Hakeem averaged 20.6 points, 11.9 rebounds, 1.21 steals, and 2.68 blocks as a rookie, not quite the same thing.

A lot of his potential is based on his defensive capabilities, I don't think anyone expects him to contend for a scoring title any time soon and they probably shouldn't. Morrison is second among rookies in scoring, but he's far from the 2nd best of the rookies...

Hakeem was a year and 1/2 older than Tyrus and played 2 more college seasons. Tyrus is polishing into a stud just fine. I would label Thomas and Deng as the 2 most untouchable players on the Bulls Roster.

You can give him 3 more years, I'd still be SHOCKED if he put up Hakeem-like numbers. We're not exactly talking about a marginal difference in talent/production here...

Plus Hakeem only played one extra year in college, it's not his fault Tyrus red-shirted.

I'm not saying he can't be good, but to put him up there as a potential legend is a bit of a stretch.

Tyrus Thomas is a golden god. Are you watching this game?

Wow, Im not putting him up there with potential legends. 20 points and 12 rpg isn't going to be a stretch for a player of Thomas's potential. I don't know what else to say but the cieling is extremely high for Tyrus as well as it should be which is why he MIGHT be able to put up 20 and 12. Im not listing him in the hall of fame so quit acting like I am. I'm not trying to be an ass but your making something out of nothing and its ticking me off.

This is my last post in this thread.

regardless, I'm not sure why you are comparing TT to Hakeem. Either way, there is no doubt in my mind the Bulls took the better player. Next year this thread should be dug up for shits and giggles when Tyrus is getting double the playing time.

He'll never be Hakeem but he doesn't have to be. He's a super freak. He'll be able to average 20 or more points at some point of his career b/c he is just so versatile and he'll get many of his shots on open looks or put backs. If he can learn to slash to the basket and a few post up moves it's definately feasible. The 12 boards per game is also likely at some point in his career. His rebounds per minute in college were the best in the nation. He just has to learn how to not commit the stupid fouls. If he does that he could easily become a 20ppg 12 board 3 block player. He won't put those numbers up every night but he can average those type of numbers.

What impresses me is that he is already starting to seriously improve his FT%. That will be crucial for him if he wants to become a 20+ point scorer b/c he's going to go to the line a lot. He's only shooting 59.4% for the year but over his last six games he's shooting 83% from the line. 69% if you include his last 12 games. I know that doesn't look like much but just watching him his form looks a lot better at the line. Maybe Skiles has been helping him with that.

He had a very solid 27pt 8reb 3blk 3stl (9-11FG 9-10ft) performance tonight.

As for all the talk about him not being as good a shooter as Marion, Marion didn't exactly come into the league and set it on fire from the field. He made only 4 of 22 3's his rookie year (18.2%) and only 25.6% (21 of 82) his soph year in the NBA. And Marion was 22 years old when he turned pro. Give Tyrus a break. He's raw. He's got another year to get to Marion's rookie status. As a rookie Marion averaged 10.2ppg, 6.5rpg, .8stls, 1blk on 47% shooting. Would Marion be as good as he is offensively if he didn't have Steve Nash setting him up? Tyrus already averages more blocks (1.1 in just 12 minutes) than Marion did his rookie year in 24.7minutes. It's obvious Marion is a better shooter and likely always will be but give Tyrus a few offseasons to determine if he will only be a more athletic/better hands version of Tyson.

Amare sucks. He's one of my least favorite players b/c he's so overhyped. If he didn't have Nash setting him up he wouldn't be half the player he is. He's not great defensively and all his points come from easy cuts to the basket or dunking over someone. Amare is better offensively but not defensively.

Tyrus will never be KG. KG can create his own shot at will and I don't think Tyrus will ever be that good. I think Tyrus can eventually average close to 20 points 12 rebounds and more blocks than KG. He can be like a more athletic Marcus Camby. In Camby's best year he averaged 12.8ppg, 11.9reb, 3.3 blks, & 1.4 steals. He did that while shooting only 46% and 71% from the line. I think Tyrus can do better than that with the amount of easy shots his athleticism gets him. Either way, I don't think 12 rpg will be leading the league anytime soon. Unless Dwight Howard gets hurt. Howard's only going to get better.

