Tracy McGrady May Be Motown Bound: In a Word, Why?

Numerous media outlets including The Detroit Free Press and ESPN are reporting that the Pistons could be close to signing former superstar Tracy McGrady for the veteran's minimum salary of around $1.4 million.

Plenty of pundits have talked about how McGrady could fit with the Pistons, and what his signing could mean for current veterans Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince, given that McGrady could play either the shooting guard or small forward positions.

What very few people have weighed in on is why the Pistons would make this move. Why would a storied franchise make what should probably be viewed as a desperation signing?

Unless you just crawled out from under a rock, you know that McGrady is no longer an elite NBA talent. When he came into the league as one of the many straight from high school to NBA players, expectations were high. He and Kobe Bryant were viewed as being peers, and it took McGrady a little longer to find his niche.

However, by the end of his third year in the league with the Toronto Raptors, he was becoming a complete player. The most impressive thing about McGrady was that he focused on defense first, and eventually his offensive game evolved on its own. This glimpse of his talent gave the Orlando Magic the incentive to sign him to a huge deal (along with Grant Hill, a signing many Detroit fans may be familiar with).

McGrady's tenure in Orlando was incredible from a statistical standpoint. He never averaged fewer than 25 points per game, while increasing his rebounds to close to eight, and his assists were solidly around five or six. He also developed a nice perimeter game, reaching his apex of 39 percent three-point shooting in 2003.

However, towards the tail-end of his Orlando career and heading into his next contract with Houston, McGrady had developed some bad habits on the court. He no longer played top-notch defense, instead choosing to focus on his scoring and using the other side of the floor to get rested.

On the offensive end he also picked up some lazy tendencies, scrapping his above the hoop game and slashing drives, and instead settling for perimeter jumpers and contested three-pointers. As a result, his field goal percentage fell off markedly. He went from shooting consistently around 45 percent from the field and mid to upper 30's from the three point line to shooting right around 40 percent from the field and low 30's from behind the three point line.

This may sound like nit-picking, but if you watched McGrady on the court, you could see his tendencies had changed. He no longer wanted to get to the hoop and he seemed to shy away from contact.

Some people will point to his injuries for his lack of production, to which the logical response would be "and that's a reason to sign him?" So perhaps he has become lazy on the court because he has been often injured, but then why would you want an often injured player on your roster?

Perhaps McGrady would bring something besides his downward trending scoring ability to the equation. But what would that be?

McGrady has never been a winner. The closest he has ever come to winning a series was when he was in Orlando. Again, his fate intertwined with the Pistons when he famously signaled that his team was up three to zero with his first three fingers, and essentially laughed off Detroit. Pistons fans relished in wiping the smile off of his face when Tayshaun Prince was inserted into the lineup and used his length to pester the Magic's star swing man.

Two years ago his Houston team finally made it out of the first round, but McGrady was, of course, injured and did not play in the post season. His critics pointed out that his subtraction was actually an addition, and it signaled the end of his tenure with the Rockets.

So would McGrady bring some sort of veteran leadership to this team? He has never been confused with being a leader, instead focusing on his own numbers.

There are really only two arguments for Detroit to make this move.

First, it has been argued that bringing McGrady to Michigan would give the Pistons enough depth to finally deal Hamilton and Prince. Really? It would take McGrady to give us enough depth? Last I checked, the Pistons have five guys under contract that play the positions that McGrady would play with Detroit. That is not including Hamilton and Prince.

So the Pistons bring in McGrady—who at this point is solely a perimeter player with no history of leadership or winning—so they can deal two winners, both with considerable leadership abilities that are not one-dimensional players. Really?

Let's take a look at a potential Pistons lineup with McGrady. Rodney Stuckey will likely still play point with McGrady and potentially either Ben Gordon or maybe Jonas Jerebko at the other wing (depending on who Hamilton and Prince fetch in return). Then you plug Greg Monroe and potentially an Emeka Okafor in the front court.

In this lineup, who plays defense against the most skilled players in the back court, which is typically the opposing shooting guard? Who guards LeBron James? Who guards Bryant? McGrady? Gordon? Stuckey? That is not a recipe for success.

Perhaps McGrady will come off the bench. So an aging, former scoring champ without a history of winning or leadership is going to be asked to come off the bench? Sound familiar? How did the Allen Iverson experiment work out for you? And McGrady is two years younger than Iverson was at the time. So it is safe to say that McGrady is probably not going to come off the bench unless team president Joe Dumars told him he might before he signed.

The only other argument for signing McGrady is pure desperation for the box office. Could McGrady put a few extra butts in the seats at the Palace? Maybe, but how many? How many people really are that oblivious to the slippage in McGrady's game?

Besides, what message is this sending the true fan base? The Pistons are so desperate for you to come see this team that they are going to take a page from the MLS and bring in an old star to put him out to pasture. How does the Pistons front office sell this? It's an interesting way to skirt the mantra of not building around superstars—"we don't build around current superstars."

I'm sure that many fans will point to the past success of Antonio McDyess and say that the Pistons are buying low and that this is a low-risk situation. Perhaps, but what really is McGrady bringing you? He isn't adding depth at a position of need for a title contender. He instead is going to take minutes away from young players with potential on a team that is likely going to be lottery bound for a few more years.

Perhaps Dumars has something up his sleeve that the rest of us don't see. Perhaps McGrady will surprise us all and find the fountain of youth that Ben Wallace discovered last year in Detroit.

But all signs point to this being an unwise decision for a franchise that should not be but may finally be veering towards desperation.