Tyrus Thomas or Patrick Williams

[Lexluthor]

Which players was the bigger disappointment ?

[TheSuzerain]

Tyrus for sure. He was an elite prospect that didn't pan out.

PWill was plainly overdrafted and is/was not a great prospect.

[HomoSapien]

At least Tyrus grew taller over the offseason.

[CROBulls]

[Jcool0]

Watch on YouTube

[waffle]

pwill's was a weaker draft. Tyrus was a MUCH better athlete.....so I'd say Tyrus?

[Guru]

Watch on YouTube

Whoever that white guy is in the hat, he's on the mt rushmore of whiny Bulls reporters. He is unlistenable. He just screams nonsense.

[MAQ]

For me, the bigger disappointment is Williams and it's not all that close.

And I was huge in LMA during the 06 draft. Was floored we traded him for Ty and Viktor Khyrsomethingorother. It was obvious Ty was a project. Low floor, high ceiling guy. He never reached the ceiling, but he was a more impactful than Williams ever has been.

Williams was supposed to be a high floor high ceiling player. His floor is just as low, if not lower than Ty's. Beyond that, I look at the guy in Toronto who went to the same college as Pat Will, and it only makes me think of Pat as a failure even more.

[dougthonus]

LaMarcus Aldridge was an obvious perfect fit for our needs and we passed on him for Tyrus. He was viewed as the consensus better prospect by most people as well. Tyrus was a much bigger draft gaffe. I'm not sure Tyrus was a huge disappointment to me because he was old for a project player, and while the athleticism was enticing, I just think it was a draft mistake whereas Aldridge was a sure thing and Tyrus was a huge risk that I never quite understood.

I never had high expectations for Patrick Williams. It was a weak draft class, he was mocked around 10-12 prior to the draft, and it was basically viewed as a class where 4-13 or so was just a toss up and most of those guys aren't anything today either. He came in with an incredibly immature offensive game with little ability to handle the ball, a mediocre first step, and his basketball IQ seems generally low. The idea that he was going to become an elite offensive player despite not doing it in college or even HS really just seems odd to me.

He's a good man defender and a good open three point shooter, and those two skills as a floor are going to keep in him the league as a role player for a decade, and he's now locked into a salary that seems reasonable for those abilities. Maybe a bit overpaid today, but a 6'8 wing defender that can hit 40% of his 3s is always going to have value in this league even if he doesn't develop further, and he can easily prove worthy of his deal with even small iterative improvements that are likely he makes.

In that sense, Pat doesn't frustrate me too much, he's a fine player, and I never saw the reason he should be more than that. After watching him in summer league / preseason his rookie season, I said to myself "Wow this isn't a high ceiling player, this is a high floor player", and I think that has ended up ringing true, what he does well makes him valuable, and what he doesn't do well will stop him from ever being something really dynamic.

[ChettheJet]

Tyrus never took the game seriously. He was probably the superior athlete but he never put in the work to gain the basketball skills. I don't know what or how he thought running and jumping would lead to being a professional basketball player without shooting, ball control, knowing what the F the plays were. One spectacular leaping blocked shot per game wasn't that impressive overall. That's the downside of not playing college ball.

Patrick came in having been taught basketball, knowing the game, being able to handle the ball and shoot and understanding the concept and value of defense. OK so he isn't aggressive enough, he defers to the veterans but in those rare games when turned loose you've seen a good basketball player.

[kodo]

Patrick Williams.

Tyrus was in what was considered a terrible draft. Teams weren't even that excited about the #1 pick that year (Bargnani).
The other big name, Ammo at #3, was a complete bust but that didn't surprise many people.
LMA had the highest floor but all the criticisms were true, he's not good enough to lead a team to a title and he can't play D.
And Shelden Williams at #5 basically wasn't an NBA caliber player.

Tyrus was always just going to be a hustle guy, the fact that he didn't pan out wasn't as franchise derailing as we were never going to get "that guy" in that draft anyway.

