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i keep hearing how this guy is undersized.

so i went back and looked at his measurements.

6'7.5 no shoes

6'8.75 with shoes

standing reach nearly 9'1

wingspan a little over 7'3

vert 36

basketball players play ball in shoes so everyone goes by that height. hes basically 6'9 and has good measurements i dont see how he is undersized. at the center position yes! at the pf no way. also hes getting alot of love on the draft board right now if anyone wants to pop over and read it. i think he will be a good defender, great at running the floor, shot blocker, and will be able to score while being a exceptional athlete. after looking farther into this pick i actually like it for you guys and think its a good pick. now the problem you have is splitting up mins with hickson and thompson. they didnt bring him in to ride pine. i expect him to get 24 mins a game while hickson gets the other 24 and probably 8 more mins when you guys run small ball.

I think a lot of people were sleeping on this guy. Kanter and JV were getting all of the hype but everyone forgot about Tristan. I had never really considered him either but when it was leaked a couple of days before the draft that the Cavs were considering him at four, it was immediately intriguing and made a lot of sense, especially as I never really wanted JV.

Canomad wrote:...i expect him (Thompson) to get 24 mins a game while hickson gets the other 24 and probably 8 more mins when you guys run small ball...

I think the 32 sounds about right for Hickson. I mentioned in another thread that I thing Thompson will get a few minutes at SF too. He's athletic enough to pull it off defensively, and its not like we'll be pulling a high scoring SF option off the court to put him on it.

tidho wrote:

Canomad wrote:...i expect him (Thompson) to get 24 mins a game while hickson gets the other 24 and probably 8 more mins when you guys run small ball...

I think the 32 sounds about right for Hickson. I mentioned in another thread that I thing Thompson will get a few minutes at SF too. He's athletic enough to pull it off defensively, and its not like we'll be pulling a high scoring SF option off the court to put him on it.

I agree, I think that when we have a scorer on the floor at the 2, Manny, Gibson, or a FA, that Thompson can be effective at the 3 ala Rodman when he came into the league.

Yeah I think he can play the 3/4 for us this year in a backup role. I'm really excited to see what he can do. I just hope he improves his FT shooting. If he can get to be a 70% shooter he can be a great player.

At first I was a bit disappointed that we took him.. But I started to warm up on the idea that he may not be so bad after all. The thing now is we have too many PFs..

Obviously TT is not a sexy "Number 4" pick. But I had a real hard time getting on board with Jonas. The comments about him were, if he works really hard he could be a Noah type player. Well that can be true of anyone and by reading more about TT - he works. I heard he is shooting 1,000 jumpers a day with Coach Lucas. He seems like a more athletic, more offensively talented Anderson Varejao. Whats not to like about that?

Niko23 wrote:Obviously TT is not a sexy "Number 4" pick. But I had a real hard time getting on board with Jonas. The comments about him were, if he works really hard he could be a Noah type player. Well that can be true of anyone and by reading more about TT - he works. I heard he is shooting 1,000 jumpers a day with Coach Lucas. He seems like a more athletic, more offensively talented Anderson Varejao. Whats not to like about that?

I think that's an uneducated observation meant to offer some sort of NBA player example. Watching him play shows similar activity and rebounding tenacity. However, just watching them shoot free throws shows the disparity in offensive touch and potential ability. I could easily see Jonas eclipsing Noah's ability early on in his career.

Hickson's agent is demanding a max contract after this upcoming season.

That's why Hickson most likely will be traded before the February trade deadline.

it's not a given that Hickson would be trying to get a max contract and only a completely deluded mind would think he'll even get close. But from what I've heard, he is looking for a big payday and at this point he's nowhere near deserving of it.

i do think kyrie and baron will make life easier for hickson tho. one of the things i noticed when lebron left is he wasnt getting the ball where he likes. lebron set him up for all those flashy plays and dunks that could have landed amare stoudamire in cleveland durring the trade deadline. i think having natural playmakers will help him. now max money.....no way. he would have to have a lamarcus aldridge type of improvement to even sniff that.

In ways I think hes close to Carmelo right now

I watched a lot of video on Thompson.... because he was highly debated on the Pistons board... We had a huge thread on him... My personal opinion was... he has some legit ability and could be a solid big man defender... who he absolutely is lacking in size for a big man lottery pick.

He's smaller (height and weight both) than some SF's in the league and he has small hands for a big man.

Doesn't mean he won't succeed in this league... a lot of that will depend on work ethic... but if you're going to use a high lottery pick on a player it would certainly be nice if he had some better physical tools to play that position.

I think he could be a good energy big off the bench but you already have AV in that roll... Why not get someone who could end up being a game changer at #4?

bstein14 wrote:I watched a lot of video on Thompson.... because he was highly debated on the Pistons board... We had a huge thread on him... My personal opinion was... he has some legit ability and could be a solid big man defender... who he absolutely is lacking in size for a big man lottery pick.

He's smaller (height and weight both) than some SF's in the league and he has small hands for a big man.

Doesn't mean he won't succeed in this league... a lot of that will depend on work ethic... but if you're going to use a high lottery pick on a player it would certainly be nice if he had some better physical tools to play that position.

I think he could be a good energy big off the bench but you already have AV in that roll... Why not get someone who could end up being a game changer at #4?

cuz kanter was taken? anyways i dont buy the small hands thing. he might have them but so does josh smith. its reported he cant palm a basketball but that doesnt seem to be a problem when hes dunking on everyone. also speaking of josh smith he could end up like him but with a better bb iq. they measured out the same i think thompson is a little taller without shoes and smith is taller in shoes... weird.

Josh Smith was/is a ridiculous athlete.... who came into this league as a SF. He had a 40" vertical which is rediculous for someone who is 6'9".

Thompson is athletic, but not the ridiculous athlete that Smith is.

I have no problem with Tristian Thompson the player, but to pick him at #4 is more than a reach, it's ridiculous.

I love the approach, the Cavs need defensive help, but he's not a #4 overall caliber player.

For those that feel Thompson was a reach, who would you have drafted ahead of him given who was left on the board?

No way he's a huge reach. Just compare him with the guys selected just behind him, it's not like they're sure things in this league.

Yeah, the only guy I wanted was Kanter at four. After that no one really impressed me. Biyombo? Nope. Burks? He must of slipped to #12 for a reason, same with Knight at #8. Vesely? He's intriguing but has a high chance of being a bust as well. One of those guys might turn out to be a star but Tristan could very well be the BPA.

The one guy who I am upset we passed on was Jonas. I would probably have prefered Burks or Biyombo as well, but who knows, thats just splitting hairs. He wasn't my favorite choice but I can see why it makes a lot of sense and I think hes going to be a great player. I love his personality so he will probably be my new favorite guy on the team. I was upset when the Browns took Joe Haden over Earl Thomas and one year later Haden is my favorite Browns player of all time, and might surpass Big Z as my all time favorite cleveland sport athlete soon, so I've learned not to complain about picks I wouldn't have made.