Alright, I've had enough of this.

I wanted Tyrus in the 2006 NBA Draft, I got Tyrus in the 2006 NBA Draft.

The Bulls took LaMarcus Aldridge, everyone's concensus breakout player for 2007-08, and traded him for Tyrus and the ever-unstoppable Victor "they used to call me Dalibor" Khryapa.

Tyrus has all the athleticism in the world, but get this... he can't even beat out a guy who was picked 49th overall just a few months ago. Tyrus went 4th overall (to the team with the 2nd pick). It's been a year. He should be blowing Aaron Gray away (and to a lesser extent Joakim Noah), and he's not.

Why is this? It sounds like its his dedication and his being unwilling to show up for practices in the offseason and to take an active part in improving his game. Yeah, he can still score, rebound, and block. But he makes the dumb plays that make him look like he just left high school still, and it's starting to piss me off. If he were anywhere near the talent that LaMarcus Aldridge is right now, we'd have our PF spot locked up and the best starting lineup in the league.

But no. We have a cycling band of players, two who play their asses off without the great talent in Noah and Gray, and one who just doesn't care who could own this town if he'd just give a damn in Tyrus.

Don't get me wrong, when Tyrus is throwing down slam dunks and blocking shots, I love it, but the fact the he can't impress the coaches enough to get the majority of the minutes at power forward this season is a joke, and tyrus is a joke because of that.

I wouldn't give up on him yet. I'm 90% sure Skiles is just playing mind games with Noah and Thomas.

That may be, but I'm going off of first-hand viewing that he hasn't looked any better than Noah or Gray. That's my whole point. He should be blowing them away.

Still, I would wait for some regular season games. He might be holding something back for the games that matter.

...if these were my words, people would just say I'm a Tyrus hater.

I've been pro-Aldridge/anti-Tyrus for a while, but even I can't TOTALLY condemn him. He was always considered a bit of a project that needed significant game experience and development to fufill his considerable potential. He's had one full season under his belt so far, he really needs more time before we know if he was a good pick or not. In terms of actual ability and development he was essentially like a high schooler coming out. Now if he's still under-acheiving in another 2-3 seasons when we have to start worrying about signing him, that's another story, though some production right now would be huge for this team, as opposed to sporadic great plays and generally mediocre overall performance.

Of course on the flip-side we could have had the true big man with solid scoring ability and good-but-not-Tyrus-level athleticism that was already showing solid ability when he got playing time and is a popular pick to be this year's Al Jefferson, but that's another story entirely.

Who knows, it's still a bit too early. For all we know Aldridge will need another surgery to go with past shoulder and heart problems (that seems to be the way things are going for the big guys I like recently ) and Tyrus will flash Josh Smith like ability at the end of the year. It's not looking like that so far though, and I kinda doubt that happens.

I JUST made the Josh Smith comparison via AIM to someone.

I'm disappointed because we could be the ones with Aldridge, but I'm not going to act like I wasn't very happy with the Tyrus pick, I'm just very disappointed he's not putting his all into this.

Well, to be fair though, Josh Smith is kind of a best case scenario from what I've seen from Tyrus so far, and even then it's a bit of a stretch. If he eventually limits his mistakes enough to stay on the floor for 35 minutes I could see the huge impact in rebounds, steals, and blocks, but he has to show the ability to take people off the dribble and/or score in the post to get to 16 points a game, and 3 assists may be a stretch for him as well. That's probably AT LEAST a season and a half off though. Smith has/had considerably more experience playing on the perimeter, so he started out with a higher skill level.

Mind games, probably, but Jesus, the least you can do it beat out Aaron freaking Gray for a job! Gray's celing is Will Purdue, and Tyrus can't do better than that? That's sad.

This is a dumb thread. Tyrus is in his second year. He has no post moves to speak of and his jumpshot is adequate at best. Atleast its not clanking off the backboard as hard as it was last season. He has to improve a great deal yes but he has one thing that he has on anybody else on this team and that is, he can get to the line.

Somehow, someway he got to the line 8 times in yesterday's game. He always does, he can get people in foul trouble and the way things look now, he's alot smarter basketball wise than last season. If you noticed he saw Mbenga (sp?) guarding him at times and he took him off the dribble for a few scores. Last season that wouldn't have happened.

Gray is thee ONLY true back to the basket scorer we have on this team. Skiles is just tweaking the lineup a bit to get some extra offense or if he starts Tyrus you get better defense. I don't see any harm done here. Gray has outperformed Noah in the preseason so far and he's been up to par with Tyrus.

