The Kenny Thomas Question

Tim Thomas behind some guy named Glen Robinson who can fall out of bed an get 20 a night. Kenny Thomas, Corliss, Gary Trent , and Malik Rose are the same type of players with very similar games. While Corliss was avg 15pts and 6 rebs with Sac, the team is clearly better with Peja at the 3. Rose replaces Robinson mnutes a lot, but they are a better team when Robonson has his game going. These guys arejust bench players who can take advantage of 2nd string guys for about 20minutes per night. I don't think Griffin, Thomas, or Taylor can play on the frontline effectively together and since Thomas makes the least and have the highest trade value, you move him. Griffin should challenge Taylor for the spot, but eventually settle for 25mins since Taylor will be in foul trouble anyway, Thomas really improved his play, but i think the future 3 of this team is not here yet, but can be acquired.

 

Rocket River-

I am 100% in agreement with you. I love KT. He's probably my favorite player on the team. The funny thing is that every year I sold him short on what he could do. When we drafted him, I thought he was going to suck, and it turned out he had some good footwork. His second year he really impressed me with his defense and his speed. Now in his third year, I've seen him develop his outside shot with some consistantcy and when he faces up on defenders, he's extreemly hard to stop. (By the way, if he did that more often and improved his foul shooting, he would average 18 a season)

After 3 seasons of watching this guy play, I'll never underestimate him again. He always seems to come back every year a better player. To be honest, I don't know how high his ceiling is, he keeps breaking through it every time someone builds one for him.

KT:
He knows how to box out and use his body to get inside position. He's very strong and quick.
= A good rebounder

He sticks on people like stink on sh*t. He can defend people 4 in. taller than him (I've seen him do it plenty of times). He is not too slow to guard 3's.
=A good defender

He has great footwork in the post. 4's can't guard him when he faces up on them. If he could develop better handels, he would kill 3's with his spin move.
=A good post player

He is developing a mid-range jumper. This is the first year he's hit it with some consistancy. He'll get better and can even develop a 3 pt. shot.
= Will become a good shooter

Needs a lot of work on his handels, and his passing, but those 2 things can be developed. Remember, to counteract those 2 negatives, he also blocks shots and steals the ball (A LOT).

Kenny Thomas is a coach's dream and a die-hard fan's favorite. He plays with heart, he plays big, and he keeps getting better. He can play the 3 or the 4. He's very versitile, that's why we need to keep him.

Mo's productivity will be a ? next year, so will Rices. Eddie is not a real 4 yet and we don't have a quality starter at the 3. In short, we have to keep Kenny cause he can provide stablity at either position.

Let's stop talking about trading Kenny away to get a 3 and lets start talking about trading Moochie away to get a 5.

 

Sorry to say I can never be happy with a 6'7(at best) PF in the West. In the East, Kurt Thomas can be a C. KT can be a PF, and one of the best ones. But the West? Consistently huge, better competition. I'd love to trade Mo, make Griff the starter, and KT the 6th man, but no one will take Mo yet. KT can never consistently defend SF's.


Rocket River, it seems you have a lot of "why do you people expect......" situations. Are you saying that all that is wrong but KT can for sure be our PF?


Super sub at BEST in the West.

Package KT, and our 2 picks for Yao Ming.

 

WHy would Horry or Cassel definitely be better players had they stayed here?

And saying the Barkley trade set us back is like saying the Astros trading for Randy Johnson set them back. True - probably, but something to complain about - only in retrospect, which doesn't help anything.

 

Rocket River,

It's VERY debatable to say that MoT is a sub at best. Mo T has a better offensive game, hustles just as much, and kept us in the 1st quarter of every game. Truth is, just the fact that Mo T can play C and has the body to go against other PF's in the West is enough to keep him here. Also, we CAN'T trade him. I'm not planning on seeing KT or Mo defend SF's. NONE of them can. But T-Mo is better at it.


I think we'd benefit from packaging KT's one night stand and contract with a bog contract for a good player, or with 2 picks for Ming.

 

Robert Horry was a huge underachiever for the Rockets, he only came through in the playoffs, which is all he does now for the Lakers. There's no way he would have turned into anything more than a roleplayer with the Rockets. Don't you remember the Sean Elliot trade?

If we had kept Sammy, I imagine we wouldn't have bothered with Francis. I prefer Francis over Cassell mainly because Stevie's the younger player and has more productive years in front of him.

I like KT a lot, but we have a logjam at PF. EG's ceiling is too high, and Mo's contract is too high, so that makes KT the expendable player...

 

Rocket River- We might find Rice to be exendable, but I don't think any team in the NBA would trade anything for him.

KT is a nice player. However, he is a guy who relies on having the ball in his hands to be able to contribute, something we don't need with our 3-guards.

Also, our system needs a SF to be able to keep the defenses honest by having consistent 3 pt shooting range. KT's jumper tops out at around 20-21 ft.

