Tracy McGrady No Longer T-MAC, But Can He Still Play?

Not a Knicks fan (though I live in Brooklyn), just an NBA fan and Bleacherreport writer looking for more exposure.

While Tracy McGrady carries around a prime-time name, and glimpses of a prime-time game, there’s no doubting the fact that New York’s acquisition of McGrady was strictly for salary cap purposes.

Still, after nearly a season and a half on the pine, there’s the question of what McGrady can bring to the table, both this year with the Knicks, but more importantly, next year with his future employer.

Plus, should McGrady be able to demonstrate a full return to his pre-microfracture form, the Knicks will have the first crack at negotiating to potentially resign McGrady this offseason.

Let’s use McGrady’s performance against the Wizards to see exactly where McGrady is right now.


Tracy McGrady: 25 Min, 8-17 FG, 0-1 3FG, 7-9 FT, 3 REB, 3 AST, 0 TO, 0 STL, 1 BLK, 23 PTS.


Offense

McGrady generally operated with high screen/rolls or on wing isolations. These comprised 12 of his total shot attempts.

• An iso drive along the right baseline earned him a layup plus a free throw. McGrady had to contort his body to protect himself in the air. Some tougher players don’t alter their body position and force defenders to adjust to them. Still, McGrady completed the three-point play and should be lauded for it.
• A forced pull up 18-footer was missed and was a bad shot.
• McGrady was offered a screen, used a crossover away from the screen to gain separation, but had a 10-foot floater swatted away by Javale McGee. A more forceful player would’ve taken the ball all the way to the rim, while the old T-Mac would’ve elevated over McGee.
• A screen/roll led to a switch, some shimmies and shakes at the top of the key, and a calmly-sunk 18 foot jumper.
• A forced drive to his left against two defenders led to a missed layup.
• Along the left baseline, McGrady pumped, drew Al Thornton up in the air, then jumped into Thornton to earn a trip to the line. McGrady made both free throws.
• Another McGrady pump drew Thornton into the air. This time, T-Mac made his jumper before getting fouled and completed a three point play. McGrady still has a convincing ball fake and the wisdom to school young, impatient defenders.
• A third force job was an elbow jumper that was swatted back by Thornton. Aside from the poor shot selection, the play is indicative of McGrady’s lack of lift.
• An iso and quick burst to his left allowed McGrady to hit a tricky lefty layup.
• McGrady again iso’d on the left side, got fouled on a drive, and hit one of two free throws.
• A lefty drive resulted in a botched layup.
• T-Mac ended his shooting with a step-back jumper that he failed to elevate.

13 Points on 12 possessions for the two most conventional ways for a player to create for himself is right around the league average.

McGrady also went 1-3 in the post. He dominated Quinton Ross in the left box for a powerful right hook, then ushered two fadeaways from the right box that missed badly (one resulted in an airball). McGrady has the strength to be effective, but he too often settles for fallaway jumpers, a marker of his timidity near the basket.

Give him two points on three post possessions, a losing number.

With two transition opportunities, McGrady was able to attack the Wizards on a two-on-two leading to a floater plus, foul and made free throw on the first attempt, while drawing another foul and hitting one of two free throws on his second attempt.

Five points on two transition opportunities is effective.

Twice McGrady was involved in two catch-and-shoot situations, once calmly sinking a 20-footer, and another time forcing a contested three which rimmed out—two points on two possessions.

McGrady also alertly cut without the ball early in the third quarter into a backdoor cut and layup, showing off his understanding of how to move without the ball into scoring opportunities—two points, one possession.

McGrady was credited with three assists but only one of these assists is legitimate—a hustle offensive rebound and quick lob to Wilson Chandler for a layup.

McGrady’s other two assists came on a routine inbounds pass to David Lee where Lee made an uncontested 18-footer after McGee tried to cheat a screen, and a screen/roll pass to Danilo Gallinari where Gallinari had time to pause, take one dribble to his left and pull up for a jumper, before the official score keeper liberally doled an assist to McGrady.

