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Tristan Thompson: Initial Thoughts

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Damn, what the hell is wrong with you guys? You're acting like this is the worst pick anyone could make, but given the circumstances (getting Irving at #1)... I don't mind this pick.

Apparently, he's a J.J. clone. That could be good or bad, but at least he can catch the ball. Good feet is good too. And he's athletic and got reach. But what if he has a bigger brain? What if he learns the discipline that J.J. did not? He can come off the bench and be productive or start and do the same thing. He may understand his value better too. He might be the real missing piece at power forward we need and not some big-headed fool.

Wait until everything plays out before making your final bets, folks. It's going to be a long off-season.


:spin:
 
What a bunch of chicken littles. We got the top player in this draft and you sound like a bunch of whiney bitches. At least this guy has a name we all can pronounce.
 
If JJ is traded for 2012 picks, then this is a great pick. Otherwise I'm bumfuckled by this.
Actually, that's still not true.

If the Cavs traded JJ for another 2012 pick, they could've just used the pick itself to get JJ's replacement. Anthony Davis, James McAdoo, Perry Jones, Jared Sullinger, Terrence Jones and John Henson are all better options than Thompson.

Oh and the Cavs still would've gotten Jonas....
 
What a bunch of chicken littles. We got the top player in this draft and you sound like a bunch of whiney bitches. At least this guy has a name we all can pronounce.

I love this attitude.

This is how it always at draft time. Some people have this idea that you simply are not allowed to criticize a pick at all. LIke you have to wait and give it time before you can say anything mean about the pick.

Ok, fine, then let's also remember not to praise the Irving pick either. Maybe he turns out to be a bust.

So, help me out. We have two of the top five picks and you're saying it's ok if we blow it one because we didn't blow it on the other? Why is that? I should be happy because I pronounce his name as opposed to getting a player I feel is better? That's silly.
 
The whining is ridiculous. I forgot all of you are freaking scouts. There are some positive points about this guy, and we freaking got Kyrie too!! Seriously, lame.

I'm a stat guy too, and he ranked 3rd best guy by Hollinger. That doesn't mean he'll be the 3rd best player, but it does mean he won't suck.
 
Rich said:
We have years before we contend, it's about the best available player right now..who cares if we have a hole at the 4 spot next year? So we draft Jonas and trade Hickson and are left with Saramdo to play the 4? So? Were we making the playoffs anyway? Were we making the playoffs the following year? No.

Exactly...filling in the PF spot should be the LAST priority in building a team. Serviceable 4s practically grow on trees....hell, they're available via Free Agency many times...and to take an undersized one on top of that?
 
Actually, that's still not true.

If the Cavs traded JJ for another 2012 pick, they could've just used the pick itself to get JJ's replacement. Anthony Davis, James McAdoo, Perry Jones, Jared Sullinger, Terrence Jones and John Henson are all better options than Thompson.

Oh and the Cavs still would've gotten Jonas....

And what makes you think Jonas will have a better career? Right now it's all conjecture, he shut down Williams who went second.
 
Actually, that's still not true.

If the Cavs traded JJ for another 2012 pick, they could've just used the pick itself to get JJ's replacement. Anthony Davis, James McAdoo, Perry Jones, Jared Sullinger, Terrence Jones and John Henson are all better options than Thompson.

Oh and the Cavs still would've gotten Jonas....

Forget it.Sullinger was a non fit and Perry Jones is a boob. McAdoo? Give me a break. Davis was the only one that impressed me and he isn't strong enough to play a 4 in the pros.
 
In a vacuum, this is an awful pick. If we can move JJ at some point in the near future for something decent this pick may look a lot better.

That said, the numbers say good things about Thompson and in the personality/character department he scores well. He works hard, he will make hustle plays, and from the sounds of it he's a guy we can get behind on a personal level (and after the decision, don't discount this). We Clevelanders will get behind a hard working guy. His shooting percentages don't help but with his work ethic we can hope he improves those numbers to at least an average level.

The trick is: What do we do with JJ? He value is still pretty high. Hopefully we can move him for something decent.
 
Listen, if some of you feel like telling the rest of us to shut up when it comes to giving our opinion about the Thomspon pick, fine. You say we can't evaluate this pick until we see him play? Fine.

Then don't tell us how great the Irving pick was. Same rules apply for him that do for Thompson. Iriving could end up sucking. He could up getting hurt. Who knows, but don't tell me it's a great pick untill you see him play.

I mean, I don't understand the point of having draft threads if we aren't allowed to criticize the picks w/o people shouting us down about how we are "whining" and how we aren't scouts and whatever else. What is the point in having the thread in that case? To simply praise every pick endlessly?
 
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This is going to be one more battle in the never-ending war of analytics and statistics versus simply subjectively studying and picking apart game tape and workouts. Maybe the Cavs are trying to combine both.

It seems like in that aspect of scouting and preparing for the draft, Thompson is one of the top 3 players in the entire draft. If their stats say that, and they worked out Thompson against Derrick Williams and Thompson played him to a standstill, they may feel more comfortable i their evaluation of Thompson than they do of an overseas player like Valanciunas.

Are they right? I don't know, but that seems to be the line of thinking they used to evaluate and make the selection.
 
Initial thoughts: WTF?

then I thought about it a little bit...

my conclusion: WTF?!?!

This will be one of the first major draft tests for Grant. We might look back in 2 years and praise Grant for taking the unpopular pick and getting the better player, or we can look back and see it as a missed opportunity that this franchise won't get for a long time.

The worst part of all of this? We may have to wait an entire year before we even get to see these guys play.
 
Williams shot 4-14 against Thompson in the NCAA tournament and reports indicate that Kanter struggled mightily against his defense.

That said, Grant doesn't have any real track record, so it is very much fair to question selecting a player with no offensive ability at all at #4 overall.
 
Man is he really raw on offense (terrible from FT line and no jumpshot to speak of).

He did play tough defense against guys like Williams and P Jones and from what the Cavs saw in his workouts his length and athleticism seems to have established in the FO's mind that this guy is a defensive stopper at the PF. Looks like the rumors that he really did a number on Williams and Kanter are true (one of our insiders commented if I remember on how Kanter couldn't score against his length).

Combine that with his rebounding and right now it looks like we drafted a possible a Ben Wallace type in terms of impact on defense and the glass.

The negatives is right now he doesn't seem to have much better of an offensive game then Big Ben as well (FT shooting worries me) and we already have 3 decent to pretty good PF's in AV, JJ, and Samuels. Got to move JJ with this pick: we would be seriously undersized playing Thompson with JJ
 

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