McGrady unsure whether Rockets want him - NBA - Yahoo! Sports After months of growing discord and mistrust between the Houston Rockets and their once-franchise player, Tracy McGrady(notes) and coach Rick Adelman engaged in an emotional and sometimes loud closed-door confrontation about the star’s uncertain status on Wednesday night, sources told Yahoo! Sports.
This is very true. Tmac makes 23 million this year. Unless he is bought out which is highly unlikely since Houston wants T-mac on ice so they can collect 80% of his salary back via the insurance policy they have on him.
I remember him being up in a series with 3 wins and talking about how good it was to be going to the 2nd round... how did he do that year?
I'm ok with this... we tend to over-value our youth... we're on par with most average teams which frankly several have better young talent... reality is fleeting in a homer world. Rip + Tay (replaced by Daye & Gordon) for McGrady could equate to a solid young nucleus to build on... or we could wait for them to get older and less valuable (while waiting for a miracle MLE signing). There has to come a time when you step back and decide where is this all heading... Do we have the means to acquire a dominating inside presence? Do we have the potential for lockdown defenders in the mold of the 04 team? Do we have star potential scorers (that won't give up as much on defense)? Can we make up for our deficiencies with an intellegent passing/opportunistic team? Where are these ship worthy players going to come from... high draft picks... or large cap room? Once the questions have been answered is when you come to grips with the concept of bolder moves needing to take place... IMO mediocrity is the absolute worse case scenario.
Somehow getting TMac and Kaman would put us over the top. Need to do a Boston like trade. So long as we keep bynum, cv, Gordon and Wallace . . . everybody else is fair game.
No - he leads them to the Neurosurgeon's office.. He's the Dominique of his era. A highly athletic individual player who never delivered. At least it can be argued for Nique that he rarely had the type of talent surrounding him over the years that T-mac has. The $23M is a gift from the satiric Gods. King Zeus is still up there rolling on the marble tiles over that one..
Clearing 23 million in cap space to make a run at a top free agent in 2010 is interesting. I don't think T-mac is a cancer like AI. The problem is coach Adleman in Houston.
Excellent points. I like Rip and Tay and would miss them but I cannot honestly see anyone trading a quality big for them. Maybe before the Prince injury but that had to take a lot out of his trade value. A team like Houston may have appreciated a solid player who never misses a game but that's over with now. We could maybe get a decent project if Stuckey or CV were thrown in or maybe even Day. You get what you give in a trade for the most part. Want to unload a project or over paid player and you are going to get one back in return. T-Mac's contract does expire after this year. Something to think about. Especially if we could unload Maxiel as well.
One has to think, if anyone is serious about making a run at some of these big names, then T-Mac is a super valuable chip to have. I don't know that I would deal with Detroit if I am the Rockets. The only player they might be interested in would be Rip. He'd do well playing in a Princeton system.
It just occurred to me as I read brother Max's response, that maybe Houston wants the expiring so they can compete for a marquee player to play next to Yao. They will drop $31 million in the offseason from their payroll and end up around $43 million before signing draft picks. Yao Ming expires the following year, which makes things sort of murky. Do they go for the gusto for one year? That Ariza signing looks terrible right now.
Yes they would want it for the same reasons that we would and anyone would. 21 mil coming off the books is a lot of cash. They probably will get a few offers for that.
The problem is Houston is trying to double dip. They want T-mac to shut it down the whole season so they can collect 80% of his salary back via insurance and then at the end of the season hit the jackpot with his expiring deal. They have to realize other players are watching how they handle this and if they screw over T-mac no big name guy will go to Houston.
Right on the money... I'd imagine the Rockets will be getting a call from the players union. The league puts on a tough defense against any team looking for injury protection... it's a fail in this case if he says he's ready to play /end_bucking_system
