Well let me see if I can make you gag some more
I look at Thomas' NBA.com profile and I see career highs of 27points, 16 rebounds, 5 assists, 4steals, 8blocks. That's a guy who can do it all. Now consistency has been a problem for him, actually it's been
the problem, but I remain skeptical of how Chicago is using him. Firstly they traded up to get him and then (demonstrating the unhealthy extant John Paxson is obsessed with interior defense to the exclusion of all else) signed Ben Wallace to a huge contract effectively ensuring Thomas was never going to get playing time. When Thomas did get to play he was always a factor on defense. He was less of a factor on offense, but he wasn't as ineffective as you might think. He gets all of his points as the fifth option in the offense and, as I'll demonstrate below, he's been as effective with his scoring as Jason Thompson.
I don't like to base everything on stats, but I have two basic tools I always go to when I'm evaluating other team's players. First I go to the
game log to get an idea of how they peformed over a period of time. What I see in Thomas' game log is that he's had more 20 and 10 or 15 and 10 games than I would have expected. For a guy who hasn't been given a lot of time as a starter before last year, he looks very close to becoming a reliable double-double threat. I also see that he's a good free throw shooter which helps to improve his scoring numbers. I see a long stretch when he was made a starter last year of fairly consistent blocks, rebounds, and point totals. He's much more likely to get 2 or more blocks per game than 0 or 1 with starters minutes.
The other tool I have is my impression in games I've seen him play. Over the past 3 years I've seen Thomas probably only 6 or 7 times but he's
always been the most active player on the court, and he's
always been a better shooter than I expected. He's not just a guy that looks good in dunk contests like Gerald Green, the reason Tyrus Thomas is an exciting player is because he's always shown that he can use his athleticism to impact the game with his shotblocking and rebounding.
Since you brought up Jason Thompson, let's compare Tyrus Thomas' season last year to Jason Thompson's:
Thompson 28.1min, 11.1pts, 7.4rebs, 1.1asts, 0.6stls, 0.7blks, .497fg%
Thomas 27.5min, 10.8pts, 6.4rebs, 1.0asts, 1.2stls, 1.9blks, .451fg%
and now the per36min stats (from basketball-reference.com)
Thompson 14.2pts, 9.5rebs, 1.5asts, 0.7stls, 0.9blks
Thomas 14.2pts, 8.4rebs, 1.3asts, 1.5 stls, 2.5blks
I'm not trying to say Thomas is better than Thompson, but those block and steal numbers jump out at you don't they? Wouldn't you like it if Jason Thompson could add 1 or 2 steals and 2 or 3 blocks per game to go with his scoring and rebounding? I already went into why I'd hesitate to bring in Thomas now because we do have Thompson and Thomas might not be a good compliment. But if I had to choose between the two, I'd go with Thomas. And not entirely because of potential. The production is already there. And since Thomas was drafted as a freshman and Thompson as a senior, he's also younger than Thompson (by less than a month).
When I say Thomas has as much potential as Martin, I'm factoring in where they play and what they do. There aren't a lot of players in the NBA that can do what Thomas does. His ability to gather athletic defensive stats is in a class with Gerald Wallace, Josh Smith and few others. Martin is never going to be as effective on defense as Thomas is right now. Similarly Thomas is never going to average 30 points per game or even close to it. But, looking at his game log last year, getting to 20 per game with a bigger role is not out of the question.
And of course the big issue -- A lot of the reason people are calling for trading Kevin Martin right now is that this team hasn't had a lot of trouble scoring points with Martin out of the lineup. He's shown the last two years that he excels as a scorer, but doesn't contribute in a lot of other areas. So even if Martin and Reke play well together, is it not valid to question whether a defensive expert would benefit this team more than another scorer? People get caught up sometimes in who's a "star" or an "all-star" or even (lately) a "PG". I'm going to agree with Evans on this one. We're talking about basketball players -- all that matters is what they contribute when they're in the game. Right now looking at overall production, I think Tyrus Thomas could be just as valuable, maybe even more valuable, to a basketball team than Kevin Martin. And I don't mean that as a knock on Kevin Martin. What I mean is that Tyrus Thomas is a lot better than you think he is. And, for the bazillionth time, (say it with me kids)
defense matters.
It doesn't necessarily have to be an either/or with Jason Thompson, but it does make me less willing to pull the trigger on a Martin for Thomas trade.
I see flashes of brilliance and I think that if they can do it every other week or so, why can't they do it every other game? But basketball IQ is maybe the toughest thing to evaluate and I admit I haven't seen either of them regularly enough to have a strong feeling about it.