Agree with everything except the "extremely active" part. TT only started being active a couple of months ago. His first two seasons, he galloped up and down the court like he didn't have a care in the world and would do the stupidest things on the court sometimes. This season, the criticism got scathing hot after the first 20 games or so. Only since then has he become an active, hustling player. On the other hand, Aldridge's career has been on an upward trajectory from the beginning, both season to season and during each season. Only injuries have slowed him down. He is one of the most hustling big men in the NBA and is involved in a number of fast breaks, similar to Scola. On defense, he is actually a better on-ball defender than TT, who excels at roaming around and getting blocks. JayGoogle, I'm not discounting 2 blocks shot per game as "nothing", but the the extra block per game doesn't make up for TT's other, numerous shortcomings. He doesn't have the attention span to bring good effort an entire season and to work hard off-season to develop himself. When TT comes back down to earth to his normal effort-level, we'll have this conversation again.
Ughhhh......anybody watching the end of Bulls/Raptors? Down two -- Rose just missed a point blank layup to take the lead. Tyrus grabbed the offensive board but failed to convert also. Edit: Bulls battle back, Gordon nails a buzzer beater to send it to OT. As much as I want to watch this I think I need to put OU/UNC back on.
I've had Tyrus Thomas on my fantasy team for the majority of this season, and from his stats, I can say that he's crazy on defense. And given enough minutes he can rack up double-doubles. I also think he had this seasons record for most consecutive games with at least 1 block.
Living in Chicago and watchin the Bulls since the draft of Tyrus, I always thought he had the potential to turn into a guaranteed double double and athletic player to watch. After a few years showing flashes, this year he continually gets better with more playing time and I feel like if he only had a veteran big man leader to show him how to harness his power and attitude into more blocks and more agressive defense, he'll continue upwards towards Kevin Garnett-esque status. If he fails to conquer that however, he can turn into a Tyson Chandler. I know for a fact that his offensive game has gotten MUCH better, he had NO jump coming out of college and now can consistently knock it down from 13-16 ft out. His defense has gotten better, he's timing his blocks alot better, not as many stupid fouls any more, steals have gone up, and overall he's a much SMARTER basketball player and makes less dumb mistakes. Also seeing as i was a STAUNCH Joakim Noah hater, and boo'd him at the last 2 bulls game I went too (Houston v. Bulls bein the last one), he has shown VAST improvement in this season alone, going from a lazy good for nothing, my grandmother shows more effort then he does at a rebound, power forward to a hungry, agressive, scoring, hustling, putting the ball back in and always being around the hoop player. With a more vocal Derrick Rose, alongside a great leader in Hinrich, the bulls are only a few pieces away from competing for the 4th-5th spot in the East. The team has grown phenomenally this year from a would be "rebuilding" year to a playoff bound year, and through it all they've shown growth, maturity, and teamwork. Gotta say, dont know where it came from but many Vinny D got in their head somehow and got them to work that extra bit. Funny how in Chicago we were callin for Vinny's head if we didnt get Amare or Bosh at the trade deadline. But Miller & Salmons have been excellent additions.
Positives: 1. Athleticism 2. Great defensive timing, a defensive pain in the .... 3. Great help defender 4. Adding offensive skills, jump shot 5. Ability to move without the basketball Negatives: 1. An attitude that comes and goes, prima donna TT to me represents a bigger, more athletic Landry with a ton more defensive presence than Landry, although Landry has gotten better defensively. I still believe this type of PF would be the best fit alongside Yao. That is why I believe that Landry should start and Scola should come off the bench as Yao's replacement in the low block. TT's career will be defined by his attitude. If he fixes his attitude all the way, he will be an All-Star. If he doesn't fix his attitude, he will fall into the Stephen Jackson class, a very good player with a serious flaw that cannot be depended to get you to crunch time.
You can't help but notice the increased effort of both TT and Noah. I thought from day one Vinny was in over his head but maybe he figured something out. TT will become KG when it freezes in Houston in July. jopatmc, if TT doesn't fix his attitude, he won't be close to Stephen Jackson. Instead, he'll continue to be an 8/6, 10/4 guy with some blocks and a few slam dunks the rest of his career.
