I think more realistically I would rather give him heavy minutes off the bench, assign Chuck Hayes as his buddy, spend a lot of time with McHale/CD/Finch/personal trainer. Not to mention eat well and get into the best physical shape. IMO he's definitely servicable, I'm just not sure it's worth the effort. He will have to be in tip-top physical condition, eat a decent amount of minutes, and work with the best big man coaches around. Is it worth it if he'll never be more than an excellent 10-15 minute C? I hope they are managing his expectations. The only way I see this working out for thabeet in houston is if he agrees to re-sign at less than MLE for a long time. Then he would be an asset worth investing in IMO.
if the rockets can get a 7'6" chinese dude to play center in the NBA, then thabeet still has a chance. this is why we have mchale and the rest of this coaching staff - is to help guys like thabeet. i see this year as a critical one for thabeet's development. if he can make strides this year, we may have a legit center on our hands for the next few years. then again... if he sucks this year... it might be time to cut bait. i say 'might' because to put it plainly: the rockets have NO SIZE.
If the OP made sense, they would do it with Hill. Thabeet is too far away. Let's talk about it after a whole 'nother season. As for Motiejunas being ahead of Hill: I have much hope for Motiejunas; maybe after half a season.
Imo, Hill has had the time and he has shown that he can compete on a nightly basis. Thabeet, on the other hand, has not. I don't think he is far off from becoming a decent contributing center.
Regardless of whether the Rockets stand pat in terms of player transactions, I think they should give Thabeet at least 20 mins a game -- especially during the preseason. Its not worthwhile to sign a vet at this point. The Rockets are not in a win now situation and the lack of talent at the center position throughout the league makes too hard to fulfill the need through any other means aside from the draft and future free agency.
He doesn't deserve to start and quite frankly it sends the wrong message to players that worked harder and are better than him. Hill deserves to start.
Hill is not awful. He has worked hard this offseason and his post work looks a lot better from the videos Clutch posted.
We are currently in a good position right now, despite all the doom and gloom about not getting this player or that player. We would have been in a very good position had we lost Scola and not Chuck. Nothing against Scola, just sayin'. We now have the chance to play our young guys and still compete. The way you get over the loss of Chuck is to add more defense in other areas of your starting lineup. Namely Thabeet and Williams instead of Bud. All Thabeet has to do is block shots, alter shots and dunk.
But if you start Thabeet, what message are you sending to the rest of the players? Clearly he doesn't deserve it. For God's sake, we were about to amnesty his ass.
