Tristan Thompson

[RedBlackAttack]

Tristan looks better now than he did last night. Last night it was just the Bobcats, but now he's got a double double in the first half against one of the best defensive C's in the league who he's matched up with most of the time.

Yep... He is giving Asik absolute fits on the boards so far. Omer averages 12 rebounds a game.

Right now, Tristan is winning that battle 10-4, and that includes 6 offensive rebounds by Tristan.

He is really looking good out there. You can see the confidence just in the way he carries himself. It is oozing off of him. What an absolutely glorious development for the future of our franchise the last 10 games have been.

[mds]

TriThomp looks pretty good tonight!

[Triplethreat]

Tristan is developing at an alarmingly fast rate from where he was a year ago.

Starting to get that little baby hook/floater in the lane, hitting free throws and boarding like a mad man. Love what we're getting from him as of late and hope he can keep it up.

[jlegg21]

I was pretty rough on the kid early, but I gotta admit, he's done better lately. Let's see if it continues, but I'm encouraged.

[Lottery God]

Tristan just shat all over the Rockets tonight with his activeness in rebounding and being a great cog in the offense. I don't care what anyone else says, but it's quickly becoming clearer to me with every game that Tristan will be an elite-level rebounder if he's already averaging like 13 rebounds a game (with Varejao out) while only being 21.

Tristan's just looking so composed out there. He doesn't look awkward or anything. Like literally every last aspect of his game has improved tremendously since Varejao got injured.

I hope Varejao gets traded so we can focus on Tristan being the PF of the future for us.

I think it's too early to say that Tristan is going to be worth more in a trade than he is on our team. What if he averages 15ppg/15rpg/2apg/1-2bpg with great defense in the future? Since Varejao has been out, he's not that far off of those averages.

He's starting to shot a decent face-up game despite having no jump shot. Imagine if he did add a jump shot. With his recent free throw improvements, I have some more confidence now that he can add a jumper to his game.

[mhi]

Please for god's sake move AV by THIS deadline.

[nime]

Alex Len 7'1 center 7'5wingspan. He has great size with good athletiscm all scouts and numbers back it up say he will be a great rebounder and he is a good shot blacker just need to add some weight. But the thing that we will love and compliments TT is his jumpshot. He has shot it in college very well and has great mechanics.

Len is my pick as well. He so far looks like a better version of Brook Lopez. He is a true center and perfect guy to match with T2.

[Rich]

So, since Varejao has been out, he's been better than Faried. As if that matters, but since people were all over Faried's nuts earlier in the year, just thought they'd like to know.

[Lottery God]

Len is my pick as well. He so far looks like a better version of Brook Lopez. He is a true center and perfect guy to match with T2.

I like Len a ton, but I'm not so sure if he is the absolute BPA. If a wing like Shabazz ends up being BPA and we're in range to take him, I say that we do so. Austin and Len are looking like they could both be good picks for us since they both can his a jumper. My dream is to get another top 5 or 10 pick so that we can get Shabazz and one of Len or Austin.

So, since Varejao has been out, he's been better than Faried. As if that matters, but since people were all over Faried's nuts earlier in the year, just thought they'd like to know.

If he ends up being better than Faried, I think it's safe to say that we got the two best players of the draft. Right now, Tristan is looking like he could be the 2nd best player in the draft. If this ends up happening, then Grant has to look like a genius with his pick of Tristan despite all of the haters out there even up until 2-3 weeks ago (and some even now!).

[Lottery God]

I was bored, so I compared Tristan's stats from before and after Anderson went down.

Here are Tristan's stats before Andy went down for the season:

8.3 ppg/7.7 rpg/1 apg/.8 spg/.6 bpg on 46.6% shooting (3.5 makes on 7.4 attempts on average) and 55.4% on free-throws (1.4 makes on 2.5 attempts on average) in 29.2 minutes per game.

His per 36 stats are as follows:

10.2 ppg/9.5 rpg/1.2 apg/1 spg/.7 bpg, 46.6% shooting (4.3 makes on 9.1 attempts on average) and 55.4% on free-throws (1.7 makes on 3.1 attempts on average).

Here are Tristan's stats over the past 9 games as of now:

13.2 ppg/12.9 rpg/.8 apg/.2 spg/1.1 bpg on 50% shooting (4.9 makes on 9.8 attempts on average) and 72.1% on free-throws (3.4 makes on 4.8 attempts on average) in 36.5 minutes per game.

