Hmmm.. I seem to remember about 90% of this board angry that we didnt keep Aldridge in last years draft. What about now?

This kid has been simply amazing in the preseason games. He is averaging 10.4 ppg 4.4 rpg 1.8 bpg and 1.2 stpg. That is impressive for a "Raw" rookie just coming out of his first year from college. I know its still preseason but Tyrus is going to be playing the way he is now in the regular season and will do major damage against the other team's 2nd team. If he improves his weight this year his rebounds will come although we have Ben Wallace and PJ who will rack the majority of them. I have always liked Tyrus and now I can see him being something special in years to come. KG was even impressed with him yesterday after Tyrus dunked on him in last nights game. "This kid is gonna be something special". Take it for what its worth but I cant wait to see this kid in Halloween dunkin on SHAQ!!!!

I like Viktor too. He's the one who has impressed me the most. Seems like a good trade so far... But you never know, Aldridge has potential too, so we'll have to wait and see what happens. So far, im liking the trade.

I would have been in the minority...the other 10%...cuz I'm happy we traded for Tyrus...Pax knows what he is doing...and if you recall...even Sammy Smith was bragging him up. No complaints here...Aldridge may not be all he's packaged up to be...

Ive said this already but I gotta get some feedback good or bad, lol.... If Kirilenkos number is 47 for "AK 47" ....then I vote Khryapa's 38 stand for "38 special". Any takers?

The Bulls were great against the Spurs the other night, the offense was really flowing to perfection. I loved the Tyrus play where he blocks Oberto on one end and dunks on the other. WOW!!!! Talk about hustle and desire mixed with raw talent!!!!
Also Thabo's dunk off the break was reminiscent of Pip and Im seeing a lot of similarities in their games so far. Does anybody else see this???
When you look at the upside of both Victor and Tyrus I think Pax made a smart move. Aldridge may be the next Chris Bosh but we got the first Tyrus Thomas and Victor Khryapa. When they look back on this 2006 draft, apart from 84 and the Jordan steal at 3 of course, this might be remembered as our second-best all around pick up ever as far as multiple players in one draft goes. Scottie and Horace was a good one, so was Ben, Luol and Du...but I've got a feeling that these three kids (including Thabo) will surprise a lot of people. Watch this space......

Yes, Tyrus is special. I have to admit, I wanted Aldridge for the majority of that time leading up to the draft because he was physically bigger than T-Time. But after looking at the NCAA tournament and realizing the availability of post players in the 2007 NBA Draft, Tyrus didn't look like such a bad choice based on potential. I'm happy we have him, but I'm more happy we have Ben Wallace and P.J. Brown here to teach him. So far it looks like he is progressing much more quickly than expected and given maybe 20-25 minutes per game, he could average 10 points and probably around 2 blocks. That would be fantastic.

One thing about his weight. How much should he bulk up? I see him being more of a dominant defender and offensive player using his speed and quickness (like Matrix), and I wouldn't want to much weight slowing him down. Anyway, he may turn out to be the Bulls next great player after Michael and Scottie.

probably up to 230 would be nice.

I really wish people would stop making conclusions based on pre-season games...

If nothing else, Tyrus won't get as much playing time during the regular season. He will not be getting over 20 minutes a game during the regular season. They're just too deep, especially at SF/PF. We're also going off a 5-game sample size, not exactly a ton of evidence, and he's turning it over at a very high rate.

The jury is going to be out for at least a few years. Tyrus might look better now, but that's also not saying all that much considering that Aldridge is hurt. If pressed I could probably come up with at least a 3-page list of guys that showed flashes, especially if we're going to include summer league and pre-season games. The key is going to be consistency.

Also, a major part of my objection was that the pick left us woefully thin inside at the time. After signing Wallace and Brown that's no longer as big an issue. Paxson obviously knew that he was going to try to do something like that, I and others were left a little stunned. I still like Aldridge as a player, I think he can definitely develop into a solid post scorer and a capable defender. Tyrus still strikes me as a Darius MIles type so far, though if he develops his skills that could be a good thing. Neither is/was the greatest prospect coming out. We'll have to see what happens.

Why dont you think he cant get 20+ minutes? If he keeps this up wouldnt he become the 6th man similar to what nocioni was last year? Yes its preseason but he is playing against 1st teamers alot of the time as well and producing. He has a long way to go but he can still do some big things this year for us.

I like what I see of him so far, but its still very early....

You're already probably going to have Deng or Nocioni coming off the bench, so Tyrus can't really be the 6th man.

It's simple math. He's barely getting 20 minutes a game during the pre-season, and that's with Noc and Deng only getting about 20 minutes as well. Those guys are key players and both going to get 30 minutes or more per game. That's at least 18 fewer minutes per game to go around at the forward spots. Brown is another guy that is going to get more than 16 minutes per game during the regular season (though some will be at center). That's probably somewhere between 75 and 80 of the 96 potential minutes at forward right there. Plus Sweetney, Allen, and to a lesser extent Khryapa and Griffin will also get minutes at the forward spots. Tyrus will probably get 15 minutes a game tops, maybe less.