Patrick was in a normal draft with some expectations, there was an opportunity cost to reaching for him vs guys like Haliburton or Maxey. If he was consensus #4 that would be one thing, but I saw him 12th-18th on mocks. The guy didn't even start for his college team, he did not flash any talent worth the #4 pick. And while some teams have gambled on private workouts/interviews, those were illegal that draft year. AK saw all the same performances we all did, and thought he was a #4 pick.

[GoBlue72391]

Tyrus never took the game seriously. He was probably the superior athlete but he never put in the work to gain the basketball skills. I don't know what or how he thought running and jumping would lead to being a professional basketball player without shooting, ball control, knowing what the F the plays were. One spectacular leaping blocked shot per game wasn't that impressive overall. That's the downside of not playing college ball.

Patrick came in having been taught basketball, knowing the game, being able to handle the ball and shoot and understanding the concept and value of defense. OK so he isn't aggressive enough, he defers to the veterans but in those rare games when turned loose you've seen a good basketball player.

Tyrus did play in college and he was unquestionably the superior athlete over Pat. It's not even a discussion.

Pat didn't come into the league knowing the game and being able to handle the ball. He's 5 years in and still struggles mightily with those aspects.

[Muzbar]

Tyrus never took the game seriously. He was probably the superior athlete but he never put in the work to gain the basketball skills. I don't know what or how he thought running and jumping would lead to being a professional basketball player without shooting, ball control, knowing what the F the plays were. One spectacular leaping blocked shot per game wasn't that impressive overall. That's the downside of not playing college ball.

Patrick came in having been taught basketball, knowing the game, being able to handle the ball and shoot and understanding the concept and value of defense. OK so he isn't aggressive enough, he defers to the veterans but in those rare games when turned loose you've seen a good basketball player.

Tyrus played for LSU.

[GoBlue72391]

Patrick Williams.

Tyrus was in what was considered a terrible draft. Teams weren't even that excited about the #1 pick that year (Bargnani).
The other big name, Ammo at #3, was a complete bust but that didn't surprise many people.
LMA had the highest floor but all the criticisms were true, he's not good enough to lead a team to a title and he can't play D.
And Shelden Williams at #5 basically wasn't an NBA caliber player.

Tyrus was always just going to be a hustle guy, the fact that he didn't pan out wasn't as franchise derailing as we were never going to get "that guy" in that draft anyway.

Patrick was in a normal draft with some expectations, there was an opportunity cost to reaching for him vs guys like Haliburton or Maxey. If he was consensus #4 that would be one thing, but I saw him 12th-18th on mocks. The guy didn't even start for his college team, he did not flash any talent worth the #4 pick. And while some teams have gambled on private workouts/interviews, those were illegal that draft year. AK saw all the same performances we all did, and thought he was a #4 pick.

2020 was also a very weak draft, maybe not as weak as 2006 but weak nonetheless.

The hope/thought with Tyrus was that he would become an Amare-esque athletic freak of a PF. It's not like his ceiling was just a hustle player like Dalen Terry or something, he certainly had a high ceiling, he just never reached it due to poor work ethic, immaturity, and low basketball IQ. That and he always seemed like he wanted to play like a wing rather than a big, but I guess that goes into basketball IQ.

[TheSuzerain]

Tyrus Thomas stats at LSU were insane.

Small sample size but he was a superior prospect to Aldridge (or anyone in that draft) statistically.

[GoBlue72391]

Tyrus Thomas stats at LSU were insane.

Small sample size but he was a superior prospect to Aldridge (or anyone in that draft) statistically.

12 and 9 with 3 blocks isn't what I would call insane. Aldridge averaged 15 and 9 with 2 blocks. They both had good FG percentages.

[League Circles]

Tyrus Thomas stats at LSU were insane.

Small sample size but he was a superior prospect to Aldridge (or anyone in that draft) statistically.

I remember Tyrus being the better prospect also. LMA had maybe a higher, safer floor, but Tyrus had a higher ceiling for sure. And he was a bigger disappointment than Patrick for sure. When we picked Tyrus we actually thought he was going to be our franchise player.

