Plan B: Jason Thompson, Kings Center of the Future

[sactownfan]

I've heard a few basketball analysts mention that Jason Thompsons future in this league is at the 5 position. But until today it kinda just didn't just went in one ear and out the other...

but...

today I realized now that we have a "go to" scorer in the paint... we dont have to force JT to be that guy anymore.... we've forced JT try to be what he may never be... a steady post guy... JT's game is basically that of a slightly above avg 5... he puts shots back, tips, alley oops, easy dunks. a little jumper here and there.

i've had this tunnel vision about JT. my hopes were so high on him being a serviceable starting PF not to mention we drafted him to play PF next to Hawes... That i've ignored and missed the obvious truth....

HIS FUTURE IN THIS LEAGUE WILL BE A THE 5

for starters hes got the height and could have the size...
6'11 ish... thats somethings you cant teach and hes got length... plus unlike Hawes he showed up noticeably bigger and if he worked hard enough he could continue to grow. straight up! if he put on 20 or 30lbs of muscle i think JT would be an absolute monster. like a really, really poor mans D. Howard. but in comparison to normal more human 5's monster

hes got a great motor and hes physical(as physical as he can be at his size)...
you cant argue that he doesnt play hard. one of the things i love about him is that even last year during the complete disaster of a season that was he brought it every night, and i can honestly say i dont recall ever seeing him quit on the team. hes just too weak still to hold his ground. Sam Dalembert gets pushed around... he just is better at getting up for shots right now. I think JT could do it.

Hes got the tools...
hes really quick for his size, as most are aware at times hes too quick, lol! and outa control. but honestly look at all the stiffs at the 5 in this league... Thompson has an ok all around skill set... he can shoot better than Sam Dalembert. even score around the basket a little bit... but really not that great in the post. he can also dribble some (i've seen him run the break with the ball-doesnt mean he should, but he has and can)

but again looking at all the clowns teams have put out on the floor over the years at the 5 spot why couldn't JT make it work?

HES A GREAT GARBAGE MAN!!! put backs, easy dunks, alley oops... hustling around the basket... annoying people...

I think that if Paul Westphal went to him and told him you have 2 things to worry about from now on... Carl Landry is going to handle scoring in the post... but you ... i need #1 rebounding #2 blocking shots... and if thats all JT worked on from here on out?

I think he could be a pretty good 5. 20 or 30 lbs and we got our guy...

Also for all those quick to jump on me and my displeassure with soggy waffles... I do really hope that Hawes can become a quality starting center for us... and this thread was not a dig at Hawes but totally serious in that i think JT would be a great 5 starter or backup... with added muscle/weight, and only having to focus his training on 2 things... offense i think just makes his mind melt.

 

[Gabriel]

Yeah, good luck when Shaq, Dwight, Yao, etc. etc. drop 40 on us.

Come on now. JT at the 5?

 

[Aenadin]

JT at the 5 im sorry but it wont work... with all the physical tools you say he has he doesnt have a high bball iq, and he is foul prone. the reason why plan b always comes next is because its NOT BETTER than plan A. he's great at the 4 and off the bench thats what his role should be. he has been producing better off the bench lately

 

[Big Cuz 15]

unless he develops some patience, some low post moves .. he will be a career backup. he's perfect for the high energy off the bench role. come in and hack all he wants for 15-20 minutes.

 

[Hella916]

HAHAHA Man your crackin me up... JT at the 5?? I dont think so... He gets used enough at the 4.. How in the world can he last at the 5??? lol oh man thats funny

 

[SacTownKid]

JT's problem is that he is simply a terrible defender. Sorry to say, he has the potential to be much more on defense, but will the brain ever catch up? In an Amare Stoudemire way he could be a C, but that's only if his team plays the same way.

 

[sactownfan]

HAHAHA Man your crackin me up... JT at the 5?? I dont think so... He gets used enough at the 4.. How in the world can he last at the 5??? lol oh man thats funny

Umm.... Does everyone realize that Thompson has already been playing as more of a 5 than a 4 his whole career? Why is it so funny? Mikki frickn Moore played the 5!!! U guys are cracking me up...

 

[Bricklayer]

JT gets his *** kicked everytime he slids over to center. He certainly can't provide any of the interior defense you need out of that position. He's got the size, but he is actually remarkably weak given that body. Needs some serious weight room work before we could even talk about it longterm.

 

[NewArena]

Hell no. I barely want him on this team at all. He ALMOST frustrates me more than Nocioni.

