Freshman Amida vs. Freshman Thabeet

[UConnPuneet]

People's openings of Thabeet have been negatively affected by his lack of an NBA impact.

Make no mistake, HT was a monster defensively at UConn and one of our best centers ever.

Amida has shown flashes, but people are vastly underrating HT even as a freshman.

Agree. I consider Thabeet as a borderline Top 10 JC era guy. After the big five (DM, RA, RH, EO, KW) and the next three (CS, CB, BG), you could make as good a case for him as anyone else.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Agree. I consider Thabeet as a borderline Top 10 JC era guy. After the big five (DM, RA, RH, EO, KW) and the next three (CS, CB, BG), you could make as good a case for him as anyone else.

Agree with your post and top 8 list ( never saw Chris Smith or really Donyell but their reputations speak for themselves).

For spots 9 and 10, if someone said any combo of Shabazz, Hasheem or El Amin it
would be tough ( but fun) to debate their merits.

Even though the 2009 squad made the final four, I sometimes feel like they are underrated or forgotten.

I guess when you have 3 national titles it's easy to do that.

 

[UConnPuneet]

Even though the 2009 squad made the final four, I sometimes feel like they are underrated or forgotten.

It's the one FF I went to. I take full responsibility.

 

[Strummer]

Agree. I consider Thabeet as a borderline Top 10 JC era guy.

After his 3rd year. After his 1st year he was still not very good, and I don't think many BYers thought he'd end up leading the the team to the FF in 2 more years. He was 6/6/4 after one year, and extremely raw looking, with terrible hands and questionable desire. My main recollection of Thabeet his 1st year was his inability to hold onto the ball and his apparent preference for laying it up rather than dunking. He'd constantly flub the ball.

I suppose my thought here is that Brimah's heart will more than make up for whatever he lacks in size relative to HT.

 

[Excalibur]

Thabeet was better defensively by a very wide margin. Thabeet was a game-changing defensive presence from the time he first stepped on the court. Guards just wouldn't try to score in the paint when he was in the game. He was also a better one on one post defender. Brimah blocks shots, but even average bigs are able to score on him in the post and guards seem more willing to attack him -- probably because he's just not as physically imposing as Thabeet was.

However, Brimah has better hands, touch, and offense footwork than Thabeet did as a freshman. If he gets stronger and continues to develop, I could picture him being Sam Dalembert with a better offensive game.

 

[James]

He does have a body like dalembert , struggled to think of a comp. honestly I'm perplexed by brimah, he put up 10 / 8 and 2 blocks vs Rutgers effortlessly. Also a nice jump shot, dunks everything. I can't tell if he's anatomically an NBA player or not, then you see his absurd speed for a 7 footer ...

 

[Deleted member 3149]

very cool topic for a thread. Not sure that i'm ready to choose one over the other yet, but I must say I like what Amida is becoming.

 

[Rico444]

All I know is, I love that this guy who we figured would play only in garbage time this year, and hopefully become a solid center as a junior and senior, is being compared to the guy who got drafted as high as anyone else in our program's history less than one season into his career. I just hope he stays healthy, because he's going to be a big-time contributor for the next few years.

 

[Henry]

Brimah. Thabeet was tall and could block shots but he had terrible hands and couldn't shoot free throws to save his life. Brimah has good hands and has been able to execute the alley oop. Also, he has shown some ability with the short jumper and putbacks around the basket.

 

[TheChamps990411]

I was never sold on Thabeet and couldnt believe he went #2. I figured he`d be a servicable back up or a starter on a bad team but that never really happened. I think his motivation was his biggest problem.

 

[nomar]

Thabeet was better defensively by a very wide margin. Thabeet was a game-changing defensive presence from the time he first stepped on the court. Guards just wouldn't try to score in the paint when he was in the game. He was also a better one on one post defender. Brimah blocks shots, but even average bigs are able to score on him in the post and guards seem more willing to attack him -- probably because he's just not as physically imposing as Thabeet was.

However, Brimah has better hands, touch, and offense footwork than Thabeet did as a freshman. If he gets stronger and continues to develop, I could picture him being Sam Dalembert with a better offensive game.

I agree. I'd also say that Brimah looks more fluid than Hasheem (and Emeka) looked as a freshman. The way he brings the ball straight up and dunks it, as well as his smooth stroke from the FT line, give me some hope. I really thought Emeka could break through in the NBA, but while he became competent offensively, he never could shake free of that mechanical form.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I kind of don't get the free throw argument.

AB: 16/26 - 62%
HT: 59/115 - 51%

So, even if AB shot as " bad" as freshman HT it would've cost us a whopping 3 points over 20 games so far. That's basically negligible.

HT was a force defensively. Most teams could come nowhere near the lane when he was in the game.

 

[nomar]

I kind of don't get the free throw argument.

AB: 16/26 - 62%
HT: 59/115 - 51%

So, even if AB shot as " bad" as freshman HT it would've cost us a whopping 3 points over 20 games so far. That's basically negligible.

HT was a force defensively. Most teams could come nowhere near the lane when he was in the game.

Form. Free throw form. Frankly I'm shocked Hasheem hit 50% as a freshman. At the FT line he looked like a blind man having an epileptic fit.

