Denver Nuggets 111, Houston Rockets 101: More on Tracy McGrady

• We continue our assessment of Tracy McGrady in his second game back from microfracture.  Everything beyond my analysis of his physical condition may actually be a moot point however as reports have once again begun circulating of the Houston Rockets’ desire for a trade.
• Tracy McGrady checks in with 5:41 remaining in the 1^st and to my surprise, he is guarding Carmelo Anthony.  The Nuggets’ announcer remarks that there is “no way that Mcgrady can guard Melo.”  While I’m surprised that Rick Adelman actually delegates this task, I have to disagree with the comment, and as the ensuing sequences illustrate, it is clearly incorrect.
• It was incredibly strange seeing Trevor Ariza on the court with Tracy McGrady.  The two are so similar in build that were it not for the leg sleeve worn by the latter, and the egregious lack of skill displayed by the former, we probably would have been unable to make a clear distinction between the two players.
• With 4:11 remaining in the 1st, the Denver Nuggets attempt to post Melo on McGrady.  First big surprise is that Tracy is quick enough laterally to push Melo baseline.  He then bothers the shot attempt with his length.  Incredible defense on the part of McGrady.
• McGrady gets his first touch of the game with 3:38 remaining in the 1^st.  He faces up on the right wing, pump fakes, and drives towards the middle but loses the ball.  Nice quick move, and the lack of execution seems on this play to be a product of rust rather than physical regression.  Not enough of the play unfolded here to assess his ‘first step.’
• With 3:15 remaining in the 1^st,  the Nuggets’ announcer remarks that the Houston Rockets have been looking flat since Tracy entered the game.  More on this later.
• With 2:42 remaining, Tracy slow dribbles over the pick and finds a wide open Landry out of the corner of his eye.  Landry misses the shot.  More on this later.
• The Nuggets’ announcer remarks that the Nuggets are on a run because “Battier is out and he’s the stopper against Carmelo.”  I disagree, Tracy has done a good job.
• With 2:13 remaining in the 1^st,  McGrady catches at the left elbow, faces up and finds Landry right under the hoop but Landry misses once more as Nuggets defenders swarm the basket.  The possession was vintage McGrady.  Unfortunately, so was the ensuing sequence as we watch McGrady not even make an attempt to stop the Nuggets in transition.  He gets back but shows little effort on the play.  That’s problematic.
• With 44 seconds remaining, Tracy misses a wide open ‘3’ and then bothers Carmelo with his length on the other end, forcing him into another miss.
• Denver ends the quarter on a 14-2 run.

Overall thoughts on McGrady:

• He had a +/- of -10 for his stint in the game.  The Nuggets announcers also seemed convinced that his entrance and participation triggered the Nuggets’ outburst to end the quarter.  While it’s certainly tempting to reach that conclusion, I don’t think one can necessarily just assume a direct casual relationship, despite the +/- figures (Landry had a -14 for the game).  That’s not honest.
• First of all, contrary to the broadcast claims, his defense on Carmelo was outstanding.  He wasn’t beat laterally as one would expect and he used his length to bother Anthony’s shot.  It’s almost ironic that the ‘length’ that was McGrady’s trademark during his prime may now end up as his saving grace in his last stint in the NBA.  In these two games, Tracy has been intent on contesting everything.
• Secondly, I was very pleased to see that McGrady was given some touches and allowed to go ISO.  Yes, the team looked incredibly out of sync on these plays, and yes, the game slowed down noticeably, but this process is just a necessary evil right now in the grander, big picture for the franchise.  It hurt the team tonight, but the bottom line is that we need to find out what McGrady is capable of doing.  That seemed to be the staff’s intent against Denver.
• The main thing that stood out, aside from his defense, was the court vision.  It’s innate and it was on full display once more tonight.  It’s clear that Tracy McGrady will always be an elite level passer.  He zipped two passes to Landry which no other guy on this team could have made.
• Furthermore, what makes McGrady so lethal as a passer is the fact that he doesn’t even need to look or be on the move.  For almost every other NBA player, to pass, they have to either be on the move (off the dribble), or if standstill, they need to be looking.  This isn’t the case for Tracy and it’s something I had never really appreciated until tonight.  Because of his height, and of course elite level court vision, he can simply face up his defender and find anyone, anywhere, at any moment on the court.  It’s uncanny and off the top of my head, I can only think of one other NBA player with the capability to do this consistently (see: James, ‘King’).
• The Rockets didn’t score on any of McGrady’s touches.  And I expect that this will be used as proof that he can’t fit into this offense.  Is this really fair?  There will be a natural re-adjustment process for both Tracy and the team.  I think it’s simply too myopic to preclude any possible benefits he may bring on the basis of a 5 minute spurt where he and his teammates were clearly not yet acclimated to one another.  It’s easy to forget that they have only shared the court for 10 minutes.
• To the bad: Obviously there was the sequence where Tracy made no attempt to stop the ball on the fastbreak, but overall, the offensive flow slowed down noticeably with McGrady on the floor.  For the most part, teammates stood and watched when he ISOed.
• With that said, is it necessarily bad that the pace slowed down offensively?  Obviously, it appeared that way tonight, as the team didn’t score, but if it’s actually working, why should this automatically be considered a negative?  It won’t work for an entire game as it did in the past, but I don’t see the problem in letting Tracy ISO for a few trips down the court if the plays are delivering points.
• As I said in Part 1, the question is whether the positives Tracy brings from his court vision can outweigh his lack of hustle and impact in stagnating/slowing down the offensive flow.  I don’t know, we’ll have to see.  Obviously, that wasn’t the case today, but it’s still simply too early to rule him out.  The court vision and defense on Anthony which he exhibited were both very promising developments.
• As far as his physical state, he looked mobile laterally in guarding Anthony.  I still didn’t see anything offensively to make much of an assessment.
• One final point: Some objections were raised in my last post regarding the assertion that McGrady is a bad shooter.  In his last ‘healthy’ season (2007-2008), what we would have to consider the best gauge for current expectations heading forward, McGrady had a TS% of .487.  The league average is roughly .53%.  McGrady’s mark would fall in the bottom 5th in the league.  Simply put, McGrady doesn’t help this team with his shooting.