Not that McGrady didn’t make good passes. Several slick passes led to blown layups or missed jumpers.

Overall, McGrady displayed a decent first step and straight-line speed, with the mitigating factor that Washington’s late defensive rotations make any offensive player appear to be faster.

McGrady is still timid near the basket against big men, as evidenced by the multiple missed layups, the post fadeaways, and the aversion to contact.

McGrady still has a convincing ball fake and good shot mechanics.

McGrady doesn’t nearly have the lift as he once did, a product of age, microfracture surgery, numerous lower body injuries, and fatigue.

McGrady still knows how to move into scoring opportunities, but he’s much more comfortable catching the ball at the top, pausing a beat—one Mississippi, two Mississippi—then having surveyed the defense, making a move. This inevitably gives defenses time to hone in on McGrady’s potential scoring and passing options.

McGrady still will force multiple drives and jumpers over the course of a game.

McGrady is still a talented and willing passer.

All this adds up to a player who can still be a valuable scorer and creator but can’t be a team’s primary or even secondary scoring option.


Defense


All told, McGrady’s 23 points and two legit assists—I’ll cede the inbounds to Lee—led directly to 27 Knicks points.

On defense though, McGrady was responsible for allowing, by my unofficial estimates, 22 Wizards points.

McGrady was repeatedly posted for profit by Al Thornton. If Thornton wasn’t plowing his way to the basket, he was making kick-out passes after double teams leading to made three pointers.

McGrady also jogged in transition defense, was blown up on a rebound by Thornton, made zero effort to close out on a Thornton three (only sagging back and pointing at Thornton as Thornton swished a three), turned his head on a McGee backdoor cut, and suffered the ignominy of having Ross beat him off the dribble for a layup.

In other words, par for the course for T-Mac.

On closeouts and rotations, McGrady executed three good ones, and four bad ones, not a good number, but not an awful one.

In other words, McGrady isn’t the worst defender, but he can be outmuscled, and is prone to bouts of laziness, both harbingers of losing basketball, even if he does have a relatively high basketball IQ.

It should be noted that McGrady sat the final 19 minutes of a down-to-the-wire overtime affair. This is the smart thing to do. Because McGrady hasn’t played more than eight minute cameos in roughly 12 months, there’s no way he’s in game shape to be strong at ends of games. Indeed, his only endgame minutes for the Knicks have been inbound situations to take advantage of his deft passing.

Also, as the prospects of a Knicks playoff berth are slim-to-none, McGrady’s job in New York is to sell tickets and to showcase himself to his 2010-2011 team. The Knicks will have the first option to negotiate with McGrady and its in their best interest to have McGrady healthy for next season in the case they resign him.

Having McGrady injure himself while he gets into game shape does nothing for the Knicks’ long term plans.

As for McGrady himself, his label as a franchise-carrier is definitely over (and he was never worthy of the tag to begin with). He’s not tough enough or a good enough defender to be a team’s primary, or secondary player, but he still brings a lot to the table.

His ability to shoot and see the court would make him a better fit, for example, than Vince Carter in Orlando, where McGrady would still be potent as a scorer around high screens, but his superior passing would open up Rashard Lewis and Orlando’s other host of three-point shooters. In a way, T-Mac would be a version of Hedo Turkoglu, his lazy defense would be compensated—to a degree—by Dwight Howard, and his basketball IQ would improve the lot of his teammates.

Most teams, however, would pass on McGrady’s inconsistent energy levels, brittleness on and off the court, and need to take precious time before making accurate decisions—unless he were in some diminished role, such as coming off the bench as a sixth man where he’d be a boon to any title-caliber team.

But all that is in the future. This season, McGrady should only be known for the financial flexibility generated by his salary coming off New York’s books this summer.

Until the end of the season, there is no T-MAC.

Only T-CAP.