I actually got this idea from Phillyrockets sig. It got me to thinking, why not. I mean think about it. Imo, it is still somewhat premature for Thabeet to be labeled a bust. We all know that it takes big men longer to develop in the league. Two seasons of spotty play won't help anyone. We haven't seen enough of him to assume he is a bust. What we have seen is that he can produce at a certain level if given the time to do so. While he was in the d-league under Chris Finch, he contributed to the tune of 10pts, 8rbds and 2blks per game. Yes, it was in the d-league, but what is also important is that it was under Finch who is now on the staff. McHale will always be there to help monitor his progress and show him a few post up moves as well. I know a lot of you say that coach McHale will not have the time to do so but that is ridiculous. He will have plenty of time. Like the title says, this is just an idea. Yes, he will make mistakes, but not all of time. Yes, he will get fouls. Maybe even foul out. We still have Chuck(who will be 1st off the bench in this scenario) and Hill. Yes, he will get pushed around, but not all of the time. He would still have the other 4 starters on the court to do a little coaching as well. The feeling i get from the forum is that we want Thabeet to become a contributing factor for this team. This idea could probably get us that. Just do it for the preseason(if we have one at all)and the 1st 10 games or so. Chuck could still have starters minutes off the bench. Whether he does good or bad, it will still benefit the team. If he does well, we have a great 1-2 punch at the 5. If he does bad, we have a good 1-2 punch because Thabeet would have gone up against some of the best centers in the league for 10 straight games and will be battle tested and ready to be that 2nd team 5. This is almost the Brad Miller scenario all over again. Last season we wanted Miller to back up Yao. This time we just need Thabeet to become a contributing rotation player who can back up Chuck. Imo, he should be thrown into the fray right away just to see how he reacts to the responsibility of being a starter. I know a lot of you will disagree. It's just a crazy idea. Coach
The main problem with Thabeet is he doesn't understand where he's supposed to be on offense or defense. Starting him is going to throw everybody's groove off. If he had ANY idea how to move like an NBA center then this might be a good idea but as of now, Thabeet would lose us more games than his development would ever win us.
Unfortunately, even the people who WANT to tank wouldn't be happy with the strategy of "force feed meaningful minutes to undeserving crappy player and hope he becomes not crappy". Thabeet has to go through the same progression as any other scrub to earn an NBA career at this point. Do well in practice > Do well in garbage time minutes > Do well as bench guy with occasional meaningful minutes > Do well in rotation. The D-League numbers are reason enough not to give up on him, but not reason enough to short circuit the developmental process and just throw playing time at him.
This. It's an insult to the rest of the roster to start a hot mess just because you want him to succeed. Let him hold his own against 2nd and 3rd stringers before putting him up against other starters. Having said that, I'm not going to cry buckets if we lose the season and can wipe our hands of that waste of a roster spot.
I'm with CDrex. There are no shortcuts. Starter minutes might help him prove something, but his development is going to happen mostly in practice. If he doesn't earn the starting spot, it's going to be a failure and a waste of time.
I agree. Getting destroyed every night by the best centers in the game will do wonders for his game and confidence.
I agree, let him play, we are going nowhere, why not put him in and see what he can do...at least on D. DD
Why not? Let's see what he can do. We need to have a good idea of what he can do before probably cutting him or perhaps resigning him. So what if he loses us a few games in the experiment. Modified tank. Besides it would be fun to watch.
A better idea would be to Lock him up in a secret basement for years. Claim he was kidnapped by African warlord and collect insurance money.
I'm sure that Mchale will put the players in that give us the best chance to win. Players earn the right to play;not given a starting spot. There are plenty of ways to aide the maturation of a player outside of throwing him in the starting rotation. If he gets it, he is going to get it in practice, scrub minutes, and eventually in more meaningful minutes.
