Tracy McGrady Leaving The Rockets

[dwlefty13]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4772672

With T-Mac leaving the Rockets, I can only see the Lakers (who may want to imporve their bench) or the Cavs jumping on signing McGrady to their roster. Any Thoughts?

[Bahku]

I don't get the feeling from this article that it's a given he's being traded ... I think that's a decision far removed from giving him additional minutes in his recovery. Not only that, but the market for T-Mac has changed drastically, and I seriously doubt that when next season rolls around he'll still command the highest salary.

[RebusRankin]

No mention of a buyout. Why would Houston buy him out? I think they're better off trading him for assets or letting him expire and taking the cap space. Who does LA or Cleveland trade for him?

[Brickowski]

He left the Rockets a long time ago.

[nickagneta]

Who in their right mind is going to trade $20+ million of assets. minimum, for the right to rent out a washed up, seriously flawed and now maybe permanently broken scoring, ball dominant small forward that has to have the ball to be effective, even at the expense of team success, and yet doesn't know how to spell the word defense, never mind play it?

And why would Houston buy him out to do him any favors of giving him a chance to latch on somewhere for a ring when he hasn't had a team oriented thought run through his mind since he showed up 6 years ago? The guy is an all about me, born loser of a "David Stern Era Star Over Team" basketball player. The sooner the likes of him, Iverson, Kobe, Wade, and LeBron are gone from the game, the better the brand of NBA basketball will be.

[Rondo_is_better]

Who in their right mind is going to trade $20+ million of assets. minimum, for the right to rent out a washed up, seriously flawed and now maybe permanently broken scoring, ball dominant small forward that has to have the ball to be effective, even at the expense of team success, and yet doesn't know how to spell the word defense, never mind play it?

And why would Houston buy him out to do him any favors of giving him a chance to latch on somewhere for a ring when he hasn't had a team oriented thought run through his mind since he showed up 6 years ago? The guy is an all about me, born loser of a "David Stern Era Star Over Team" basketball player. The sooner the likes of him, Iverson, Kobe, Wade, and LeBron are gone from the game, the better the brand of NBA basketball will be.

So... as soon as we stop having good players...

the basketball will be better....

[Tai]

Who in their right mind is going to trade $20+ million of assets. minimum, for the right to rent out a washed up, seriously flawed and now maybe permanently broken scoring, ball dominant small forward that has to have the ball to be effective, even at the expense of team success, and yet doesn't know how to spell the word defense, never mind play it?

And why would Houston buy him out to do him any favors of giving him a chance to latch on somewhere for a ring when he hasn't had a team oriented thought run through his mind since he showed up 6 years ago? The guy is an all about me, born loser of a "David Stern Era Star Over Team" basketball player. The sooner the likes of him, Iverson, Kobe, Wade, and LeBron are gone from the game, the better the brand of NBA basketball will be.

What.

I'm not even a Kobe or Lebron fan by any means, but don't insult my basketball intelligence and EVER compare Wade, Lebron, or Kobe to Allen Iverson. They each have more talent in their finger (even if it's broken depending on who we're talking about) than AI has in his entire being.

....Wait, did you just have too much spited Egg Nog?

[2short]

He left the Rockets a long time ago.

zing!

[nickagneta]

My point was not to compare the respective players mentioned. My point was not to throw out all the great players in the league. Notice I did not mention Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzski, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Brandon Roy, all of the Big three, etc., etc.

The five players I mentioned, and I guess you could throw Vince Carter into that mix and former player Stephon Marbury, is that each of them built their game around the Michael Jordan image of a basketball player that David Stern then turned into the definition of a basket media star. Stern created a generation of ball dominant, shoot first, pass second, the offense starts and stops with me, I can't be fouled and never call a foul on me, I'll play defense when I want not because I have to, non-team oriented more me oriented players. I really have despised that type of ball player for a long long time.

So, I hope that makes things clearer. I never meant to insult anyone's intelligence.

