# McGrady's Passing Ability



## loyalty4life (Sep 17, 2002)

I personally think his passing ability is very underrated. He's getting 5 or 6 assists per game, and I think that tells you a lot about just how great of a player he is. What *can't* he do? Even though he doesn't have great players surrounding him *cough*Kobe*cough*, he still gets the job done with distributing the ball night in and night out.


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## Yyzlin (Feb 2, 2003)

I don't know why people always say McGrady doesn't have a good supporting cast to pass to. He does. The Magic have great shooters on their team. Players like Miller, Garrity, and Armstrong can all stroke the jay from anwhere on the court. McGrady gets lots of "easy" assists from driving in the lane, drawing defenses, and dishing it out to the open man. Kobe has Fisher, Horry, and Fox to pass to. I'll take the Magic trio anyday as far as pure shooting goes.


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## twothdr (Feb 19, 2003)

i guess the lakers dont have anyone else that could get kobe an assist any other way. seems alot easier to get an assist with a 7'1" 380 lb center that has one of the highest fg% in the league. i guess that garrity's explosive leaping ability gets him more double teams than shaq and consequently opens the floor for tmac to be in man on man. come on...if tmac had shaq he would have at least 3 more assists per game just to the big man.


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## Yyzlin (Feb 2, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>twothdr</b>!
> i guess the lakers dont have anyone else that could get kobe an assist any other way. seems alot easier to get an assist with a 7'1" 380 lb center that has one of the highest fg% in the league. i guess that garrity's explosive leaping ability gets him more double teams than shaq and consequently opens the floor for tmac to be in man on man. come on...if tmac had shaq he would have at least 3 more assists per game just to the big man.


Kobe has average 6.14 assists per game when Shaq has been out. McGrady has averaged 5.1 assists for the year. I'm not a Kobe lover, cause I'm definately not. I am a big Magic fan. Just showing things in a different perspective.


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## twothdr (Feb 19, 2003)

ok thats i good point but kobe is also playing the best basketball of his career since shaq is out. im still wondering how anyone considers kobe a better mvp candidate than tmac when he has shaq and a team at about the same record as tmac. seems like if he was the mvp the lakers should have the best record in the league.


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## Yyzlin (Feb 2, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>twothdr</b>!
> ok thats i good point but kobe is also playing the best basketball of his career since shaq is out. im still wondering how anyone considers kobe a better mvp candidate than tmac when he has shaq and a team at about the same record as tmac. seems like if he was the mvp the lakers should have the best record in the league.


Yea, McGrady does have a better MVP case in my opinion but the way Kobe has been tearing it up lately, he has been getting all the press. Deservedly so though. He has been VERY hot. I think Garnett has a better case than anyone in the league now. But not many other people seem to think so.


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## IV (Jul 16, 2002)

Tmac is a good playmaker. One thing that I noticed about his game is he always puts his head down and doesn't see the court when he's going to the basket. He makes up for that with athleticism. He can elevate and create.


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## 33 (Nov 18, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>Yyzlin</b>!
> I don't know why people always say McGrady doesn't have a good supporting cast to pass to. He does. The Magic have great shooters on their team. Players like Miller, Garrity, and Armstrong can all stroke the jay from anwhere on the court. McGrady gets lots of "easy" assists from driving in the lane, drawing defenses, and dishing it out to the open man. Kobe has Fisher, Horry, and Fox to pass to. I'll take the Magic trio anyday as far as pure shooting goes.


That's b/c the other player do not cut to the basket. They spot up and watch T-Mac go to work


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## thegza (Feb 18, 2003)

McGrady's passing ability is terrific. He doesn't have that much of a good supporting cast to pass to especially with the trade of Mike Miller but that new guy, Giricek is proving to be one of our best players and him and Gooden have been simply fantastic. They are doing it all and Giricek was 2 rebounds shy of a double-double in last night's victory over the Mavs. Those two rookie's are doing us proud, alot of credit and respect goes out for them.


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## twothdr (Feb 19, 2003)

with gooden inside it seems as if tmac is getting 12 assists per game. its amazing what an inside presence can do to your assist total isnt it? as i said before could you imagine tmacs assists if he had shaq? tmac is without question a better passer.


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## grizzoistight (Jul 16, 2002)

*thats crazy!!!*

tmac is not a better passer..
its kind of easy to get more assits cuz if they do double twac he can kick it to all of those shooters spotted up.. and i would much rather have yalls shooters than kobes shooters..
u cant really double kobe becuz of shaq down low


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## BEEZ (Jun 12, 2002)

*Re: thats crazy!!!*



> Originally posted by <b>grizzoistight</b>!
> its kind of easy to get more assits cuz if they do double twac he can kick it to all of those shooters spotted up


LOL @ Twac:laugh: . This was funny and I'm a TMAC fan


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## Idunkonyou (Feb 23, 2003)

Well I have said all along that once McGrady got a legit inside scorer, his assists would sky rocket. Well since getting Gooden, he is averaging near 10 assists per game. If McGrady had Shaq on his team, he would easily average a double/double in points and assists.


