[TONYDABOSS77Participant]

With so many guys getting compared to him in recent years, it made me think about him. What a tremendous talent.

6’8 with a tight handle & when he was in his prime, I think he was tha 2nd best passing wing in tha league. Would shoot DEEP threes. Could score in every way. Gave you 7 or 8 boards every night & could score on every level. Combined finesse with explosiveness as well as anybody. Tha game looked so easy for him. I was reading an old article on him after his first year in ORL & it mentioned how he was like Penny on O & Pippen on D. He was so smooth with the basketball. I can’t help but wonder what he’d look lke if he played in his prime today because he averaged 32/7/6 in 2002-2003.

[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

 T-mac was basically Kevin Durant before Kevin Durant. He wasn’t quite as tall as Durant but he was an even better athlete and passer imo. One of the most naturally talented players to ever play the game. 

I shudder to think how good he could have been if he had even a slightly better work ethic. He was so good that it seemed like he kind of just relied on natural ability rather than really putting in the work to improve like Kobe and jordan did. Still a great player but I always thought he could have been better. Injuries ultimately derailed his career.

 

[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

 T-mac was basically Kevin Durant before Kevin Durant. He wasn’t quite as tall as Durant but he was an even better athlete and passer imo. One of the most naturally talented players to ever play the game. 

I shudder to think how good he could have been if he had even a slightly better work ethic. He was so good that it seemed like he kind of just relied on natural ability rather than really putting in the work to improve like Kobe and jordan did. Still a great player but I always thought he could have been better. Injuries ultimately derailed his career.

 

[CobraParticipant]

+1. He’s one of my favorite players ever. 13 points in 33 seconds!

[CobraParticipant]

+1. He’s one of my favorite players ever. 13 points in 33 seconds!

[GBeeParticipant]

 He was never like Pip on defense.  Quite frankly he was a lazy defender after he left the Raps where he was more of a long, athletic, energy guy. Super talented on offense but his style fit right into his era of iso ball and unimaginative offense.  He could’ve been a much more efficient scorer (only 1 55%+ TS season in his career) if he ever figured out the difference b/t a good and bad shot.

[Magic JordanParticipant]

 Exactly, if he was playing in today’s NBA with the advanced metrics that everybody can get ahold of now.  He would largely be regarded or considered in the same light as Melo.  He was notorious for playing on one side of the ball back then, which is why Kobe was always regarded as the better player by most.  The way we can pick apart people’s games today with the numbers would tell us that he would have a Melo like impact.

[Magic JordanParticipant]

 Exactly, if he was playing in today’s NBA with the advanced metrics that everybody can get ahold of now.  He would largely be regarded or considered in the same light as Melo.  He was notorious for playing on one side of the ball back then, which is why Kobe was always regarded as the better player by most.  The way we can pick apart people’s games today with the numbers would tell us that he would have a Melo like impact.

[GBeeParticipant]

 He was never like Pip on defense.  Quite frankly he was a lazy defender after he left the Raps where he was more of a long, athletic, energy guy. Super talented on offense but his style fit right into his era of iso ball and unimaginative offense.  He could’ve been a much more efficient scorer (only 1 55%+ TS season in his career) if he ever figured out the difference b/t a good and bad shot.

[I.C.Y.U.NV.MEParticipant]

He was an ok defender in Orl but the guy was scoring 33 a game. I think he deserves a break on that. He was an exceptional defender early in his Hou days. He DEMANDED to guard Dirk one of the Dallas series’, and did about as good of a job as you can on a 7 foot sniper. He guarded Kobe well almost every time. The guy was a better defender than given credit for.

[I.C.Y.U.NV.MEParticipant]

He was an ok defender in Orl but the guy was scoring 33 a game. I think he deserves a break on that. He was an exceptional defender early in his Hou days. He DEMANDED to guard Dirk one of the Dallas series’, and did about as good of a job as you can on a 7 foot sniper. He guarded Kobe well almost every time. The guy was a better defender than given credit for.

[HitsterParticipant]

 T-Mac at his peak was a better scorer than Peak Melo IMO. Sadly injuries finished him far too soon. I still watch the 13 points in  33 seconds for fun sometimes, don’t forget it was against a peak Spurs.

[HitsterParticipant]

 T-Mac at his peak was a better scorer than Peak Melo IMO. Sadly injuries finished him far too soon. I still watch the 13 points in  33 seconds for fun sometimes, don’t forget it was against a peak Spurs.