[Spilling Green Dye]

My point was not to compare the respective players mentioned. My point was not to throw out all the great players in the league. Notice I did not mention Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzski, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Brandon Roy, all of the Big three, etc., etc.

The five players I mentioned, and I guess you could throw Vince Carter into that mix and former player Stephon Marbury, is that each of them built their game around the Michael Jordan image of a basketball player that David Stern then turned into the definition of a basket media star. Stern created a generation of ball dominant, shoot first, pass second, the offense starts and stops with me, I can't be fouled and never call a foul on me, I'll play defense when I want not because I have to, non-team oriented more me oriented players. I really have despised that type of ball player for a long long time.

So, I hope that makes things clearer. I never meant to insult anyone's intelligence.

While I would agree in your displeasure of the promotion of "I" and not "We", I don't think it's fair to put Kobe, Lebron, etc in the same category as Iverson, T-mac, and others (Steve Francis, Marbury, Carter, etc).  The latter players mentioned don't know how to win, at all.  Nor do/did they play both ends of the court or work on any basketball skill other than shooting.  Their existence on a court does not necessarily mean the team is a better team.  I would contend that a team with Lebron, Kobe, and some others you alluded to is a better team with them on it.  And that's not just because the "rules are catered to them."

[Spilling Green Dye]

He left the Rockets a long time ago.

zing!

Precisely.  This is why I hope Brickowski posts more often. 

[Spilling Green Dye]

T-Mac has to have some definite trade value, simply because of his contract.  Outside of ticket sales I really don't think Morely (the GM for Houston) has any desire to keep McGrady.  In my opinion it's rather likely that he gets traded should NBA teams actually man up and cut costs if that is their goal.

[nickagneta]

My point was not to compare the respective players mentioned. My point was not to throw out all the great players in the league. Notice I did not mention Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzski, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Brandon Roy, all of the Big three, etc., etc.

The five players I mentioned, and I guess you could throw Vince Carter into that mix and former player Stephon Marbury, is that each of them built their game around the Michael Jordan image of a basketball player that David Stern then turned into the definition of a basket media star. Stern created a generation of ball dominant, shoot first, pass second, the offense starts and stops with me, I can't be fouled and never call a foul on me, I'll play defense when I want not because I have to, non-team oriented more me oriented players. I really have despised that type of ball player for a long long time.

So, I hope that makes things clearer. I never meant to insult anyone's intelligence.

While I would agree in your displeasure of the promotion of "I" and not "We", I don't think it's fair to put Kobe, Lebron, etc in the same category as Iverson, T-mac, and others (Steve Francis, Marbury, Carter, etc).  The latter players mentioned don't know how to win, at all.  Nor do/did they play both ends of the court or work on any basketball skill other than shooting.  Their existence on a court does not necessarily mean the team is a better team.  I would contend that a team with Lebron, Kobe, and some others you alluded to is a better team with them on it.  And that's not just because the "rules are catered to them."

While Kobe and LeBron are much better players than the others I listed, they are still the same type of player. I don't dislike the players so much as the type of player. Just because Kobe and LeBron are good enough in that role as a player to successful doesn't mean that they are not that type of player. I would also contend that Lebron, much like Carter early and Wade without Shaq, has only had regular season winning success in that role and not post season.

Very few players can pull off the MJ role in basketball at the star level and win championships. Kobe has but he also played with the most dominant center of his time for 3 of those 4 titles. Wade did but he once again played with the most dominant big man of his era. No one else has been able to pull it off. The Spurs, the Pistons, the Celtics, and the Magic Lakers and any team prior to 1980 were all team oriented teams to win the title.

For me, I say get rid of the "type" of player these guys are and NBA basketball will get much better.

[housecall]

My point was not to compare the respective players mentioned. My point was not to throw out all the great players in the league. Notice I did not mention Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzski, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Brandon Roy, all of the Big three, etc., etc.

