HoopsHype.com NBA Blogs - Eddie Johnson

Tracy McGrady might not know it, but he just let Rick Adelman off the hook by taking off his uniform and going into exile. Adelman now will be stress free knowing he does not have to worry about looking down the bench and locking eyes with a disgruntled player.

I feel sorry for McGrady because I have seen it all too often and, quite frankly, I experienced it myself playing for Larry Brown in Indiana and in Houston with Rudy Tomjanovich. The very thought that a coach does not believe you can help him win breaks your heart and your spirit. McGrady has played basketball in the NBA since he was 18 and has always been considered a major part of his teams. Now he is healthy and without a team.

When this occurs, the agent and close family members should play a vital role in countering the emotions of an unhappy player. If that is the case with McGrady, then they let him down. He should be still in a Rocket Uniform and waiting for the right opportunity for Adelman to use him more frequently. The Rockets are sure to hit a road bump or suffer a key injury and that would have allowed McGrady to showcase his talents for a team that wants him for the right reasons and not just as a one-year rental for salary cap purposes.

I understand why Adelman is refusing to disrupt his rotation for the highest paid player in the NBA and here are those reasons.

1. Quite simple, they are winning. Why create tension and controversy in the locker room for a player who has missed a lot of games?

2. Adelman has always liked ball movement and McGrady is a catch-and-explore player. The Rockets’ strength is their unselfish nature and tough defense. Why rock the boat for one player?

3. McGrady is a health risk, so why change the rotation for a player that might not last the season?

These reasons alone will not allow McGrady to play consistently. Adelman is old school and definitely will not be influenced to do so.

The only option is a trade and now the challenge for the Rockets and McGrady is to locate a team willing to trade for T-Mac the basketball player and not T-Mac the expiring contract.

Unfortunately, the only teams that will take a look want major cap space next year. So if I was Tracy McGrady, I would move back to Chicago and continue to work with Tim Grover and be ready when the trade happens (if it happens). He will eventually become a free agent and will probably suffer the worst contract drop of any athlete in the history of sports.

A $23 million contract could for all intents and purposes drop to a mid-level contract or below. This will test the love of the game for McGrady and only then will teams run for his services next season. This year, the Knicks or Nets are the logical choices and I believe he will end up with either one before the All-Star break.

I hope McGrady realizes his place as the top scorer is probably over, but he could still be a valuable asset if he checks the ego at the door. I hope he does because he deserves a chance to help someone win a championship next year if he is healthy and ready to play a role.

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The Rockets entrance into the second round of the playoffs will probably end the Tracy McGrady era in Houston. The Rockets could never get out of the first round with McGrady and now with him sidelined for the season, they are headed to Los Angeles to face the Lakers. I am a huge McGrady fan and personally feel he is one of the top 20 players in the NBA when healthy, but the problem for the Rockets is that he has not accomplished what they just achieved against a very good Portland team.

McGrady put up great numbers in last year’s playoff series against Utah (27ppg, 8.2 rpg and almost 7 apg), but they still lost and in Houston they want wins. This year’s version without McGrady produced all-around contributions and created more weapons to solidify a first-round win. It probably will force the Rockets to shop their star next year.

There are four areas the Rockets improved in without McGrady.

Better cohesion

McGrady dominated  on the court, but off the court as well. Although the Rockets have Yao Ming, McGrady still had the spotlight on him 24/7 and I felt because of it, he tried to do too much – thus diminishing the skills of his teammates and especially Yao Ming. The Rockets now seem to co-exist with one another. They seem to relish in the sight of not having to expect one player to produce huge numbers for them to win big games, which becomes a devastating weapon to have moving into the second round against the mighty Lakers.

