Posted by JohnWallace44:

I have a Seinfeld question for you;

What's the deal with Thabeet on offense?

Those of you that have watched him for years now, please explain what's going on there.

When Syracuse had Craig Forth, he was one of the most awkward players on offense that I've ever seen. He missed layups with regularity, but they would still dump it down to him pretty often considering his lack of skill. A 7 footer can always do some sort of damage with the ball down low.

With UConn, it doesn't look so much like Thabeet isn't aggressive. It looks like he's schemed out of his own offense. Is that the case?

This year I've seen Calhoun do things that fly in the face of logic, but the Huskies still are about to make the final four.

In the Syracuse 6OT game, the way that he allowed the Cuse to bait Thabeet out to the perimeter while Flynn was obviously setting him up to blow by him was astounding having watched Calhoun beat Syracuse with talent and schemes so many times in past years.

I don't get the way that they use Thabeet. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense on either end.

That said, what do you UConn fans see for him on the next level? Can he develop into an offensive threat? Can he be used better in the pros on both ends? Or is there something I'm not seeing that could continue to hold him back at the next level?

Posted by JohnWallace44:

So Briggs, what's your ultimate take on Thabeet? If Derozan, Jennings, and Thabeet are sitting there for us to pick somehow and you can only take one, who would you go with?

Does Thabeet have a lot more potential than this, or is Calhoun maximizing it right now and its pretty much what we see is what we get?

Posted by JohnWallace44:

Posted by CrushAlot:

Rebuilding teams almost always need a franchise player at the point or at center. The funny thing is that is exactly what was needed last year also and if you look at the talent that was passed over it makes it hard to think that anything rational will be done this year by the Knicks in the draft.

I didn't like the Gallo pick then or now, but I can see that they came into a team with no accurate outside shooting and took the most accurate outside shooter in the draft. I can see how you'd come to make that pick.

If Thabeet comes in here he's got to be able to run pick and roll, something that UConn never does with him, but you'd think he could score on easily. Does Calhoun just think that it would be cheating to score so easily? Its really a mystery to me how the team uses him.

Posted by JohnWallace44:

Thanks for the response Bip. If that's the case then I guess we shouldn't pick him up. Being limited offensively is one thing, but if he can't roll to the basket and score off of a lob, then we should pass on him. Our center at least has to be able to do that much.

Posted by BRIGGS:

I just want him to play 2 hard solid games and stay out of foul trouble. To be honest I could care less about the NBA right now--we have all the marbles on the table and we need Hash to have TWO very BIg games--solid games. I want to see two 16-13-5 games --if he does that--if he does what he is capable of--the rest of the guys can finish it off. We are doing this without our 2 guard and very poor 3 point shooting--this team is the polar opposite of how MDA plays. Yes they try to break when they can--but this team is based on strong defense/rebounding and taking high % shots.
The theory is if you can lock a team down--out rebound them and shoot an efficient FG% you will have a great chance of winning.

MDA's theory is outscoring the other team. But the problem is you need almost perfect type of personnel because you cant fall back on your defense and rebounding to win.