 

[Aenadin]

if plan b is to put thompson on the 5 and get a top pick next year fine have at it.


this line up wont fly. you must have at least one of them landry or jt on the bench.. in this case landry can go off the bench. why? your center mr Soggy waffles, is the only guy who can pass for a cutters, he can draw the defense out, compared to JT, JT edges him out in the rebounding but on defending Cs and offense hes much better.

unless JT learns to be consistent with his offense, and learns how to move the ball with passing he CANT and must not be our 5

 

[Bricklayer]

if plan b is to put thompson on the 5 and get a top pick next year fine have at it.


this line up wont fly. you must have at least one of them landry or jt on the bench.. in this case landry can go off the bench. why? your center mr Soggy waffles, is the only guy who can pass for a cutters, he can draw the defense out, compared to JT, JT edges him out in the rebounding but on defending Cs and offense hes much better.

unless JT learns to be consistent with his offense, and learns how to move the ball with passing he CANT and must not be our 5

The difficulty with a Hawes/Landry frotnline is the rebounding. We came into this season announcing rebounding as an area we really wanted to improve upon, and early in the season we had. That's faded a bit. But certainly if we were runnign Hawes/Landry up front it would make things difficult. Reke and Casspi being out there would definitely help as they are both good for their positions, but our interior guys would not really be getting the job done.

I'm not really sure, and some of this may depend on just how potent Landry proves as a starting post scorer, but I think in the end the best balanced arrangement is probably the natural one -- Hawes/JT starting, and Landry quickly comng in off the bench for whichever one of them is screwing up worse on that particular night.

 

[Aenadin]

The difficulty with a Hawes/Landry frotnline is the rebounding. We came into this season announcing rebounding as an area we really wanted to improve upon, and early in the season we had. That's faded a bit. But certainly if we were runnign Hawes/Landry up front it would make things difficult. Reke and Casspi being out there would definitely help as they are both good for their positions, but our interior guys would not really be getting the job done.

I'm not really sure, and some of this may depend on just how potent Landry proves as a starting post scorer, but I think in the end the best balanced arrangement is probably the natural one -- Hawes/JT starting, and Landry quickly comng in off the bench for whichever one of them is screwing up worse on that particular night.

thats why a hawes jt line up would be ideal

landry will and should always be our bench scorer. now that cisco moved up to the starting position. greene will be our sixth man in the future but right now he needs some growing to do.

 

[Rug King]

To be honest, I can't see JT being anything but a good back up player. It's a process and he's a stop gap for the time being, in my opinion.

 

[DesertFox]

I don't know why everyone is so quick to reject when JT has been just as effective at the 5 as anyone on this team the last 2 years.
That's not saying much, but the difference between a traditional 4 (which JT is) and a 5 in today's NBA is small.

 

[Warhawk]

Do you remember what happened in camp this year?

IIRC, JT had bulked up, but ended up wanting to drop the weight to improve his play.

He is a 4, not a 5.

 

[mac]

Umm.... Does everyone realize that Thompson has already been playing as more of a 5 than a 4 his whole career? Why is it so funny? Mikki frickn Moore played the 5!!! U guys are cracking me up...

So you want us to have a Mikki Moore play-alike? We played Artest at the 5 before, does that mean that Artest was our C of the future?

Just give it a rest, you don't like Spencer, we get it.

 

[Kingstime]

JT at the 5 is a no go, until we get somebody better or more seasoned our 5 has to be Spence. Not alot of people like hearing it but what Spence lacks in defense, he makes up for on offense. Hes always making great passes to cutters and such he's getting his confidence in his jumper again too. He will be fine especially if he gets a big time rookie center who he has to work against for time next year.

JT should be our backup at the 4 and 5 if anything, but starting him at 5 is gonna lead to nothing but trouble.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Oddly enough, according to the positional breakdown at 82games.com (which is of course highly suspect, but it's what we've got) JT is quite a bit better at C than PF. This might have a lot to with JT sliding over to the 5 during stretches when the opposing starter is resting, I don't know.

Maybe he ends up better as a backup C, I don't know. Maybe a starter, even. Yeah, I guess the Howards and Yaos and Odens of this world will kill him, but they're going to kill just about everybody else, too. You wouldn't say "no, we're not going to acquire that great defensive center, we've already got JT!" but in the meantime while we're still searching for that guy, maybe he could help hold down the fort.

 

[LWP777]

OP, I think you make a lot of good points about why JT could be okay at the 5 spot playing along side Landry. Like other posters have said, it's fine for the rest of the year but I think we need to address this need in the offseason.

