- Tracy McGrady enters the game with around 7:30 left in the 1st quarter, and right away, like we have seen the last few nights, the team looks for him immediately. I actually think this is very telling. Were it the case that, as some have suggested, management was simply going through the motions in activating him (in hopes to showcase for a trade), I don’t think you would be seeing the club look so intent on allowing him to ISO for numerous possessions each game. I personally think that the eagerness to isolate McGrady indicates that management either hopes to incorporate this dynamic into the offensive attack or, at the very least, do its due diligence in seeing if it can ever again be an effective option.
- With 6:08 remaining in the 1st, McGrady dribbles to his left and misses the pull-up jumper.
- With 5:39 remaining in the 1st, McGrady drives to his left and misses the right handed layup. He looks incredibly slow on the drive with zero burst.
- With 4:12 remaining in the 1st, McGrady receives the pass inside and misses the layup.
- With 3:53 remaining in the 1st, McGrady makes a very simple play by driving in slightly and then hitting the open Trevor Ariza in the corner for a 3.
- With 3:23 remaining in the 1st, McGrady gets posted up by Jeff Green. McGrady cuts Green off on his initial move to the baseline but then Green scores on the counter move with a short hook. McGrady showed good lateral movement in cutting off Green but was unable to recover.
- With 3:05 remaining in the 1st, Tracy backs in Westbrook and then passes out to Battier for a missed shot. I thought this was a pretty interesting play because it wasn’t by design. How much does it affect the team’s overall offensive efficiency when a player stops the flow of the ball on his own (ie: plays that are not ISO’s by design)? Much is made of Tracy’s ball-stopping ways. But in most cases, he stops the ball not to look for his own shot but rather to set up a teammate. I would be interested in seeing an evaluation that compared the team’s scoring efficiency in situations where the ball is stopped with its scoring efficiency on plays when a shot is taken off the movement of the ball.
- With 2:30 remaining in the 1st, Tracy steps right in front of a driving Westbrook in the lane and disrupts the play as Westbrook throws the ball off the glass.
- With 2:08 remaining in the 1st, McGrady hits a long 2. However, the highlite of this sequence was that he was able to kick the ball out from the post against a double team across the court to an open teammate in the corner.
- With 1:12 remaining in the 1st, McGrady again challenges Westbrook and disturbs the shot.
- With 8.9 seconds remaining in the 1st, McGrady doesn’t challenge Westbrook at all right at the basket.
- McGrady misses the last shot of the quarter.
- I’ll have an in-depth assessment of McGrady’s return sometime early next week.
- Vintage Clyde with 1:27 remaining in the 2nd as Chuck Hayes actually attempts a dunk and misses. Clyde excuses the miss remarking that “he went up with bad intentions.”
- Westbrook – He’s one of the most impressive physical specimens we’ve seen at the point guard position and has basically been Aaron Brooks’ worst nightmare since they both entered the league. However, and I realize that this may be a bit unfair on the basis of just a few games of watching him, I’m not sure he has elite level potential. Offensively, he has maybe the best size in the league and great athleticism, but he doesn’t seem to have that extra gear off the dribble that we’ve seen from Derrick Rose (before the injury) and Brandon Jennings.
- Jeff Green – He is one of the most versatile young players I have seen thus far this year. I was very impressed with his ability to both fluidly operate from the post and also score off the dribble, especially at his size.
- The Oklahoma City Thunder are probably what I consider the most intriguing matchup in the league for the Rockets. I say this not due to any on-court reasons, but because they are almost the absolute converse of the Houston Rockets. Both teams are young, but while the Rockets feature overachievers scrapped in later rounds, the Thunder are essentially the ‘model’ privileged young team in basketball, blessed with high growth prospects in the form of former high lottery picks. The Rockets seem to dominate the head to head matchup, but it will be interesting to compare the trajectory of these two teams in the coming years as the Houston Rockets continue building from their unique philosophy and the Thunder reap the rewards from the growth of their budding young stars.
.jpg)
