And by the way, can folks now appreciate Yao a little more? Yao understood the game, had skills, and played HARD. Thabeet has no clue how to play, and he is gassed in the 2nd half?
To be fair, it was more like one quarter, since he only played about a minute or less in the first quarter. And it seemed more like a hot start for Thabeet before he fell back down to Earth. San Antonio probably wasn't expecting much from Thabeet (as they shouldn't), so their defense and offense slacked off quite a bit against him. They quickly adjusted to Thabeet and he was practically shut down offensively and defensively for the rest of the game. Thabeet still has ways to go, teams figure him out way too easily. He jumps too much on the defensive end, and looks lost on the offensive end.
At this point, I would love to see Hill / Dalembert. Sammy would be the starter at the beginning, but Hill would be the man by season's end. As for Hill not being a center, I think that's wrong - but only because most centers today are not centers.
Hill looked good, but one game, it's only one game. Being too excited makes a team sign a Kelvin Cato. Let's at least give it a month before we can draw any conclusions. IMO, the only conclusion we can draw is he has improved from last year. That is not same much.
The only problem i saw with Thabeet was his conditioning. Learning the plays better will come with more playing time. Remember, short training camp?
I actually think Dalembert is unnecessary at this point. He would take important minutes away from these young guys. We need these guys to come into their own this year. That way next year we contend.
Thabeet is a clear bust. Jordan has shown improvement in one game but yet to see if he can maintain it. If we get Sammy cheap then we get him. If not I would roll with what we've got.
Although some of the passes to him weren't spectacular, Thabeet fumbled the ball too much. You can tell he has bad hands and that's not something he can improve on. If I were Thabeet, I would Stay away from the next McGrady. Hope I'm wrong. What I saw from Hill last game was that he is limited to hustling and a faceup game if he is forced to play center. At first, he was trying to post up a little, but that wasn't effective at all. That's definitely not his fault, but I think he would be so much more effective if he played power forward. He definitely had a good game, but I think we've seen what Hill showed offensively during that game in the past before. Hill didn't do anything out of the ordinary, and didn't show any of the "improved offensive game" that we've been hearing about. My concern with him is that his role at the center position is different than that of a power forward's. At center his game is driven by his hustle, and that's what will win us games. We need that kind of player at the center position; however, I just hope that what he learned offensively isn't wasted, because he is playing out of position.
Well the season starts in what a week? One more preseason game. That is not much time. In pressurized times I don't think he is ready.
The opposing teams' centers will quickly make our 5s in foul trouble. Then we don't have any size in the middle anymore.
Beverly Hills Thank goodness CD is no longer around. He might have offered Jordan one of those Kelvin Cato contracts, after one preseason game.
Which also doesn't bode well for him working out much during the off season. Most of your improvements from year to year is in the off season where you get to work on your strengths and weaknesses. This guy obviously did zero work on his conditioning. Can you imagine Yao ever looking this bad. He had a vast improvement in conditioning in his 2nd year and every year thereafter. This guy doesn't have the want to to get better, he has Thebust written all over him.
Actually Hill was showing flashes in his first season and improvement in his second season. This is his season to breakout. As far as Thabeet goes, as long as he is helping the team, like last night and not hurting them, then he is doing fine.
I have watched Thabeet and he is no Olajuwan, for sure. But, he is tall and has great length and is fairly mobile. We haven't had a point center since Ralph Sampson tried out for the position. IMO he needs opportunity, experience and confidence to make a serviceable center. Big men need more time to develop than smaller players do and everyone has been so down on him since he started I hope he doesn't read his press clippings. He was decent in college and there is no reason not to hang on to him another year. People smarter than me are evaluating him daily and made the decision to hang on to him so get off his back a little.
