , how much time will he miss?
Just let him do the surgeory now , that way both his shoulder and knee will be 100% , I am guessing 3 months will be enough for him to fully recover.

We will be ok for the 1st 2 months of the season without him , it will be the same team from last year only wirth Artest instead of T-Mac and we also have Barry.

we will still be good.

LOL you are delusional. If he misses 3 months...we would be lucky to get a 7th seed and lose to the Hornets or Lakers.

McGrady is doing the right thing. Only he knows if he can play. And if he says he can play through it then I believe him. Like cavsfan said...his minutes should be down and even if they aren't...the role he plays when he is in there will be a lot less than it was in seasons past.

I am on board with pocket_rockets in that I think McGrady is trying to set the bar low so if he struggles people will have an excuse. I think he is hurting but I don't think its that big of deal. Just sounds like he is putting in place excuses should he struggle this season.

[Baller 24]

Yeah he has the biggest impact on this team regardless if Yao is the best player. Him going out for 3 months would probably put a dagger into our hopes.

[moofs]

LOL you are delusional. If he misses 3 months...we would be lucky to get a 7th seed and lose to the Hornets or Lakers.

I am on board with pocket_rockets in that I think McGrady is trying to set the bar low so if he struggles people will have an excuse. I think he is hurting but I don't think its that big of deal. Just sounds like he is putting in place excuses should he struggle this season.

Agree with the second part, and it's altogether possible we could end up as a 7th seed (though I really doubt we'd get any lower than 5th), but how does McGrady missing the first 2 months of the season make us an easy out in the playoffs? I don't see the correlation.

p.s. Hornets are still way overrated.

[Iggyemu]

LOL you are delusional. If he misses 3 months...we would be lucky to get a 7th seed and lose to the Hornets or Lakers.

I am on board with pocket_rockets in that I think McGrady is trying to set the bar low so if he struggles people will have an excuse. I think he is hurting but I don't think its that big of deal. Just sounds like he is putting in place excuses should he struggle this season.

Agree with the second part, and it's altogether possible we could end up as a 7th seed (though I really doubt we'd get any lower than 5th), but how does McGrady missing the first 2 months of the season make us an easy out in the playoffs? I don't see the correlation.

p.s. Hornets are still way overrated.

1+1 essentially. Lack of home court + playing one of the top teams either LA or NO = likely first round loss. There is no other sport where home court means more...the fact that I even have to say that shows either how little you know or how highly you think of this team.

Personally in the West...I don't think any team can win without the home court. The teams are not that far apart. I am not saying if we end up with the 6th or 7th seed we'll be an easy out...I am saying we'll just get beat b/c we wouldn't have the HC and thats something you need in this conference. Kobe opted not to do surgery on his pinky b/c he knows exactly what I just said. And I imagine McGrady is opting to not have surgery b/c he knows it too. If your best player or at least the guy that makes your team go missed 2 months of regular season action...you probably can't plan to be playing in mid-May.

In this conference you need the home court to advance. To get the home court you have to play well and at least give yourselves a chance to be good from the start. I am not saying you have to be 20-3 or anything like that...I am saying you can't start 10-20 and expect to have home court come playoff time. Its just not gonna happen...mediocre teams play to make the playoffs....good teams play for seeding. If we start poorly we'll be a team playing to make the playoffs and that really wouldn't be much different from any other year and we probably shouldn't expect anything different.

[moofs]

1+1 essentially. Lack of home court + playing one of the top teams either LA or NO = likely first round loss. There is no other sport where home court means more...the fact that I even have to say that shows either how little you know or how highly you think of this team.

Personally in the West...I don't think any team can win without the home court. The teams are not that far apart. I am not saying if we end up with the 6th or 7th seed we'll be an easy out...I am saying we'll just get beat b/c we wouldn't have the HC and thats something you need in this conference. Kobe opted not to do surgery on his pinky b/c he knows exactly what I just said. And I imagine McGrady is opting to not have surgery b/c he knows it too. If your best player or at least the guy that makes your team go missed 2 months of regular season action...you probably can't plan to be playing in mid-May.

In this conference you need the home court to advance. To get the home court you have to play well and at least give yourselves a chance to be good from the start. I am not saying you have to be 20-3 or anything like that...I am saying you can't start 10-20 and expect to have home court come playoff time. Its just not gonna happen...mediocre teams play to make the playoffs....good teams play for seeding. If we start poorly we'll be a team playing to make the playoffs and that really wouldn't be much different from any other year and we probably shouldn't expect anything different.

A little of column A, a little of column B, and I think that while, thanks mainly to referees, home court does play a stake, that it doesn't play THAT much of a stake (as far as players are concerned, football seems to have a bigger advantage). If we're healthy, I think we're head and shoulders above any other WC team, save possibly Portland, from whom I have NO IDEA what to expect (they only have TWO players that weren't born in the 80s, I feel old now...). If healthy (always the caveat), Utah, San Antonio (who has had trouble with us at full strength for several years now), Phoenix, and Dallas stand no chance against us. Phoenix might just have the best shot of that bunch, and I don't think they're that good. That leaves New Orleans and LA.

Even without McGrady we should be able to stay around the 5-6 seed, then catch up to 3-4 pretty handily after he gets back. WITH him, I think we could easily be the 1 or 2 seed. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I'm also not saying that on the strength of our offense, which should be far better than last year (which is scary), but on the strength of our defense (mildly downgraded outlook if Mutombo doesn't return). NO ONE else in the league has the kind of two-way team we have. Even L.A., with all their options, is going to have some nasties getting through all our defense. Artest will probably have Odom waving the white flag by game 2, Kobe usually sucks against Battier, Yao/Scola can hang reasonably well with Gasol. New Orleans is good, no doubt, but they aren't in our class. I mean, we're probably going to win several games with some pain-ridden teams giving up at 49 pts down by 28 at 10:26 in the 4th quarter. I feel pretty good about being able to keep pace with the other 5-10 teams below the top two without a guy or two, and really good if we actually have everyone going into the playoffs for once.

And I'd say our team is more than good enough to win against San Antonio/Phx/Utah without home court, cause barring an inverse miracle we ARE NOT going to be a 7-8 seed this year.

2 frequently keys for all of this:
- Health.
- Sanity.
Meshing offensively is a distant third.