Tracy McGrady made a point that sticks once you think about it for a minute. He wasn’t talking about talent or numbers. He was talking about how the game feels when you watch it.
And in his eyes, it all looks the same now, as he explained it on the Nightcap Show:
“But then talking about the coaching in our era, the Lakers didn’t look like San Antonio. San Antonio didn’t look like Sacramento. Portland looked a different way. Boston didn’t look like Orlando. Everyone had a different style in which they played.”
“When you watch today’s game, it’s only a handful of teams that play a different style. San Antonio has a style that I love. Denver has a unique system they play in. You could say Boston as well. But everybody else is just the same. Boston shoots a lot of threes too, but I don’t like it because everybody don’t have the personnel to be jacking up these threes.”
“So why not adapt a system that fits your team? Do something that’s conducive to the talent that you have. I just don’t see a lot of that.”
He went back to his era first. Said it straight. The Lakers didn’t play like the Spurs. The Spurs didn’t look like Sacramento. Portland had its own thing. Boston was different from Orlando. You could flip on a random game and, within a few possessions, you knew exactly who you were watching.
That doesn’t happen as much anymore.
Now you turn on games, and it blends together. Same actions, same spacing, same shots. High pick and roll, kick it out, swing it, shoot a three. Over and over.
And look, it works. That’s the part people don’t want to admit. The numbers back it up. Teams are taking around 37 threes a game again this season. That’s basically the same as last year, which was the highest ever at 37.6 attempts per game.
So yeah, there’s a reason everyone’s doing it.
But McGrady’s point isn’t about whether it works. It’s about whether it fits.
Because not every team is built the same, even if they’re trying to play the same way. That’s where he sees the disconnect. You’ve got teams jacking up threes without having the shooters. Running systems that don’t match their personnel, just like Charles Barkley pointed out a few weeks ago. It starts to feel forced.
Like trying to copy homework without understanding it.
That’s why he pointed out a couple teams that actually stand out.
San Antonio is one. You watch them, and it doesn’t feel copy-paste. Not everything runs through Victor Wembanyama. There’s movement, there’s variety, there’s moments where it feels like they’re figuring things out on the fly. It’s not rigid.
Then Denver. That one’s obvious.
Nobody plays like the Nuggets because nobody has Nikola Jokic. The whole system bends around him. He’s bringing the ball up, passing out of the post, reading everything. It’s slower, more patient. You can’t replicate that unless you have that exact player.
Boston, he mentioned, too, even though they still shoot a ton of threes. The difference is, they have the guys for it. It doesn’t feel forced; it feels intentional.
And that’s really what this comes down to.
Intent. Some teams are building systems. Others are copying trends.
There’s a difference. Because when every team starts chasing the same formula, you lose identity a bit. You lose those small things that used to separate teams, and it’s cleaner and more efficient.
But also a bit repetitive. And McGrady isn’t saying the game is worse. He’s just saying it’s less varied. Less personal and tailored to who you actually have on the roster.
Which, if you think about it, is a fair question.
If everyone plays the same way… what really makes teams different anymore?