His per 36 stats are as follows:

13 ppg/12.7 rpg/.8 apg/.2 spg/1.1 bpg on 50% shooting (4.8 makes on 9.6 attempts on average) and 72.1% on free-throws (3.4 makes on 4.7 attempts on average).

That's an increase of 2.8 more points, 3.4 more rebounds, .4 less assists, .8 less steals, and .4 more blocks more per 36 minutes for Tristan while improving his FG% by 3.4% (despite taking .5 more shots per 36 minutes) and FT% by 16.7% in addition to taking 1.6 more FT attempts per game.

That's damn impressive compared to the earlier part of his season. These stats show that he's more able to get his shots to go in and at a higher rate. On top of this, his rebound has markedly improved. Other than for his assists an steals, he's by all accounts just short of averaging what Varejao (14.1 pts/14.4 reb/3.4 ast/1.5 stl/.6 blk per 36 on 47.8% shooting and 75.5% on FTs) is currently averaging (and even beating him in some stats such as FG% and BPG) these past 9 games.

Tristan's stats these past 9 games are also almost on part with Kenneth Faried's per 36 numbers (14.9 pts/12.3 reb/1 ast/1.3 stl/1 blk on 52.9% shooting and 59.4% on FTs) although Tristan has been averaging 7.2 more minutes per game than Faried has all season, so who is to say if Faried's per 36 numbers would stay the same if he were given that many more minutes per game. Don't forget that Tristan's also about 1 year, 4 months younger than Faried. While Faried's numbers have overall regressed from last season (PER went from 21.9 last season to 19.1 so far this season), Tristan looks as though he's finally putting things together and could surpass Faried soon as the 2nd-best player in the 2011 draft.

If he can keep this up and even improve upon this over the years, we could have our power forward of the future especially if he can add a jumper to his game. I have faith in TT based on his significant improvements in his FTs.

Oh, and Andy needs to be moved.

[Baseline Runner]

Tristan has been good and had a career game against the Rockets. But you are forgetting that Andy was doing what Tristan just did against the Rockets, or even better, nearly every game he played this year. The improvement of Tristan has been an exciting development, but it has nothing to do as to whether Andy should be traded or not. That depends on if we get a good enough deal for him. The type of deal where we get #8 pick in a weak draft and a marginal young prospect doesn't cut it. If Grant and Co. thought that was enough for Andy, he would have already been traded by now.

[randymoss1881]

Len is my pick as well. He so far looks like a better version of Brook Lopez. He is a true center and perfect guy to match with T2.

Ya Gortat with a jumpshot. Really hope we could do the OKC trade (without J.Lamb) cause when you take the raptors pick (5-12) and add the lakers pick we would be able to trade up to get otto porter, that would be awsome.

[Lottery God]

Tristan has been good and had a career game against the Rockets. But you are forgetting that Andy was doing what Tristan just did against the Rockets, or even better, nearly every game he played this year. The improvement of Tristan has been an exciting development, but it has nothing to do as to whether Andy should be traded or not. That depends on if we get a good enough deal for him. The type of deal where we get #8 pick in a weak draft and a marginal young prospect doesn't cut it. If Grant and Co. thought that was enough for Andy, he would have already been traded by now.

I am forgetting what Andy has been doing all year? That's a rather silly statement when I literally listed Anderson's production thus far this season in the post to which you are responding.

[Daniel89]

This cant be pointed out enough... He's shooting 70% on free throws in his last 10 games... Who would have thought his form improves so drastically, hopefully he keeps this up, it's pretty amazing that he's even knocking down pressured free throws in the clutch

[440]

Tristan has been good and had a career game against the Rockets. But you are forgetting that Andy was doing what Tristan just did against the Rockets, or even better, nearly every game he played this year. The improvement of Tristan has been an exciting development, but it has nothing to do as to whether Andy should be traded or not. That depends on if we get a good enough deal for him. The type of deal where we get #8 pick in a weak draft and a marginal young prospect doesn't cut it. If Grant and Co. thought that was enough for Andy, he would have already been traded by now.

Andy is 30 and has been in the league 9 years, Tristan is 21. It took Andy until his 7th season to even average what Tristan is this year. TT's the future and he is obviously a lot more comfortable without Andy out there screaming at him whenever he steals a rebound from him. I love Andy but he needs to go.