It's easy to look at Tracy McGrady and be envious.

The Orlando shooting guard has the ultimate freedom in the Magic's offense and his numbers and accolades reflect it.

There was some thought that Eddie Jones should take a similar role in the Heat's offense this season.

But Jones has managed to be effective even in Riley's structured offense, without shooting as many times as McGrady.

McGrady takes 21.8 percent of shots to score 22.5 percent of team's points. Jones scores a comparable 21.3 percent of Miami's points while taking only 19.2 percent of the Heat's shots.

The two also are similar in their efficiency, with McGrady scoring 1.25 points per field-goal attempt and Jones scoring 1.23 points per field-goal attempt.

While those numbers are comparable, Heat coach Pat Riley said Jones and McGrady are quite different players.

"Being an isolation player where you just dominate the ball and it starts with you and you make all the plays is a whole different mentality, one that you have to train yourself to do," Riley said. "You got to have stamina, great strength, you got to have a multi-dimensional game. I don't know if Eddie is a great post-up player. I think Eddie can post up, but not like somebody who's 6-8 or 6-9. Eddie's a slasher, a runner, a catch-and-shoot player, a driver, that's where he's at his best."

Jones has been frustrated at times with his role in the offense, but he seems to have found his niche, and said he doesn't want all the attention like a McGrady gets anyway.

"I like it the way it is for me right now because I like not to be the main, main, main, main focus," Jones said. "That's why I try to give the ball up early a lot, let people not think about me, then all of a sudden I hit you real hard for quarter or two quarters."

n Brian's song: While it would be easy to criticize Brian Grant for averaging six fewer points and two fewer rebounds than he did last season, Riley said his power forward is playing a very different role now.

"Last (season) he averaged 15 points a game and eight or nine rebounds and he played the center position," Riley said. "He was given probably five or six open shots a game because centers wouldn't come out and cover him. He wasn't taking the ball out of bounds and he was running out early in transition and probably getting some layups.

"Now it's changed entirely . . . I think he's sort of fallen back into the role that we looked at him, which is a power forward who rebounds the ball, a really good defender in our schemes and our system and try to get double figures in both (points and rebounds)."