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Tristan Thompson

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narbar32 said:
I was feeling so damn guilty about posting positive thoughts about Tristan. I need to shit on something. The repeated mentions of Olajuwon have offered me such an opportunity.

I know you prefaced by saying it seems stupid to compare the two (Cavatt's caveat :chuckles:), but there have just been far too many references to the Dream in the past couple of pages to ignore. Now, I was only like 2 years old during Olajuwon's rookie year, but I know he came out swinging, averaging (off the top of my head after looking it up) 20.6 pts, 11.9 boards, 1.4 assists, 1.2 steals, and 2.7 blocks in 35.5 minutes per game. Perhaps it's just my own ignorance, but I can't think of ever hearing the notion that Olajuwon entered the league especially raw for a rookie, and the numbers would seem to suggest the opposite, actually. I do know that I was constantly amazed by Olajuwon when I did get to see him later on, and highlights and reputation support the idea that his ability to handle the ball was guard-like in addition to having one of the most advanced and polished post games ever in the history of the NBA. And he could shoot, too.

I know many are just saying that some of Tristan's moves have been Olajuwon-esque, especially given his use of the hook, but Tristan isn't putting up numbers, even per 36, that are even remotely comparable to even just Olajuwon's rookie season, nor is he even hinting at the sort of All-time, best-ever level of skill, coordination and buttery smoothness that Olajuwon had. And that's okay. If anything, he's looking a lot more like post-Lebron Varejao than I ever thought he would, with a damn effective mix of clumsiness and awkwardness and finesse, skill, and touch resulting in made baskets.
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I'm glad you said it, and said it well. TT has been fantastic, but this whole Dream comp has to stop, people. Please. I get that there are a bunch of people who feel the need to gloat that they always believed in the kid even when he looked like he had 2 left hands and feet, but let's not go overboard. Hakeem was smooth as silk and more polished than a hooker's favorite John's knob. The Hakeem thing is hyperbole x10.
 
Olajuwon was 22 years old when he came into the league. Tristan will be 22 years old next season. Tristan is not just in a hot streak. He is demonstrating improvement in his fundamentals. Lately tristan is scoring 17 points a game. It is conceivable that Tristan is only going to get better, and he could be a 20 point scorer next season, like Olajuwon in his rookie season.
 
No one thought TT could be our #2 option on offense. I'm starting to think there will be competition between he and dion for that title
 
Jon said:
I've got to imagine at some point teams will start doubling Tristan when he puts the ball on the floor. No longer the blackhole he used to be, he seems like he'll be ready to deal with it.
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Tristan's shown some surprising court awareness and has had his fair share of nice assists, so when the doubles come, I agree that he should be ready.

Man, to have a kid that's turning into something of a reliable post scorer, who also has good eyes to pass out of the post, that's worth every penny of a #4 pick.
 
narbar32 said:
I was feeling so damn guilty about posting positive thoughts about Tristan. I need to shit on something. The repeated mentions of Olajuwon have offered me such an opportunity.

I know you prefaced by saying it seems stupid to compare the two (Cavatt's caveat :chuckles:), but there have just been far too many references to the Dream in the past couple of pages to ignore. Now, I was only like 2 years old during Olajuwon's rookie year, but I know he came out swinging, averaging (off the top of my head after looking it up) 20.6 pts, 11.9 boards, 1.4 assists, 1.2 steals, and 2.7 blocks in 35.5 minutes per game. Perhaps it's just my own ignorance, but I can't think of ever hearing the notion that Olajuwon entered the league especially raw for a rookie, and the numbers would seem to suggest the opposite, actually. I do know that I was constantly amazed by Olajuwon when I did get to see him later on, and highlights and reputation support the idea that his ability to handle the ball was guard-like in addition to having one of the most advanced and polished post games ever in the history of the NBA. And he could shoot, too.

I know many are just saying that some of Tristan's moves have been Olajuwon-esque, especially given his use of the hook, but Tristan isn't putting up numbers, even per 36, that are even remotely comparable to even just Olajuwon's rookie season, nor is he even hinting at the sort of All-time, best-ever level of skill, coordination and buttery smoothness that Olajuwon had. And that's okay. If anything, he's looking a lot more like post-Lebron Varejao than I ever thought he would, with a damn effective mix of clumsiness and awkwardness and finesse, skill, and touch resulting in made baskets.
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I think the reference is to Olajuwon's college days. He redshirted as a freshman, then barely played his 2nd season. After that, he worked with Moses Malone to improve his game and showed a big jump the following year at the number of years post High School that Tristan is at now. Like Olajuwon benefiting from working with Moses, it seems pretty clear that Tristan has benefited from having Z here.
 
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Let me dig up this most from New Years Eve--

Douglar said:
Three things holding Tristan's PER back this season:
  1. When he played with Andy, coach was having Tristan focus on blocking out, not getting boards. I think that's a great idea, because it pads Andy's stats and makes Thompson work on one of his weak areas.
  2. While his shooting and free throws have improved a lot, he's still too inefficient. If he starts sinking 1/2 his shots and 70% of his free throws, his per will shoot up fast
  3. His usage rate is way down this season because of Zeller and Varejao. PER favors players with high usage rates.
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Tristan!! Mission accomplished!! Your PER has gone about 4 points in 5 weeks. Awesome.