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## BEEZ (Jun 12, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>Idunkonyou</b>!
> Well I have said all along that once McGrady got a legit inside scorer, his assists would sky rocket. Well since getting Gooden, he is averaging near 10 assists per game. If McGrady had Shaq on his team, he would easily average a double/double in points and assists.


I never understood how anyone called him selfish because he loves getting his teammates involved especially when they can make the baskets


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## c_dog (Sep 15, 2002)

I agree. McGrady is not selfish. He would much rather get his team mates involved rather than having to do everything himself. Now that he has good team mates, his assists go up, and his pts go up. He is unguardable. You double him and he'll find the open shooter and get an assist. If you play him one on one, he scores on you. That's what makes him the best player in the league right now.


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## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

Tmac is an excellent passer, and he doesn't get a lot of easy assists. Before Gooden, there was no one on the team that could really create their own shot. Tmac creates shots for everyone. Miller would get himself a few a game, but that is about it.

A guy like Pat Garrity would be nothing without Tmac. He probably goes stretches of 10-15 games without creating a single shot for himself.

Tmac is the primary ball-handler and creator and doesnt turn the ball over a whole lot. 

No, there isnt anything he cant do.


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## kcchiefs-fan (Oct 28, 2002)

People who are saying Kobe gets more assists because of Shaq haven't watched many Laker games. I'm not a Lakers fan or anything, but not many of his assists come from the Diesel. He should be getting more but his worthless supp. cast outside of Shaq can't hit an open shot. That being said, Tmac is a very good passer. I don't think he's really underrated in that department, I don't think he's as naturally skilled a passer as a guy like Kobe, or even Lebron if you've watched him. But, with his scoring power, people have to be aware of him, and when he slashes to the whole that leaves a lot of people open, and he's not the selfish player that won't dish it out to them for the bucket. Paul Pierce is another guy like that, he get's to the hole and then finds a teammate at the 3 pt arc and gets it to them.


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## ChiBron (Jun 24, 2002)

> He should be getting more but his worthless supp. cast outside of Shaq can't hit an open shot.


Why do most people think that t-mac has this gr8 shooting cast around him? Garrity and Giricek(only 8 games old) r the only consistent Magic shooters, they're the only ones who shoot over 35% from 3-pt land. LA has 4 players shooting over 35% from the 3-pt land. These guyz get overshadowed cuz of Shaq and Kobe. There' a reason y the Lakers r the fourth best offensive team in the league.

With that said, both Kobe and T-mac r excellent at driving and dishing. Kobe's got the advantage cuz the triangle offense is especially set for dribble penetration and the dish out. Thats one reason y Kobe looks like a more natural passer then t-mac. Plus u also have a lot of players cutting to the basket in the triangle. Add a high % scorer like Shaq to that, it only helps Kobe's assist numbers. With the Magic, u have the other 4 players spread out and just waiting for the dish-out once t-mac gets hounded. Anyway, T-mac's almost averaging 9 asts per game since the trade. Goes to show what a little more talent could do his asts numbers.


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## kcchiefs-fan (Oct 28, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>SPMJ</b>!
> 
> 
> Why do most people think that t-mac has this gr8 shooting cast around him? Garrity and Giricek(only 8 games old) r the only consistent Magic shooters, they're the only ones who shoot over 35% from 3-pt land. LA has 4 players shooting over 35% from the 3-pt land. These guyz get overshadowed cuz of Shaq and Kobe. There' a reason y the Lakers r the fourth best offensive team in the league.
> ...


I never said Tmac has a great supporting cast. And I also don't wanna get into a Kobe/Tmac discussion, especially in this forum. I do think Tmac's supp. cast is better, especially now that Gooden's there, but it's not great by any means. Garrity hits damn near every open three he gets, and when Giricek is on he hits most of them as well. Everyone on the Lake Show is inconsistent. Sometimes Fox and Horry can hit em, sometimes Fisher, but no one can hit an open shot consistently. When Kobe's in pass first mode, he gets tons of assists regardless. Like early in the year, when he had those 2 amazing TD's in a row. Tmac's a great passer, but I don't think he's quite as good as Kobe. Sorry to compare the 2 because that gets done far too often, but I wasn't the first one to do it. I was replying to earlier posts in this thread, so plz don't point fingers at me : P


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## ChiBron (Jun 24, 2002)

> Garrity hits damn near every open three he gets, and when Giricek is on he hits most of them as well.


