Tracy McGrady and Detroit Pistons visit Orlando Magic

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Al Woods

Essentials

Teams: Detroit Pistons at Orlando Magic

Date: Nov. 30, 2010

Time: 7 p.m.

Television: Fox Sports Detroit

Records

Pistons: 6-11

Magic: 12-4

Probable starters

Pistons:

Magic:

Jameer Nelson
Vince Carter
Quentin Richardson
Rashard Lewis
Dwight Howard

Las Vegas projection

Spread: Pistons +11

Over/under: 192.5

Score: Magic win, 101.75-90.75

Three things to watch

1. Tracy McGrady faces old team

Tracy McGrady played the best game of his season against the Knicks on Sunday. Was there extra motivation for him going against a former team? If so, hopefully that manifests again tonight.

2. Will John Kuester change the starting lineup?

Jason Maxiell does not matchup well with Rashard Lewis. I repeat: Jason Maxiell does not matchup well with Rashard Lewis. One more time in case you missed it: Jason Maxiell does not matchup well with Rashard Lewis.

Kuester initially said Maxiell was starting because of matchups. If he starts tonight, it’s because Kuester believes he’s better right now than Austin Daye. There’s no other way to spin it.

I hope Daye or Charlie Villanueva gets the nod. Maxiell, even with his smaller size, would probably be the Pistons’ best match off the bench for Dwight Howard.

3. Magic with the Magic

For years, the Pistons owned the Magic. Detroit had enough savvy big men to defend Dwight Howard one-on-one and still limit his effectiveness. That allowed the Pistons to have a huge upper hand at the other four positions.

As well as the Pistons matched up, they also seemed to have things fall their way against Orlando.

Is there any good karma left? I doubt it. Detroit no longer has the bigs to contain Howard, and luck hasn’t been on the Pistons’ side lately, either.

Pregame Reading

Eddy Rivera previews the game for Magic Basketball.
Today is the final day to enter our contest for Pistons cuff links.

PistonPowered

In his criticism of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade playing together with Miami Heat, Tracy McGrady rebukes Joe Dumars’ positional philosophy

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Al Woods

In case you haven’t heard, Tracy McGrady doesn’t think LeBron James and Dwyane Wade complement each other. Via Keith Langlois of Pistons.com:

“It’s what I expected,” McGrady said. “You’ve got two guys who really don’t mix. They’re the same type of player. If you look at Boston’s big three, they’re traditional guys. You’ve got a true shooting guard, you have a true small forward and you have a true power forward. You have a shooting guard (Ray Allen) that doesn’t need the ball. In their case, both of their guys need the ball. They’re not great outside shooters, so they just can’t stand out there and wait for one to pass the ball and knock down open shots.

“That’s not their game. They have to have the ball to make plays and catch a rhythm that way. I’m the same way. I’m not the type of player who can stand on the perimeter and wait for somebody to pass me the ball and knock down jumpers. That’s just how it is. They just don’t complement each other.”

McGrady certainly isn’t the first person to criticize the Heat stars this season, and it’s certainly a reasonable opinion. I still think LeBron and Wade are versatile enough to play well together. Just because they haven’t so far doesn’t mean they can’t.

But what I found most interesting is McGrady’s comments pretty much contradict what Joe Dumars told Langlois before last season:

If you look around the league and look at rosters, the more you can have versatile guys on your roster, the better off you are. Less and less now, you find guys pigeon-holed into one position.

It’s nice to have guys who can play multiple positions, but I’m mostly with McGrady on this. You need players who a good at certain and things and other players who are good at others. Everyone doing everything is difficult to pull off, evident by this year’s Pistons.

PistonPowered

Tracy McGrady’s reverse dunk just a sign of things to come?

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Al Woods

Last night against the Wizards, Tracy McGrady cut to the basket, caught a lob and finished with a reverse dunk.

Initially I didn’t bat an eye, because that was a typical McGrady play. But then I remembered the T-Mac who had no lift in his final days as a Rocket, struggled last year with the Knicks and played cautiously in his brief Pistons career so far.

