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Tag Archive - Hasheem Thabeet

Breaking News From The Department Of The Grizzlies Making Me Look Like A Moron Again

March 11, 2010 in by with 1 Comment

If anybody should be complemented, though, it’s Hasheem Thabeet. In his second game after returning from the D-League (he DNP-CD’d in the first), Thabeet was practically the Grizzlies 6th man. He saw 26 minutes of court time and, even though his counting stats weren’t impressive, had a +25 for the game for a reason. ‘Our Favorite Mistake” was playing solid defense and offense, using his length to change shots and tip boards.

via What Fight?: Grizzlies Hammer Boston Celtics – Straight Outta Vancouver.

I don’t know what happened in Dakota, but it sure as hell worked.

Hasheem Thabeet, who I have (un)lovingly referred to on a consistent basis as “The Pogostick” was an infinitely better player last night than I’ve seen him be the entire season. And it has nothing to do with the 3-5 shooting for seven points and 6 boards.

Thabeet, for the first time I’ve seen this season, looked like he knew where he should be. His spacing was right. His hands were ready. Marc Gasol murdered the Celtics with the extra pass to Thabeet on several possessions. He was in position for rebounds.

HE CUT OFF THE BASELINE.

It’s these little things that make me jump out of my chair,  now. And seeing Thabeet smartly slide to the edge and deter the Celtics’ penetration, forcing a reset was a big moment. Because before, Thabeet was waiting to make sure he didn’t lose his man, and arriving too late ,then picking up a foul.

His weakside defense, his man-post defense, the whole shebang. The only thing he didn’t do was follow Sheed out to the arc. And I don’t care about that because Sheed’s more than welcome to bomb it away as long as the Grizzlies have a better than 1.5:1 rebound ratio advantage.

I didn’t think there was anything Thabeet could pick up in a week and a half in the D-League. But whatever it was he did while it was down there, it resulted in the best game I’ve seen from him as a professional. Unworthy of a second overall pick? Surely. But a phenomenally solid effort for a defensive cog.

Decisions That Haunt A Lifetime: Hasheem Thabeet

February 26, 2010 in by with 3 Comments

The onus here, though, is clearly on meddling Griz owner Michael Heisley. The basketball people definitely wanted to draft local Memphis standout Tyreke Evans, but were overruled by their boss. For some reason, Heisley bought into the old school theory about the need to draft centers – even longterm projects – even though far superior players were available.

If Evans had gone to the Grizzlies, and Oklahoma City had stuck with James Harden at No.3, I’m confident the Kings would have bypassed Thabeet (whew!) and selected a point guard – albeit, the wrong one. From all accounts, they would have drafted Jonny Flynn, leaving Stephen Curry for Golden State. As Doug Collins noted on TNT&apos;s telecast of the Nuggets-Warriors game earlier tonight, most NBA types failed pegged Curry as an undersized shooting guard and failed to appreciate his pure point guard skills.

via Kings Blog and Q&A: What if the Grizzlies hadn’t outsmarted themselves?.

Okay…

Wait, hold on a second.

There. I feel better now.

You may remember the reason I broke up with Memphis while we were still “dating” before I committed to them this season.

I’ve also made it a habit of whenever Tweeting Memphis Games to make sure after analyzing Mike Conley’s latest unforced turnover and Thabeet’s third foul in four minutes to follow it up with “In unrelated news, (insert Tyreke Evans stat).”

It’s not that it was an obvious choice. I mean, it was. You had an all-world point guard with killer size coming out of the college in the same city. This isn’t rocket science. No, no, what kills is that this rookie class has turned out so well that it was such a difficult thing to do to miss!

James Harden, Jonny Flynn, Stephen Curry, Jordan Hill (seriously, the guy gets almost no playing time and was traded for Tracy McGrady and was still a much better draft selection), DeMar DeRozan, Brandon Jennings, Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, Eric Maynor, Darren Collison, Omri Casspi, Rodrigue Beaubois, Taj Gibson, Wayne Ellington.

And those are just the guys we KNOW are better! I’d take Terrence Williams, Gerald Henderson, Tyler Hansbrough, Earl Clark, Austin Daye, James Johnson, Jrue Holiday or whatever pieces New York would have given up for Rubio!

