Maybe their better off WITHOUT each other
Enter the NBA’s version of the odd couple: Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. In case you missed it, with Houston’s win over the rival San Antonio Spurs, the Rockets are in sole possession of 2nd place in the Western Conference. This isn’t the first time the Rockets have made a fierce late season surge. If you remember last season, the Rockets rattled off 22 wins in a row en route to the 4th seed in the West. This season’s 16-4 streak isn’t quite as historic, but it’s impressive nonetheless.
So what do this season and last season have in common? Just like last season, the Rockets have been forced to deal with one of their marquee players going down for the season. Houston lost Tracy McGrady for the season on February 9th and promptly won 6 straight. That’s eerily similar to last season’s 10 straight wins after Yao Ming was lost for the season due to a broken foot. The Rockets have duplicated a baffling oddity from a season ago: they are playing BETTER without one of their global superstars!
So are these superstars overrated? Hardly. Yao Ming would be an upgrade for any team in the entire NBA (except Orlando). In an NBA landscape that is increasingly guard dominated, Yao is one of the very few centers that are still capable of controlling a game. He can score 25 points on an average night, pull down 11 rebounds without anyone raising an eyebrow and is expected to block 2 or 3 shots every night. You can say whatever you want, but that’s a FORCE!
All kinds of flash; but where's the leadership?
Tracy McGrady is a completely different animal. While Yao can give you the quietest double-double in the league, McGrady is flashy when he’s doing his thing. T-Mac is the kind of player that is incredibly dangerous on the break, in the open court and on the wing. He’s the guy that wants the offense to run through him—he has the ball in his hands to make the team go. He can throw down on anyone at anytime.
The problem is that Yao and T-Mac go together like oil and water. I’m not saying it’s a personality thing at all—for all I know they could be the best of friends. No, I’m talking about blending and forming a cohesive unit on the basketball court. Both perform better when the offensive sets are running through them. When Yao is on the court, the middle is always clogged when T-Mac drives to the rim. When T-Mac is on the court, Yao touches the ball about half as often as he otherwise would. It’s almost like the same problem the Dream Team had in the 2004 Athens Olympics. There’s only one basketball for the entire team to share. Depending on the make-up of the stars, sometimes 2 marquee players is 1 too many.
It’s well documented that T-Mac has never won a first round series. But here’s something to think about: neither has Yao Ming. They’ve played together for most of Yao’s career—but he did play in the playoffs with Steve Francis in the season before McGrady’s arrival in Houston. Regardless whether Yao was playing with or without McGrady on his wing, he has yet to taste the second round.
In the 2007 playoffs, Yao averaged 25 & 10 over the 7 game series. Even though the team lost, Yao’s play on the court can’t be pointed at as the reason that they lost the series. By every measure, he’s been a productive player in the playoffs for his entire career. But so has Tracy McGrady, yet for some reason Yao gets a pass.
Check out these career numbers for T-Mac in the playoffs: 28.5 points per game, over 6 assists and almost 7 boards. I don’t care if you’re T-Mac, Calvin Murphy or Hakeem Olajuwon—those are damn good numbers for anyone! In fact, for all the talk about McGrady failing on the biggest stage, his numbers are actually BETTER in the playoffs than they are in the regular season. Significantly better in fact.
Yao hasn't won a 1st round series either; but for some reason he gets a pass
It’s not his play on the court (or Yao’s for that matter) that is the problem. No, when it comes to the playoffs, all the stats in the world aren’t going to save you. In the 1st round of the playoffs, only one number matters: 4. Win 4 games and move on. That’s it. You can average 5 points per game or 35; if your team wins 4 games, that’s all that anyone will remember.
That leads us to the problem that the Houston Rockets look to have on their roster. For the minor shake ups that they’ve had over the last few seasons (bringing in Kyle Lowry and Bobby Jackson; trading Rafer Alston and Bonzi Wells), they’ve always had leadership issues. When you look at the elite teams in the league, there’s no question who the leader of the teams are. Kobe, KG and LeBron are all great players: but they’re also the unquestioned LEADERS of their teams on and off the floor. Not surprisingly, the Lakers, Celtics and Cavs are the 3 best teams in the league.
For all of the statistics and YouTube highlights Yao and T-Mac bring to the table, there are some serious issues whether either is capable of being the leader of their team. When one of them is out of the line-up, the rest of the team can look at the other as the unquestioned leader. Last season, it was T-Mac’s team down the stretch. This season, it’s all about Yao. The team can play the style of basketball that makes them all better players. The offense can run through the unrivaled superstar. When the team needs an important bucket down the stretch, everyone knows who the 1st option is. People can say whatever they want—even if the team gets along, there have to be questions and a divided team when the team’s leadership problem remains unresolved.
Judging by this year’s trade deadline, the Rocket’s management knows it’s a problem too. It was widely rumored/reported that McGrady was on the trading block and available to all buyers. If it wasn’t for his season-ending knee surgery, it’s very likely he’d be playing for another team as we speak.
As far as this season is concerned, the Rockets have a chance to finish strong. Hey, since McGrady is out for the rest of the season, Houston can put off their “two-headed leader” problem until the offseason! Until then, the only thing people in Houston will have to worry about is Pacino and DeNiro deciding to do Righteous Kill II.
