I am impressed with his weight loss and his conditioning. However, he continues to have finishing problems. It has to be very frustrating for everyone including Thomas to have succeeded in getting to be in a position to have a high percentage shot only to have it blocked or altered. There is a lot of talk about having different players playing different positions on the team and correctly so. I have not however heard about Thomas playing the 3. At 6-7, with a respectable outside shot, it would be better for him to play the 3. Some have said that he is too slow for that, but I cannot see how much slower he is than Rice, Williams or Langhi. The advantage for him would be that on offense he should have a more favorable matchup, especially in the low post. Some will say that the team has too many 3's. Well that is true, but it could be said that we have quite a few 4's assuming Jackson is on board. I am not calling for him to be a 3 full time but for him to spend some time there. If Collier and Cato started playing well then with Jackson and Griffin, we will have to move Thomas out, to the 3.
Thomas will be a long time bench player in the NBA. Unless he develops the skills of Mason, its just hard for a player to always have to shoot over guys 4 or 5 inches taller. Barkley was such a quick and powerful leaper he would negate some of this. We know he doesn't have that kind of explosiveness, In the NBA you need bench player who accept their role like Sac bench players. The position for him is on the bench filling in when someone gets hurt. I didn't understand this pick then when they were trying to get quicker, and pick a player in Barkleys mold.
I agree K9 is definitely a "tweener" that would probably be better @ the 3. Thanks to his conditioning he should be able to keep up with more 3's in the league now. He could also exploit thinner Small forwards with his arsenal of post up skills.
I'm not worried about Thomas at all. He's short for a PF but he's still pretty good at scoring in the paint. He shot poorly last night, but it was the first preseason game and everyone's shot (except Cato's) was pretty rusty. Even if you put him at the three, he'll still be getting his points from down low. He can hit a jumper alright, but he's not a jump-shooter nor a perimeter player.
I was really impressed with KT's improved quickness, hustle, and nose for the ball, but he is still a brick layer. He is simply not a good outside or medium range shooter, and on inside shots he does not have the ability to put the ball up softly. I think his career will be as a serviceable backup...everyready bunny type, until and unless he learns how to put the ball in the hole. He shoot too damn hard!
As far as I can tell, KT's best role would be the 'super sub' 3/4 with the inside-outside game, sort of in the Rodney Rodgers mold. I think that his weight loss and conditioning would seem to be a big step towards helping him be effective in that role. Unfortunately, I can't see him showing his full potential until he manages to become a little bit more consistant with his outside shot. He simply looks a little forced when he shoots it. He's not exactly smooth, and his form seems to waver. Replace his jumper with Rodney Rodgers' jumper, and he'd be a tremendous 'matchup' type scorer. If I was him, I'd spend next offseason with a 'jump shot guru', as Clyde Drexler did one summer with Kiki Vandeweghe.
I agree, he has his shot altered alot, but I think he will eventually adjusted better to it and get his shot off. The only problem I have with KT is finish his shot. He could average 10 ppg off of garbage points if he could finish his lay-ups. I don't know what it is, maybe he over-compensates because of the blocked shots and everything, but he misses a lot of shots. All in all he is a nice addition off the bench, and he should be our first big man off the bench, maybe logging about 25 mpg.
KT is not as atheletic as Rogers and not as natural ballhandler either. KT is just a career back up, just face it. I can't see going into a battle in the west with Thomas as my starting 4 and expect to have an advantage or play even with anyone.
It is not true that Kenny Thomas is a bad shooter. His FG% (all from last year's stats) is 44.3% when the average for the team is 45.3%. Being below average is mostly the result of taking lots of ill-advised 3-pointers. He shot 25-92 from 3-point land, which is 27.12% compared to the team average of 35.7%. Looking at his % on 2-pointers, he shot 181-373, which is 48.53%. The team's average on 2-pointers is 48.00%. Thomas can score but not from the perimeter. Don't discriminate against him because he's short. He can score among the trees.
I'm so sick of Thomas throwing up so many air balls from three-point range. I'm gonna personally go down to the court and kick his ass if he tries that **** again. Play your position. We have enough three point misses, we don't need any help.
JV, What was the average on the team for "big men" shooting 2s? It's a little different for a guard to be shooting a shot with his toe on the 3-pt line than for KT to be bricking a friggin' lay-up. I think he'd fit right in the WNBA, they miss almost as many gimmee's as him.
I really cannot argue with your stats and in fact they are impressive. However they (2pt %) should be more like that of Carlos Rodgers, and Cato seeing that he is being setup regularly by Mobley and Francis. Stats aside, he misses way too many layups and is the most blocked rocket. I believe he belongs in this league. It is not discrimmination if one recognizes that he would be better placed if he spent more time and the 3. Bottomline, I have no confidence in putting Thomas up against the top 5 PF's in the west. On the other hand, I fully expect that he would hold his own against the top 5 SF's in the West. In fact those stats would improve further.
Top five pf's, i don't have confidence against any 4 in the west. I don't discriminate because of size, I just think if you're 6'5, 6'6 pf, you need to have a way to get off a good clean shot. Mason has this little bumb and step back move that gets him his space. Plus Mason is a very good ball handler and very, very tough. Thomas don't have that kind of move,as a result when he goes inside the trees jump and make him alter his shot causing him to miss. I watch Jason Caffey have the same problems with Milw. It seems like evry time he comes into thegame, their led decreases. He has the same problem finishing like thomas. Some guys are just meant to be back-up.
You know, if we had signed Mason instead of Jackson, KT may have become a MUCH better player. Just the little things he'd learn from watching a 6'7 PF would take him a long way. Little bumpbs, little moves, ways to hold the ball, ways to shoot. Stuff like that. (No comments about Mason's off-court lessons please, lol)
I don't know. If you want to compare KT to other big men, you do the work. I got my stats from CC.net. From what I did see, he'll probably have a lower 2-point % than Olajuwon, Cato, Rogers, and Taylor. One thing to remember in looking at those is that Cato and Rogers, who both have ridiculously high FG%, were not really trusted to create their own shots. Rogers was a garbage man and Cato was only allowed to shoot if it was a dunk. Thomas still has a lower % than Dream and Mo Taylor. That's no surprise. Of course, neither is available to take KT's spot.
What the heck is he going to learn from Mason that he couldn't have learned from Barkley, the best undersized PF ever.
Thomas needs to learn to box out better. He needs to learn how to finish around the paint better too. Thomas doesn't the athleticism of a SF, and doesn't have the size to be a PF.
Unfortunately, Barkley's not with the NBA anymore. I think, if he sees right now, knowing what he needs to complete his game, as the first backup off the bench, he'd understand beter than when he did his rookie year. Besides, if I remember correctly, Charles was out most of Thomas' rookie year, right?
