Good Luck everyone! This is the finals! GOOD LUCK! Topic: <u>Where would the Rockets be if the Tracy McGrady trade had not been made?</u> This will go on till August 25, 2006 10:00 P.M. C.T GET IT STARTED!
I think the trade actually saved the Rockets. With Steve Francis and Cat, we had two dynamic guards but I think it suffocated Yao. They took up most of the possesion with streetball moves. I agree with Van Gundy who was once asked about who got the better of the trade, he answered "I believe the team that ends up with the best player got the better of the trade, we got that, we got the better deal of the trade" It wasn't exactly that but something like it. It's true, we obviously got the best player of the trade. We also got Juwan, Reece Gaines and Tyronne. I remember Reece Gaines and Tyronn getting a lot of minutes in t-macs first season w/ us before they got traded. They did O.K but not anywhere good. While we still have Juwan, who is still solid, spreading the floor with his midrange game. T-mac was injured last year, Yes, but when healthy him and yao I think is one of the best if not the best duos in the Nba. T-mac is probably the smoothest player in the Nba, and is one of the top scorers. But he also dishes to Yao, and letting him take over when its needed. As for what the Magic got, it started out pretty good for them, then they traded Cat for.....Doug Christie. Intention was to bring in some defense, didn't really work out good. Christie didn't work out, and they also got a less than happy Francis, who with Cat were best of friends. They then traded Francis to the Knicks. So all that remains from the initial trade is Cato. If the trade didn't happen, #1 I don't think we would have the same dominant Yao. He wouldn't have had that chance to dominate like he does now. End of last season he was a monster, and carried onto the World Championships where he dominated once again with 36 in his last game. We are currently in a pretty good situation, not the best but petty good. We have one of the strongest duos, and with Battier, we have one of the strongest trios. Battier...after watching some of the world Championship games, watching Battier gets me so excited. I know he doesn't put up the #s or the highlight dunks, but he does all the little things. He takes the charges, grabs some boards, can hit the open shot, anything a team needs. A perfect compliment to a superstar. He brings all the intangables to the table and we need that imo. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Rockets have a great season as long as we are healthy. While if we didn't make the trade, I believe that we wouldn't be in nearly as good a situation. Could you imagine, I think we would be even older, we would have an effective but 31 year old Cat. A 29 year old Francis, whos career is now waning. Plus a 32 year old Cato. I think even when healthy without the trade now, we would probably be winning around 30-40 games, while we have the chance with t-mac of 50+ wins when healthy. IMO we definitely did the right thing.
This is kind of hard to debate, but okay whatever... My stance on the McGrady trade is that the trade really benefited the Rockets in many different ways. The trade, which swapped McGrady, Lue, Gaines, and Howard for Francis, Mobley, and Cato, in my opinion, had more positives than negatives. For an instance, the trade pretty much instantly made the team contenders or at least on the verge of contending for either a western conference title or the championship itself. In fact, the improvement upon the trade can easily be seen by the record differences from the 03-04 season compared to the 04-05 season. With Francis and Mobley's last year in Houston, the Rockets ended up with a 45-37 record while in McGrady and Howard's first year, the team blasted off all the way to a 51-31 record. In addition, you also have to factor in the fact that the team was completely rebuilt and therefore had to deal with a lot of chemistry issues. Players like McGrady and Howard had to adjust to a new system, coach, etc. compared to the ones they had in Orlando for years. So therefore, its quite remarkable how well the trade has worked for Houston. However, the greatest part of the trade is simply that McGrady gives us a future and a solid potential to become something big in the league. Whereas Francis and Mobley were/are aging (they're at 29 and 31, respectively). In addition, the two backcourt studs weren't really giving the team any direction at all. The team wallowed in mediocrity for years. Although with Yao on board, the team started to have a bit of hope and future, most of that was squashed by Francis' enormous contract. It really gave the team little room to add quality role players to the team which would at least have a chance of contending. On the other hand, even though McGrady has a similar contract, at least you can expect a good 26/6/5 from him every night- giving you more bang for your buck. Meanwhile, even in his best years, Francis wasn't capable of putting up those types of numbers. Plus, the prospect of playing alongside two bonafide superstars (Francis isn't on that level) drew in a lot of role players that wanted to contribute on a championship contending team. Even though Mobley would have been a nice asset on the team, he was really a sacrifice the Rockets had to make to put the team in the right direction. Plus, his contract ending a year or two later, and the Rockets wouldn't have been able to sign him anyway with Francis or McGrady on board. So thus, where would the Rockets be had they not pulled the trigger on the McGrady trade? We likely would have lost Mobley to free agency, since there was no way we could have gave him an offer similar to the one the Clippers made. In addition, its obvious Van Gundy and Francis weren't really working out too well, due to Francis' run and gun style of play while Van Gundy prefers the systematic approach to offense. We probably would have traded him sooner or later, and likely would have gotten a lesser value as well (ala the Knicks trade). Or, in a scenario if he wasn't traded, we probably wouldn't have gotten too far with Francis and Yao. Francis plays mostly through drives and attacking the room, but it didn't really complement Yao's style of play since the big guy likes camping down low, which causes a jam in the low post, giving Francis little chance to do what he does best. Meanwhile, McGrady complements Yao much better since he loves taking the midrange to outside shots, giving the Rockets a good inside-outside combination. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I agree with Van Gundy who was once asked about who got the better of the trade, he answered "I believe the team that ends up with the best player got the better of the trade, we got that, we got the better deal of the trade" It wasn't exactly that but something like it. It's true, we obviously got the best player of the trade. </div> You do know, that sometimes the team that winds up with the best player might not always get the better deal. Take how the Knicks traded for Francis for an example. If I remember correctly, he was sent to the Knicks for scrubs. And obviously, the Knicks didn't really get the best deal out of the trade. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">As for what the Magic got, it started out pretty good for them, then they traded Cat for.....Doug Christie. Intention was to bring in some defense, didn't really work out good. Christie didn't work out, and they also got a less than happy Francis, who with Cat were best of friends. They then traded Francis to the Knicks. So all that remains from the initial trade is Cato.</div> Okay, but thats kind of irrelevant. How Mobley and the Magic faired after the trade really has nothing to do with what situation the Rockets would be in now had they kept him and Francis.