Better defense

Ron Artest has been one of the best defenders in the league for a reason. He does not need help to guard his man. This alone takes a lot of pressure off the rest of the team, knowing that Artest is self sufficient. This allows Rick Adelman to gamble and double other players like Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum and he will be doing it with more aggressive/physical players like Shane Battier and Luis Scola.  What does this have to do with McGrady?  Well, because of Artest’s ability to defend and score, Adelman can keep the diminutive Aaron Brooks on the floor and surround him with players that are very good defenders and can score in double figures as well.

Better ball movement

This might be the most important reason why McGrady might not return. The Rockets seem more fluid on offense now that McGrady is on the sidelines. The ball moves and does not stick, which used to force teammates to stop and stare instead of moving. Adelman would rather have the ball stick in Yao Ming’s hands on the post than McGrady’s on the perimeter. He would rather have a high-percentage missed field goal in the post with Ming (54 percent shooting)  than a well-guarded perimeter shot by McGrady (41 percent last year and 38 percent this season).

Better offensive structure

Balanced scoring has allowed the Rockets to concentrate more on defense and not depend on one player to score in order to win. This in itself will cause the Lakers problems in the second round. Who would have thought Scola would be the Rockets’ top scorer in the first round at 17 ppg.  The best part is the Rockets had six players scoring in double figures against Portland and Ron Artest was taking only 15 shots per game compared with the 24 shots per game McGrady took last year in the first-round loss to Utah. The beauty of this is that there are three players taking more shots than Yao Ming. But it’s all based on the fact that Yao Ming was the big worry defensively for Portland… And will be also for the Lakers, which will allow Scola, Brooks, Von Wafer and Shane Battier to become threats.

This article was not written to diminish the McGrady era in Houston or blaming him for the Rockets’ faults in past years. He was giving them what they expected and it did not work in Houston like it is in Cleveland with LeBron James.  The greatest players in history have been humbled for dominating the ball and critics have pointed the finger at them. Michael Jordan was called selfish and a ballhog until Phil Jackson convinced him the triangle offense was better suited to win a championship.

Rudy Tomjanovich convinced Hakeem Olajuwon to trust his teammates and pass it out of double teams instead of turning it over trying to beat it. When his teammates started knocking down three-point shots with regularity, it gave him more one-on-one matchups in the post and earned the Rockets back-to-back championships.

Shaquille O’Neal allowed Kobe Bryant to take on a bigger role, especially in crunch time, during the Lakers’ three straight championships.

The problem for McGrady is that all the good things have happened for the Rockets without him on the floor and he never got the chance to be the one who made the adjustment. Now the question is… Do the Rockets want to see if he understands the adjustment he would have to make next year and do they want to deal with it?

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This trade deadline got me excited, but then it put me too sleep. Usually around the trade deadline we get a deal that changes the landscape, but the deals that finally went down only were good for the bottom feeders – except for Orlando picking up Rafer Alston to replace Jameer Nelson. Alston should stabilize the team, but his shooting has been inconsistent and that was the strength of Nelson.

The thought of Amare Stoudemire or Shaquille O’Neal playing with LeBron James was terrifying if you are a Boston Celtic or Lakers fan. Tyson Chandler leaving the Hornets for Oklahoma City made teams in the West smile knowing if Chandler got healthy come playoff time he would have been a serious problem setting that high pick-and-roll for Chris Paul.

Those trades did not happen, although Chandler to OKC was rescinded due to a failed physical. I guarantee you Paul smiled and jumped around privately knowing he would have Chandler instead of Chris Wilcox.

The key now for the Hornets is… How will Chandler respond knowing they tried to ship him out to a very bad team?

I thought  San Antonio would find a way to get Vince Carter, especially since Manu Ginobili will be out three weeks with a tender ankle, which puts their Southwest Division lead of three games in danger.

I also thought Portland would use some of their assets to find a veteran point guard or acquire Richard Jefferson, but now look for Brandon Roy to handle the ball even more – thus possibly wearing him down come playoff time.

Phoenix and Dallas made the big splash last year by acquiring Shaq and Jason Kidd. I guess the only team that has come close to making us say, “OK, maybe this could work” is the trade of Jermaine O’Neal for Shawn Marion.

