Tristan Thompson: Initial Thoughts

[David.]

I don't think this board would have been happy with ANY single player drafted at #4 (with the possible exception of Jonas). I think many of us were too unrealistically dead set on either 1) trading down to get two lower picks, including a nice lottery pick (Washington #6/18 for example) or 2) drafting someone at #4, and somehow working our way back into the mid 1st round or so to pick up another player. So since we didn't draft Jonas, and neither of those 2 other scenarios presented themselves, no one is happy (and it's not because of Thompson - the same thing would have happened with Vesely, Leonard, Biyombo, Knight, Morris twins, Klay Thompson, etc. going at #4). And to add salt to the wound, the Cavs didn't even take/keep a player at #32.

In the end, I think there was no pleasing most Cavs fans on this board...unless we took Jonas, and/or we had a total of 3 1st round picks somehow. Sorry this has nothing to do specifically with Thompson, but that's joint the point...this overall sense of dissatisfaction would have been the same for essentially ANY player we drafted at #4 if we didn't add another 1st.

i wouldve been happier with any one of those mugs than with TT. (as long as we picked dw in regards to the pgs. then again, even they would be trade bait at the very least.)

 

[Hydroponic3385]

i wouldve been happier with any one of those mugs than with TT. (as long as we picked dw in regards to the pgs. then again, even they would be trade bait at the very least.)

I highly doubt many of us here at RCF would've been much more thrilled about going with Irving + 1 of those other guys and that's it. You may personally prefer others to Tristan and that's fine, but I think overall people are pissed because we 1) didn't take Jonas and/or 2) didn't add anyone else to our roster after #4. Doesn't matter if it's Leonard ("he's got no offense!") or Biyombo ("no offense, more likely to be another Sene than Ibaka, he played 1 on zero and lost!") or Knight ("why the hell take 2 PG's? is Kahn our GM?") or Vesely ("he has no handles and is a horrible shooter! he'll make a dunk contest and that's it!") or Walker ("he's way too short for this league!") or anyone else at #4 - people would still be bitching, even if for different reasons that they bitch about TT.

And I don't really understand what you say in your parentheses.

 

[David.]

1. im drunk. 2. i completely agree that most rcf'ers wouldnt agree with my williams at the one pick and subsequently choosing a pg other than Kyrie at 4, but i am standing by that. 3. parenthesis indicates I would rather have taken derrick williams at 1 and a pg at 4 rather than TT at 4 and kyrie at 1.

 

[Spencer Hawes]

Picking Williams at #1 and Knight at #4 is quite interesting. But you're forgetting something, a lot of people had Utah taking Knight at #3 so in hindsight, it may sound good but Grant and Gilbert would be on their hands and knees on draft day hoping that Utah din't pick Knight at #3 if that was their plan. So we pick Williams at #1, Minny would pick Irving at #2 and trade him, and if Utah picks #3, then who do we draft? Kanter? Kemba Walker? Seriously, that notion of picking Williams at #1 could have blown up in the Cavs faces. Irving was the obvious choice. So what if we pick TT at #4, we'll end up sucking anyways and load up the losses for a run at the 2012 lottery. This draft was all about Irving and Williams. We got what we wanted. I really don't understand the complaints. I could understand the Jonas backers but he's got more of a chance of busting than TT.

 

[Gimme Some Mo]

Doesn't Knight going 8th say something about how the GM's felt about him? Raptors and Utah passed on him despite having no future PG at all and the Bobcats decided they would rather have Bismack Biyombo instead of him.

You could tell me right now that Tristan Thompson will never play an NBA game and I would still take Kyrie Irving and Thompson > Williams and Knight.

 

[Pavlovic3Ball]

Doesn't Knight going 8th say something about how the GM's felt about him? Raptors and Utah passed on him despite having no future PG at all and the Bobcats decided they would rather have Bismack Biyombo instead of him.

You could tell me right now that Tristan Thompson will never play an NBA game and I would still take Kyrie Irving and Thompson > Williams and Knight.

Very good post. Besides possibly Jonas, there isn't one player the Cavs missed out on picking TT. Again, this is all just my opinion. But I think the TT pick was great. If Jonas pans out and TT fizzles, so be it. We messed up. But I will take Thompson over guys like Vesley, Knight, Walker, Morris Twins, etc ANY DAY.

 

[cavsfanclanman]

Before the draft there were like 2 people on here who wanted DWill over KI, now 90% act like that's what we should have done. And this before anyone even played in the NBA.