And apparently, McGrady believes we’ll see more plays like that from him in the future. From Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News:

“I envision being that guy again,” said McGrady, now 31. “Whether that happens I don’t know. I would like to be that guy. I’ve worked so hard to get back to being that guy. If it doesn’t happen I can look in the mirror and say I’ve done everything possible because I’ve come a long way to come to where I am today.”

If I’d read that comment from McGrady a few weeks ago, I admit I would’ve been skeptical. But every time I see him play, I grow less so. It would be unheard for a player, at his age with his significant injury history, to return to the form that helped him win a scoring title and dominate games with his athleticism. But I don’t think we’ve seen the last of McGrady as a starting-caliber player in this league.

The Pistons probably don’t have enough minutes to give him so we can fully find out, but the basic reason McGrady came here was for an opportunity to show the league he can still play, and he’s done nothing to disappoint so far.

PistonPowered

Rodney Stuckey and John Kuester have clashed before, Kuester’s job no in jeopardy and Tracy McGrady steps up in team meeting

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Al Woods

As I caught up on my weekend reading, I was impressed by Big props to all three for their scoops.

Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press informs us the Rodney Stuckey-John Kuester feud isn’t new, just new to the public:

There’s talk around the Pistons that there have been other clashes between the two — specifically during the team’s workouts, which are closed to the media.

It’s tough to gauge the ramifications of that, because Chris Iott of MLive reports there’s "absolutely no chance" Kuester is fired. (Iott doesn’t specify whether Kuester’s job is safe because Karen Davidson doesn’t want to pay someone not to work for the team or because the Pistons are enamored with Kuester’s coaching ability.)

And Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News had the story I found most interesting.

the Pistons had a team meeting where Ben Wallace and Tracy McGrady spoke to the players, presumably about sticking together during turbulent times.

I agreed with Patrick’s preseason assessment that McGrady had potential to be a lone wolf on this team, so I was pretty surprised to see McGrady step up in a meeting. Was this meeting an aberration, or could he really be a bigger leader on this team than Rodney Stuckey, Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince?

PistonPowered

Tracy McGrady will continue to be in the rotation, but might not play much more than 15 minutes per game for a while

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Al Woods

Through three games with the Pistons, Tracy McGrady hasn’t embarrassed himself, but he also hasn’t done anything remarkable on the court. He’s actually been kind of hard to notice, scoring just one basket, getting a handful of rebounds and assists and generally, not doing anything to force his way onto the stat sheet by taking poor shots.

His widely reported 15-minute limit makes sense after missing most of the preseason. But what wasn’t widely reported is that his role might not expand much all season beyond those 15 minutes or so per game. From TNT’s David Aldridge:

Pistons coach John Kuester says that McGrady will ultimately be a regular part of the team’s rotation, and Detroit won’t be playing him extended minutes even if he shows physical improvement during the season.

That’s a totally reasonable way to view McGrady as his career winds down. With his passing and perimeter shooting ability, McGrady, if semi-healthy, would be a competent addition to about any bench in the league. But, based on his comment in the same article, I’m not sure McGrady views his role the same way:

“I have a weird body,” McGrady said. “But I feel, now, about 85 percent. We’ll probably go five games at a time, with 15-minute plateaus. And then I’m sure we’ll go up from there.”

Hopefully, the coaches win out on this one. If McGrady is healthy, I don’t mind if he plays. But even if healthy, he’s not going to be better than Tayshaun Prince. The Pistons need Prince to continue playing significant minutes and producing to hopefully attract good offers on the trade market. With Rip Hamilton‘s decline over the last two seasons looking like it’s continuing into this year, Prince is likely the team’s only tradable asset that could fetch a competitive offer in return. I don’t see how McGrady cutting into Prince’s minutes would benefit the team.

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Tag Archives: Tracy

Tracy McGrady and Detroit Pistons visit Orlando Magic

Essentials

Records

Probable starters

Las Vegas projection

Three things to watch

Pregame Reading

In his criticism of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade playing together with Miami Heat, Tracy McGrady rebukes Joe Dumars’ positional philosophy

Tracy McGrady’s reverse dunk just a sign of things to come?

Rodney Stuckey and John Kuester have clashed before, Kuester’s job no in jeopardy and Tracy McGrady steps up in team meeting

Tracy McGrady will continue to be in the rotation, but might not play much more than 15 minutes per game for a while