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How would a Tyrus Thomas trade affect YOU?

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Cliff Levingston
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Post#101 » by Cliff Levingston » Tue Jan 8, 2008 3:43 pm

AirP. wrote:I still don't understand, what Skills does Aldridge bring to the table that dropping 5 million a year for a Joe Smith doesn't? He's younger so he's quicker and can handle more minutes but that's about it. Both hit the outside shot, both can score in the post some but don't shoot often down there, yet I think Smith plays stronger then Aldridge.

If he becomes tougher and ends up utilizing his talents in the low post much more, yeah, he's what we needed, but if he continues how he is and how I expect him to continue, especially with Oden taking over down low... he brings very little more then a good seasoned vet with a jumpshot.

Cliff Levingston wasn't overly impressed with Aldridge either. He can shoot the jumper well with a very high release, but he looked very soft overall and got a lot of those boards via playing center for the last quarter and 2 overtimes. ICLO; he's the main a reason why Doug Collins kept saying "Portland's achilles heal is rebounding."

He's pretty good on defense and can score if left open (and he can score with someone one him, but it'll almost always be via the mid range jump shot). He does change ends very well and seems to play pretty good defense.

Anyhoo; Cliff Levingston thinks Tyrus can be a much more dynamic and overall better player than Aldridge if given a chance. By "chance", Cliff Levingston means a regular 25 minutes as a primary player on both ends of the floor. In the draft, that's what you're looking for: the best player.
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Post#102 » by JeffJordan » Tue Jan 8, 2008 9:29 pm

bullzman23 wrote:
Portland won again two days after escaping Chicago with a double-overtime win. That makes the Blazers 16-1 in their last 17 games with 2006 draft picks Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge the two leading scorers.

Even though the statistics are lopsided right now, I still think it's possible the Bulls made the right move by taking Tyrus Thomas instead of Aldridge in that draft.

For one thing, it's easy to imagine Thomas turning Saturday's line of 14 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks against the Kings into a regular occurrence. And I also don't think Aldridge would be doing as well with the Bulls.

Aldridge scored most of his 14 points against the Bulls on jump shots. He gets good looks with the Blazers because he can play off Roy and should be a nice complement to Greg Oden in the future.

The Bulls don't have a creator of Roy's caliber, but have a glaring need for Thomas' athleticism on the front line.

So the decision to pass on Aldridge may still pay off for the Bulls. Passing on Roy could be a different story, because they then could have used Roy or Ben Gordon in a trade for a big man.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=108234&src=150



If Thomas were on the Blazer's, I believe that many posters would be criticizing Paxson for taking the 'safe' pick once again when a superior athletic marvel was available. Thomas was my top choice from day 1, and I still believe that he's a superior player to Aldridge. We'll see, but I agree with McGraw....Aldridge would look much worse playing for Skiles and with Hinrich/Gordon.


Uhh yeah but no. Bulls fans would be going nuts if we had Aldridge. There would be almost zero talk of TT on here.
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Post#103 » by DuckIII » Tue Jan 8, 2008 9:31 pm

JeffJordan wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Uhh yeah but no. Bulls fans would be going nuts if we had Aldridge. There would be almost zero talk of TT on here.


Do you ever write about anything other than Thomas?
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Post#104 » by JeffJordan » Tue Jan 8, 2008 9:34 pm

AirP. wrote:I still don't understand, what Skills does Aldridge bring to the table that dropping 5 million a year for a Joe Smith doesn't? He's younger so he's quicker and can handle more minutes but that's about it. Both hit the outside shot, both can score in the post some but don't shoot often down there, yet I think Smith plays stronger then Aldridge.

If he becomes tougher and ends up utilizing his talents in the low post much more, yeah, he's what we needed, but if he continues how he is and how I expect him to continue, especially with Oden taking over down low... he brings very little more then a good seasoned vet with a jumpshot.


Good Lord! and you base this upon the ONE time you saw LMA play against the Bulls this season, most likely. Aldridge is dang good-- like Sheed good. He brings very good defense as well.
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Post#105 » by JeffJordan » Tue Jan 8, 2008 9:36 pm

DuckIII wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Do you ever write about anything other than Thomas?


It is what I want to talk about on here-- I am the most motivated to talk about TT with the million posts praising him, bashing our coaches for not playing him and bashing LMA. It is ridiculous. Forum would be pretty boring if everyone drank the "Kool Aid".
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Post#106 » by kyrv » Tue Jan 8, 2008 9:36 pm

DuckIII wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Do you ever write about anything other than Thomas?


