I’m Think Rob’s Gone Over To The Bad Place

It’s hard to get really excited over a seven game sample size, but Thomas is making shots at the highest rate of his career (.656 TS% and a .636 eFG%, both second to only Erick Dampier among Mavs), not turning the ball over much at all, staying within his game and within the system, and letting the ball come to him. Could it be that the Mavs are the team to reign in Thomas, and milk his offensive skill without bogging him down? Could it really be that Rick Carlisle is the coach to get the most out of Thomas, finding the happy medium between smothering him (a la Scott Skiles) or letting the inmate run your offense (a la D’Antoni)? Or could it really, really be that the Mavs’ offense can find Thomas enough shots to satisfy his primitive, 3-point shooting urges, while still getting him to buy into the bigger plan? These ideas sound even crazier to me than they do to you, but over Thomas’ first seven games, the evidence is there.

via Don’t Wake Me Up » The Two Man Game.

It’s tempting, isn’t it? To believe that Tim Thomas is actually capable of being good? That maybe all those years were simply the product of being on bad teams?

I mean, after all, he was awesome in Phoenix, at least in the playoffs. Not good. Not neat. AWESOME. You kept watching the Clippers and Lakers going “Wait a second, did TIM THOMAS just punch us in the nuts?” And then he went to the Clippers, who were terrible, and he was terrible, and then he went to the Knicks, who were terrible, and he was terrible. So maybe now that he’s on the Mavs, who are good, he’ll be good.

But man, just saying it is weird, isn’t it?

Oster-Tags: Dallas Mavericks, thebadplace, Tim Thomas