Posted by BRIGGS:

Is anyone bashing Thabeet watching the Knicks tonight and like 90% of this season? Please just take your hands off the typewriter. If anyone who likes basketball cant see what inserting Hasheem into the starting C position would do for this team then you have no credibility.

Posted by Paladin55:

Posted by BRIGGS:

Is anyone bashing Thabeet watching the Knicks tonight and like 90% of this season? Please just take your hands off the typewriter. If anyone who likes basketball cant see what inserting Hasheem into the starting C position would do for this team then you have no credibility.

Honestly, you are deluding yourself if you think that Thabeet, based on what he showed in this game, would help a team like the Knicks, I saw no fundamentals in his game and an almost complete lack of heart. Do you really think that a guy his size who has averaged .5 APG for his college career is going to flourish in an offense that depends on quick thinking and efficient passing??!! Yeah, I have not seen him play a ton of times, but a player can have a bad game and stiil look like a player. Calathes did not have a great game against Kentucky, but you could still look at how he played and seen the skill set he has. What else, except his size, does Thabeet have to offer? Take off 5 inches and you have a guy who would not even be considered in the first round based on his skills.

I can guarantee you that scouts are going to be looking at his performances more closely after this game.

Posted by LivingLegend:


No offense -- but thank god you aren't making draft decisions for the Knicks.

Thabeet is the only thing professional about that rag-tag UConn squad. The kid is exactly what the Knicks need and is barely scratching the surface. Did you happen to watch our stellar band of Knick characters get walked all over by the Bobcats -- did you notice D-Lee getting manhandled by anyone who wanted a piece of him.

Guys that don't see what Thabeet could bring to the Knicks make we wonder - what the heck are they watching?

Posted by Pharzeone:


Paladin you get basing your drafting possibilities on who's coach. No GM should let that be their deciding factor in picking a prospect. Coaches come and go. No system is safe. Look at Phoenix, a run and gun coach left, a more defensive half court coach was brought in and fired. Now the team is back to run and gun. You pick the best player at the most needed position. I don't care if Thabeet can't shoot 3's, don't have slick ball skills or make fancy passes. The Knicks have a need for a low post defender that can block shots, intimidate and grab rebounds. As much as we want Lee to be that player, he isn't. He is a offensive PF without superior lost post moves or a steady jumper. By the way, how do we know if Calhoun wants Thabeet to play that way. College coaches run specific systems for specific players. On the pro level, I expect Thabeet to be a defender first and foremost. Something this organization has lack since Camby departure. If D'Antoni can't use a Thabeet or can't figure how to use him in his system then he should be shown the Exit immediately.

When the ball did come to Thabeet, Georgetown blanketed him, while he struggled to make quick decisions with the ball and looked extremely tentative, leading to a few awkward possessions.

Posted by Paladin55:

Posted by BRIGGS:

Is anyone bashing Thabeet watching the Knicks tonight and like 90% of this season? Please just take your hands off the typewriter. If anyone who likes basketball cant see what inserting Hasheem into the starting C position would do for this team then you have no credibility.

Honestly, you are deluding yourself if you think that Thabeet, based on what he showed in this game, would help a team like the Knicks, I saw no fundamentals in his game and an almost complete lack of heart. Do you really think that a guy his size who has averaged .5 APG for his college career is going to flourish in an offense that depends on quick thinking and efficient passing??!! Yeah, I have not seen him play a ton of times, but a player can have a bad game and stiil look like a player. Calathes did not have a great game against Kentucky, but you could still look at how he played and seen the skill set he has. What else, except his size, does Thabeet have to offer? Take off 5 inches and you have a guy who would not even be considered in the first round based on his skills.

I can guarantee you that scouts are going to be looking at his performances more closely after this game.

Take off 5 inches and you have a guy who would not even be considered in the first round based on his skills.

Posted by BRIGGS:

I like these guys but they are PF's. To have a good team--a team that i would envision is having a 20-10 PF with a C like Hasheem next to him. The Knicks do not want to play that way. Lets say put Hasheem next to Carlos Boozer or Dirk Nowitski.

If the Knicks wanted players who can run the floor as bigs they missed them in the draft last year.

Maybe Brook Lopez will remind the Knicks tonight the value of a C,

[Edited by - BRIGGS on 03-08-2009 2:16 PM]

Posted by OldFan:

Posted by Paladin55:

Posted by BRIGGS:

Is anyone bashing Thabeet watching the Knicks tonight and like 90% of this season? Please just take your hands off the typewriter. If anyone who likes basketball cant see what inserting Hasheem into the starting C position would do for this team then you have no credibility.

