A few things. First, Lionel Hollins absolutely ruined his chances for development. Hollins is one of the more "interesting" coaches in terms of playing time. I'll give you an example. If you recall early in the year the grizzlies were starting Xavier Henry until an injury. Now that Henry is healthy again, he isn't even in the rotation. He went from starting to not even a backup rotation guy all due to a injury. With Thabeet, it doesn't matter if Thabeet has a good game or a bad game, in most circumstances, in the following game Thabeet will not see the court. You can look back and see the game logs to prove it. Hollins has done similar things with Mayo. As far as a scouting report: here's what i'd say. Thabeet is good at defending the paint, and a great shoot blocker, but he is a below average rebounder due to the fact that he doesn't react quick to the ball and his poor hands. On offense, his problem is his hands. He can't catch the ball and he takes the ball below his waist far too much. But once again, he never has gotten any consistent minutes to improve any part of his game. It is my view that Hollins never cared for Thabeet and once you are in Hollins doghouse. You stay there, unless you do somnething extraordinary.
If he turns into a defensive specialist I'd be happy even if he'd be a liability on the offensive side.
Maybe Yao Ming can work with the kid and teaches him how to succeed in basketball while being clumsy.
I would like to think that the Rockets have the coaching and player(s) that can help Thabeet along. Chuck alone should show this kid how to play smart and tough.
A big warning sign for me is his lack of rebounding. Rebounding is something you're instinctively good at.
Summary: Hollins sounds like Rick Adelman when dealing minutes to young guys and Thabeet has issues physically that will not get better (bad hands and slow finisher). In the end, we traded Battier/Ish for a first round draft pick.
This is consistent with what I've been hearing about Mayo's situation in MEM. I really feel bad for Mayo, he would've been great in Indiana. Hollins is terrible about that sort of thing, and I guess that was sorta the case with Thabeet as well.
Hopefully hakeem works with this guy in the entire off-season then he might be a serviceable big man...here's for hoping..
he's got the shoulders of a little kid....last big i saw like that is in street clothes now...hopefully he can get in the gym and add some strength/bulk to his upper body.
If you look at our defense the main reason it was so bad was a lack of interior shotblocking threats. No matter how much he lacks outside of that, hopefully Thabeet ties our whole defense together just by being that imposing figure inside, even if he is only a stick figure. But for that matter, I would even argue that he isn't. He's spry, he's quick, he can jump. As others have said before he doesn't need Olajuwon training; he needs Deke training. The tools are there to be a good defensive player, and frankly if he can help us in that regard then anything he gives offensively will be gravy. I say we throw him to the fire this year and see what we have. If we win, great. If we lose, even better. We just need to know what we have in our players, and if they aren't anything worth keeping then we'll be that much closer to getting someone who is through the draft.
Yeah, that's basically it. Hollins uses you to serve a purpose and once that purpose is up, it doesn't care. Don't get me wrong, he's done wonders for this team, but if he don't like you or you get on his bad side, he'll ruin your career.
Maybe he can wear those gloves that the NFL wide receivers wear. That might help Thabeet with his rebounding.