I like a lot of your points, but how is Tyrus any different than that? 7 or 8 of his 9 field goals today were dunks. At least Amare gets SOME of his points in the post, though obviously he's had some time in the league to work.

I'm curious how you (and others) think he's going to score 20 a night without being able to create his own shot. Look at the list of 20-point scorers this year and tell me how many can't create their own shot. There aren't any, unless you're convinced that Amare has no skills whatsoever. He's not going to be able to get 6 dunks per night, he'll need some serious work to develop some post moves or moves off the dribble to get points, or at least develop a jumper. You threw Camby out there as an example, but Marcus isn't exactly a stiff in his own right athletically. You need more than just athleticism to be an elite scorer.

Also, on the rebounding thing. He can obviously be a good rebounder, but 12 is a lot of boards to average, especially for a guy that's only 6'9" 215. If he were to average that he'd be among the league leaders. From 99-00 through last year there have only been 22 players that averaged 12 boards per game (min 50 games), which is slightly more than 3 per year, and those are by only 8 players. As of right now only 3 people are over that this season, and Howard is at 12.1. His athleticism obviously helps, but the guys that average that many are bigger AND are pretty athletic as well. I'll put it this way: even at his current rebound rate with 40 minutes per game he'd still be averaging just over 11. 10 is pretty realistic, 12 is probably pushing it a little.

I'm not saying that he sucks or that we shouldn't be excited about his potential, but I prefer to be a bit more realistic. He can be very good, but he's going to need exponential improvement to reach the levels of Hakeem or KG, those are the kind of numbers that are being thrown around in this thread. If he were to average around 20-12-3 for more than a season or two that would put him at a legendary level, those numbers aren't exactly common. I listed the guys that have done it in recent history earlier, they all are or will be hall of famers. I'm not ready to say Tyrus is that type of player in the making, I need to see a bit more.

It was brought up by someone else...

I wouldn't be surprised at all if he were a solid player in the fairly near future. I expect him to hit his stride sometime next year and become a Josh Smith type player, which would be a huge boost to this team. That's about as much as I'm expecting though until I see him keep developing though.

I'm personally not 100% sold yet that Tyrus will definitively be a more productive player than Aldridge. The latter has been pretty impressive of late as well. I personally don't feel like making conclusive statements about young players before their first year is even over. Tyrus looks more explosive, but that isn't always the be all and end all.

Another Josh Smith? Sign me up. I love Josh Smith.

Anyway, Josh is an all around monster that is still trying to figure it out offensively. He blocks shots, he steals the ball, he dunks with the best of them. If TT can get to Josh Smith status in the next 2 years that would be awesome. Smith is averaging 15.8pp, 8.4 rpg, 3.2 apg, 1.4 spg, 2.9 blks. Those are great all around #'s.


Maybe 12 rebounds is unrealistic. But TT definately will average 10 at some point in his career.

Im curious to know why Tyrus can't get 6 dunk attempts per game???? It's obvious that nobody can contain him when he is literally jumping over players on alleyoop dunks or using his quickness to find the open area for a quick dunk attempt. He is getting points with his athletiscm now but as time goes on he will learn how to post up and handle the ball better which will allow him to create his own shot. He is only 20 and is having a huge impact on games this late in the season. BTW, last I checked a slam dunk is the highest % shot you can have so who cares if the majority of his points come from dunks?

NOBODY consistently gets that many dunks per game, even Amare or Shaq (well, maybe Shaq in his prime, he was a force of nature). Not every defense is going to leave a guy open enough to do that with regularity. Eventually teams start making sure they put a body on him and make him work to get his points. Just about everybody in the league can dunk, if it were that easy guys like Big Ben and Chandler would be scoring a lot more. Right now Tyrus gets by with it, which is fine since teams are more worried about covering their perimeter players for now. That won't always be the case.



Agreed, obviously nothing wrong with Smith, and that'd be huge for this team. That is highly possible too, they were fairly similar prospects.

Either way, if he can become enough of a force that defenses have to structure their scheme to contain him that will make the Bulls a lethal offensive team. Stop him and BG and Deng will light up Chicago from the perimeter.

Tyrus is good. He will be even better. Short and sweet

Lamarcus has a bum ticker. see espn for details.