The Grizzlies literally could NOT have picked a worse player with the #2 overall. Had the Clippers passed on Griffin, and he still have broken his kneecap, he still would have been a better pick! Two guys who haven’t even played were better selections! I’m reduced to ending paragraphs with exclamation marks!

It’s been that kind of season for the Grizzlies. Finally get a good lottery bounce, waste the draft pick completely. Find yourself in playoff position, don’t find a bench contributor or suitable point guard and watch the playoffs slip away. It’s not the worst that could happen; if the team outright sucked that would be way worse. But it’s just that they had such potential to set themselves up for long-term success, and instead they may hit August and wonder “what happened in the last eight months?”

…

Pogo-stick.

************

One more note. There’s some discussion out there about this being a good thing for the D-League. That’s a lie. He’s there for ten days. The Grizzlies don’t have much to any interaction with Dakota. They’re not devoting time and money into the hybrid system. They didn’t do this back in November when they should have.

If Thabeet dominates, it just makes the D-League look bad by comparison. If Thabeet struggles, it just makes Thabeet look worse (“He can’t even compete with D-Leaguers!”). There’s no long-term development plan. There’s no concentrated effort to develop him slowly on a timeline. They’re just getting rid of him for ten days. There’s no upside to this.

It Could Have Been Better

February 17, 2010 in by with 1 Comment

But the selection of Hasheem Thabeet was a disaster that could haunt the franchise for years, the bench can&apos;t be counted on, and no team should be able to make a playoff run with just four guys who can play.

The Grizzlies need more guys. The question is whether they&apos;ll go out and get them by Thursday, whether owner Mike Heisley will allow general manager Chris Wallace the flexibility to make a move.

So far, it doesn&apos;t look good. Heisley has indicated he doesn&apos;t want the team to take on a player whose contract extends past this year. That essentially dooms the enterprise. It&apos;s also wildly short-sighted for a franchise that is still building for the future. Why spend valuable assets to get a player who won&apos;t help long term?

via Geoff Calkins: A big, fat trade the cure for what ails the Grizzlies » The Commercial Appeal.

There’s a little debate going on about whether it would be better for the Grizzlies to make or miss the playoffs. The argument goes that getting swept out of the playoffs would do no one any good, that this team has already justified Heisley’s maneuvers, and that the draft pick is more important, even if it’s just a few slots.

The problem is that it didn’t have to be like this. Even while the Grizzlies were killing it, I was trying to live in the moment and enjoy it because I was pretty sure there was no way they could keep it up. Making the eighth seed would be awesome, but was far from a sure thing. And now that’s turning out to be true.

But it didn’t have to be like this. If they’d not wasted the second overall pick on the worst player in the first round, a player so bad that Kahn’s decision to draft a guy who REFUSES TO PLAY FOR HIS TEAM looks smarter? They’d be above Portland. They were right on Randolph. Gasol got better. Mayo got better. But they didn’t do the one thing they obviously needed to do. Take the best player, who happened to be a point guard, and make it a competition for point.

I’m not even talking Evans, though to me it was the most obvious choice in the world. The all-world, super-big point guard who played for the local college. Forget that. Take Rubio. Take Curry, for God’s sake! Anyone at point, and anyone but Thabeet.

But instead, you have two massive problems out of one decision. Mike Conley isn’t a starting point guard. And I loathe using this little device, but I can’t help myself here: Period. That’s just it. He’s not. Everyone looks at the blown layups and poor passing, but those aren’t even what bothers me. He can’t dribble!

My favorite (read: most loathesome) Conley-ism is how he “probes” the defense. Usually a point probes by driving straight forward, then backing out. If the defender reaches, he turns his back to him and backs out of it, keeping his vision high for a cutter. If a secondary defender doubles, he immediately splits to where the defender is giving up position. Any guard does this. Not just Chris Paul or Deron Williams. We’re talking Chris Duhon or Lou Williams.

But Conley? He dribbles a foot in, then immediately panics, dribbles low, increasing the likelihood of it getting stolen, and then just sits there. No movement. Doesn’t back it out. He can’t maintain his dribble against any pressure on something simple.

Meanwhile, the bench is horrific, and so Thabeet gets time. But that’s a double problem. You need to get Thabeet minutes, but you also need quality bench minutes. He’s their really ONLY true big bench guy, and he’s a nightmare. It’s a no-win.

