Jason Thompson

[wiltchamberlain]

I don't think weight has all that much to do with it if your a defender that knows how to use your body in the right way. Marcus camby is only 235lbs and he's always been a fantastic defender. Also recognize that hawes is roughly 7'1.

Do you really think Hawes is 7'1? I see him next to other guys, supposedly 7ft and he always seems at least a couple of inches shorter. Don't get me wrong I agree with your main point, as far as height not being the most important, and I know this question of Hawes' height is way of topic, it's just something I've always wondered.

Also, insofar as height and defense are concerned, let's not forget the important role played by athleticism which so often makes up for height. Throughout his prime Camby was always a nice athlete.

[SacKingZZZ]

Landry isn't a terrible defender, but his height will make him a liability against the bigger frontcourts of the NBA. And I have to reject the hyperbole of Thompson being one of the worst defenders on the team. It took him a while, but he finally started cutting down on fouls towards the end of the year, and thats when he became solid. Despite being nowhere near a finished product in terms of his base strength for holding position in the post, I'd put my money on Thompson improving his strength over Landry sprouting four inches of height and length. And I can't imagine Thompson's rotations improving further with more experience considering the progress he's already made (see his rising block numbers for proof).

Its not a knock on Landry's talent to say that he's not a starter on a championship team, just his profile. Talent wise Landry is easily a better player than Thompson or Hawes right now. However, we are talking about putting together a team of players that compliment eachother. If we get a Demarcus Cousins in the post, Landry's role on offense will be to hit jumpers, finish on cuts, and rebound offensively. Not only is that wasting the rest of his talent in terms of his postgame, but is it worth starting Landry for this role knowing that his lack of height and rebounding will be detrimental on the defensive end?

Having Landry off the bench makes him the primary scoring option in the post when the reserves are in, which is where his talent will truly be maximized due to benches having less height and length overall than starters. Right now Landry is one of our only players capable of creating offense so he has to start, but for the future it would be much wiser to have Thompson as the roleplaying starter with Landry as an explosive bench scorer.

Nah, his team D was still unbearably horrific. A lot of his defensive woes come when he's playing C so it's not really his fault on some of it, at C he gets pushed around to the point it makes Hawes look like the immovable object.

[SacKingZZZ]

Do you really think Hawes is 7'1? I see him next to other guys, supposedly 7ft and he always seems at least a couple of inches shorter. Don't get me wrong I agree with your main point, as far as height not being the most important, and I know this question of Hawes' height is way of topic, it's just something I've always wondered.

Also, insofar as height and defense are concerned, let's not forget the important role played by athleticism which so often makes up for height. Throughout his prime Camby was always a nice athlete.

He may have grown since but he measured in at 6'10.5" w/o shoes at the draft combine so he's at the very least a legit 7 footer by nba standards. He and Aldrich would fit in nicely with their platform shoes. There had to be something wrong with Coles barefoot measurement, there's no way he's wearing 2.25" shoes, and if he is and he's comfortable with them then what the heck, he's a legit 7 footer too!

[wiltchamberlain]

Do you really think Hawes is 7'1? I see him next to other guys, supposedly 7ft and he always seems at least a couple of inches shorter. Don't get me wrong I agree with your main point, as far as height not being the most important, and I know this question of Hawes' height is way of topic, it's just something I've always wondered.

Also, insofar as height and defense are concerned, let's not forget the important role played by athleticism which so often makes up for height. Throughout his prime Camby was always a nice athlete.

He may have grown since but he measured in at 6'10.5" w/o shoes at the draft combine so he's at the very least a legit 7 footer by nba standards. He and Aldrich would fit in nicely with their platform shoes. There had to be something wrong with Coles barefoot measurement, there's no way he's wearing 2.25" shoes, and if he is and he's comfortable with them then what the heck, he's a legit 7 footer too!

That is interesting. I was going to guess Hawes was about 6'10. He's just always looked small to me. He's always been kinda skinny and his shoulders aren't very broad so I guess this combined with his slightly less than average height for his position makes him look that way. But then as you allude to in your post most players do fib at least a bit about their height anyway. I've heard KG called anything from 6'9 to 7'1.

[RoyalCourtJestr]

There are major issues with Aldrich on the defensive end, though. Main factor being is that he's only 236 pounds. That's 15 pounds more than Tyreke. Thats beyond Hawes territory. I'd rather have hope for Hawes than take Aldrich with the 5th pick.

Al Horford was 235 when he came into the league. Plenty of guys over the years have come in undersized (or, in Cousins' case, oversized) and bulked up. He's only 21, he'd got plenty of time to bulk up, but the main point is he's already a fantastic defender with great instincts and blocking abilities. I'm not that worried about size, he can gain it.

[SacKingZZZ]

I'm sure Aldrich is going to put on some real muscle once NBA level conditioning coaches get ahold of him. He's still very strong and most importantly has the skill and knowledge of how to effectively guard the post. He is a master at using leverage to his advantage instead of pure strength.