[Kelly Dwyer Blog] Don’t fault McGrady for his one-and-done legacy

TMOF

Knee Jerk Responce of TMOF: Throw all his teammates under the bus

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I've used the same excuse many times in the past to defend McGrady: he's never lost to a better team in the playoffs. But even if his team was a 3-to-1 underdog on average in each series, after 7 tries he should still be expected to win at least a couple.

 

I'm just curious. What if McGrady was on a great team in his rookie year and won a playoffs series as a bench player. Would that somehow lifted him from the stigma?

 

Well, it's easier to write a title like "Never been out of the first round" rather then "Never been out of first round except when he was on the bench for that team which was really talented and thus McGrady had nothing really to do with the win after all."

 

I don't think it would. The focus would be on what he's done since he's become a bonafide star. It is interesting how Grant Hill never has received the criticism T-Mac gets. He was 0 for 4 in Detroit during his superstar days.

 

Wrong. It's being objective. Your point of view doesn't allow you to see that. Basketball isn't golf. It isn't bowling. It isn't tennis. It is a highly complex team game where an individual(s) can have a great impact, but not the sole impact like the other sports listed. People try to make comparisions and draw judgement on individuals in this team enviornment as if it is an individual sport and that's not quite right.

Example:

Let's say Tiger Woods and the US Ryder team gets beat 15 years in a row in international competition, would it soil his reputation for being a great golfer? Of course not. The good thing for Tiger is that he plays a sport where he, and only he, is responsible for the outcome of the game. Too bad all great basketball players can't be judged on this type of plane for any shortcomings (that are out of their control) they've experienced in their careers.

Actually, what's even more funny about all this refering to the above post, is that Grant Hill's teams are I believe 0-9 in first round series. Why doesn't he get faulted? Oh right, he wasn't even playing. Looks to me that hurts the team more than a guy playing would.

 

tmac will eventually advance. houston is slowly putting better teams each year. we have better reg. seasons each year. it's a matter of time.

houston just needs to get the #1/#2 seed and face a team that would completely overwhelm.

it's coming soon. we all know it.

i don't think tmac is down at all. he knows the development of his team. he knows his shortcomings offensively and i'll think you see a better tmac next yr.

he'll utilize his mid-range game much more next yr.

 

But the statement "TMac never advanced to the second round" would not be true. In fact, I suspect that this silly "never advance" thing would never have been a big deal if he rode the coattail of a good team to win a series.

Look, if Malone's Lakers team won that year, we would never be able to say that he's a choker when it comes to winning a championship. Same with Barkley with the Rockets. See the absurdity of using team winning to gauge a player's accomplishment?

 

Sorry
but The Rockets were the more INJURED team this year
but
They were NOT less talented than the Spazz

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I will not just make it seem like Scola, Landry, Rafer, Battier, etc are just a big ole bucket of Crap so folx can feel better about T-Max

 

yes they were.

deron > rafer
ak > battier
boozer/okur > scola

our players are talented or else they wouldn't be in the NBA. there's nothing wrong with saying the team we played against is more talented.

talent does not make you better. denver has a lot of talent, but are they better than us? i can say with 100% certainty that we are better than denver.

tmac could play better than he did. if he had shot better, he could have easily avg 32-33 ppg in this series with the amount of fts he had (9 fts a game and taking 24 shots a game). he has to be more efficient.

as a team, we failed. no need to single out any players for praise or criticism.

 

What should we say about the star players that can't even lead their team to the playoffs?

 

Yet and still you TMOF continue to criticize every other player not named T-Mac

'oh he had no one to player it'
'oh every other team in the playoffs has more talent. . including the atlanta hawks'
oh .. . t-mac plays with scrubs and bums'

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they do have more talent. what's wrong with saying that? talent does NOT win in this league. the reason everyone is so proud of this team is b/c we play with heart, passion, and refuse to lose mentality.

tmac wasn't perfect in this series. he still should deserve the blame out of anyone b/c he's our best player. he should shoot much better than 42%. he should shoot much better than 60% from the ft line. he should improve his stamina so he wouldn't tire out so easily.

again, our players are talented. outside of head/hayes, none of them are scrubs. but what's wrong with saying other teams are more talented?

look at the nuggets. they have top 3 talent and see where it got them? talent does not mean anything if you don't play the way we play.

 

As I've said before, I do not and can not in good conscious blame him for the team losing this series. I can and will, however, blame him AND Yao for their choke job last year in Game 7 against the Jazz, especially in the last 2 minutes of the game when we were up by 5 and all but had the game -- and the series -- in the bag, if it wasn't for a few 'mishandled' defensive possessions and missed rebounds that turned into back-to-back Okur threes. McGrady played great for the first three quarters of that game, was even efficient in doing so, with a double-double, then completely disappeared in the fourth on offense, instead just deferring to everyone else. Yao had sucked the first three quarters and then stepped up big time in the fourth on offense, but when it most counted he choked like no other in securing rebounds that, ultimately, were the deciding factor in the series.

In short, both our stars need to work on their 'clutchness', as far as I am concerned their careers are on the Chris Webber track until they prove that they're capable of stepping up to get their team over the hump when the moment calls for it.

So yes, I place partial blame on him, especially for last season when he had the best chance to advance, but I do understand it's not fair to place all blame on one player. And it's hard to do so this year considering not just how banged up the team was, but how banged up he was too.

 

at any point that mcgrady has been in the playoffs he's had a rocket's team that would EXTREMELY EASILY have dispatched of any single one of lebron's cav teams. yet he's won multiple series and been to the finals. luck of the draw.

 

tigermission that a very good post.

I think the team took strides this year in mental toughness. Something that was missing in last year's series. It takes a defiant attitude to go from two games under .500 to being number one seed in the west at one point. Adelman did a great job of not allowing players let leadership be delegated to just the sidelines. It did wonders for our team spirit on the court.

I personally prefer not to focus on just McGrady. I don't care what was done in Orlando or in Toronto. The core of our team hasn't been out of the first round. But I'm not worried because we grew as a team this year. I am confident Adelman is too good of a coach to never get out of the first round in Houston.

 

From the original blog entry:

I have no question that McGrady will one day be on the winning side of a playoff series. But what Kelly Dwyer describes here is what worries me about our star player.

Is this a limitation of his game that will ultimately be the limitation of this team's aspirations for a championship? If so, can we overcome or compensate for it?

 

McGrady's teams have either been up in half the playoff series, 2-0, 3-1, or at home for the possible deciding game to advance. But didnt get it done. THATs whats troubling about it. Its not right maybe, but criticism is fair. At least ONE of those should have been advancement.

But blame has to go to Yao also, and Battier...it is a team game. McGrady himself cant make up the point differential, its darn near impossible without a little help.

 

You don't win 55 games [more than alot fo the so called 'Superior talented' teams]
Without TALENT

[even more than the Spazz]

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