[Grades] Grades v. Bulls 3/21/11

[KingsCitizen]

The Bulls are really taking their game to the next level. They just dumped Atlanta by the same margin as our Kings were dumped yesterday. I chose them as my dark horse since around December last year.

Back to the JT topic. We'll I'm on board of trading him, esp. if we land Kanter or any other big in this lottery. There is also a load of bench big FA this summer like Przybilla, Foster, or Chandler. So as long as we get another big or replace him with someone, I'm not against the idea of trading him. Actually, guys I want to get traded are Udrih/Greene/Casspi/JT/Garcia.

BTT, awesome selection of hot girls Brick!

 

[ParniValjak]

The Bulls are really taking their game to the next level. They just dumped Atlanta by the same margin as our Kings were dumped yesterday. I chose them as my dark horse since around December last year.

Back to the JT topic. We'll I'm on board of trading him, esp. if we land Kanter or any other big in this lottery. There is also a load of bench big FA this summer like Przybilla, Foster, or Chandler. So as long as we get another big or replace him with someone, I'm not against the idea of trading him. Actually, guys I want to get traded are Udrih/Greene/Casspi/JT/Garcia.

BTT, awesome selection of hot girls Brick!

There is only one problem with that approach. You are paying starter money to someone who is essentially going to be a bench guy and in Pryzbilla's and Foster's case, they either lack versatility to play PF and C or are too old. In Chandler's cas eyou are paying starter's money for a player who is a defensive specialist and nothing more. That again lack some overall punch off the bench in the front court.

Remember in a couple of years time we will have to re-sign Cousins and Evans and if we stack the front court with starter like salaries we are screwed down the road.

JT is as good a 3rd big (or 1st big off the bench) as any team could hope for. He provides energy, length, versatility to the front court. Sure he is frustrating as hell but he is a good bench player who can spot start for the team if we have some injuries. If we re-sign Dalembert and Thornton to starter like salaries and go out and sign Chandler then we really don't have a lot of room to play with. Remember, its not about next year but with the salary cap room, we need to keep in mind that in a couple of years time the #1 priority becomes re-signing our main guys.

As for Kanter, he has not proven a thing in the NBA yet and it highly unlikely that he will be a beast from the get go.

 

[mac]

There is only one problem with that approach. You are paying starter money to someone who is essentially going to be a bench guy and in Pryzbilla's and Foster's case, they either lack versatility to play PF and C or are too old. In Chandler's cas eyou are paying starter's money for a player who is a defensive specialist and nothing more. That again lack some overall punch off the bench in the front court.

Remember in a couple of years time we will have to re-sign Cousins and Evans and if we stack the front court with starter like salaries we are screwed down the road.

JT is as good a 3rd big (or 1st big off the bench) as any team could hope for. He provides energy, length, versatility to the front court. Sure he is frustrating as hell but he is a good bench player who can spot start for the team if we have some injuries. If we re-sign Dalembert and Thornton to starter like salaries and go out and sign Chandler then we really don't have a lot of room to play with. Remember, its not about next year but with the salary cap room, we need to keep in mind that in a couple of years time the #1 priority becomes re-signing our main guys.

As for Kanter, he has not proven a thing in the NBA yet and it highly unlikely that he will be a beast from the get go.

I will say this. JT is a big body that as many of you said, can be a decent big man off the bench. But he has to clean up and improve on a lot of areas, starting with finishing inside. I don't care whether a guy is our starting big or the 12th man, if he can't make shots 3ft from the basket at a higher rate than JT is doing now he doesn't belong in the NBA. You also don't want any player on your team shooting 50% from the line, which he has been doing this month. If you're going to shoot 50% from the line, you better be some dominant big man with great inside touch.

He has his outside shot down fairly well and can rebound the ball when he wants to. Experience should teach him to improve on his passing, stop telegraphing passes, stop throwing them over guys' heads etc. But until he proves that he isn't going to waste several of our precious possessions by missing easy shots, I'm not sold on the idea of him staying here in the long run.

 

[ParniValjak]

I will say this. JT is a big body that as many of you said, can be a decent big man off the bench. But he has to clean up and improve on a lot of areas, starting with finishing inside. I don't care whether a guy is our starting big or the 12th man, if he can't make shots 3ft from the basket at a higher rate than JT is doing now he doesn't belong in the NBA. You also don't want any player on your team shooting 50% from the line, which he has been doing this month. If you're going to shoot 50% from the line, you better be some dominant big man with great inside touch.

He has his outside shot down fairly well and can rebound the ball when he wants to. Experience should teach him to improve on his passing, stop telegraphing passes, stop throwing them over guys' heads etc. But until he proves that he isn't going to waste several of our precious possessions by missing easy shots, I'm not sold on the idea of him staying here in the long run.

So in other words, he is just like any other back up big man in the league. Everyone has their flaws especially players that come off the bench. I like it how you pick his recent numbers instead of his career number because this is the worst season that JT has had so far and he is still putting up a respectable 8ppg, 6rpg in 22mpg. That is some very good numbers from a reserve.

His career percentages of 48%FG, 69FT% are pretty respectable. He is comparable in production to Taj Gibson who is a pretty good reserve IMHO.

 

[mac]

So in other words, he is just like any other back up big man in the league. Everyone has their flaws especially players that come off the bench. I like it how you pick his recent numbers instead of his career number because this is the worst season that JT has had so far and he is still putting up a respectable 8ppg, 6rpg in 22mpg. That is some very good numbers from a reserve.

His career percentages of 48%FG, 69FT% are pretty respectable. He is comparable in production to Taj Gibson who is a pretty good reserve IMHO.

Which is why I earlier said that he's been playing as if he's regressed. I'm not asking the guy to be the focal point of our offense, hit tough fade away shots, create shots for himself, draw double teams, beat Steve Nash in FT shooting while averaging 3 blocks a game. I'm asking him to rebound the ball like he used to, shoot better than 60% from the FT line and score when he gets an easy shot 3 ft. away from the basket. You're telling me that back up bigs on any respectable team miss the kind of shots that JT does on a regular basis?

At this point we should be looking towards the future. We've got most of our necessary core pieces in Reke and Cousins (and possibly Thornton), reliable vets like Daly and to a lesser extent Beno and Garcia, and then you've got guys with potential who still have time to become valuable pieces as solid role players in Thronton, Omri and to a lesser extent Donte. Jason Thompson IMO, does not have very much potential left to realise, and clearly everyone has gone from once saying he could possibly be a very good starting PF to saying that he can be a solid backup off the bench. So I'm thinking long term, and if Jason Thompson can't do those few things we need him to do that I mentioned above, I see no point in keeping him, because good teams don't have 3rd bigs that can't convert layups or turn the ball over like JT.

Alright, give him another year then and if he doesn't improve then get rid of him. Is that fair enough? Or do you still want to hold on to an unproven older guy going into his 5th year in the hope that he may be able to be a reliable big man off the bench? Frankly I don't think his season this year has been very different from Spencer's last year, and somehow we were more than happy to get rid of Hawes. Well guess what, Hawes didn't rebound, didn't score inside, and when he did score was mostly doing so on jumpshots. He also had the occasional good game. Kinda sounds like JT THIS YEAR if you ask me, although JT does play better defense.

 

[mcsluggo]

hmmm 3 for 3 since this poll

the kings have already reached the level that OVER SIXTY PERCENT had predicted for the whole remainder of season... sweetness!