I have him on ignore, new posters that just hammer one topic, frankly frighten me.

I also am ashamed to see so many people accusing a highly athletic black player as having no basketball IQ, with seemingly little evidence to contradict that.

By the way if Tyrus was on Portland, and playing big minutes, the knock on Portland would NOT be "bad rebounding and terrible interior defense". ;)

I like Aldridge and have seen him play a fair amount. However I know this boad, and I am confident in saying, Aldridge is more popular (as are most players) on another team than he would be here, when he's under the microscope every minute of every game.
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Post#107 » by JeffJordan » Tue Jan 8, 2008 9:52 pm

[quote="kyrv"][/quote]

You sig cracks me up. As I have said I am a trainer for the Warriors. PM and I will prove it if you like. BTW, LMA's defense is better than TT and he leads his team in rebounding... but whatever makes you feel better.
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Post#108 » by Magilla_Gorilla » Tue Jan 8, 2008 10:08 pm

JeffJordan wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



You sig cracks me up. As I have said I am a trainer for the Warriors. PM and I will prove it if you like. BTW, LMA's defense is better than TT and he leads his team in rebounding... but whatever makes you feel better.


Pryz plays 15 mpg less than LA and avg's .5 rebs less lan him. LA plays far and the way the most minutes of any big man on Portland (35 per game). He has the rebound lead on that team by default.

*It should also be noted that Portland is the 4th worst rebounding team in the league. LA is helping that by playing out around the free throw line most of the time.

LA Reb Rate 13.0
TT Reb Rate 15.0

LA Reb p40 8.8
TT Reb p40 11.1

I have no doubts that if LA was on this team, playing 15 mpg, we'd be bitching about our 7 footer taking 20 foot jumers all game. Meanwhile Tyrus would be putting up 14 & 10 while playing 35 mpg for the Blazers.


Congrats on being a trainer. But that really doesn't make your opinion on players any more valid than mine - and I've never taped an ankle in my life.

Now if you said you were a scout, I might care.
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Post#109 » by JeffJordan » Tue Jan 8, 2008 10:16 pm

[quote="Magilla_Gorilla"][/quote]

Being a trainer doesn't make me any more knowledgable with a lot of things but Kyrv's sig is what I was commenting on.

I don't buy into per 48 minutes or whatever. LMA averages almost 8 boards a game-- that is good. Denying that is just not being honest.
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Post#110 » by Magilla_Gorilla » Tue Jan 8, 2008 10:22 pm

JeffJordan wrote:I don't buy into per 48 minutes or whatever. LMA averages almost 8 boards a game-- that is good. Denying that is just not being honest.


Its per40, and they tend to hold up over a career.

8 boards is alright - I don't know that I would say its good. He's 42nd in the league - playing 35mpg. He's playing on one of the worst rebounding teams in the league. He doesn't play next to any real strong rebounders who are taking balls away from him.

Its actually a little disappointing for a 7 footer with his athletic ability. But as I said, its hard to get rebounds when you tend to play your game around the free throw line.
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Post#111 » by JeffJordan » Tue Jan 8, 2008 10:26 pm

Magilla_Gorilla wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Its per40, and they tend to hold up over a career.

8 boards is alright - I don't know that I would say its good. He's 42nd in the league - playing 35mpg. He's playing on one of the worst rebounding teams in the league. He doesn't play next to any real strong rebounders who are taking balls away from him.

Its actually a little disappointing for a 7 footer with his athletic ability. But as I said, its hard to get rebounds when you tend to play your game around the free throw line.


Fair enough and I will admit that Tyrus will probably end up being the better rebounder. It's LMA's scoring that I wish we had. Might turn out that getting Gasol is our best option... I don't want to say the draft because I hope we make the playoffs.
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Post#112 » by TeamMan » Tue Jan 8, 2008 10:26 pm

So far, Pax has demonstrated that he understands that you can only lose if you trade a player who's still in his rookie contract, unless you trade for draft postion, or for another player who is also in his rookie contract.

So the chances of him trading T2 are very, very slim.

