While We’re Waiting… Tristan a project, rewarding winners and losing velocity

While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.

“Is Tristan Thompson a project? So, we’ve talked about this a bit. You can’t write a sentence about TT without using the words “raw” and “athletic.” But where is his ceiling, exactly? I think, defensively, he has the potential to be similar to Serge Ibaka. But offensively, it’s hard to know where his game is headed and what the Cavs expect from him. Do they think he will learn to shoot? Do they expect him to be the third-leading scorer on a playoff team? His status as a project depends on what you expect him to be. If he’s supposed to be a good offensive player, then he need a lot of work. If he’s supposed to grab rebounds, block shots, and score in the same ways Andy Varejao does, then he’s closer to his objective. I mention this because Drummond is definitely a project. He needs to be coached in terms of asserting himself, playing hard on every possession, etc. I don’t think there’s a giant disparity in talent between Anthony Davis and Drummond, but the difference is Davis works his ass off, and Drummond seems like a weird, moody giant. My point is the Cavs don’t want two projects. You can overhaul one raw talent’s game, but two? That’s a challenge the coaching staff likely can’t handle.” [McGowan/Cavs the Blog]

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“All of his new traditions are designed to publicly recognize winners. It’s clear why Meyer opened the spring game with a circle drill in front of all 80,000 fans – besides getting the players hyped for the game, it created easily identifiable winners and losers in front of a large audience. It’s easy to miss individual battles being won and lost during scrimmages and games amidst the chaos of a play, but the circle drill focuses everyone’s attention in on the outcome of just a single battle.

Furthermore, he is extremely candid about his opinions of his best players – enough to publicly reward Boren and Simon (annointing Simon as a captain already) in front of the media. Simon of course responded by saying it only mattered to him if his fellow players also elected him as a captain demonstrating how Simon made captainship a learning goal rather than just a performance goal.” [Peltier/Eleven Warriors]

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Which starters have lost the most velocity since 2011– “2. Justin Masterson, Cleveland Indians: Masterson relies on his four-seamer nearly as much as his sinker, and has lost significant speed off each pitch. In addition, the sinker isn’t exactly dropping off the table, as he sits at 1-3 with a 5.04 ERA. His K/9 rate is down while his walks are up. Things are just not going well for the former Red Sox prospect in 2012. The sinker has gone from 92.7 mph to 90.3, while the four-seamer dropped to 91.9 mph from 94.2. This is a problem, considering that the two pitches combined account for 68 percent of all balls thrown by the 27-year-old. We can perhaps chalk his troubles up to mechanical issues, as he is perfectly healthy by all accounts. And there’s no reason for a pitcher who lives and dies by his fastball/sinker combo to take anything off of those two pitches intentionally. Clearly, the loss in velocity hurts in Masterson’s case, but his control is the real kicker. Who knows, maybe the speed will come back if/when the command does.” [Dunbar/Hardball Times]

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NBA Draft profile on John Henson– “In other words, Henson’s offensive game isn’t quite complete. Defensively, however, he proved to be somewhat of a force with the Tar Heels. Not only was he effective at blocking and altering shots, he displayed an ability to contain sleeker power forwards who preferred to face the basket and hang on the perimeter – like Dirk Nowitzki or Andrea Bargnani in the NBA.” [Amico/FSO]

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Finally, isn’t little Asdrubal cute– [Indians Team Shop]