Tristan Thompson: Initial Thoughts

[jonmchugh]

well by drafting thompson this means that we will be a sure-thing for a high lotto pick in 2012.. and plus jj will most likely be trade for another future 1st we can hope.

 

[Bux42]

Taking Tristan doesn't bother me with DWill and Kanter off the board. But when we already have a very similar player in JJ, and Jonas is still available, I don't see why we don't trade down a few spots to add a mid-late 1st rounder if we wanted Thompson. And then to trade the 2nd pick in the 2nd round in Justin Harper, who easily has 1st round talent and size, for 2 future mid-late 2nd round picks?! Thats embarrassing...and is just a terrible decision in every way.

 

[wuck]

Not convinced by the Thompson choice, but many of the players picked after him had some questions as well (esp. since Jonas V hadn't finished the buyout agreement). On the good side, the Cavs had Thompson in for two workouts so they got to see him and interview him. Wish the Jazz had gone with Knight.

 

[CavsFTW]

Not convinced by the Thompson choice, but many of the players picked after him had some questions as well (esp. since Jonas V hadn't finished the buyout agreement). On the good side, the Cavs had Thompson in for two workouts so they got to see him and interview him. Wish the Jazz had gone with Knight.

Tristan Thompson must've had some incredible workouts. Ultimately, that's what you look for in a player. Great workouts.

Real game performance is for the birds.

 

[Baseline Runner]

Great pick, Thompson is going to be a defensive monster in the league.

 

[mixman]

I'm alright with the Thompson pick. I think a lot of us were drinking the onas V kool-aid for a few days and got caught off guard. Euros are never locks, I'm sure a lot of the people freaking out about passing on Jonas were hoping the Cavs would trade up for Rubio back when he came out. But if Rubio came out this year he might not even be in the lottery.

 

[Apathy]

I love this pick.

 

[Rist77]

I like the pick a lot. I think a lot on this site got sucked into the hype of Jonas and drafting a center, but history shows drafting a center unless you know he’s a sure thing is a total crapshoot and may even take 5-8 years to be productive and by then he’s more than likely on another team.

The way I see it, when the Cavs are good again they can always sign a Biendins, Marcin Gortat, or Tyson Chandler type center (the players Jonas was being compared to the most years down the road) or even trade for one during that season. So for now draft the best player available and stockpile talent, and in this case for the Cavs it was Tristan Thompson.

I see Tristan Thompson being a Kenyon Martin type player. Good rebounder, great defender, toughness, and maxing out at about 15 ppg. A 15 and 10 guy at PF that won’t hurt you in any area. That’s what I believe that Cavs just got in Thompson.

 

[Sw33tL0u]

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.

Finally, a fair evaluation....

Thompson is a nice prospect defensively....but has almost no offensive game.

Shows you just how WEAK this draft was/is.

Comparing him to JJ Hickson when he was drafted - I think they are similar in terms of ceiling, but they are different in how they play the game.

Hickson was raw but explosive coming out.

Thompson has a higher basketball IQ and is more mature than JJ was....but isn't as explosive. However, he's longer and has the ability to change more shots defensively.

The real problem is the weakness of this draft.

I'm not as upset with the choice of Thompson over Jonas V as some others are....because I wasn't very high on Jonas V.

My only hold up on Thompson is if you ask me - I'd rather have either of the Morris twins.....although I don't think they are very far apart. Again...speaks to the talent level of this draft....not a big difference between #4 and #'s 13 and 14.

He's a left-handed version of another guy who went #4 in a weak draft - Tyrus Thomas. (Although Thompson may actually be able to develop a post game, something Thomas never has done.)

 

[KilgoreTrout]

I'm glad we filled our holes at PG and PF. We have more athletic wing players than we know what to do with. Oh wait...

 

[Chris]

I think this shows just how weak this draft was outside the top 3 picks. Puts it in perspective. If we have multiple 1st rounders next year, we're going to be in Heaven compared to this one, trust me. Endless possibilities.

 

[Surge]

The 49% free throw shooting is killing me...

 

[Futuredome]

Thompson is Grant's first "evaluation" pick. It is all on him and we shall see, what we shall see.

As others have said, the lack of Barnes,Jones and Sully weakened the post-Irving/Williams/Kanter part of the draft signifigently. Everybody had those 3 as the tops and then the falloff. If Sully,Barnes and Jones had come out, 2 out of those 6 become Cavs.

 

[Coyote]

The only center I saw as close to being a "sure thing" was Kanter, and even that was iffy. That's why this draft was essentially the top two picks and everyone else. Plenty of chances to get a good player who can help in the long run, and from what I've read--admittedly, only saw him in the tourney--that's what they got in Thompson. We need a defensive big man, and the best we have now is Andy, and who knows how long that will last. Seems to me they targeted "defensive big" as a need. Can anyone really argue with that with JJ, Jamison, Hollins and Samuels on the roster?

 

[Pioneer10]

Playing with Kyrie: he needs to get that FT shooting better. Irving is going to serve up platters of easy looks for him but teams are going to foul the shit out of him unless he can prove he can hit those FT's.

Cavs feel like they drafted Ben Wallace type of defender/rebounder but since he's young hopefully he can add the FT's and some semblance of low post game that Big Ben never developed.