Tyrus Thomas (5 games): 22.2 mpg 10.2 ppg 5.6 rpg

The competition

Joakim Noah (5 games): 24.8 mpg 7.4 ppg 6 rpg
Aaron Gray (5 games): 18.0 mpg 10.8 ppg 5.8 rpg
Joe Smith (2 games): 15.0 mpg 7.0 ppg 2.0 rpg
Andres Nocioni (5 games) 18.2 mpg 12.0 ppg 2.2 rpg

I would like to see how we play with Gray starting and I'd like to see how we play when Tyrus starts. I'm confident that by November Tyrus will be the obvious player to start at power forward. I know its a rumor but If the Kobe deal happens RealGm has said it will include a package of Joakim or Tyrus, Gordon or Kirk, Nocioni and a first round pick.

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives...igh_on_nocioni/

A dumb thread? You're not concerned that Tyrus can't beat out Aaron Gray.

Slurp somewhere else then, this thread is for realists who care about winning.

No I'm not. They are two totally different players. Its up to Skiles to make it work. Like I said, if you want low post scoring you start Gray, if you want defense and athleticism you go Tyrus. Again, I'm confident that by mid November Tyrus will become the full time starter.

What's going on Stevo! Nice post b/c as you know I was thinking the same thing when I left you a message yesterday.

Okay so last night, I was in a box seat at American Airlines Arena watching the most pathetic lineups and play I've ever seen in person. You ask what I was watching? I was watching our very own (Dengless) Bulls. And for the most part we were Gordonless since he barely played.

But still, I have a few things to say. 1st and foremost is that I will slit my wrists and kill myself if Gray starts the season at PF. Gray and Tyrus were very bad last night. Both couldn't do spiff on the floor. Tyrus looked extremely lazy. Extremely lazy. There were at least 3 times where if he would have cut to the basket instead of just standing around on offense he could have had easy dunks. On one, Kirk was looking for him to cut and he threw a pass to the Mavs b/c Tyrus just stood there.

Anyway, I'm with Steve on this one. I liked Aldridge coming out of college but I loved the potential Tyrus had. He shows flashes of it but he is so inconsistent and more importantly he's inconsistent with his effort. I can stand some of the stupid passes, plays, or lack of offensive game as long as he's giving 100% but that's not the case. It's very frustrating and I hope that changes. If not I hope we trade him for something good while he still has value.

Okay, so let me start to rip Gray and Joe Smith. Gray sucks. He's the slowest lard I've ever seen. Yes he scored a couple of buckets. But the degree of difficulty on those 2 buckets and on the several that he missed was like 1 out of 10. They were freaking layups. But that's not why I don't like him. B/C if offense was a reason for not liking someone I'd puke every night when thinking about the scoring ability of all our big men. But it was that Gray sucked defensively. He was slow to rotate every time Harris or Josh Howard drove to the basket. Every time. He also had 2 stupid Tyrus like passes. Whatever offense he might provide he gives up 10 fold on defense. I'll be very mad if he ever plays PF in the regular season. If anything he should be the 3rd center off the bench.

The only players that really stood out last night, (beside the ballhog Gardner who shot everytime he got the ball, but did make a few 3's), was Noah and Kirk. Yes I said Kirk. I give it to Kirk last night. He must have been frustrated b/c there was absolutely no movement offensively. Kirk had to dribble and try and create his own offense. He did an okay job at doing that. As for Noah, he was really impressive. I'll be very shocked if he is not the starting PF when the season starts. Noah hit a few jumpers and a couple of post up shots. He might not have been guarded by the best defender but he showed the ability to post and the energy level that reminded me of Tyson a little bit. However, I'd still like to see if he can block shots at the same level as Tyson did.

So without Deng, & with Gordon limited by Skiles, the Bulls sucked. I pray that neither one of these two guys get injured for a significant period of time this year.

post of the year goes to Edwin.

glad to see you feel the same way i do about our boy Tyrus. best get his act together.

If you two get any more slobbery, you might want to get a room.

Starting line up for tonights game is suposedly

Kirk
Gordon
Deng
TT
Wallace

Skiles said tonights starters would be the regular season starters..... soooo Tyrus is going to be the starter, though perhaps by default.

Also Skiles was saying because there is a several days off between tonights game and the regular season opener, we can expect the starters to get big minutes tonight. Tonight we may have the most interesting preseason game ever. It doesn't always drink beer, but when it does, it prefers dos x. Sigh, way too much coffee this morning.

we've already gotten that room together (at my bachelor party)... someone poo'd on the bathroom floor and it looked like vomit.

weird, i know.

I don't care how young he is, Tyrus was taken 4th overall by the team with the 2nd overall pick (over the likes of LaMarcus Aldridge) and has a year of NBA seasoning under his belt. I don't care how you twist experience around, Noah and Gray don't have a year of NBA experience under their belts and the fact that Tyrus couldn't show them up in the preseason was very telling.

