RealGM

The retired 7-footer and former Defensive Player of the Year is in town today in part to meet with Griz rookie center Hasheem Thabeet. It is believed, too, that the Griz will talk to Mutombo about working as a paid consultant in the offseason.

http://blogs.commercialappeal.com/the_m ... ye-on.html



This would be huge for our bigs, specifically Thabeet. Dikembe was on Verno's show today and he said that he felt a personal obligation towards Thabeet's success. You can bet that he'll make Thabeet work hard, which is exactly what Thabeet needs at this point in his career. Let's get this done.

Definitely. Dikembe could teach Thabeet so much. Thabeet is a lot like Dikembe in terms of skillset and build, so it should work wonders for him.

GET IT DONE!

A trip to the d-league
Getting to start 10+ games with Gasol now out for the season
And then spending a whole summer with one of the greatest shotblockers of all time
Is there a better way to help your project develop?

Thabeet's going to get lots of playing time now. I see that Marc Gasol is done for the season with a torn neck muscle. I hate to see that happen but there are some positives. The Grizzlies weren't catching Portland for 8th so it's best to let Gasol recover. Plus they can really give Thabeet some quality playing time. I guess the negative thing is that it should make it more difficult to win games since there's no way they can replace that good chemistry that Randolph and Gasol had working for them. But really, I don't think it matters much. They currently sit just ahead of Houston and even if the Rockets pass them the lower teams in the east are so far behind all it would mean is that they would draft 13th instead of 14th. No big deal there.

The Hornets are a fair bit behind so if they manage a win tonight against them they should seal themselves finishing above New Orleans so I don't know what incentive there is left for the team other than trying to remain above Houston.