He definately is raw, however, he also has a very high ceiling, risk/reward
Energy, DEF (versatile, potential to be a good 1v1 DEFENDER, HELP DEFENDER, rebounder, steals, physically athletic/strong/quick, and even some blocks)
Now these skills could be multiplied on the court together when teamed up with good defensive players that fit his skill set, like Quincy Acey and Iman Shumpert *also could be his replacement*
In any case, DEFENSE is not played by 1 or 2 players, it is played as a team, the more 1v1 defenders you have and team defenders you have playing together, the talent will allow us to be better defenders
In my opinion, you can be a good defensive team even if you have 1 weak link, however, it is very hard to be a good defensive team with 2 weak links, a reason why many have doubted Calderon/CA/STAT would allow us to be contenders, it simply will not work in the play offs versus good defenses in play off basketball
We would have to a very good rebounding team and/or highly efficient
It is the same theory for OFFENSE, so we don't have to be GREAT in DEFENSE or OFFENSE in order to be a contender, though it would surely help
In the end, it is about finding the right balance, rotations, fit, schemes, philosophy/systems, maximizing players skills both for individual and as a TEAM collectively
Woodson failed because he was unable to recognize this and make adjustments, while favoring line ups/players and using a philosophy that the players knew would not work majority of the time
Last season, Woodson would switch lineups as soon as players were made available, coming back from injuries
Instead of working them back to NBA shape first, we kept switching lineups, just as the players found a way to play with each other successfully
Having a coach and GM working together to establish talents understand their roles in the system and exececute each of their roles for each player and position is very important as evidenced in our 54 win season
However it is up to the players and coaches to motivate each other, keep their focus through the challenages of an 82 game season and preparing them for a play off run
Of course, each match up, rotations, lineups, versus each team will be different, but both players and coaches must understand, recognize, and execute how to identify the mismatches/strenghts/weaknesses so we can take advantage off each team, fully using the triangle as we can more experience
Because of roster space/cap space, along with his raw talent, Knick's management was able to convince him to take a 500k paycut to develop in the D League, where we will be running the Triangle as well
I think Phil Jackson see's him as piece moving forward or a talent that could multiply his value as a late draft pick
Because he was a late 2nd rounder, we can only offer him a 2 year contract unless we use an exemption or cap space to give him a longer/bigger contract
We didn't have this ability to do so this year, outside of our MLE which we used on Jason Smith
However, next season we can offer him a deal starting at 1m or more, to make up for the pay cut he took to stay within the Knick's orginazation to develop and moniter his progress closely
Being a late 2nd round pick, we risk the chance of him getting an offer that exceeds his value based on his potential or a poison pill that would be tough to match
We prevent this by happenning by offering him a 3 year deal with cap sapce/part of an exemption, with a team option as well
Back to Thansis aka Tenacious, I surely can develop a baseline 3pt shot, and be a verastile defender to defend 3 positions
When he adds more strength and fills his body, he could be a very important piece with his combination of physical abilities, high motor, and energy, to either initiate our DEFENSE like Iman did as a "rook", be a solid 1v1 defender against opponents #1 scorer's from PG - SF, maybe even PF's that are SF's at times on switches like Paul George, Durant Lebron, etc
I think we should look to combine his talents with players that would fit his skill set on PG and SF that would fit with his abilities, in addition to a Center that we would need versus any talents as our anchor like Chandler did in year 1
As he grows, he probably could be a starter in the future, but next season he is still young and develping, so likely he is best off the bench
Just throwing examples out there, some of which a realistic targets, comparable talents that would fit not neccesarily the player themselves...
Tried to be as realistic as possible and also showing some cheap options as well, we can easily have about 30m to spend with the rise of the salary cap
10/8/2014 10:52 AM