Miami is 28-25 and presently 3 ½ games behind Atlanta for the fourth seed with one game left to play against each other this year. O’Neal gives Miami a very good post-up player and a excellent pick-and-pop person to run the two-man game with Dwyane Wade. If O’Neal can stay healthy, Miami becomes extremely dangerous as a first-round opponent.

Toronto gets Shawn Marion and I assume Bryan Colangelo is confident he can sign the Matrix when his contract expires this season, which will pay dividends on both ends of the court. It will not be enough to elevate the Raptors to the postseason, though.

I guess among the bottom feeders Chicago did the best job in picking up John Salmons, Tim Thomas and Brad Miller. Miller will give them a threat to score as well as provide veteran toughness and smarts. Salmons provides the Bulls a player that has size in the backcourt and a unique ability to find lanes to the basket, which with Derrick Rose gives them the best twosome in the league at getting to the basket – other than Ginobili and Parker in San Antonio. Tim Thomas is versatile, but he better hope the Bulls have forgiven him for not giving his all the last time he was in a Bulls uniform. Jerome James will go down as the biggest steal artist in the history of the game. Maybe the Bulls mascot can use him during timeouts as a prop.

I was intrigued by New York’s acquisition of Larry Hughes and Chris Wilcox because neither player can make a jumper if you put a string on the ball and tied it to the rim. Hughes thinks he should be a big-time rotation player, but he shoots 41 percent from the field. On the other hand, he has a respectable 39 percent from the three-point line so maybe Mike D’Antoni is hoping that continues with the Knicks. Wilcox will find it to steal minutes away from the extremely consistent David Lee.

Sacramento has gotten worse and I am thinking that’s the intention. They picked up seven players and not one with the exception of Drew Gooden has  a proven resume, although Andres Nocioni in my opinion will become a valuable player for the Kings eventually. Rashad McCants has talent, but seems to have no desire to work past 70 percent of his ability, which obviously drove Kevin McHale to rid himself of him. Ike Diogu is just hoping to finally get a chance to prove he can play or can’t play.

I really like the direction of Oklahoma City. They pick up a guard with size in Thabo Sefolosha, who should form a solid defensive backcourt alongside Russell Westbrook.

Minnesota picked up a big body in Shelden Williams to offset the season-ending injury to Al Jefferson. Too bad McHale can’t use Williams’ bride Candace Parker, who will be sitting courtside watching instead. Williams has been a huge disappointment and still haunts the Atlanta Hawks for taking him so high in the draft.

Houston gets Brian Cook and Kyle Lowry, but they are in serious trouble without Tracy McGrady and will not be the factor come playoff time I expected them to be.

Bottom line, as I said not one trade excited me and most definitely not one trade altered the course the season has been traveling to this point in the season.

The Celtics, Lakers, Cavaliers are still the cream of the crop and everyone else will need to go into the playoffs on a serious roll to change that perception.

The Nuggets, who are flying under the radar at 37-17, probably should have tried to find one more shooter, but why rock the boat? They have feasted on sub-.500 teams this year to the tune of 21-2 and are presently the No. 2 seed.

There are teams like the Suns and Dallas that did not make a move, but not doing so might give them the confidence to eventually start living up to expectations. The Mavericks are 7-3  in their last 10 games while the Suns have returned to their running style and averaged 141 points in two victories against the Clippers since the removal of Terry Porter.

Utah is the most dangerous team because they have battled injuries all year long and are just now starting to get healthy, proven by a huge victories against the top two teams in the last week.

In the East, the Orlando Magic and the Atlanta Hawks seem to be the only threats to negating a Celtic –Cavalier conference final. The Pistons are fading fast and  seem to be backing their way out of the playoffs with five straight losses and four of them at home.

The best time of the year is upon us.  My Chicago Cubs are back at work, the NCAA Tournament is a month away and the NBA season has turned the corner for the stretch run.

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