Honestly, you are deluding yourself if you think that Thabeet, based on what he showed in this game, would help a team like the Knicks, I saw no fundamentals in his game and an almost complete lack of heart. Do you really think that a guy his size who has averaged .5 APG for his college career is going to flourish in an offense that depends on quick thinking and efficient passing??!! Yeah, I have not seen him play a ton of times, but a player can have a bad game and stiil look like a player. Calathes did not have a great game against Kentucky, but you could still look at how he played and seen the skill set he has. What else, except his size, does Thabeet have to offer? Take off 5 inches and you have a guy who would not even be considered in the first round based on his skills.

I can guarantee you that scouts are going to be looking at his performances more closely after this game.

Excuse me for cherry picking one quote out of a long series of posts. But I found this curious:

Take off 5 inches and you have a guy who would not even be considered in the first round based on his skills.

I think that at least 50% (and probably a much larger percentage of the players) would not be in the NBA if they were 5 inches shorter. Anyone else care to speculate? Does a single Knick make the NBA 5 inches shorter?
5"3 Nate, 6'6 Curry... Just thought it was an entertaining question.

Posted by Paladin55:

Posted by OldFan:

Posted by Paladin55:

Posted by BRIGGS:

Is anyone bashing Thabeet watching the Knicks tonight and like 90% of this season? Please just take your hands off the typewriter. If anyone who likes basketball cant see what inserting Hasheem into the starting C position would do for this team then you have no credibility.

Honestly, you are deluding yourself if you think that Thabeet, based on what he showed in this game, would help a team like the Knicks, I saw no fundamentals in his game and an almost complete lack of heart. Do you really think that a guy his size who has averaged .5 APG for his college career is going to flourish in an offense that depends on quick thinking and efficient passing??!! Yeah, I have not seen him play a ton of times, but a player can have a bad game and stiil look like a player. Calathes did not have a great game against Kentucky, but you could still look at how he played and seen the skill set he has. What else, except his size, does Thabeet have to offer? Take off 5 inches and you have a guy who would not even be considered in the first round based on his skills.

I can guarantee you that scouts are going to be looking at his performances more closely after this game.

Excuse me for cherry picking one quote out of a long series of posts. But I found this curious:

Take off 5 inches and you have a guy who would not even be considered in the first round based on his skills.

I think that at least 50% (and probably a much larger percentage of the players) would not be in the NBA if they were 5 inches shorter. Anyone else care to speculate? Does a single Knick make the NBA 5 inches shorter?
5"3 Nate, 6'6 Curry... Just thought it was an entertaining question.

Thabeet would still be about 6'10" using this formula. I was mostly using it for him, and I was just trying to illustrate that his most legitimate "skill" is his height.

Posted by Paladin55:

Posted by BRIGGS:


Mark Eaton most legitimate skill was 7-3 and he was one of the best defensive players in this history of the game

I would not go that far. He had some major limitations as a player on offense and defense. He had no lateral movement, but was wide as a house and 7'3." He also played with some decent folks and was on some Sloan teams were everyone played D and they played a slower half-court game. If he was one of the best defensive players in the history of the game the Utah teams he played on would have gone further than they did. The best Utah teams got to the finals after he was gone.

I have come around on B. Lopez on a player, but am not going to make any conclusions about who we should have taken in the last draft for a couple of years. Nevertheless, he has a lot more talent than Thabeet at this point, even though he is younger.

By the way, this comes from DraftExpress. I had not read them before my analysis of Thabeet.

(2/2007) Thabeet seems to have little to no interest in using his size and strength to help his team as a rebounder, not playing with much energy, refusing to get dirty and go after loose balls, and displaying a very low basketball IQ in everything to do with his anticipation skills. In practice, people who have watched him have come away with the impression that Thabeet is not a hard worker at all. He makes faces when asked to do extra work, and generally acts like he's being punished by being required to do crucial drills for his development that other players don't participate in. This lack of a high-energy motor and work ethic is usually the kiss of death for a player who is as raw as he is. He will need years of individual work before anything can be expected from him at the NBA level. Once teams find out what we're learning, if they haven't already, it can be more than enough to drop a player like him into the second round.

(1/08) Another problem here is that Thabeet doesn�t seem to be the most active player in the world, rarely going out of his area for rebounds, and not really showing the type of fire and passion you see out of players who just want the ball more than their opponents. At times you get the feeling that Thabeet is not going 100%, as he�ll look sleepy, distant, and not involved in what�s going on on the floor. There have been question marks raised constantly regarding his motor, work ethic and love for the game, which is a huge concern considering how far off he is at the moment from reaching his full potential, and how much individual work he�ll have to put in to get there.

Seems like yesterday was no fluke.