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February 13, 2012Though Byron Scott will likely roll out Semih Erden with his starting five, it appears that the committee approach to replacing an injured Anderson Varejao could rest heavily on the shoulders of rookie Tristan Thompson when the opportunity presents itself.
Per The Plain Dealer’s Tom Reed, Thompson will start to see a vast increase in his minutes as he appears fully recovered from an ankle injury which forced him to miss several games.
The No. 4 overall pick in the draft, Thompson has the most upside of any Cavaliers’ big man. He also has most to prove. He’s probably going the get that opportunity over the final 40 games — whether he plays center or his natural position of power forward.
Thompson, listed at 6-feet-9-inches, filled in admirably in the team’s Friday-night loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, adding five points, 13 rebounds and three blocked shots. While he did not fare as well on the scoring in the team’s loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, Thompson provides a raw offensive skill set but vast amounts of athleticism which led to eight rebounds in just 18 minutes of play.
Presently, Thompson leads all rookies in rebounds per game (5.3) as well as blocked shots (1.2).
[Related: Varejao’s Injury Changes Cavs Outlook]
14 Comments
I like it… at 6’9″ and 230 lbs can Tigger guard Dwight Howard? No, but the Cavs don’t play Orlando again until March 23. There are only 4 other centers who I would worry about matching TT up with: Roy Hibbert, Tyson Chandler, Andrew Bynum, and Marc Gasol. He can guard the Joel Anthonys and Amir Johnsons of the NBA. The other plus would be that he will get to stay in the paint and give some weak-side help as a shot-blocker since he won’t be pulled out by the stretch 4’s.
However, if this move means that Luke Harangody comes in as the back-up PF, then I take everything back. There must be at least 10 PFs in the D-League who are better than ‘Gody.
In another era no way Tristan could handle that at his weight. Seems like the mediocre American-born centers have disappeared, and now it’s a few elite and the rest horrible. Understood why boxing’s heavyweight division collapsed 40 years ago – all the large, fierce athletic American guys went for the bucks playing d-line, linebacker and power forward. But Americans aren’t getting shorter, so what happened to the nominally athletic 6’11” from 20 years ago? I’m talking James Edwards, Bill Cartwright, Tree Rollins, Kevin Willis and that ilk. They’re not playing other sports. Now teams scout overseas for guys who are worse. Weird.
I like this a lot. We drafted him to see him get time at the 4-5 and this is a great chance for him to grow. This team has no post season in sight, so lets see what the kid’s got. I’m all for it.
I love Tigger, you just can’t go 0-6 from the field as an NBA big. He either needs to take less shots, or find a way to get the ball in the hole.
The kid is already looking like a stud defensively though.
I would add:
Greg Monroe, Gortat, Andrew Bogut(when healthy), Bargnani(when he actually goes in the painted area), Al Horford(when healthy), Al Jefferson (a load despite not leaving the floor much)
and for now (until he gets more seasoned):
Nene, McGee, Jordan, Duncan
I think what I meant was purely from a size standpoint. In other words, what guys would dominate TT with their size. I definitely should have added DeAndre Jordan even though his only offense is from alley-oops and put-backs. I thought about Monroe and Jefferson, although for some reason I think TT could hold his own guarding those dudes. It’s been so long since I’ve seen a healthy Bogut that I really can’t remember what his game looks like. I might’ve thrown Javale McGee into the mix if his own stupidity didn’t keep him from being a quality center (and besides that he’s a horrible offensive player). Ditto Gortat… he’s got good size, but not much offense to worry about outside of Nash’s killer pick-n-roll (think Andy V prior to this season). I’d like to see this inside game of Bargnani’s as I can’t remember ever seeing it. Horford is undersized as a center, and although he’s a good player, I think TT’s size matches up well. Duncan has great size, but he doesn’t use it… his craftiness is all he has anymore. He won’t be pushing anyone around in the paint. Nene’s post game sucks. He seems to score mostly from moving off the ball, so I see him scoring more on whoever decides not to help the helper when TT shifts over to make the block.
Yeah I don’t really get this either. When we were growing up there were some really good centers with excellent size, and they actually had a post-up game. The best centers in the NBA today can rebound and block shots as well as ever, but they can’t score anymore. The only reason I can think of is that there is no longer an emphasis on practicing these moves. People have said that LeBron would be unstoppable if he had a post game since he’s so much bigger than other SFs, and yet here we are into the prime of his career and you never see him take his man into the paint (and if he does, he shoots a fall-away jumper like he’s a guard trying to post up a forward). Can you imagine if LeBron had a hook shot? There isn’t a player in the NBA who could stop him, but nobody cares about post moves anymore.
it’s a rare bird, but this inside game of Bargnani is a thing of beauty. he gets the ball on the outside, passes and cuts to the paint where he receives the ball back. from there, he goes through a series of “old man in the park” fakes and rotations until the defender is either juked or bored and he puts in an easy layup.
ok, going on the ‘pure size overwhelming TT’ clarification, I would still add Monroe and Jordan. Jefferson is an odd one because his size helps him control the paint by being immovable once he has his spot, but it’s not like he bulls people over either.
Really? Sounds McHale-esque… would love to see that sometime.
I did the “pick 5” deal with the NBA League Pass, and Utah was actually one of the teams I picked. They have 4 big men who just about every other team would welcome (Jefferson, Millsap, Favors, and Kanter), so I wanted to see how those guys look on a consistent basis (and I like some Gordon Hayward as well). What I can say about Jefferson from what I have seen this season is that he’s not the same player he was a few years ago. He misses a ton of shots right around the hoop and is really more effective as a face-up shooter and garbage man (cleaning up other players’ trash). He still rebounds well and gives you something as an on-ball defender in the paint, but the post moves have somehow suffered from his injuries. That was the biggest reason that I didn’t include him in my list of people who can push Tigger around. I think I’m with you on Monroe though… he’s really become a force this year and even Andy had trouble keeping him from going where he wanted to go.
you might get to when he comes back against TT. He tends to only actually do it when he’s going against an over-aggressive undersized C.
i waited the week of NBA free pass before picking my “5” and i wish i had waited long enough to realize that Utah was going to be good. I’ll defer to you on Jefferson as I have not seen him enough this year (going on past years).
my 5 ended up being: Cavs, Nuggets, Pacers, 76ers, Grizzlies
*Nuggets and Grizz have been a total waste as they have so many games on NBATV that I don’t think I have watched them yet online.
I wish I could go back and pick the Pacers. My choices were Cavs, Jazz, Clippers, Mavs, and OKC. I’m definitely happy with the Clippers pick, getting happier with the Mavs pick, and not terribly interested in OKC anymore. I’m starting to fizzle out on the Jazz as well, even though it’s fun watching Gordon Hayward mature in his confidence. I would swap them for the Pacers and Knicks if I could (but who would have predicted Lin-sanity? The Knicks were horribly boring to watch before he arrived).