Tracy McGrady to the Hornets? Why it should happen…

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Published: February 16, 2010

 

To me, the single greatest invention of the last decade has been ESPN’s Trade Machine. It gives stat geeks like me a chance to play around with things that only used to happen when we got bored with NBA Live/2K.

One of the things I’ve been playing around with lately has been Tracy McGrady wearing the Creole Blue. I’ve heard scenario after scenario about McGrady going every which way but have never heard the Hornets mentioned as a possible taker and I just can’t understand why.

Let’s look at the facts.

          The Hornets need another sufficient wing player.

          The Rockets hate McGrady’s guts.

          The Hornets want to unload bad contracts.

          The Rockets hate McG…well you understand.

 

The two division rivals seem like perfect trade partners. Take a look at these ideas:

1 – http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yj44cfe

Or

2 – http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yfo8e34

Scenario #1 is a simple swap of Posey/Peja for McGrady’s expiring deal. In this case, the starters would be Paul/Thornton/McGrady/West/Okafor with a bench of Collison/MoPete/JuJu/Songaila/Marks-Gray. Doesn’t seem like too much of a drop-off if McGrady is able to return somewhat to form.

Scenario #2 actually keeps the Hornets UNDER the luxury tax threshold. This deal adds Songalia and Rockets forward Joey Dorsey who is averaging 1.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in 8.7 minutes in six games this season. In the two games he has seen extended minutes, Dorsey has 11 points and 19 rebounds including nine offensive ones.

The third – perhaps scarier – scenario is the following one:  http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yk5g7c8. West/Peja/Posey for T-Mac/Dorsey/Budinger. West crowds their frontcourt (Scola, Landry, Hayes) but also allows them to move of them in the offseason when Yao comes back from injury. The reason West is included is because the Rockets may want a little bang for their buck when it comes to taking on a bad deal.

Now why T-Mac? Because I personally think that he still has a little gas left in the tank. He’s not running completely on “E” just yet. There just isn’t a gas station in Houston that will fill him up. Put him in a change of scenery and with the reconstructed knee I could see a line of 16-18 points, 4-5 rebounds and 4-5 assists. I’d take that over Posey/Peja but maybe that’s just me.

So Hornets fans, would you pull the trigger on a deal for T-Mac?

 

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