That extra 3-4 ft is vital for allowing Francis and Mobley to have the space to do their thing.

A large reason why we were so poor offensively is that we lacked guys who stretched the D. EG was too hot/cold. And Walt missed too many games.

If we have a SF who the other team must respect on the perimeter, that is one less guy that Francis and Mobley have to worry about coming on the double team.

 

Rice's contract is short. I think we can, in fact, find a taker for him, packaged with KT and a pick. Chicago is looking for veterans.

Let me show you why KT won't stay, other than the fact that he doesn't want to share minutes with 4 other players at 2 positions:


C: Cato, Collier

Willis will definitely play his last season on a playoff team. The Spurs maybe since Robinson needs a good backup these days. Collier? Not part of the mix. Cato will be here, as the starter or backup.

PF: Mo T, Griff, KT

Griff will get his time, because, well, he's one of our 3 cornerstones. Mo T will get his time simply because he's earned it in his first year here, and hasn't played after that to indicate that KT's better. Mo T also will be given the benefit of the doubt because he will have this thought planted in everyone's head: "Need playing time to get timing back". Where does KT fit in? He got pissed because Griffin started over him once. How about Griffin adn Mo?

SF: Rice, T Mo, KT(apparently)

There's no time here either. T-Mo has been showing flashes of being able to play here consistently. Rice will get his mintes, again, because he was playing on a bad knee so he hasn't proven anythign yet. If Rice and T-Mo combine for 40 minutes (minimum), that still leaves only 8 minutes. Torres will probably get some minutes here when we go small, as well as Cat.

SG: Cat, Torres

Cat leads the league in minutes I think. Enough said. He's Steve's best friend, and one of the cornerstones.

PG: Steve, Mooch

Steve is Steve. Enough said.





Looking at that, don't you see we have a log jam at the F spots? Plus we have 3 big contracts, Cato, Rice and Mo T. 2 draft picks coming in. Where does everyone go? KT can get his minutes elsewhere, while we can improve our team by adding a backup C (Ming will probably backup till he gets used to the NBA), and we can improve our financial situation by packaging KT with a big contract. I don't mind sending KT AND Mo T together for a backup PF and a C.

He's the odd man out, and his ceiling is limited because of his height. He's got to go.

1) KT, #5, #14, Mooch for Odom, Dooling

or

2) KT, #5, #14, Chicago obligation (2 2nd rounders) for Ming


Sometimes, less is better.

 

Alright,

Once again, I must restate my opinion that we don't need a SF, we need a center.

Right now, assuming we don't pick up a center in the off season, the 2 people playing the 5 are Collier and Cato. Collier is not good enough to play in the NBA and Cato can only play 22 minutes a game without gasping for air and gaging like a sick child. We are in bad shape at the 5. Night after night we have no inside presence.

Now, be that as it may, right now our roster for next year dictates that we will have to play Eddie and Mo at the 5 sometimes for limited minutes. Cato can only play 25 minutes, Willis is not resigning, so who is going to play the extra 25 minutes at the 5. Collier? Yea, right, I thought we were trying to win games next year.

So, it is obvious that some of our 4s will play out of position for limited action next year. That would be fine if we knew that Kenny would be here.

Also, Mo and Rice are comming off of serious injuries. That makes them extra suseptable to getting hurt again. We need a consistant 3/4 who can fill in if one of those guys goes down. That's why we need to keep Kenny. Lets trade Moochie, not Kenny. We would be fine with T. Brown as our backup PG. Steve plays like 42 minutes a game anyway and getting Moochie out of here is getting rid of a bloated contract.

 

I am tired of asking people to stay off the trading KT thing. I just wish I could somehow get quickly all my past post on this topic and just repost it. As far as I am concerned Sacramento and Dallas are two of the most talented teams. You just cannot be talented without depth. So where you see the word "logjam" think about it as depth.

It would seem to me that Collier is not going to be ready next year, unless he starts nailing those jumpers big time. Until that time, EG has to be penciled in to play non-Cato minutes at the 5. MoT and Tmo will handle the 4 and KT and Rice, the 3. This is the model and then variations off this are numerous.

Why Tmo at the 4, as back up? His numbers, on a per 48 mins basis ranks him right there with KT and EG for rebounding and blocks and his 2fg% only trails that of Cato and KT.

 

Aruba, I hear most of you points except trade moochie. We need the depth and T Brown is not enough.

 

Dear Rocket,

I am not all about trading Moochie. I just would rather trade him than Kenny. I agree with you, depth is the key. However, if I had to trade a player and my draftpicks for a good center, then I would trade Moochie instead of Kenny.

Also, how is Brown ever going to develop and become the player people think he can be if Francis and Mooch are in front of him. I think this kid has some real talent and that he could give us the production Moochie does at a percentage of the price if we only gave him the playing time.

But as for the front court issue, there's not even a debate. There is no logjam, just a lot of versitility. We need a center.......