 

[BearJWS]

Wait, this past summer everyone was saying Kentan Facey was our starting Center or Nolan is much better than Brimah will ever be. Then I said, I thought Amida Brimah would end up being our Center of the Future by end of season because of his length, athletic abilities & desire, which are unteachable... Then I was mocked with statements like "Brimah wouldn't contribute til his Junior/Senior seasons" or "Brimah only looked good because he played in a horrible High School league and wasn't that athletic" and even someone telling me "Brimah would be a Redshirt candidate in normal years"... now Brimah is up for debate with Thabeet based on potential... Nice!

That said, Thabeet was much more massive than Brimah as a freshman. Thabeet got his blocks & rebounds on sheer size. Thabeet's feet were & still are very slow (plus he keeps his hands low on defense, Grrr). Brimah is much more fluid & much better athletically. Brimah's thirst for the game is apparent. Yeah, Brimah makes mistakes, but his mistakes are because he's always playing hard & trying hard, not because he's laid back, which Thabeet was. I think Brimah leaves UConn as a Top 5-10 pick when leaves. Yeah, call me out again... But size, athletic abilities & desire are what NBA drafts players on.

 

[Huskybass]

I like Brimah's upside much better. He is going to be an absolute beast in a couple years.

 

[Pmurph678]

Wow, people forget how great Thabeet was for us. Might be the most underrated player we've ever had.

Best player on one of our best teams ever. Brimah's ceiling IS Thabeet!

 

[David 76]

Never mind potential. You put freshman Thabeet on this team and we are ranked.

 

[DOZE860]

AB has better touch around the basket, along with better hands..HT was a better defender and shot blocker and rebounder early on , so right now i say its a wash, with AB with a higher ceiling. AB def needs to put on 15 lbs of muscle and get stronger, where HT had a better body, but needed to work on his touch around the basket

 

[ConnHuskBask]

To everyone saying AB has a higher ceiling than HT, just so you know what your saying:

2009 HT: National defensive player of the year, co-Big East player of the year, 2nd team all American and the defensive anchor on a final four team.

Just saying.

 

[Excalibur]

To everyone saying AB has a higher ceiling than HT, just so you know what your saying:

2009 HT: National defensive player of the year, co-Big East player of the year, 2nd team all American and the defensive anchor on a final four team.

Just saying.

I don't think that Brimah will ever be the defensive presence that Thabeet was. He certainly could end up being a better player offensively.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I don't think that Brimah will ever be the defensive presence that Thabeet was. He certainly could end up being a better player offensively.

He may develop better post moves, but don't forget HT averaged nearly 14 points a game his junior season on 64% FGs. The majority of these were dunks or garbage buckets but the point being, you're going to have a hard time matching that efficiency.

I also want to say I love AB and think he'll be a great player for UConn. Just think people are so quick to forget just how awesome and what a game changer HT was here.

 

[Dmike]

Love the debate. Thabeet was the better freshman thus far in the season because AB has been very inconsistent, but that being said AB is stepping up his game. This is a better team than the '07/'08 team that had no upperclassmen leadership (Adrien was a soph.) and didn't even make the NIT. That being said, I think that next year will be the true comparison. HT was a monster his Sophomore year and Brimah will have a summer to digest this season. We'll know then whether he will challenge to be one of the greats at UCONN, like HT, or simply a solid contributor. Its simply too early to tell.

 

[ctchamps]

And here I thought this was going to be a statement by the op about how both players are prone to falling a lot. You just can't take the soccer out of guys!

AB has put together two great games in the last five games. That's not enough to consider his freshman resume close to HT's freshman resume. But it will be interesting to see how he develops over the remainder of this season and in the future. If he starts having the majority of the remaining games like UCF and Temple, then the comparison gets closer.

As players go, I'm with those who put HT as the superior defender and AB with better hands, keeps the ball over his head where the munchkins can't get the ball, and has more offensive repertoire to his game. And the latter two things were not there at the beginning of this season so he's probably a quicker learner than HT. Doesn't have the build that HT had but he could end up with a better game.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Can someone point me to this jump shot that Brimah made? I have no recollection of that. It sounds wonderful. I think he's thrown in a couple awkward looking jump hooks.

The one bad habit Hasheem had to be cured of was putting the ball down on the floor before going up with it, Brimah doesn't have that issue. I seem to recall Hasheem being a rim protector from day one though. Brimah shows a knack for blocking shots, but Hasheem got to everything.

 

[Gringo]

Can someone point me to this jump shot that Brimah made? I have no recollection of that. It sounds wonderful. I think he's thrown in a couple awkward looking jump hooks.

The one bad habit Hasheem had to be cured of was putting the ball down on the floor before going up with it, Brimah doesn't have that issue. I seem to recall Hasheem being a rim protector from day one though. Brimah shows a knack for blocking shots, but Hasheem got to everything.

I agree that Thabeet is a better defender as Brimah gets pushed around a lot and needs to rebound better, but if you look at their blocks divided by minutes played Brimah actually has a better ratio.

Thabeet's freshman year he had 118 blocks in 762.6 minutes.....Blocks / minutes = .15
Brimah has 52 blocks in 298 minutes.....Blocks / minutes =.17

Brimah blocks a higher percentage of shots on a per minute basis.