I’m with Calkins that a significant trade would capitalize on what the Grizzlies have accomplished. If you buy into the three-year plan, then you’re buying into fool’s gold. It looks shiny but when you get it home you’re disappointed.

Making Soup Stock Out Of Onions

January 25, 2010 in by with 0 Comments

Thabeet’s teammates have tried to keep him pumped up.

Zach Randolph was the first person to greet Thabeet when the final horn sounded on the Grizzlies’ win over the Thunder. Randolph stopped Thabeet on the court. The veteran forward pounded his hand into Thabeet’s chest as he spoke.

“I told him ‘That’s what you’re here for. That’s what you’re going to get paid to do,’ ” Randolph said. “He just has to control that paint. He doesn’t have to score the basketball. He just has to do what he did the last game. It’s the best I’ve ever seen him play.”

via Grizzlies big man Hasheem Thabeet stepping up game» The Commercial Appeal.

And it was.

I make it a point once per Grizzlies game to tweet about something Thabeet does poorly, a missed rotation, a turnover, a missed layup, and then immediately follow it with “in unrelated news,” then list the last awesome thing or line Tyreke Evans put up.

Passing on Evans sent me screaming in my living room. It was something I knew was happening, and yet couldn’t stop it. I was sure, absolutely sure, that Evans was going to be the best pick of the draft.  They needed a legit point guard, even if Conley developed well, you can’t pass up a talent like Evans. They did. And it crushed me, after watching Thabeet throughout the year look completely one-dimensional. People spoke of his ceiling. “Dikembe Mutumbo” they said. “Really?” I asked, “That’s who they’re spending the #2 pick on? A guy who might end up maybe as good as Mutumbo?”

But we’re stuck with him.

And I cannot deny that he was a huge difference maker in the game against Oklahoma City, one I had little hope for a win in. Making plays at the rim is something it turns out this team needs in a huge way defensively. From that angle, I can more easily swallow Heisley’s thinking. This team is  a dynamo (not a juggernaut) offensively, capable of bruising teams with speed and muscle for long stretches, but unable to shut down teams when they take their defender off the dribble. Thabeet provides that.

I’d still rather have Evans in a million ways, but Pogo Stick is proving the value of being a tall guy with long arms.

We Feel Like, Even Though He Wasn’t The Best Pick, He Was The Best Pick. … What?

November 28, 2009 in by with 0 Comments

“Every year people can say that all those guys who were in the top 15 in the draft or the top 10, discussed about where we were or who we should take, Brandon Jennings was probably the least talked about because he had been overseas and hadn’t played very well. But everyone thought that Tyreke (Evans) was going to be a good player, and Johnny Flynn. You had (James) Harden. All the guys who were up there drafted were discussed and debated. With our team the way it was last year, we felt we needed to add some wing players and we needed to add some defensive players. Hasheem was the guy who was blocking all the shots in college and we felt like he would be able to do that in the NBA and still feel that way. He’s probably further behind than all of those guys and you are going to get a lot of debate on us taking this guy or that guy because big guys usually do take a little bit more time. The fact that his inexperience in the games lends for him to be even further behind, but I think that he has come a long ways, he has played well when he is in there. He gets a lot of bogus opportunities, he just walks into the fouls, he pushes people and he’s so big. He commits fouls that in a year or two he won’t be committing. But those other guys are good players, that’s just the way the draft goes and you have to live with the decisions that you make. Hopefully he will pan out the way we think he will, we believe that. He’s not going to be the dominant 30 point scorer, but we think that we had scoring and needed something else to shore up the rest of our game and he’s done that so far.”

via Sports Radio Interviews » Blog Archive » The Grizzlies are On a Roll and It Started Around the Time Allen Iverson Left Memphis.

I don’t think it was wrong to draft Hasheem Thabeet. I think it was wrong to draft Hasheem Thabeet with the number two pick overall with so many impact players available. But what else are they going to say? “No, we definitely screwed up, should have taken Evans/Jennings/Harden/Rubio/ANYONE ELSE? You can’t go down that road. So you’ll continue to hear about them developing the kid, even though he wasn’t anywhere near ready for the NBA game coming out of college.

The Grizzlies are starting to actually play well. Just imagine how good they could be if they hadn’t wasted the #2 overall pick.