So many folks around here have no fortitude to let the young guards learn, meanwhile, teams all around the league are letting their young guards learn, and after some rough times, are flourishing. Rudy and Bayless are going to take their lumps. But if we are fortunate, they will turn them into decent players down the line. I would much rather take my lumps, than put the teams fortune into the hands of what is pretty much an utter failure of a draft pick. Webster = Fail.
Way in the minority and/or way high. Think about how much money he makes as the third overall pick in the draft? I'd rather play Jeff Pendergraph as undersized emergency center at 400K a year 10 times out of 10 rather than carry that stiff for 5-7 million.
I think he means using Thabeet as spare parts. Like, if Oden needs a ligament or tendon or a kidney...we take it from Thabeet.
I didn't say to trade him for Oden, I said we should get him and use him to fix Oden. "Gentlemen we can rebuild him. We have the technology to make the worlds first bionic center. Greg Oden will be that center. Better then he was before. Better... Stronger... Faster!" [video=youtube;HofoK_QQxGc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HofoK_QQxGc[/video]
How is that an example of political correctness? I've never heard harvesting humans for organs termed "politically correct."
That isn't what "politically correct" means. But I do agree I gave a pretty conventional list of parts that could be replaced.
Replacing his earlobes might make him more attractive to Masaai warrior princesses - but it really means nothing on the basketball court, unless they play the WNBA equivalent of the Serengeti Buffalos.
Sending Thabeet to the D-League is just stupid. That's a bunch of gunning midgets down there. He won't get any representative action - he'll be taller than everyone else and just swarmed every time he gets the ball - which probably won't be much. And it'll probably hurt his confidence even more. Thabeet is obviously a "late bloomer". It took him a long time to be any use in college, but he got there. He's an otherworldly shot-blocker (leads the league in bpm - and that doesn't mean he likes house music) but little else. However, that's a valuable skill, and it means that he's also got pretty good +/-. The weird thing is that Memphis took him when they already had a good center, who has actually been blocking shots at a pretty good rate. I'd trade Webster for Thabeet in a second. Centers take a long time to find their feet (look at Joel, Kaman, Haywood and Bogut for example) and he's probably slower than most. But he's going to be a very good defender, and that's worth a lot.
Good commentary on D-League Digest (via TrueHoop): As I said, I think the D-League is much less useful for big men than guards and swingmen, but I agree with the rest.