The chances are much higher that Noc, Deng or BG (once they sign their new contracts) will get shipped out rather than either T2, Thabo, Noah, Gray or JOC.
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Post#113 » by JeremyB0001 » Wed Jan 9, 2008 7:41 pm

dougthonus wrote:No, this isn't what I'm saying. I'm saying he's average for a PF, if you set the PF expectation level to 0 (which you seem to have done). Tyrus can not dribble the ball well in traffic without getting stripped. I don't see him regularly (or pretty much ever) use dribble moves to evade people.


Well I guess we just disagree about what's average for the position then. I don't know what you mean when you say "set the expectation level to 0." If you're saying that Tyrus is better than awful and that equates to average, not above average, then I disagree. As I've explaining I think he dribbles more often (driving from the perimeter, leading the break) than most PF's and has reasonable success (rarely stripped, rarely loses control of the ball). That's the definition of above average IMO.

dougthonus wrote:I've never seen it reported that he grew taller except from people on this forum who looked at photos at weird angles and just said he looks taller. If he has grown taller, that would be interesting. Given his age, it's unlikely (though not impossible).


I admit it's a little iffy. I'm not sure it's that meaningful that no one has reported it. If he grew half an inch or an inch, that might not be considered too notable to people who aren't obsessing over measurements the way we sometimes do. Most of the picture analysis I've seen centers around pictures of him standing next to Deng (or Wallace, who he's clearly taller than). If those are the result of weird angles then there should be players where he looks shorter than Lu and I can't recall seeing any.

dougthonus wrote:Do you have an example of Tyrus ever displaying good ball handling? I don't know, as I said, maybe I just have selective memory on the subject. or am just hit by limited sample size.


Every time he leads the break, I think to myself "Wow, our PF is leading the break, that's a unique skill that most PF's don't have."

dougthonus wrote:I just remember him getting stripped frequently when he tries to dribble through traffic. I don't recall him using dribble moves to get around people (pretty much at all).


I can remember he trying to dribble past two defenders while trying to lead the break once and getting stripped. I don't remember him dribbling through traffic or getting stripped often at all though. I see him dribble primarily on the break and taking his man off the dribble one on one.

dougthonus wrote:Your benchmark seems to be comparing him to people who also do not do these things, and then saying "See look, he's not worse than zero". I can see calling him average for his position, but that's a large qualifier given his position. I don't think it means he has refined ball handling ability.


If most players at his position are a so called "zero" at these things, then I think it's impressive that he's not.

JeffJordan wrote:I don't buy into per 48 minutes or whatever. LMA averages almost 8 boards a game-- that is good. Denying that is just not being honest.


So is Eddy Curry a good rebounder too. Your argument is essentially that a player who pulls down rebounds infrequently is a good rebounder because...actually I'm not sure what your argument is. 8 RPG has never been considered good for a starting big man.
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Post#114 » by kyrv » Wed Jan 9, 2008 8:21 pm

8 RPG has never been considered good for a starting big man


It's not good for a center, no. Unless there are strange circumstances. Eddy's circumstances is that he's not a good rebounder. Aldridge spends a lot of time mid game/high post which the forum as a whole wants a low post presence, and pretend Aldridge would be that person.

Anyway, if your Center is outside and getting 8 rebounds, if his mate is Oden who is getting 10-12 rpg, that's fine. If your team is really bad on rebounding, then, maybe the center should be closer to the basket.

But I don't know where they want Aldridge, and he's a good player. Not a 'good' rebounder, at this time, but I wouldn't say he's bad, as Eddy seems to be.

Zach - that nut can rebound. :)
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Post#115 » by JeremyB0001 » Wed Jan 9, 2008 10:07 pm

kyrv wrote:Anyway, if your Center is outside and getting 8 rebounds, if his mate is Oden who is getting 10-12 rpg, that's fine. If your team is really bad on rebounding, then, maybe the center should be closer to the basket.

But I don't know where they want Aldridge, and he's a good player. Not a 'good' rebounder, at this time, but I wouldn't say he's bad, as Eddy seems to be.


Yeah, I agree that Aldridge is a good player and that rebounding is not a long term problem for Portland as long as Oden is fine. I just like to point out blatant inaccuracies because they often indicate that certain posts lack objectivity.
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Post#116 » by kyrv » Wed Jan 9, 2008 10:14 pm

JeremyB0001 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Yeah, I agree that Aldridge is a good player and that rebounding is not a long term problem for Portland as long as Oden is fine. I just like to point out blatant inaccuracies because they often indicate that certain posts lack objectivity.


Yeppers. I'm an Aldridge fan, he would get skewed here of course, that is if he could get on the court. :)
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