The Painted Area: What If Thomas Robinson Just Isn't That Good?

It's impossible to say whether he's good or not at this point given the situation he was forced to endure in Sacramento.

 

I agree with the article, and I think DM also has his doubts.

IMHO, I think this was a good trade for both teams.

Sacramento - got a guy that fits better with a low post player like Cousins, and someone to shepherd Demarcus with his professionalism.

Houston - took a shot on a high draft pick, but had higher upside guys sitting on the bench behind Patterson in Dmo and Tjones - so essentially lost a little stability but gained playing time to discover how far guys they had could go - and if TRob pans out, all the better.

I don't think either party got over on the other one, and that it is a situation that fits both teams now and going forward.

DD

 

If he is not that good, we are still a great PF away from being a contender. PPat is decent, but replaceable by DMO / Tjones / Thomas.

 

Even if he isn't that good, this trade may be addition by subtraction. Dmo gets his spot in the rotation and Tjones might as well. I think out of Dmo, Tjones, and Trob, one of those three players will end up better than Patrick Patterson.

I think that's a good bet from Daryl Morey.

 

Then we have D-mo

problem solved

 

Thomas Robinson not being that good, means that Motiejunas or Terrance Jones or maybe even Royce White will be the starting Power Forward before season's end. No big loss, except maybe we wind up on the outside of the playoff race but that was a danger whether this move was made or not.

 

The team will practice tomorrow, if I am not mistaken. Maybe we can get a little feedback from Jason or Jonathan after the practice.

 

If T-Rob completely bust it means it's basically a net zero trade, since Patterson is unlikely to change the Kings for the better anyway. (not because he's not good, but because it's so messed up right now that no 1 player can achieve that.)

Given that the Rockets have managed to make something out of nothing at a rather amazing rate over the last couple years (see Smith / Beverly / Anderson as examples, they all have above average PER right now and were essentially classified in the trash bin just a couple years ago.) the odds that they can't develop Robinson into anything useful at all seems to be pretty low.

 

From what I read, Thomas Robinson's height (6' 7.75"without shoes, 6' 8.75" with shoes, seems shorter than Parsons ) is the only concern. He doesn't have much offensive games yet, but his rebounding and block is decent already. The worst case, we could use him as the backup PF who mainly gets us rebounds and defense.

Or we could use him to be in a trade package to get us the second superstar. It's not like we already paid him big contract. 3.4 mill for this season and 3.5 mill for next season, I would say reasonable price.

Plus, we have D-Mo! We already saw what he could do. The only area he needs to improve is the defense and with time and experience I believe he will get there (his rebounding and boxing out and hustles was pretty good yesterday, very promising).

All good. No worries.

 

As Morey said in the presser after the trade (paraphrasing) - our top priority is to win a championship, our second priority after that is to make the playoffs this year.

Morey knew Patterson is not a championship caliber starting PF. Maybe we have a championship caliber starting PF on the roster - maybe it's DMO, maybe it's T-JONES, maybe it's Royce White. Maybe it's even Thomas Robinson.

But I think the possibility that we have a championship PF currently on the roster is less important that the obvious truth that Patrick Patterson is not a championship PF, and therefore must be chucked out to see if the next one is.

Relentless pursuit of a championship contending team. Gotta be the only way.

 

He better be good after I took all that heat for him!

 

Like others have said, if he does not look to be panning out, we have a number of other guys on the roster of which hopefully at least 1 will. And it still looks like we will be trying to sign a good PF this off-season anyways so T-Rob really is a low risk gamble for the team as a whole.

 

But I heard he was hung like a horse so he must be a baller.

 

We were probably not going to resign PPatt, Marcus Morris, Toney Douglas anyways.

And the guy was a #5 pick for a reason. A worst, he will be a very good rebounder.

 

Exactly...according to his draft profile he defends the post very well also. He's improved his free throw shooting a ton in three years, so considering we weren't going to resign the player we traded for him, the upside is def worth the almost nil risk. If we started this guy tomorrow and gave him 35 mpg, he'd give us 8-10 ppt and 11-12 rpg. He isn't even 22 yet, and will improve, so at WORST, this was a pretty good trade.

 

Bottom line: He's a very good rebounder who can play some defense and run the break well - Almost zero bust possibility and can be a rotational player at worst.

However, People who want him to be Faried v2 will be disappinted. Faried has a better standng reach and better nostep vertical, which enables him to play above the rim and finish much better.

Top Line: Trob improved his shooting all through his college years(still not that good now though). If he can develop it further along with the handle(pretty good for a 4 right now), he'll be a great stretch 4 or dominant 3, because he has elite speed and lateral quickness to defend on the perimeter(unlike Morris who can't defend 3's).

Fine flooring with high upside(allstar at best IMO).

On the other hand, Ppat is still 23 years old, and I believe he has very good upside as well. Injury concern for him makes this trade a winner for us at this point.

 

eh..low risk move..even if he doesn't amount to much, this will not kill us.

 

Frees up time for D-Mo, anything else is gravy.