College players thread/ Draft Related thread

[john2jer]

^^^I didn't mean to come off like such a jack off.

its too late. Jack off.

You're a jack off for calling me a jack off. So there.

BOOM goes the dynamite!

Wow, just wow. I'm impressed beyond belief.

[Twizman]

Holy **** did you just see that 65 ft 3 made by Denmon from Missouri hahahahaa

[zauchary]

i can't believe no one has mentioned the game tyreke evans is having against mizzou. he is showing a great handle and explosion, seemingly getting to the rack at will. very impressive.

[Pumaman]

I agree, Evans has been very good. I have been touting Terrence Williams for a while, I hadn't seen a lot of Evans, but after this game I see that he has the potential to be a unique player in the NBA. Is he coming out this year? If so, where is he projected to go?

[Krapinsky]

Evans still reminds me of Sprewell. His straight line speed is ridiculous.

Terrible game by Henderson. Maybe him and Evans swap places in the mocks.

[Devilzsidewalk]

Evans sure likes turning the ball over though.

[Worm Guts]

i can't believe no one has mentioned the game tyreke evans is having against mizzou. he is showing a great handle and explosion, seemingly getting to the rack at will. very impressive.

I'm not sure he has great explosion, but he is great at getting to the rim. That spin move he has is sweet.

[PeeDee]

I think it comes from his excellent handle and his herky jerky moves. He plays so smooth, it's hard to judge just how athletic he is.

[john2jer]

As crazy as some of the opinions are on this forum, I sure do appreciate you guys sometimes.

I just got into a conversation with some co-workers about how Thabeet would be lucky to go top 20, and how the Lopez brothers, even Robin, have been DOMINATING the NBA, and Dr. Roy Hibbert will amount to nothing but a defensive specialist, or bust.

SRSLY! NO!

I tried to interject some knowledge and the conversation ended immediately.

I should have known that's how it would go when one of the guys said Ricky Rubio won't be coming out for another 2 or 3 years because he can't afford the buy-out.

Oh and Ty Evans for the win.

[Winter Wonder]

Speaking of Thabeet, and since I was unable to catch any of the games last night, how did he look last night? It sounded like Purdue had no answer for him as the boxscore I saw had Thabeet going for 15 pts, 15 boards, and 4 blocks. Articles say he dominated, but that can be subjective at times. How did he look? I know I wouldn't mind seeing that stat line for MN next year, not against.

[Devilzsidewalk]

One underrated thing about Thabeet is his offensive potential, he has good form on his freethrows and he can convert around the basket decently. Not that he's a gonna be a 17 ppg guy or whatever, but he's definitely not Ben Wallace

[revprodeji]

Hibbert could be one of the better centers in the league if Indy is smart and limits his minutes to the 25-28 range. He is very gifted as a defender, but also has decent range, footwork from both blocks and BBIQ.

Thabeet only has offensive potential because he has yet to do anything offensively. He appears completely lost sometimes on offense which is a concern. I am ready for someone to mention the Mchale big man camp.

[Devilzsidewalk]

he averages almost 14 ppg on 65% shooting, that's not nothing

[revprodeji]

he averages almost 14 ppg on 65% shooting, that's not nothing

From Canis...

Thabeet carries an absurdly high FTRate (77.2) and eFG (64.5%). He also carries an absurdly low %Poss (19.7) and %shots (17) for someone with such good stats at the line and from the floor. Put yourself in Jim Calhoun's shoes. You have a 7'3" monster on your team who shoots 65% from the floor and gets to the line at an absolutely absurd rate. Why does he only factor in 19.7% of his team's possessions? Why does he only take 17% of the shots? A: He's not a functional player on 1/2 of the court. He's 1/2 a player and horribly so, often looking like he has never been asked to put a little orange ball in a hoop before. Even rarer than his height, Thabeet has the ability to disappear better than any 7 footer on the planet. For every decent game he has, there are times where he gets dominated (see Monroe and Blair) or fails to show (see his game against A&M). Basketball is a game of net possessions. Yes, Thabeet will affect things on one side of the court more than your average big man. He's huge. However, I would strongly argue that he hurts far more than he helps by being absolutely inadequate on the side of the court where our favorite team already has a guy who will sit in the post. If the Wolves landed him, at least it would be entertaining seeing opposing teams double Big Al off of a 7'3" center. If Thabeet is to be the Wolves pick, they will have to work their way through a mountain of situational differences. Zone vs. man defense; Big East vs. smaller conferences; Thabeet vs. opponents who weigh above or below 250lbs; and so on and so forth. They will also have to figure out what he brings to the table that is not available in a traditional box score. How many shots does he alter (in zone or man)? How many bad passes does he force (in zone or man)? What is his foul rate in zone or man? You get the picture. There is something amiss with Thabeet's game. Obviously so. He's too big and too dominant in certain aspects of the game to be so hidden in others. This is the case with every player but even more so with Thabeet. Whoever takes him (or passes on him for good reason) will really, really have to do their homework.

[john2jer]

Rev, doesn't that scream more about coaching issues? If Thabeet is putting up such great numbers, why is he not having more plays run for him?

[revprodeji]

Consider the coach before you say that.

[john2jer]

Consider the coach before you say that.

Oh I know Calhoun is a great coach, but if Thabeet can shoot, gets to the line, can score, but has a terrible % of touches, that just screams he needs more touches. It's typically not hard to convince a kid to shoot, so maybe more plays need to be run for him.

But also, Calhoun's job is to win basketball games, not develop kids for the NBA. They were a #1 seed and in the Elite Eight. He's doing his job.

So at the end of the day, I have little concern over "Thabeet disappearing on offense." Obviously that will have to be addressed in the pros, which is where McHale's Big Man Camp comes in.

So basically what I get out of the article you posted is that Thabeet definitely has offensive potential, it just hasn't been tapped yet. I think anyone passing on him after Griffin and Rubio is making a mistake, unless they already have a center and glaring holes elsewhere.

[Worm Guts]

It's just a wierd post. How can you point out that he has absurdly great offensive stats, then say he's only functional on one side of the court? I think the stats point out that Thabeet is a limited offensive player who can be incredibly efficient at what he's good at. The author seems to take the stats to mean Thabeet's completely useless on offense, which makes no sense to me.

[john2jer]

He's their 2nd leading scorer in the 2nd most minutes, but their leading scorer is AJ Price who plays the 3rd most minutes, and Thabeet takes the third most shots.

I don't think they exactly have a center focused offense. Thabeet is fine. He could probably stand to add a few more pounds onto his frame, but I don't think he has the liabilities that people accuse him of having.

[zauchary]

offensively, Thabeet looks like a deer in headlights. he gets by with massive stature in college. why would Calhoun call plays for him? he gets most of his points off of second chances, where he normally gets fouled because he's awkward and can barely make a layup out of a surefire dunk.