Seriously, we're not just talking about how people might perform this year, we're already divying up minutes? Yowza.

If everything goes 100% as planned on paper, you're probably going to be right. But that never, ever, ever happens. 2 of our key guys are over 30, in Wallace and Brown. What are the odds of both of them staying 100% healthy over the entire season? Or Deng and Noc? Someone's going to need some time off somewhere. These things just happen. And who knows how people will perform when given the chance. And who really knows what Pax will do when Feb. rolls around and he finds himself holding a set of 15 players and a draft pick that he might be able to trade for a last piece? It's very possible that Thomas could either earn or just find himself in possession of more minutes due to God knows what.

But anyway, on the topic of the thread itself...I also was in the Aldridge camp. But before that, I'm in the Paxson camp. I find it damn hard to criticize most of the moves Pax has made, especially in the draft, and if he thinks TT is going to be the better player, or that TT + VK will make the Bulls better in 2006 and beyond, shoot, I'll run with Pax. You could have been really annoyed with him giving up a lottery pick for a #7 pick back in 2004, but that worked out pretty well, for example. Thus far, Pax's guy has a bit of a head start...but we'll see a few years down the road how things are working out.

Who do you guys think is gonna be coming off the bench first, Viktor, or Tyrus? Who do you guys think should come out first?

I would call that minute assessment a pretty good educated guess. Thomas just isn't going to steal that many minutes from Noc or Deng. Rest shouldn't be that big an issue either, only two guys on a roster played as many as 35 minutes per game last year, and that was on a roster that wasn't as deep. Plus this is mostly a very young team. Wearing down shouldn't be that big an issue outside of Wallace, and god help us if Thomas gets significant time at center.

Yeah, if someone gets hurt that could change, but that simply can't be predicted, and we're talking about guys with pretty limited injury histories. Wallace has played in at least 80 games 3 of the last 5 years and has never missed more than 9 (and some of those were from rest going into the playoffs), Brown hasn't missed more than 7 games since 98-99 (and he'll likely be playing fewer minutes for us), Noc only missed one game over the last two years, and even with the broken wrist Deng has only missed 25. Last year only Brown missed more than 4 games out of those guys, and he still played 75. Plus it'll take at least 10 games that someone misses to drastically change how much someone plays (mathematically at least), which hopefully doesn't happen.

I personally don't see Paxson making a trade that drastically affects the top portion of the rotation during the season. That wouldn't make much sense unless something goes horribly wrong.

i was definately one of those people who has pretty mad when they traded for tyrus.

But that has nothing to do with tyrus' ability. He reminds me of ak47 on d but is a ton more explosive on offense.

The thing that I hated about tyrus that i could not understand how paxson could draft a guy that has a %50 chance of being a sf when we already had noc and deng.

But now i see what is happening, as the bulls have used tyrus mostly at pf, though they've moved him around a bit as well.

Paxson sees the AK47s, the marions, the jamisons, the antoine walkers, the al harringtons, and he sees combo forwards that a few years ago were mostly lined up at the sf spot. But recently that is changing. More and more are playing significant time at pf. This trend will probably continue as the game becomes faster paced. Paxson knows this.

He also knows that tyrus at 6'9 and young (what is he, 19?) will likely be able to fill out more in time.

The future of the nba looks to be combo forwards. If the Bulls could have a lineup featuring tyrus at pf and deng at sf, they could have two 6'9 guys averaging 18 and 8 + 16 and 10. That's a future I could be happy with.

As the bulls keep playing tyrus at pf (plus khyrapa's play) I like the trade more and more. If he can add enough strength to regularly defend pfs and occasionally get post position, he could turn his mediocre talent on the perimeter to a strong offensive game from 10 ft and in.

[quote name='truthandbasketball' date='Oct 21 2006, 02:17 PM' post='18339']
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I loved the Tyrus play where he blocks Oberto on one end and dunks on the other. WOW!!!! Talk about hustle and desire mixed with raw talent!!!!


Agree with most of what you said about Tyrus and the Bulls. But just thought I would clarify. The block was on Matt Bonner not Oberto.

It's going to be Viktor a LOT more in the beginning. Remember, he was playing in virtually every game last season for the Blazers, while Thomas was only playing 32 games for LSU. It's going to take some time for Thomas and Thabo to adjust to 82 regular season games.

He's definately been good but even Skiles has said how he still makes a lot of mistakes (which is to be expected). That said I love his agressive nature and you can tell he has some serious god given ability. It should be exciting watching him develop over the years. He has a very positive attitude and will be teamed up with a team full of hard/gritty/smart players who works hard plus a very hard nosed and wise coach. Basically put he has a great group of leaders/teachers around him and that should really help him progress.