[mgreener_34Participant]

 Some of the things people in this thread are saying are just flat out wrong

T-Mac had a bad work ethic? Just because the game came easy doesn’t mean he didn’t put in the work. TMac came strait out of high school, and worked his *** off just to see the floor in TO. The dude averaged almost 3 offensive rebounds per game, 2 Bpg, and 1 Spg practically coming off the bench for most of the year in 1999. You don’t get those type of stats by just going through the motions, you have to hustle and work for those. TMac put in a ton of work, and that’s evident by the jump from 15ppg to 27ppg he made between TO and ORL too. 

TMac was an innefficient chucker? I respond with, have you ever looked at the teams TMac played on? He thought he was teaming up with Grant Hill, but what he ended up with was a core of Darrell Armstrong, Tyrone Lue, Pat Garrity, Bo Outlaw, and a bunch of washed up vets looking for one last paycheck. Who did you want him to pass to? Who else was going to score? A better question would be, who did you want the other team to guard? When the best player you’ve ever played with in ORL was a rookie Mike Miller and Drew Gooden, than you have every right to take whatever shot you want. 

MGrady’s career will always be classified by injuries. First the Grant Hill injury, which practically wasted TMacs prime years, and then his own injuries once he left Orlando. 

People like to talk about how Grant Hill getting hurt was terrible, and it was. Not only did it rob us of a would have been all-time great, but it also crippled the Magic franchise for years in the same way that Amare Stats did the Knicks, so I def. understand the Melo comparrisons you guys are saying. 

Grant Hill in 2000 made about $10 mil for the Magic. The Salary cap was $35,5000,000…He played 4 games

Grant Hill made about $17 mil in 2006 when the Salary cap was 55 mil…In 4 years that TMac was with the Magic, Grant Hill, the guy making more than 1/4 of the teams cap space, played a total of 47 games…

Give TMac a break guys, he never had incentive to go balls to the wall every game like Kobe/Wade and other great guards. He did what he could, and getting those teams to the playoffs 3 strait years was unreal.

I also get a little tired of hearing TMac isn’t an all-timer because he had a short peak. The guy had pretty much 7 seasons of prime/peak play where he was one of the best at his possition. Give the credit when credit is due. 

 

[mgreener_34Participant]

 Some of the things people in this thread are saying are just flat out wrong

T-Mac had a bad work ethic? Just because the game came easy doesn’t mean he didn’t put in the work. TMac came strait out of high school, and worked his *** off just to see the floor in TO. The dude averaged almost 3 offensive rebounds per game, 2 Bpg, and 1 Spg practically coming off the bench for most of the year in 1999. You don’t get those type of stats by just going through the motions, you have to hustle and work for those. TMac put in a ton of work, and that’s evident by the jump from 15ppg to 27ppg he made between TO and ORL too. 

TMac was an innefficient chucker? I respond with, have you ever looked at the teams TMac played on? He thought he was teaming up with Grant Hill, but what he ended up with was a core of Darrell Armstrong, Tyrone Lue, Pat Garrity, Bo Outlaw, and a bunch of washed up vets looking for one last paycheck. Who did you want him to pass to? Who else was going to score? A better question would be, who did you want the other team to guard? When the best player you’ve ever played with in ORL was a rookie Mike Miller and Drew Gooden, than you have every right to take whatever shot you want. 

MGrady’s career will always be classified by injuries. First the Grant Hill injury, which practically wasted TMacs prime years, and then his own injuries once he left Orlando. 

People like to talk about how Grant Hill getting hurt was terrible, and it was. Not only did it rob us of a would have been all-time great, but it also crippled the Magic franchise for years in the same way that Amare Stats did the Knicks, so I def. understand the Melo comparrisons you guys are saying. 

Grant Hill in 2000 made about $10 mil for the Magic. The Salary cap was $35,5000,000…He played 4 games

Grant Hill made about $17 mil in 2006 when the Salary cap was 55 mil…In 4 years that TMac was with the Magic, Grant Hill, the guy making more than 1/4 of the teams cap space, played a total of 47 games…

Give TMac a break guys, he never had incentive to go balls to the wall every game like Kobe/Wade and other great guards. He did what he could, and getting those teams to the playoffs 3 strait years was unreal.

I also get a little tired of hearing TMac isn’t an all-timer because he had a short peak. The guy had pretty much 7 seasons of prime/peak play where he was one of the best at his possition. Give the credit when credit is due. 