[dougthonus]

LMA had the highest floor but all the criticisms were true, he's not good enough to lead a team to a title and he can't play D.

I don't think people thought LMA couldn't play defense. He was known as a good defender throughout his career. Not being good enough to lead a team to a title isn't really criticism. There are often drafts with 0 players that meet that criteria, and if you aren't the "no brainer consensus #1 pick" then people probably aren't looking at you like that guy even if you end up that guy later.

Patrick was in a normal draft with some expectations, there was an opportunity cost to reaching for him vs guys like Haliburton or Maxey. If he was consensus #4 that would be one thing, but I saw him 12th-18th on mocks. The guy didn't even start for his college team, he did not flash any talent worth the #4 pick. And while some teams have gambled on private workouts/interviews, those were illegal that draft year. AK saw all the same performances we all did, and thought he was a #4 pick.

I think this is a bit unfair. Haliburton wasn't a guy everyone thought would be so great. He went 12th. Maxey wasn't even in the running with the wide range of guys #4-12 or so that people thought were similar and while he ended up great, people didn't think that ahead of time.

This draft also mostly sucked, or at least lacked a lot of clarity at #4. I think LMA was the most commonly mocked guy at #2, but if not, it was a toss up between him and Tryus. The most commonly mocked player at #4 was Deni whom is no better than Pat, but there were a huge variety of choices there and no consensus.

[greenwing]

I am not a believer in PWill at all. He’s a 10-4 guy who has arguably regressed every season. That being said, the fact that we traded Tyrus for Aldridge is one of the worst trades this franchise has ever made. We thought we were getting Amare 2.0 and instead got rich man’s Stromile Swift.

[Muzbar]

LMA had the highest floor but all the criticisms were true, he's not good enough to lead a team to a title and he can't play D.

I don't think people thought LMA couldn't play defense. He was known as a good defender throughout his career. Not being good enough to lead a team to a title isn't really criticism. There are often drafts with 0 players that meet that criteria, and if you aren't the "no brainer consensus #1 pick" then people probably aren't looking at you like that guy even if you end up that guy later.

Patrick was in a normal draft with some expectations, there was an opportunity cost to reaching for him vs guys like Haliburton or Maxey. If he was consensus #4 that would be one thing, but I saw him 12th-18th on mocks. The guy didn't even start for his college team, he did not flash any talent worth the #4 pick. And while some teams have gambled on private workouts/interviews, those were illegal that draft year. AK saw all the same performances we all did, and thought he was a #4 pick.

I think this is a bit unfair. Haliburton wasn't a guy everyone thought would be so great. He went 12th. Maxey wasn't even in the running with the wide range of guys #4-12 or so that people thought were similar and while he ended up great, people didn't think that ahead of time.

This draft also mostly sucked, or at least lacked a lot of clarity at #4. I think LMA was the most commonly mocked guy at #2, but if not, it was a toss up between him and Tryus. The most commonly mocked player at #4 was Deni whom is no better than Pat, but there were a huge variety of choices there and no consensus.

It's actually surprising how many busts were picked in this draft.

#1: Andrea Bargnani (as a no. 1 pick)
#3: Adam Morrison
#4: Tyrus Thomas
#5: Sheldon Williams
#7: Randy Foye (somewhat)
#9: Patrick O'Bryant
#10: Mouhamed Sene
#12: Hilton Armstrong
#15: Cedric Simmons

Portland however was able to build a great core (at least for a short time (Thanks Brandon Roy's knees)).

Portland acquired the draft rights to 2nd pick LaMarcus Aldridge and a 2007 second-round draft pick from Chicago in exchange for the draft rights to 4th pick Tyrus Thomas and Viktor Khryapa.

Portland acquired the draft rights to 6th pick Brandon Roy from Minnesota in exchange for the draft rights to 7th pick Randy Foye. Previously, Portland acquired the draft rights to 7th pick Randy Foye, Raef LaFrentz and Dan Dickau from Boston in exchange for Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff and a 2008 second-round draft pick.