Giricek has only been the part of the team for 8 games, and his increase in production compared to his grizzlies days has obviously got a lot to do with T-mac drawing all the attention. Garrity on the other hand is just as inconsistent as any of the Laker shooters. But the difference is that guyz like Fox, Fisher, Shaw and George can atleast create their own shot. Garrity is basically a spot up guy who would have no job in the nba w/o t-mac. His D and rebounding is as bad as it gets.

Ofcourse there's really no comparison between t-mac's cast and what Kobe has in LA. If it would have been anywhere close, wouldn't we be talking abt the Magic as the favs in the east, kinda like the lakers r in their conference? I sometimes i have a hard time understanding y people even bother comparing the two players' supporting cast. Orlando as a team isn't anywhere close to be being in the same league as the three time champion LA.


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## TheRifleman (May 20, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>SPMJ</b>!
> 
> 
> Giricek has only been the part of the team for 8 games, and his increase in production compared to his grizzlies days has obviously got a lot to do with T-mac drawing all the attention. Garrity on the other hand is just as inconsistent as any of the Laker shooters. But the difference is that guyz like Fox, Fisher, Shaw and George can atleast create their own shot. Garrity is basically a spot up guy who would have no job in the nba w/o t-mac. His D and rebounding is as bad as it gets.
> ...


I do, too. I don't know how many times I've seen some poster talk about Horry being in the HOF for his clutch shooting. 

TMac's "supporting cast" (cough, cough) is so inconsistent. I find it amazing that some fans think Garrity knocks down every shot. One only has to look at his year to date stats to see how a 6'9" guy can NOT shoot 50%, when Stockton has done that - at 6'0" his whole career!

Hopefully, in the off season, the Magic management <b>will finally build this team</b> around the guy they signed as an afterthought to the all star Grant Hill!!


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## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>TheRifleman</b>!
> 
> 
> I do, too. I don't know how many times I've seen some poster talk about Horry being in the HOF for his clutch shooting.
> ...


I think they are defenitely already doing that. The trade was one example. Anything from Hill from this day on is an absolute bonus.

Next year Orlando without Hill should be able to be in the top 3-4 in the East... if Hill can miraculously come back, they could be even better.


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## TheRifleman (May 20, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>Dee Bo</b>!
> 
> 
> I think they are defenitely already doing that. The trade was one example. Anything from Hill from this day on is an absolute bonus.
> ...


I think this trade was the "beginning" of the management making a deliberate move to try to build this team around TMac - finally! I could have told them to do that 2 years ago, after his most improved player award- duh!

If Hill has a miraculous come back, I agree, even with a journeyman center, a healthy Hill, TMac, Gooden & company could do some damage - IF - they have a coach who knows how to teach the entire team how to play "team defense"!!


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## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

I hate looking in hindsight, but man, if we had just held on to Ben Wallace. That guy almost single-handedly wins games for Detroit, and that is with scoring like 4-5 points a game.

Damn..

Wallace could be heading in the direction of a future HOF'er, and we could have kept him pretty easily, and cheap..

20+ boards and 9 blocks for a just over 6'6" PF, amazing.


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## TheRifleman (May 20, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>Dee Bo</b>!
> I hate looking in hindsight, but man, if we had just held on to Ben Wallace. That guy almost single-handedly wins games for Detroit, and that is with scoring like 4-5 points a game.
> 
> Damn..
> ...


Just goes to show how Barkley at 6'41/2" got 13 rbpg lifetime and how some players can control and win games without <b>SCORING</b>. Bill Russell did that for the Celtics, Kidd did it for the Nets, and Big Ben does it for the Pistons. There are not that many that can control and/or win games without scoring a bundle - they are a precious few who do that!!


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## Saxon_guy (Jan 20, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>Loyalty4Life</b>!
> I personally think his passing ability is very underrated. He's getting 5 or 6 assists per game, and I think that tells you a lot about just how great of a player he is. What *can't* he do? Even though he doesn't have great players surrounding him *cough*Kobe*cough*, he still gets the job done with distributing the ball night in and night out.


I concur! :yes:


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## TheRifleman (May 20, 2002)

*TMac is feeling it tonight- thankgoodness!*

Without Gooden again, I'm glad he's feeling like doing whatever it takes to win this road game. He has 32 points and 7 rebounds at the half, and the Magic are up by only 12.

Garrity is 0/2 and Kemp is 1/5, so there aren't a lot of assists so far. Armstrong is hitting pretty good against the back up for Miami.

All of this with half blind refs in there tonight. They called Chris Whitney and TMac for technicals - Whitney is so nice and even he cannot believe the lack of calls.


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