Thabeet with the #4 Top Play . . .

[Prezidint]

Go to the 2 minute mark.
3 boards, a block, and this throw down in 13 minutes.
Is there life.
G-d, I love the hell out of seeing him develop into a 10/10 player.

http://www.nba.com/video/topplays/

 

[bobbygt]

3 things:

I didn't even know HT was on Portland!
It really would be great to see HT develop just a lil bit!
Charlie had top play #5

 

[JaYnYcE]

good for those guys. I thought the Pistons were going to pull a win out against Chicago yesterday.

 

[hooskies]

he's gunna get some good run going forward with aldridge out that team in shambles

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Thabeet has all the talent he needs to have a long NBA career. It is just a question of desire.

 

[NOTaDIME]

Sounds familiar ...

 

[Mattydog]

Hash!!

 

[champs99and04]

Maybe I'm just being a homer, but I think Hasheem could have turned into a 10/10/3 guy if he had been drafted by the right team. Let's compare him to Serge Ibaka, both athletic, talented shot blockers from other countries. One was drafted by the Okahoma City Thunder, a team that has had great success developing young players, another by the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that has not had so much success in the draft (O.J. Mayo over Kevin Love anyone?).

Rookie seasons (per 36 minutes of play)

Ibaka: 12.5 points, 10.8 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, 5.3 personal fouls, 54% shooting

Thabeet: 8.5 points, 9.9 rebounds, 3.6 blocks, 6.6 personal fouls, 59% shooting

Relatively similar, right? Overall you'd have to give the edge to Ibaka, but Thabeet was a more potent shot blocker and better from the field. Thabeet fouled at an alarming rate, but Ibaka showed the tendency to be a little bit over-zealous as well. Obviously it is tough to stay on the court when you're fouling so much, but considering the Grizz weren't very good in 09-10, why not continue to take your lumps with Thabeet, hoping he'll get better?

The Thunder showed patience with a raw shot blocker in Ibaka, and it has paid off. His minutes went up, and his fouls went down. Currently he's one of the best defenders in the league and playing a big role for arguably the best team in the league.

When they each entered the league, Thabeet was probably the best shot blocker in some time. Although he struggled in his rookie year, he certainly showed flashes of being a great shot blocker. It isn't uncommon for great college shot blockersto foul a lot early in their career. They are used to giving up nothing easy, but sometimes in the NBA, you have to give up the easy layup rather than fouling. Ibaka got a lot better in this area, and if the Grizzlies hadn't kicked Thabeet to the curb a year and a half into his career, I think he would have as well.

Hopefully Thabeet continues to get his opportunity with the Blazers, as Aldridge is hurt and Camby should be retiring soon. Call me crazy, but I still think he has a ceiling as a 10/12/4 type guy.

 

[partial]

The problem from what little I have seen of Hasheem in the NBA is that he has poor defensive awareness. If they just parked him in the middle and let him try to block everything I think he would look good, but no nba team is going to build a defense around him. Plus he doesn't have a motor so he's never going to look fantastic 3 minutes at a time, but I'm pretty sure he's better than Joel Pryzbilla(who is starting for Portland at center) so hopefully he gets some more minutes.

 

[champs99and04]

You have to wonder why a team like the Miami Heat wouldn't have given Thabeet a shot earlier in the year when he didn't have a home. Their starting center right now is freakin Ronny Turiaf.

You're telling me the Heat couldn't use a guy who can protect the rim, rebound the basketball, and hand out some hard fouls?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I still have faith in Hasheem. Based in nothing in particular other than the fact I really loved the guy when he was at UConn.

 

[Huskies4ever]

I still have faith in Hasheem. Based in nothing in particular other than the fact I really loved the guy when he was at UConn.

That was a nice play. He needs to be aggressive like that more often.

 

[Dann]

a CV sighting followed by a Hsah sighting!

 

[aceboon]

You have to wonder why a team like the Miami Heat wouldn't have given Thabeet a shot earlier in the year when he didn't have a home. Their starting center right now is freakin Ronny Turiaf.

You're telling me the Heat couldn't use a guy who can protect the rim, rebound the basketball, and hand out some hard fouls?

He did have a home, he was on the Rockets on his rookie contract and then was traded to the Blazers for Camby. I would also take Turiaf and the corpse of Juwan Howard 7 days out of the week over Hasheem. As for your Ibaka/Thabeet comparison, numbers are nice, but they don't tell the story as far as what happens when they're on the floor. You simply can't keep Hasheem on the floor for extended periods of time. He has no defensive awareness/instincts on positioning now that he can't park himself in the lane like he did in college. He also still has no idea how to box out and position himself for rebounds. So what you have is a player with no offense who is also a liability on the end of the floor that you hoped he would contribute on when initially drafted. The Grizzlies had Randolph @ PF and a blossoming Gasol @ C, you don't leave Thabeet out on the floor to cost yourself games when you have those two guys out there at those positions. Plus they also played alot of possessions with Randolph @ C when they brought Darrell Arthur in off the bench to play PF, who is also a much better player than Hasheem. , just from watching the two play Hasheem wasn't even an upgrade over Haddidi. I guess you can say maybe he would've better off drafted to a team that didn't already have a stud @ C but I don't see anything changing through the course of his career, he just has no clue what he's doing out there. I obviously have no idea what level of work he's put in through practice/film room on his game outside of actual games but he doesn't any look better than he did his rookie year and that's not a good sign.

 

[uconnbill]

Nice to see two UConn players in the highlights not named, Allen, Gordon, Butler or Hamilton.

 

[Prezidint]

Watched a bit of the Port/PHX game last night.
Thabeet's two main problems, as alluded to above, are that 1. His positioning is terrible. He doesn't move quickly, he doesn't seem to know where to be, and he's usually away from the ball. and 2. He doesn't play with any urgency.
As much as I'd love to see a turnaround, I'm pretty sure you can't teach 2, and 1 seems to come very unnaturally for him, albeit he hasn't been playing long.
In his first stint on the floor, each play on offense he was content to set the high screen, roll to the FT line, and then sort of mill about 8-10 feet from the basket until the shot went up. His guy would slouch off him, knowing that HT was not going to move strongly to the basket when the ball went up. Shame, really. Just a bit of killer desire in that body would go a loooooooong way.