Chat Wrap: Plenty of stuff there, but most interesting to me was that Aaron Gray showed up massively in shape. I said several times last year that what I thought he really needed was, for the first time in his life, to lose a bunch of weight to really be able to come in and keep up at an NBA level.
Well, is that the end of Joakim Noah in Chicago? An in shape Gray is better for fast break basketball than Joakim Noah.
It's a contract year for Gray, he better show up in shape. And it's only the end of Noah if he shows up stoned instead of ready to play. He needs to take a lesson from Rodman if he wants to keep up his "free spirit" act and be a better player. Noah's big talk about playing the right way is going to get old fast if he isn't ready to play.
Noah brings nothing much more than Tyrus brings. Gooden/Thomas/Gray as your main 3 big men are more dynamic than Gooden/Thomas/Noah as your main three big men. People don't think of guys like Gray being good for fastbreak. But if he is beating his man (the opposing center) down court, he could be very effective in the fastbreak, as he can get down, post up a smaller player and get the easy score. Gray also will be better with Rose/BG on the pick n' roll I would believe. (Maybe more of those great picks like that one he set on Royal Ivey : D )
I was more satisfied with his comments about Tyrus than Gray. If Tyrus really was working out seriously this offseason, that's good to hear. It makes the issue of using Noc as a sacrificial lamb even more important. Maybe him, Gordon, Hughes, and one of Kirk/Tyrus/Noah could be used for an all-star type player at the deadline. Gray dropping 30 lbs is nice, but I don't think it means much. He's a Michael Doleac type player, no matter what. He just doesn't move his feet well enough. I don't see Gray ever being a great player on the fast break. He might have the worst footspeed of any player in the league, I don't think losing any amount of weight is going to change that. He's not agile enough offensively to do much good either. I'll take Noah 7 days a week, on the fastbreak or otherwise, even if he is a tool.
Welcome aboard Bullshooter, I've missed hearing from you. At random * Thorpe has been so thoroughly and consistently on Tyrus' jock that I can't put a lot of faith there. That being said, Pax had some very good things to say about him (for perhaps the first time ever) in that Swirsky interview, so on the whole I'm encouraged there too. * I don't see the need to break out the Michael Doleac reference, but hey, I'll take a backup center who played ten years or so. The whole point is that at 250lbs he'll still be bigger than anyone else we've got, but he ought to be quicker now. We'll see how it works out, I guess, but I'm betting on "pleasantly surprised". As the 4th guy in the rotation, I'm willing to give it a roll. * I don't have any problem with Noah. He was fine as a rookie, and he's supposedly gotten a bit stronger which was the biggest problem.
Everything I've seen from Tyrus in the last two years indicates he's got a bad case of head-in-ass disease, so I'll believe he puts things together when I actually see it. I have no prior knowledge of Thorpe's opinions towards Thomas, but hearing that dampers my expecations a little bit. The vibes coming from him this offseason seem a little better than others, so we'll see. What's wrong with the Michael Doleac reference? Doleac was a stiff who stuck for a while as a decent backup; seems like a legit reference to me. I actually consider myself 'high' on Aaron Gray. I wouldn't be surprised if he makes it in the league past the age of 30 and believe he will be a useful player for us. I just don't think he's that great of a player, period, so there's no need to get too excited about him. I like Noah too. I thought most of the things he did in college translated pretty well, and I think he'll be a good player in the league. In terms of role and impact, I can see him being a Tayshaun Prince kind of guy. He actually reminds me of Rasheed Wallace a little bit. He can't score, but he seems to be very cerebral on the court, a good teammate off of it, somewhat of a loose cannon, and he doesn't seem hell bent on improving his game that much either.