I don't event know what to ask him to work on next other than defense.
 
is there any way to find out what his PER has been since the first of the year? Actually I'd be curious to know what that is for both Tristan and Kyrie?
 
oasis05 said:
Olajuwon was 22 years old when he came into the league. Tristan will be 22 years old next season. Tristan is not just in a hot streak. He is demonstrating improvement in his fundamentals. Lately tristan is scoring 17 points a game. It is conceivable that Tristan is only going to get better, and he could be a 20 point scorer next season, like Olajuwon in his rookie season.
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Also Hakeem played 3 seasons in the NCAA improving quite a bit each season. Anyway, I think the only comparison here is that with hard work and the development of some moves that nobody saw coming from a player so raw that great things can happen.
 
oasis05 said:
Olajuwon was 22 years old when he came into the league. Tristan will be 22 years old next season. Tristan is not just in a hot streak. He is demonstrating improvement in his fundamentals. Lately tristan is scoring 17 points a game. It is conceivable that Tristan is only going to get better, and he could be a 20 point scorer next season, like Olajuwon in his rookie season.
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The only sense in which they are comparable offensively is that TT's footwork close to the basket, and that push shot, are looking much more graceful than they did before. But that's really it. Olajuwon had that monster turnaround/fadeway that he could hit from the baseline that was absolutely devastating. If you didn't play him tight, he'd kill you with that shot, and if you challenged him, he'd move right passed you and score with a pretty dizzying array of shots.

TT's push shot is nice, but that's just one tiny bit of what Hakeen had in his arsenal.
 
That's right. There is greatness in Tristan. Hard work pays off.
 
narbar32 said:
I know many are just saying that some of Tristan's moves have been Olajuwon-esque, especially given his use of the hook, but Tristan isn't putting up numbers, even per 36, that are even remotely comparable to even just Olajuwon's rookie season, nor is he even hinting at the sort of All-time, best-ever level of skill, coordination and buttery smoothness that Olajuwon had. And that's okay. If anything, he's looking a lot more like post-Lebron Varejao than I ever thought he would, with a damn effective mix of clumsiness and awkwardness and finesse, skill, and touch resulting in made baskets.
Click to expand...

His game has been steady over the past month.

You can see the games where he will have trouble getting his awkward game to work. The OKC was trouble before it started for him because of their variety of BIGS and their commitment to sacrificing as a team on D to get stops. Not to mention Ibaka is just a quicker jumper than he is and can nullify the quick release that TT uses to get off the hooks and push shots, and then Perkins/Collison are good positional guys who work to nullify bigs with quickness moving around the painrt with the ball.

All of that said, his development is crazy since working with Z.

I cant help but lick my chops now watching Nerlens Noel and dreaming we can use assets to get him in Z's Big Man Offensive Camp:101

Hell... Ive even warmed up again to the idea of Len since watching Tristan over the past few weeks.

(insert this next thought for consistency)

If it takes Tristan being a chip to get ahold of Noel or Len, as a result of us playing ourselves into the rear of the lottery, I do it still.

Despite him showing progress and effectiveness, his awkwardness is still there and still lends itself to him having trouble with the right kind of defenders/the wrong frontcourt teammate taking up space.
 
RchfldCavRaised said:
His game has been steady over the past month.

You can see the games where he will have trouble getting his awkward game to work. The OKC was trouble before it started for him because of their variety of BIGS and their commitment to sacrificing as a team on D to get stops. Not to mention Ibaka is just a quicker jumper than he is and can nullify the quick release that TT uses to get off the hooks and push shots, and then Perkins/Collison are good positional guys who work to nullify bigs with quickness moving around the painrt with the ball.

All of that said, his development is crazy since working with Z.

I cant help but lick my chops now watching Nerlens Noel and dreaming we can use assets to get him in Z's Big Man Offensive Camp:101

Hell... Ive even warmed up again to the idea of Len since watching Tristan over the past few weeks.

(insert this next though for consistency)

If it takes Tristan being a chip to get ahold of Noel or Len, as a result of us playing ourselves into the rear of the lottery, I do it still.

Despite him showing progress and effectiveness, his awkwardness is still there and still lends itself to him having trouble with the right kind of defenders/the wrong frontcourt teammate taking up space.
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Haven't even thought of this yet Rch. Thanks for setting me up for more disappointment when he goes to a crappy team that won't develop him properly like we could have.
 
Rich said:
Does this matter? HOnestly, why in the world do we care how it looks? It's about whether or not its effective.
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It doesn't matter now that he is producing, but when he was playing awful, it kind of made some people (myself included) think that he just didn't have a feel for the game.

I'm looking forward to the first time where he goes for the righty hook across the lane, the defender anticipates it, and TT counters with a reverse spin/dropset to a slam.

He's playing fantastic, but I think he's going to have to continue developing counter-attacks and reading the defender.

He still isn't doing a lot of reacting to what the defender gives him, but he's definitely improving in that regard (had a few instances last night) and I have full faith that he will continue to do so.
 
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Comparing him to Hakeem seems very extreme, but Hakeem did not play basketball his entire life. He must have had periods of rapid improvement like TT because he became one of the most skilled players in the game. Going from not playing basketball at 15 to being in the conversation for top 5/10 C of all time is amazing, especially considering it was not just athleticism.

The big difference between raw prospects like Eyenga or Hickson and TT lies between the ears I think.
 
Douglar said:
Let me dig up this most from New Years Eve--



Tristan!! Mission accomplished!! Your PER has gone about 4 points in 5 weeks. Awesome.

I don't event know what to ask him to work on next other than defense.
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I know it's starting to nit pick, but how about his free throw rate? He ranks 160th in the NBA with 3.4 free throw attempts per 36 minutes, and his rate has actually dropped slightly during his recent stretch of good play. He's not shooting 30% from outside of the restricted area anymore, which combined with with his athleticism and uncanny handle should open up opportunities to attack the rim. Realistically speaking, he's going to have stretches where that flip shot just isn't falling, so I think it would help him a lot to get comfortable driving all the way to the basket, and to start looking to draw contact as he does so.

Not too long ago the free throw line was an unhappy place for Tristan, and I think this still shows in his game. Stop fearing the contact and go hard to the hoop!
 
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