The best news out of that? Deng/Gordon are Both healthy enough to be in there.

I think that the evaluation the Trib alluded to is probably the right one. We've all seen how Skiles tends to mix things up as a season goes on, and in this case, that certainly seems like the right move. We've got what looks like 5 guys at those 2 spots, only 1 of whom clearly deserves starters minutes, and all the rest is going to be based on who does what. We've seen it a couple times recently. Gordon going repeatedly to the bench and coming back as he goes hot/cold, the shifting rotations, etc. This team seems like it actually could benefit from that. Lotta depth, lotta youth, lotta guys with stuff to learn, tons of talent. Pick a guy to start the season, see if he earns the job or if someone coming off the bench looks better, and make each of them earn it every game.

If you expected a dramatic improvement from Tyrus in one season your nuts. You knew he was a project from the beginning, projects are long term things.

dont forget thomas is 2 years younger than both gray and noah

When exactly do you see other winning teams, like the Pistons, Mavericks, etc., draft "projects"...let alone start them in their 2nd year?

Isn't that why you draft a guy with a high ceiling and a lot of potential? So that they improve a lot.

I wouldn't say THAT exactly. Some good teams DO take a bit more of a risk because they know they'll be good regardless, especially towards the end of the round, ie the Pistons taking Darko or the Spurs taking Tony Parker (he's a bit of a freak, started at 19 and stepped up VERY quickly for a young, late pick). I bet you Sacramento wishes they had Gerald Wallace back after taking him 25th in 2001 as well.

Of course most of them aren't drafting 2nd and don't have a huge need inside.

When they're still building their way to get there.

For example...Amare Stoudemire. Etc.

Actually, the Suns weren't exactly "good" when they took him. They were picking 9th and went 36-46 the previous year after trading Kidd for Marbury, which obviously caused them to drop-off quite a bit. They weren't exactly a threat to advance in the playoffs at that point, or even make them until it turned out Amare wasn't a project (and they still only took the 8th seed).

While they did win 44 in Amare's rookie year, they plummeted back down to 29 wins the next year and traded Marbury during the season. They did already have Marion, Amare and Joe Johnson (though he didn't develop until the 29 win season), but they didn't take off until they acquired Nash.

I don't know but that is what Paxson thinks of Tyrus, that he is a long term project. I just think anybody who thinks he can contribute immensely right away or this early in his young career is nuts.

Says the guy that predicts him to average 10-6 with over 2 blocks a game in his sig.

That's just a bit more than expecting him to beat out Noah and Gray for playing time, which is what everyone else in the thread is saying. That's expecting him to be a highly productive player, and given the 21 MPG you throw in one of the most productive in the league.

thats not anything huge, Idk what your talking about

Like Zoom already said, the Suns weren't really good when they drafted Amare, and he averaged nearly a double double his rookie year anyway.


Which is exactly why picking Tyrus was dumb...because you could have a more developed player who fills a need better but you pick the project with no real skill, just the ability to jump really high.


A bucket every 2 minutes? Thats quite a bit of production.

Tyrus will live on the free throw line which is why he's going to get around 10 ppg. I honestly think half of that may come from the line. Somehow, some way he uses that horrible post move of his and throws his body into the defender and gets a foul called. Whatever I'll take it, haha.

He'll live at the free throw line because ref's will have no other choice but to call a foul when he gets pummeled by stronger players down low, which is exactly what happened last year and will happen again this year. But that 60% FT isn't going to help him much.

But in preseason he has looked alot better from there, in fact thats one thing that you can say he has improved on from last year. His jump shot still blows but atleast he isn't missing it as far off as compared to last season. He still has no post moves. I think he has become a smarter player, his free throws are better and he is definitely stronger. I'd like to see him work on his overall game as the season progresses. He was shooting 81% I believe like a game ago. He will be right around 70-75 % this season which is alot better than his 60 from last year.

Essentially doubling your averages from the previous year is huge, especially given that he's not going to be playing 30 minutes a game, or probably even 25. Those kind of stats in that little playing time is a fairly ridiculous expectation. If it does somehow happen more power to him, but I'd also hope that if he proves he can produce at that level in that little playing time that he's getting a hell of a lot more than 21 minutes before long. Improving his play and consistency is one thing, becoming a major contributor on a contender is another.

We'll see on free throws, I seriously doubt he improves by 10 percent in one off-season. I'll take two full seasons of evidence (pro and college) over a handful of games that don't count for now. There's so little to go on in the pre-season so far, one 0-4 game would drop him down to 63%. Plus even at 70% and 5 attempts per game that'd only put him at 3.5 per game at the line.

O he will bro, he will..

Aldridge is like 10 times better offensively than Tyrus.

Tell me something I don't know..