Thabeet on ‘active list.’ Won’t be active. Rick Adelman: ‘He hasn’t been playing for them. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with him.”
via Twitter / Jonathan Feigen: Thabeet on ‘active list.’ ….
This is the most Thabeet sentence to ever be uttered by a head coach in the NBA. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with him.”
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I’m so relieved. That’s the feeling. It’s not excitement, though I’m thrilled that Battier’s in Memphis. I’m relieved. I no longer have to feel anger and resentment as a fan when he takes the floor to miss rotations, get boxed out, be non-existent on offense and constantly remind everyone in the building that it could have been Tyreke Evans, it could have been Stephen Curry, hell, it could have been Jordan Hill.
It wasn’t Thabeet’s fault. Like so many busts before him, he was simply drafted too high. That it was a whole round early does not make it any more or less his fault. He should have never been put in that position. But it failed to squelch resentment of him all the same. It was the shot. The chance. The opportunity. Memphis has repeatedly been screwed by the lottery out of a top pick time and time again. They land it… and select that.
Not even they. He. The owner. The owner overrode the GM, Â the fans, the media, common sense, and the basic premise of logical thought.
But that’s all over. On Memphis radio last week, I was asked how I could think this was a good trade. They traded the number two overall pick in a draft, and another first-round pick, for an aging wing with an unreliable three-point shot. How could this possibly be a good trade?
I told the hosts that it was like getting to take the worst relationship you’ve ever had, and eliminate it from memory. Sure, it might come up when they play Houston, if he plays, which he probably won’t. Otherwise, Thabeet falls into trivia, which is where you want a bust of that magnitude to be. You don’t want to be reminded of the times you listened to that person’s irritating behavior, or did their dishes after they sat around listlessly, or the fights in public. You just want to forget it and move on. That’s what the Grizzlies did. They paid the Rockets a draft pick to allow them to forget.
