I mean sure, he's pretty much a proven loser. Or is he? He's never made it out of the first round of the playoffs, but you can tell the guy wanted it pretty badly. I'm not sure on the sabermetric or player-efficiency stats or whatever, but T-Mac always seemed to up his game in those rounds, we just didn't have the other pieces. This team this year was better with T-Mac than last year. True, they were still very good without him, but when we needed one bucket, we couldn't get it. That's what T-Mac provides.

Does anyone else remember the 13 points in 35 seconds against the Spurs? I don't know how healthy he can be, or how his knee or shoulder would hold up in the incredibly physical games the Rockets always seem to be in in the playoffs. But dammit, we need offense. We need it badly. And when he was healthy, there may not have been a better offensive player in the game than T-Mac. It was so much fun watching him toy with his defender for 7-8 seconds on the shot clock, then just shoot a simple mid-range jumper and make it as if he were alone. Don't you guys miss that?

I don't know how much we can get in a trade for him, and if Eddy Curry and the carcass of Cuttino Mobley is the best we can do, I say just pay him this year and see what happens. Worst case scenario, it's last year. Best case, we have T-Mac, who's no Mutumbo, he'll be 30 all year, and is just one year removed from 21, 6, and 5.