Dang, another one of these debate topics based heavily on hypotheticals. I feel like I need to go scour the used car ads for an '88 DeLorean. Then I'd have all the answers. But that's not an option, so I'll just see what I can do. First of all, let me ask a question. When was the last time that an NBA championship team's 1st or 2nd best player was notorious for regularly making boneheaded plays, especially at the end of games? I'm not talking about the occasional choke-job. I'm talking about dribbling out the shot clock and taking low percentage shots, or turning the ball over before a shot could even be attempted. The answer is that it doesn't happen. Players with that characteristic do not win rings as key players on their teams, which leads me to my point... Steve Francis is one of those players. He has all the physical talent in the world, but going into his 8th year in the league he still comes off as immature and inexperienced. Now, granted that may basically be the only significant knock on the guy, I still want to see someone name a 1st or 2nd option on a championship team that was known for that type of behavior. You see, there comes a point when you have to look past the talent of a player and consider whether or not you can win a championship with them. That's not to say that I don't think Steve Francis could ever win one, but I honestly do not see him doing it as a 1st or 2nd option. Considering what his salary looked/looks like, that's exactly what he would have been. We may have been a playoff team. We may have had a nice run or two. I just don't see him leading the Rockets to a ring when I look into my magical crystal ball sitting here on my desk. Do you see that? Honestly? That's why the deal had to be made, and why we're so lucky that it was. Tracy McGrady has as much basketball talent as anyone living and breathing on this planet today, and aside from only a handful of others, maybe as much as anyone ever. But that's not why we needed him. We needed Tracy because he's not a player who is known to have his brain shut down in crucial moments of the game. In fact, he's known for the exact opposite. He has that "something" that Francis doesn't. He has the championship pedigree that's necessary to win. The only problem is that until now, he's never had the team to help him get there. The proof of the possibilities is quite obvious to me. In 2004/2005, the Rockets took the Dallas Mavericks to 7 games in the first round of the playoffs without homecourt advantage. McGrady's ability to carry a team on his shoulders was evident from the very start, as his clutch and inspired play was what put us up 2-0 in the series. The problem came when the Mavericks allowed Tracy and Yao to run rampant, but were rather easily able to completely shut down the entire supporting cast. You can't pin that on McGrady (or Yao) in the least. In case you didn't notice, practically the same exact Mavs team nearly won the whole damn enchilada a couple of months ago. With a healthy Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, and an improving supporting cast, this team is on the cusp of something special. On the other hand, if the deal never happens and we assume that Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, and Kelvin Cato are still in town and that Tracy McGrady and Juwan Howard are elsewhere, I'm rather certain we would be going nowhere. Assuming the starting lineup looked like this... Francis Mobley (if he even re-signed instead of whoring out to bigger offers) Battier Cato Yao ...we'd have a PG that makes dumb decisions way too often, an aging undersized SG with questionable shot selection, a nice team-oriented small forward, an underachieving PF who is actually worse than Juwan Howard, and a Yao Ming that may have had his growth stunted by the trigger happy Francis and Mobley. Honestly I can't even imagine Francis, Mobley, and Battier on the same team. Battier would probably jump off a cliff due to the lack of fundamentally sound basketball surrounding him. I know we all thought that last season was hard to sit through, but at least we can look forward to McGrady coming back healthy, and Yao coming off of a dominant finish to last season as well as FIBA competition. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow may not be in plain view yet, but there's reason to hope that it's a reality. That's much more than I feel could be said if we never made that trade. While we they not have sunk completely with Steve Francis leading the way or as the 2nd option, they sure wouldn't have been swimming across the English Channel either. He's just the kind of player that will likely tread water for the rest of his career, pout about every situation he puts himself in, and then get out and dry off with a towel made of money. Simply put, no trade = no championship possibilities.