 

[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

 Not saying t-mac didn’t have a work ethic. Of course he did. You don’t get to be that good at basketball without putting in work. He was a poor outside shooter and so-so ball handler when he came into the league and he really improved those aspects of his game by the time he got to Orlando.

However, I do think that the game came very easy to him and because of that he didn’t continue to really work as hard to stay at an elite level as some of his peers. He could always explode for a spectacular game and seemed to really step it up during individual matchups with other great teams or players. However, there were always at least a handful of games each season when you got the feeling he was just going through the motions and didn’t really want to be on the floor. I don’t think he really prepared himself physically and mentally for the season in the same way that say Kobe did, and I think that might have been at least part of the reason he was so injury-plagued. Ultimately, I looked at him as somewhat of an underachiever but the fact that he could be that good and still be considered an underachiever speaks volumes to how much talent he actually had.

 

[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

 Not saying t-mac didn’t have a work ethic. Of course he did. You don’t get to be that good at basketball without putting in work. He was a poor outside shooter and so-so ball handler when he came into the league and he really improved those aspects of his game by the time he got to Orlando.

However, I do think that the game came very easy to him and because of that he didn’t continue to really work as hard to stay at an elite level as some of his peers. He could always explode for a spectacular game and seemed to really step it up during individual matchups with other great teams or players. However, there were always at least a handful of games each season when you got the feeling he was just going through the motions and didn’t really want to be on the floor. I don’t think he really prepared himself physically and mentally for the season in the same way that say Kobe did, and I think that might have been at least part of the reason he was so injury-plagued. Ultimately, I looked at him as somewhat of an underachiever but the fact that he could be that good and still be considered an underachiever speaks volumes to how much talent he actually had.

 

[circumlocution75Participant]

 but the idea that fans & scouts & GM’s were blind before analytics is ridiculous….. Analytics put into words what your eyes can plainly see…… For long range patterns regarding salary & age & production…. Absolutely….. It is a Great tool…… 

But nobody missed on some scary talent that alanytics would have revealed had it been around…… The NBA is not MLB…… even "money ball" in MLB was exaggerated for the movies…… For example, they conveniently omitt that Billy "Brad Pitt" Beane’s Oakland A’s had 3 Ace 20 game winning pitchers…..

McGrady was a great player, freak scorer, 45% FG% & 33% from 3 pt range…… So all in all, McGrady had the one thing that we still use to measure if a player has potential greatness in Pro Basketball…..

McGrady could create his own shot….. & he could finish…… NBA basketball will Always be boiled down to which team has players who can create their own shot….. B/c if a player can create his own shot, he must be double teamed during part or all of a game & that disrupts the opponent’s Entire game plan….. & you can build a team around that guy….. & if he stays healthy & your GM can get the right pieces to surround him & if you get a bit of luck,……. 

 But a healthy Tracy Mcgrady would be a handful today just like he was back in the 90’s….

 

 

 

[circumlocution75Participant]

 but the idea that fans & scouts & GM’s were blind before analytics is ridiculous….. Analytics put into words what your eyes can plainly see…… For long range patterns regarding salary & age & production…. Absolutely….. It is a Great tool…… 

But nobody missed on some scary talent that alanytics would have revealed had it been around…… The NBA is not MLB…… even "money ball" in MLB was exaggerated for the movies…… For example, they conveniently omitt that Billy "Brad Pitt" Beane’s Oakland A’s had 3 Ace 20 game winning pitchers…..

McGrady was a great player, freak scorer, 45% FG% & 33% from 3 pt range…… So all in all, McGrady had the one thing that we still use to measure if a player has potential greatness in Pro Basketball…..

McGrady could create his own shot….. & he could finish…… NBA basketball will Always be boiled down to which team has players who can create their own shot….. B/c if a player can create his own shot, he must be double teamed during part or all of a game & that disrupts the opponent’s Entire game plan….. & you can build a team around that guy….. & if he stays healthy & your GM can get the right pieces to surround him & if you get a bit of luck,……. 

 But a healthy Tracy Mcgrady would be a handful today just like he was back in the 90’s….

 

 

 

[HitsterParticipant]

If Grant Hill had stayed sound him and T-Mac at the Magic would have been awesome with them playing as a swingman combo. Hill’s all round game with T-Mac’s scoring would have made them a fairly major contender IMO.

[HitsterParticipant]

If Grant Hill had stayed sound him and T-Mac at the Magic would have been awesome with them playing as a swingman combo. Hill’s all round game with T-Mac’s scoring would have made them a fairly major contender IMO.

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