General

Houston Isn’t Getting a Storybook T-Mac Finish

Jun 26, 2009, 5:11 PM UTC

Yesterday was indeed a day of many transactions, and thus rumors continued to rise and fall throughout the night. Amare Stoudemire came up quite a bit. But you also heard about the return of the T-Mac trade.â†µ
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â†µMcGrady is indeed an interesting piece, a prodigious talent when healthy, but somewhere between “player” and “contract” these days. The injury-prone swingman is currently rehabbing from microfracture surgery, which means he could be out until next spring, and all but back to 100 percent. So while there’s an off-chance that T-Mac could come back mid-season for the Rockets, it’s unlikely he’ll do them any good. And while his $20-million salary expires next summer, it’s still a huge chunk of the cap lying fallow. The Rockets, they want to win now. â†µ
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â†µAll of which opens up an intriguing possibility: Teams willing to take on salary when, supposedly, all teams are preparing like mad for 2010. We saw it when the Spurs traded for Jefferson, and then when Orlando got Vince. And with that Wizards trade, too. Teams with vets, looking to make a final stand, are about one phase too late to lure a big name in with promises of a dynasty. So they’ll trade for those contracts no one supposedly wanted, those possibly inflated ones belonging to very-good-to-excellent players that don’t expire in time for the gold rush.â†µ
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The Rockets certainly fall into this category. Not only could Yao conceivably walk in 2010, he’s falling apart before our very eyes. They need to win now for Yao, and if Yao stays, win now because of Yao. That’s why you shouldn’t be surprised if McGrady ends up leaving town for someone like a Jefferson or Carter. Even GM Daryl Morey’s up-front about this. From The Houston Chronicle:â†µâ†µâ‡¥“We want to position ourselves for the playoffs, it looks like it’s going to be hard for Tracy to be here for a good chunk of the year, so if we can get a talented player who helps us all season, I think we have to look at it.”â†µâ†µThat came after a part where Morey says that McGrady, when healthy, could put the team over the top. But he’s not, and might never be the same again. The good thing about trying to trade T-Mac is that, unlike Allen Iverson’s “expiring contract that isn’t just an expiring contract beacuse it’s attached to Allen Iverson,” he might only show up on a team once the season’s halfway done. Playoff help, maybe? Or a lost year on a team that’s just losing money and could care less about signing a superstar next summer?â†µ
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â†µNo matter what happens, this is hardly the storybook ending Houston fans had in mind when the team brought together Next Big Big Man Yao with multi-dimensional scoring machine McGrady. Tragedy or mockery: you make the call.â†µOn Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 9:43 AM, Nathaniel Friedman wrote:â†µYesterday was indeed a day of many transactions, and thus rumors continued to rise and fall throughout the night. Amare Stoudemire came up quite a bit. But you also heard the return of the T-Mac trade. â†µ
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â†µMcGrady is indeed an interesting piece, a prodigious talent when healthy but these days, somewhere between “player” and “contract.” The injury-prone swingman is currently rehabbing from microfracture surgery, which means he could be out till next spring, and all but back to one-hundred percent. So while there’s an off-chance that T-Mac could come back mid-season for the Rockets, it’s unlikely he’ll do them any good. And he’s $20 million on the books. Expiring next summer, but still a huge chunk of salary lying fallow. The Rockets, they want to win now. â†µ
â†µ
â†µAll of which opens up an intriguing possibility: Teams willing to take on salary when, supposedly, all teams are preparing like mad for 2010. We saw it when the Spurs traded for Jefferson, and then when Orlando got Vince. And with that Wizards trade, too. Teams with vets, looking to make a final stand, are about one phase too late to lure a big name in with promises of a dynasty. So they’ll trade for those contracts no one supposedly wanted: Those possibly-inflated ones belonging to very-good to excellent players that don’t expire in time for the gold rush.â†µ
â†µ
â†µThe Rockets certainly fall into this category. Not only could Yao conceivably walk in 2010, he’s falling apart before our very eyes. They need to win now for Yao, and if Yao stays, win now because of Yao. That’s why you shouldn’t be surprised if McGrady ends up leaving town for someone like a Jefferson or Carter. Even GM Daryl Morey’s up-front about this. From The Houston Chronicle:â†µâ†µâ‡¥“We want to position ourselves for the playoffs, it looks like it’s going to be hard for Tracy to be here for a good chunk of the year, so if we can get a talented player who helps us all season, I think we have to look at it.”â†µâ†µThat came after a part where Morey says that McGrady, when healthy, could put the team over the top. But he’s not, and might never be the same again. The good thing about trying to trade T-Mac is that, unlike Allen Iverson’s “expiring contract that isn’t just an expiring contract beacuse it’s attached to Allen Iverson,” he might only show up on a team once the season’s halfway done. Playoff help, maybe? Or a lost year on a team that’s just losing money and could care less about signing a superstar next summer.â†µ
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â†µNo matter what happens, this is hardly the storybook ending Houston fans had in mind when the team brought together Next Big Big Man Yao with multi-dimensional scoring machine McGrady. Tragedy or mockery: You make the call.
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