The five players I mentioned, and I guess you could throw Vince Carter into that mix and former player Stephon Marbury, is that each of them built their game around the Michael Jordan image of a basketball player that David Stern then turned into the definition of a basket media star. Stern created a generation of ball dominant, shoot first, pass second, the offense starts and stops with me, I can't be fouled and never call a foul on me, I'll play defense when I want not because I have to, non-team oriented more me oriented players. I really have despised that type of ball player for a long long time.

So, I hope that makes things clearer. I never meant to insult anyone's intelligence.

While I would agree in your displeasure of the promotion of "I" and not "We", I don't think it's fair to put Kobe, Lebron, etc in the same category as Iverson, T-mac, and others (Steve Francis, Marbury, Carter, etc).  The latter players mentioned don't know how to win, at all.  Nor do/did they play both ends of the court or work on any basketball skill other than shooting.  Their existence on a court does not necessarily mean the team is a better team.  I would contend that a team with Lebron, Kobe, and some others you alluded to is a better team with them on it.  And that's not just because the "rules are catered to them."

While Kobe and LeBron are much better players than the others I listed, they are still the same type of player. I don't dislike the players so much as the type of player. Just because Kobe and LeBron are good enough in that role as a player to successful doesn't mean that they are not that type of player. I would also contend that Lebron, much like Carter early and Wade without Shaq, has only had regular season winning success in that role and not post season.

Very few players can pull off the MJ role in basketball at the star level and win championships. Kobe has but he also played with the most dominant center of his time for 3 of those 4 titles. Wade did but he once again played with the most dominant big man of his era. No one else has been able to pull it off. The Spurs, the Pistons, the Celtics, and the Magic Lakers and any team prior to 1980 were all team oriented teams to win the title.

For me, I say get rid of the "type" of player these guys are and NBA basketball will get much better.

Where does Dirk Nowitzki "type" fit in your analogy of players?

[nickagneta]

My point was not to compare the respective players mentioned. My point was not to throw out all the great players in the league. Notice I did not mention Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzski, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Brandon Roy, all of the Big three, etc., etc.

The five players I mentioned, and I guess you could throw Vince Carter into that mix and former player Stephon Marbury, is that each of them built their game around the Michael Jordan image of a basketball player that David Stern then turned into the definition of a basket media star. Stern created a generation of ball dominant, shoot first, pass second, the offense starts and stops with me, I can't be fouled and never call a foul on me, I'll play defense when I want not because I have to, non-team oriented more me oriented players. I really have despised that type of ball player for a long long time.

So, I hope that makes things clearer. I never meant to insult anyone's intelligence.

While I would agree in your displeasure of the promotion of "I" and not "We", I don't think it's fair to put Kobe, Lebron, etc in the same category as Iverson, T-mac, and others (Steve Francis, Marbury, Carter, etc).  The latter players mentioned don't know how to win, at all.  Nor do/did they play both ends of the court or work on any basketball skill other than shooting.  Their existence on a court does not necessarily mean the team is a better team.  I would contend that a team with Lebron, Kobe, and some others you alluded to is a better team with them on it.  And that's not just because the "rules are catered to them."

While Kobe and LeBron are much better players than the others I listed, they are still the same type of player. I don't dislike the players so much as the type of player. Just because Kobe and LeBron are good enough in that role as a player to successful doesn't mean that they are not that type of player. I would also contend that Lebron, much like Carter early and Wade without Shaq, has only had regular season winning success in that role and not post season.

Very few players can pull off the MJ role in basketball at the star level and win championships. Kobe has but he also played with the most dominant center of his time for 3 of those 4 titles. Wade did but he once again played with the most dominant big man of his era. No one else has been able to pull it off. The Spurs, the Pistons, the Celtics, and the Magic Lakers and any team prior to 1980 were all team oriented teams to win the title.

For me, I say get rid of the "type" of player these guys are and NBA basketball will get much better.

Where does Dirk Nowitzki "type" fit in your analogy of players?

Not sure what you mean. He's definitely not the ball dominant, all about me type of player. He's a great team player that is very versatile in his game. He's not constantly demanding the ball or trying to create off the dribble or making the entire offense revolve all around him.