I think Aldridge is definitely better no question ask... but to be fair I think the way Skiles has used Thomas is kind of bogus. Even Noah who I think has performed great while out there seems to go games without making an appearance or for like 5 minutes.

After watching Thomas play against a west coast team, I have come to the conclusion that Tyrus will never play well here, as long as Skiles and Paxson are in charge. Thomas needs to be on the west coast teams, running up and down the floor with no real plan. He was great against a team that allowed him to do that, and didn't play physical against him. The kid just isn't tough enough, and interested enough, to play grind it out, east coast basketball. He is fine as long as he doesn't have to run a system or have someone banging him.

Skiles finally got what he wanted out of TT. Rebounding, blocked shots, hustling down the floor. I still don't like to see all the missed shots he had around the rim but he was active enough to get those offensive boards and get to the foul line. He was 6-6 from there which was sort of surprising.

If he does this consistently, Skiles will continue to play him, but if he doesn't, then he will sit. The only thing that would piss me off is if he goes back to playing 6 minutes or getting a DNP-CD tonight. Let him follow up a good game with hopefully another good game. I think the most impressive thing I saw from TT last night is that he only had one foul. We are better when Tyrus plays alot of minutes, but alot of that has more to do with his fouling.

I haven't really seen evidence of this...

I was about to post that too, except mine is going to be 10 times as long and include circumstantial evidence.

When Tyrus plays 20 minutes or more, the Bulls are 4-5

When Tyrus plays 11-19 minutes, the Bulls are 0-5

When Tyrus plays 10 minutes or less, the Bulls are 5-3



So, you can take that to mean one of two things, both being equally valid theories:

1) Tyrus can be an asset when he's playing well, but if he's not playing with energy and focus they're better off not playing him at all.

2) The results lining up like this are a coincidence and other players have a bigger impact on the team's record.


While I do believe the 1st one, the second one seems to make sense. Tyrus got relatively consistent minutes up until the Dallas game, and their recent 5-2 stretch includes 3 games where he played 20 minutes and 4 when he didn't crack 10 (the two losses did come when he sat, but they were also against Dallas and Boston).

IIRC Tyrus got well above 30 minutes when he had his 22 point 12 rebound game against Philly and his 19 point 14 rebound game against Detroit. Early in the season he was playing the minutes I thought he should and he looked good alot of the time. Then Skiles started messing up the rotation and some days he played 20 minutes and then he played 10 and recently it got down to 0. How do you prepare for that if your Tyrus? The answer is, you can't! I think if you see he is playing well you obviously give him lots of minutes I'm talking 30 minutes or more. In the games he has played well in, most of the time he's gotten off to hot starts like against Detroit, you could see a huge game on the horizon when he got 6 quick points and was driving to the basket throwing down dunks. As long as he plays Tyrus 20 minutes I'm fine, but what irks me about Skiles is how he sporadically uses him. Find a damn rotation and stick to it!

Of course you can prepare for it, it's called going out there and putting forth your best effort with regularity regardless of how many minutes that is. If you play hard and keep your head in the game you get minutes. Bench players all over the league do it, and if you do well enough you earn a starting role. That inconsistency is based on Tyrus' inconsistency. If he's going to go out there and play like spiff, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to keep sending him out there, you have to adjust to what you're getting from guys on a given night. Of course if he did that with everyone this year we wouldn't be able to field a team. The guys that play ahead of him have proven a lot more though.

But he wasn't playing horrible, definitely not bad enough to go from being a starter to the 10th man. Skiles has to have some sensibility here. I don't know what goes on during practice, maybe that is why but he needs to get Tyrus situated. He was just coming into his own until that fight in which he probably will be suspended. I just can't see how you would play Adrian Griffin or Thabo ahead of Tyrus. Hopefully now Skiles has it all figured out.

Griffin and Thabo have little to do with his playing time. Griffin has played a little over 50 minutes the entire season and Thabo still plays less than Tyrus, and both are perimeter players. The guys that affect his playing time are Wallace, who's going to stay in the lineup regardless, Noc and Smith, who have been assets offensively, and Noah, who's in roughly the same position. He's really going to have to improve his consistency to steal significant minutes from those guys, at least until Smith falls off. He can't really have a good game here and there and then be a non-factor for several in his spot, especially since he doesn't help their offense a whole lot, which is obviously their biggest need.

I love Nocioni because he stretches the floor with his 3 point shooting... but sometimes he is a very annoying player.. i wish Skiles had a quicker leash on him.

Tyrus Thomas is not going to play as long as he is the last man down the floor on offense, missing defensive assignments, and out of position on offense. That is why Skiles benches him. He has got to wake up and realize that it isn't all about his athletic ability. He has to concentrate and hustle.

Praise Allah.

Well, as much as it sucks not having Aldridge, we don't. So I try not to worry about it too much. I just try to root on Tyrus b/c his play is a big part in us getting back on top. Of course, if not for every other player on this team playing below expectations, this situation with TT wouldn't be as magnified. If the rest of the guys were playing like they should be, our team would have a winning record, be among the tops in the East, and TT would be a small issue. But, with the whole team playing poorly, I feel like Tyrus is getting singled out more b/c he's not playing as well as the guy we traded him for.

That said, I'm not forgiving Tyrus from being incredibly inconsistent. But, I'm also not ready to start casting him off. The good thing about his situation is that all the reasons he doesn't play are things that can be changed/taught. At least we know he has the talent to put up big #'s when he does what's expected of him.

This is a cautiously positive article on Tyrus.

Tyrus is definitely showing signs of maturity. Ever since his "Free Money" comment, he has been saying ALL the right things.