I'm convinced that JT ultimately will be a decent backup in the NBA, whether it's at the 4 or 5 position. I don't think that he has the mental toughness nor the basketball IQ to ever be a good starter in this league.

 

[Spike]

Umm.... Does everyone realize that Thompson has already been playing as more of a 5 than a 4 his whole career? Why is it so funny? Mikki frickn Moore played the 5!!! U guys are cracking me up...

He has? I distinctly remember him not.

He has literally grown into the role of an NBA prospect. As a freshman in high school, he stood 6-feet. By sophomore year he was a 6-3 swingman. As a 6-6 junior, he was a versatile energy guy playing center and developing a few simplistic post moves. "The growing made me wonder if I was really his dad," says Chuck Thompson, who is 6-2. During his senior year in high school, Thompson grew another two inches to 6-8

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/kevin_armstrong/03/04/jason.thompson/

 

['89 Kings Fan]

Yeah, good luck when Shaq, Dwight, Yao, etc. etc. drop 40 on us.

Come on now. JT at the 5?

Shaq is the oldest player in the league, he is not dropping 40 on anyone anymore. Yao may never play again, and so the only one left is Dwight. Dwight's kryptonite has always been strong players with a low center of gravity and we just acquired the best one in Landry. So unless your afraid of Kaman, Lopez or Okur JT will be fine at Center.

In fact according to 82games, he plays better at Center:

POS %Time PER Opp PER
PF 30 14.9 22.0
C 33 16.6 17.5

Most of the time I think 82games stats with regards to what position a player is playing are suspect. However,in this case since we do not have a backup C, this really is the split between playing with or without Hawes.

If we stay with Tyreke as our starting PG I think Hawes would be better suited coming off the bench with Beno since they are both Pick and Roll players.

 

[Hella916]

Umm.... Does everyone realize that Thompson has already been playing as more of a 5 than a 4 his whole career? Why is it so funny? Mikki frickn Moore played the 5!!! U guys are cracking me up...

Oh brother.... The only time Mikki Moore played the 5 was when he was on the Kings and that was because we didint have any starting centers!!! And even that was a joke as we got used every night... What we need is a TRUE center that is 7'0 +... One that can rebound, defend, and block/alter shots... No more twiner 3 point shooting centers...

 

[dbfish]

JT is a regresion in progress. I don't see any improvement in his game this year. If he doesn't stop whining and toughen up next year I have no use for him. Landry isn't the big shot blocking rebounder that everybody wanted, but I think he's here to send a clear message to JT to man up or he might be taking his pouting ways out of town in the not too distant future. He's too soft to play the 5. Hell, he's too soft and inconsitant to play the 4.

 

[Merdiesel]

JT is not a center by any means.
He can't jump, can't finish around the basket, and is a terrible defender when at the center spot.

 

[Kingstime]

JT is gonna be this guy for his career most likely and theres really nothing wrong with that. He can be a consistent bench guy, trash man, I think he fits that well.

JT's problem is always gonna be his head those problems don't go away. But when the team gets a better starting 4 having JT off the bench won't be that bad of an idea.

 

[LWP777]

JT is not a center by any means.
He can't jump, can't finish around the basket, and is a terrible defender when at ANY spot.

I fixed your post.

 

[sactownfan]

Hawes/JT starting, and Landry quickly comng in off the bench for whichever one of them is screwing up worse on that particular night.

ha... yeah oh well...

IT WAS JUST AN IDEA GUYS... im not alone in thinking maybe JT should just add weight and play the 5...

Either way JT just doesn't seem to have the composure or skill set to be steady 4 in this league... and since he has the height/motor and could have the size... I was just thinking he could be an avg 5... as a starter or off the bench... like someone else said...

take a look at the 30 starting centers in this league and tell me the JT isn't the better choice to guard them over Hawes.... sure guys like YAO/HOWARD/SHAQ are gonna kill JT that goes for all the other 5's in the league tho....

I guess this post directly relates to Hawes and JT both sucking, but Hawes just being so soggy.... that JT is STILL the best 5 option we got...

 

[sactownfan]

Well westphal agrees with me... JT is starting at the 5!

 

[roasthawg]

Well westphal agrees with me... JT is starting at the 5!

Lol, great post!

 

[Gary]

No way Thompson should be a fixture at the 5.. Why? Because he gets into foul trouble against JUMP SHOOTERS!!! Just think how bad it will be in the post when he's constantly biting on pump fakes.. He will average 6 fouls in 10 minutes. The opposing centers will eat him alive.

Game plan for opposing teams.. Feed down low to C to get Thompson a quick 2 fouls.