 

[catfish]

Doesnt appear like anyone watched the games. People on this board were knight so I watched a few of his games at Kentucky. He seemed very good. Then I watched Irving after he got back from his injurt. Like night and day-a different level. Someone said on ESPN that the problem with having 2 picks is that you can pick the first knowing you have the second and ultimately get a worse outcome because you are overthinking the situation. Thank god the CAVs didnt do that. About the second pick I am not sure what the deal is. It seems like there may have been some funny business that went on with V's agent. I do think that Toronto picking him was a complete surprise as most people up there think they already have had too many Euros. Very strange.

 

[Jon]

unfortunately what you describe is not JJ. and what JJ did for the 2nd half of the season is something absolutely no "dime a dozen" PF does!! and that is avg. double digit rebounds!! how many freakin' times do i have to point out that it is more likely to find a 25 ppg scorer than it is a guy who can avg double digit rebounds in the NBA? pluto made this same point in a column a couple of months ago. rebounders like JJ are not easily found!! and if it was merely doing it on a bad team, then why haven't a whole bunch of big guys on bad teams avg 10+ boards? like it or not, it's rare and JJ did it after getting the message from scott. it's called development, people. thank god the cavs and teams around the league hold JJ in higher esteem than you all. shit, some of you geniuses on here wanted to trade him last year for a bag of chips! we should've listened to those bright guys, right?

the fact is sooo many of you have been so wrong about JJ that your opinion on the subject has become meaningless. just stop...

JJ was playing C, not PF and he was playing with other players who are historically even worse rebounders.

I'd like to think JJ turned a corner last season, but you're way out on a limb to be calling it now.

His per36 rebounding rate was a lousy 8.5 before this season, and his TRB% was 14.

The fact he was only able to raise those up after getting a major ass kicking by the coach is a warning flag.

Leon Powe (before recent surgeries) would have kicked JJ's ass given the same opportunity.

Anyway, this has been argued to death and you don't care. There's always a chance that JJ actually did turn a corner in that one area, and he'll become a solid or even a + rebounder the rest of his career, but you've got no place telling other people to stop.

Personally, I'm going to take everything JJ does with a grain of salt until after he signs his next contract. Maybe he'll grow up and start acting like a pro - that does happen. But for now, his prime motivation for using his significant tools seems to be his desire to get paid, and we shouldn't trust that.

 

[Tornicade]

Before the draft there were like 2 people on here who wanted DWill over KI, now 90% act like that's what we should have done. And this before anyone even played in the NBA.

and one of those two is rather okay with the draft results. is glad the whole business is done and didnt think we were gonna keep the 2nd rounders anyways and is eager to see if they make a trade before the lockout and concerned about the cba negotiations

 

[Tornicade]

JJ was playing C, not PF and he was playing with other players who are historically even worse rebounders.

I'd like to think JJ turned a corner last season, but you're way out on a limb to be calling it now.

His per36 rebounding rate was a lousy 8.5 before this season, and his TRB% was 14.

The fact he was only able to raise those up after getting a major ass kicking by the coach is a warning flag.

Leon Powe (before recent surgeries) would have kicked JJ's ass given the same opportunity.

Anyway, this has been argued to death and you don't care. There's always a chance that JJ actually did turn a corner in that one area, and he'll become a solid or even a + rebounder the rest of his career, but you've got no place telling other people to stop.

Personally, I'm going to take everything JJ does with a grain of salt until after he signs his next contract. Maybe he'll grow up and start acting like a pro - that does happen. But for now, his prime motivation for using his significant tools seems to be his desire to get paid, and we shouldn't trust that.

he ended the season at the 4 and had a solid rebound percentage during that time. of course you had hollins in the frontcourt with him so its not like anyone else was actively getting under the basket to snag them

 

[PIP]

Got no beef with the pick....Was hoping to snag him if we could have gotten that Pistons pick when that talk was heated up...So although we got him at 4, I'm still relatively cool with it...

 

[Gimme Some Mo]

Interesting.... I guess... From Windhorst twitter..

I'm out of country but hearing ppl surprised Cavs have good relations with T. Thompson agent @RichPaul4 Don't be, Rich respected in NBA.

 

[chrisrich91]

Interesting.... I guess... From Windhorst twitter..

Back in last July, Rich Paul was quoted as saying something along the lines of 'I cried and pleaded with him to reconsider and stay in Cleveland' and 'I'm so sorry Cleveland, you will always be my home'. He was the one in that posse that I liked.

 

[MDLT]

Back in last July, Rich Paul was quoted as saying something along the lines of 'I cried and pleaded with him to reconsider and stay in Cleveland' and 'I'm so sorry Cleveland, you will always be my home'. He was the one in that posse that I liked.

I remember him jumping around when LeBron hit that shot vs. Orlando in the playoffs. I don't know what to make of him, but he seemed to be the only one who cared what James did on the court (maybe moreso than James himself, it now seems).