who left the game after the first half because his fiancee is giving birth.

Haven't heard it. If that's the reason, props to him. There are other priorities in life than basketball.

Well said TMC! TMac has shown plenty of heart the last two games!

heart? well, hope every playoff contender in the west, other than warriors of coz, has this kind of heart.

it's so funny that when yao ming's rox went 0-8 without tmac(every game was a close one lost in the 4th quarter when yao's out of gas), ppl said yao ming's soft, now tmac is 0-4 without yao so far(including a blow-out by the worst team in the league at home), and ppl said tmac shows a lot of heart by not getting blown out.

TMac is doing his bit! Scored 38pts last game and 21 in the first half (before he had to leave) of the previous game! He isdoing his bit, his team is not looking all that good!

Van Gundy should also look at himself. He's a great defensive coach, but his Knicks were equally inept offensively....

The offense for the Rockets is horrible!

Stromile Swift was suppose to be real good this season but has been just an average player who hasn't contributed much

He's averaging 9 ppg and 4.6 rpg, but only on 21 minutes of play. He's contributing as much as he can with so little playing time.

Tracy McGrady is a high flying scorer. The league is full of them. I, personally, don't think he's anything close to the league's elite group of players because you can shut him down. If you stop McGrady's scoring, he can't effect a game (whereas Baron can rely on assists, or Shaq can rebound, or Kobe can defend, ect). Tracy McGrady is the Rocket's star, but he gets a B+ from me because he seems too one-dimensional to me. Yao is soft, sure, but McGrady's problems are that of predictability. He's a terrific scorer, sure, but if you've got that covered, he's reduced to mid-card status.

#32 wrote:Tracy McGrady is a high flying scorer. The league is full of them. I, personally, don't think he's anything close to the league's elite group of players because you can shut him down. If you stop McGrady's scoring, he can't effect a game (whereas Baron can rely on assists, or Shaq can rebound, or Kobe can defend, ect). Tracy McGrady is the Rocket's star, but he gets a B+ from me because he seems too one-dimensional to me. Yao is soft, sure, but McGrady's problems are that of predictability. He's a terrific scorer, sure, but if you've got that covered, he's reduced to mid-card status.

About a week ago, TMac scored 7pts and got something like 9 assists and 11 rebounds! Doesn't look like a player that is one dimensional! He is not getting the respect he deserves! He is one of the most unstoppable players in the nba and he is still not 100%. His defense (as shown against the Mavs in the playoffs) is underrated also!

migya wrote:His defense (as shown against the Mavs in the playoffs) is underrated also!

His defense is not underrated. The problem is that he only plays defense when he feels like it (a pretty unusual event).

Guess that #32 one-dimensional reference was comparing him with other stars, who seem to be able to do more things (besides scoring) more often. Not something I'd disagree with...

Look at the stats - TMac is more allround than Kobe. May be some other players out there that are more allround but not many

im pretty sure Tmac smokes too much weed because the nights he brings it he's can easily be the Sceond Best Player in the NBA (Lebron James #1). But other nights it seems like he lacks the drive, motivation to be a superstar.

Put it like this, if he gets on a team with rasheed wallace, damon stoudamire, the portland trailbalzers ect. his career will turn out like shawn kemps did.

migya wrote:About a week ago, TMac scored 7pts and got something like 9 assists and 11 rebounds! Doesn't look like a player that is one dimensional!

i watched that game, rockets were blown out by raptors, the worst team in the league, at home from early on. number of assists could be misleading sometimes. when you drive to the hoop and dish out for an easy dunk, that's an assist; when you pass the ball to a teammate who makes a contested jumper, that's an assist as well. most of those 11 assists by tmac were from the latter. raptors defended tmac very well by aggressively double even triple teaming him. tmac were off a bad start and give up shooting since. he had the ball in hand all the time and chose not to shoot, passed away to teammates for low-percentage long jumpers. although they missed far more than they made and lost the game awfully, they attempted enough shots to give tmac 11 assists. this game exactly shows tmac's lack of competitiveness. he just gave up and hoped his mediocre teammates pick up for him. imaging kobe in that kind of situation, he would've popped up 50 shots himself.

TMac does have to make his team win - they have been losing a heap. I just believe he is doing well with a situation that is more difficult than people think. The Rockets are not as talented as what many first thought, including myself, and TMac has to keep it all together.

Kobe is a ball hog!!!!!!! and not much of a winner!