It's all over for Tracy Mcgrady a.k.a my favourite player. It has been a terrible season for him so far, averaging career lows in almost everything. Since he is having such a poor season this season and also not a very good one before this, I have to be fair and write proper things about him. I can't ignore the fact that he is my favourite player, but still ....
2007-08 season: In past seasons, McGrady missed time with injuries but played like an All-Star when healthy; that wasn't the case this time. It was the first season in which his frailty seemed a part of his on-court persona, too -- most notably when he visibly ran out of gas in Game 2 of the Utah series. In addition to missing his usual 16 games with injuries, McGrady saw alarming drops in his scoring, assist rates and shooting percentages when he took the court.
In a hilarious turn of events, he finished eighth in the MVP voting anyway. McGrady got two fourth-place votes and 13 fifth-place votes thanks to the sanity-altering effect of his team's 22-game winning streak late in the season.
C'mon people, let's try to do some critical thinking before filling out those ballots. The win streak was great, but McGrady actually had his worst stretch of the season then, shooting only 40.9 percent in March and a ghastly 23.4 percent on 3s. As mentioned above, he also missed a big chunk of time and didn't play terribly well the rest of the year. But in basketball's weird credit-the-team's-most-prominent-player-with-everything media culture he somehow became an MVP candidate anyway.
For the year he ranked third among shooting guards in usage rate, but only 56th --seventh from the bottom -- in TS%. McGrady's career-low 68.4 percent mark from the line was the fourth-worst at his position and an embarrassment for a player who shoots so well from midrange. He also slumped to 29.2 percent on 3-pointers, and considering he took nearly five a game, this was a huge problem.
McGrady once again shot well on long 2s, hitting 42.9 percent even though most of them were off the dribble with a man in his face, and drew a fairly high rate of free throws on his forays inside the arc. When he penetrated he was a good distributor too, ranking third among shooting guards in pure point rating.
Taken together, all that suggests he might want to forget about 3-pointers for a while and concentrate on beating opponents from midrange or with his considerable (and vastly underappreciated) passing skills. McGrady hasn't shot above 34 percent on 3-pointers since his 2002-03 season in Orlando, and he's investing far too many possessions in a shot that he makes so inconsistently.
Scouting report: McGrady rarely guards the opponent's best perimeter player and tends to ration his efforts at that end, but when energized he can be a very strong defensive player. Because of his length he can get a finger on shots that few wing players come close to -- he got a piece of Travis Outlaw's jumper in one game, for instance, and that's a shot nobody blocks. He also rebounds well.
Offensively, McGrady could use some more help from the other four guys. His usage rate was insanely high for such a low-percentage scorer, and that was partly because so few of his teammates could create a shot -- especially after Yao Ming went out. Teams were running double-teams at him even when he was 20 feet from the hoop, and too often he'd find a wide-open teammate who couldn't convert.
McGrady is an incredibly dangerous midrange shooter because he elevates so well on his J. At 6-8, he just rises above his defender and gets a clean look even if he has no separation. Additionally, he's a fantastic passer and rarely turns the ball over, so he can find the open man against double-teams. Rick Adelman had him doing a lot more free-throw area isolations in which he could rise up for a jumper or see the double coming and pass, and that seemed to be a sweet spot for him.
McGrady has dealt with back problems his entire time in Houston, and those knock him out of the lineup for 10-15 games every season. Besides the injuries, McGrady's free-throw shooting is a less-discussed but grating weakness. It probably doesn't help that he stands well beyond the free-throw line for his attempts because it seems difficult to ensure he's shooting from the same distance every time. Players who toe up to the line know they're shooting exactly 15 feet, but how can McGrady develop a consistent stroke if he's not always in the same spot?
2008-09 outlook: The additions of Brent Barry, Ron Artest and the return of Yao Ming should combine to heavily alter how McGrady needs to play this season. Look for his usage rate to go down and his percentages to go up because he'll have fewer situations in which he needs to force a jumper late in the clock and more in which he's shooting an open kick-out from somebody else.
Nonetheless, the Rockets have to be concerned with the decline in McGrady's output last season. He's still as dangerous a scorer as there is in the game when he gets rolling, but given how badly he slumped last year, his history of back problems and the fact he turns 30 in May, one has to wonder if he'll ever be an All-Star caliber player for a full season again.
But still, T-mac used to be ranked as one of the best basketball players in the modern era. As far as T-mac is concern(Peter Yii's line), he has to improve. For me, one of T-Mac's few weaknesses are his low determination and dedication to the game. I love him when he was at Orlando. I love when he is at Houston. I just love T-Mac.
T-Mac did say this on his blog,
"As some of you may have heard, my season has come to an end. My knee hasn’t been right all year, and we can’t seem to get the pain to go away. We’ve tried just playing through it, taking back-to-backs off, and extended periods of rest, but none of it has really been effective in limiting the discomfort and allowing me to just go out there and play. I’ve met with numerous doctors and gotten a number of opinions, and unfortunately I will be undergoing microfracture surgery on my left knee immediately. Microfracture surgery is a serious procedure, but I’m confident that I will be able to return next season with the same strength and explosiveness you are all used to seeing from me.
It has been extremely frustrating dealing with the knee injury this season. It’s been tough on me both physically and mentally and while we’ve come to this conclusion after much deliberation, we truly feel this is best for both me and the Rockets in the long term. As I’ve said before and will say again, I have the best fans in the world. Thank you for all your continued support through the good times and the bad."
A new article about Kevin Garnett, Amare Stoudermire and Manu Ginobili will be written soon. It's about their injury.
-Edwin Bak-
No comments:
Post a Comment