McGrady won't help Bulls in their march toward contention

Pardon me if I need a moment to untangle this in my head. I'm having trouble keeping T-Mac and Penny and their comeback ambitions straight.

Two supremely gifted backcourt players. Two Orlando Magic superstars ('til their disappointing ends in central Florida). Two of the NBA's most distinctive nicknames over the last 15 years or so. Two of the league's grand prima donnas over that same time frame, never shy -- heck, these guys put the "I" in shy -- about calling their own news conferences or leading an occasional team insurgency.

Two marvelously entertaining hardwood performers whose understudies have logged way too many minutes, owing to injuries severe, nagging or both. Two fellows who seem to feel -- because of their injury layoffs -- they have gas left in their tanks. Two more instances of people learning to say hello when it's time to say goodbye, when what they really need is someone wise on their payrolls to pull them aside to whisper, "It's not your decade, kid."

One's a little older than the other, right?

The eight years that separate Tracy McGrady (31) and Anfernee Hardaway (39) are a generation in basketball terms. That's why Hardaway's pitch for a seat on the Miami Heat's rock-and-roll tour bus this season generated a few bemused headlines, while McGrady's campaign to return as a legit NBA contributor earned him tryouts so far with the L.A. Clippers and, as of Monday, the Chicago Bulls.

McGrady is just three seasons removed from averaging 21.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.9 assists for the Houston Rockets. Hardaway is 12 years removed from his last All-Star appearance and, counting back from 2010-11, five seasons removed from giving his regards to Broadway in a token New York Knicks stint. Which is what McGrady's 24 games with the Knicks felt like this spring.

McGrady did a little better than the other guy in New York (9.4 points on 38.9 percent shooting, averaging 26.1 minutes in 24 games), which -- combined with the calendar and pro sports' determination to squeeze the last bit of pulp out of any orange -- is why his ambitions are taken more seriously.

Hopefully, though, not too seriously in Chicago.

McGrady has been unabashed in his desire to play for the Bulls, winking about "unfinished business" in Chicago on Twitter, which is different from the way he toyed with the team in free agency in 2000 before jumping from Toronto to Orlando. Back then, he couldn't tweet his flirtations. Back then, he wasn't really interested in joining the post-Jordan mess in Chicago. Back then, Matchbox Twenty and Marc Anthony were hot.

Back then was back then.

Bulls guard Derrick Rose is in favor of signing McGrady, telling ESPNChicago.com, "That would be good. ... A player like him, with his experience and how he plays, I think it would help us." But Rose, 21, is speaking like the young fella who thrilled to McGrady's highlights back in the day -- back in the '00s.

The Bulls are Rose's team now, and McGrady wouldn't be misguided enough to think or act otherwise. Even Allen Iverson wouldn't be that misguided. It's not as if Rose needs to have an idol sitting over on the Bulls' bench to play in a manner that impresses people.

Chicago needs Rose asserting, not deferring. The Bulls need him stepping through more and more doors, not holding them open for McGrady. In late-game situations, it's Rose or Carlos Boozer or, if they're down three, Kyle Korver, whom the Bulls want taking the shots.

They don't need someone taking time away fro Ronnie Brewer, a young versatile player eager to re-establish himself at shooting guard. They've got the veteran leadership box checked with the addition of Kurt Thomas, along with Boozer and Luol Deng. T-Mac never was known as one of the league's great leaders in his prime, anyway, and isn't likely to morph in his dotage into a selfless Yoda.

Defensively? In Tom Thibodeau's system? With the mindset and proper level of commitment required to go all '2007-08 Celtics?' McGrady, not just now but ever? Right.

McGrady, in the best possible scenario if he signs (ideally for a non-guaranteed deal at the veteran's minimum) and stays healthy, might have his eye on a sixth-man role. That generally is considered a safe place to stick ball hogs and gunners. Older guys and specialists can be served well in that spot, too, with the matchups it often brings against second-stringers.

But the real concern in bringing T-Mac aboard isn't about disruption, it's about being disabled -- his ability to physically be counted on across 100-plus games and nine months after his back and knee ailments. More likely, he has left in him some flashes of greatness that become conspicuous by their absence while he's in the trainer's room or in a whirlpool back home watching the Bulls on the road.

It's a bad idea, in Chicago or with any other NBA contender.

Now, if T-Mac wants to really show us something -- if he wants to stir hope the way he did in the beginning with the Raptors, if he wants to accept the level of responsibility that was handed to him by the Magic and the Rockets, if he wants to re-fashion his image as a valuable performer and as a trustworthy and sacrificing teammate -- he can do it with one simple gesture and one productive, healthy, team-first season.

He should sign with Cleveland.

Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA for 25 years. You can e-mail him here and follow him on twitter.

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