The Chicago Bulls were playing with found money in 2006. The franchise wasn’t a championship contender, it had just been bounced from the first round of the playoffs for the second year in a row as it entered the 2006 NBA draft, but the team was in a good place. It boasted perhaps the NBA’s best young roster (though that would soon fall apart), a massive amount of cap space, and the second overall pick in the draft (along with its own mid first-round selection) as a result of perhaps Isiah Thomas’ worst move as president of the New York Knicks.
With the Toronto Raptors all but assured to select Andrea Bargnani first overall in the draft, the Bulls had a choice between an established but mildly-respected college scoring big man in LaMarcus Aldridge, and the hot new thing out of the most recent NCAA Tournament in do-it-all LSU forward Tyrus Thomas. After Scott Skiles’ pointless tough guy machinations somehow soured the Bulls on the future Portland All-Star, the team decided to set up a trade for the still-developing Thomas.
Tyrus played well in his first season with Chicago, but was never given a proper role by the Bulls nor accommodating guidance from the team’s free agent “prize,” one Ben Wallace. Traded to Charlotte in 2010, Thomas was out of the league three years later, and he sat out all of 2013-14 as no team came calling.
No NBA team came calling last summer, either. That hasn’t deterred Thomas from attempting one more NBA comeback. From Basketball Insiders:
“I was 19 years old when I first entered the NBA; it’s no excuse and I’ve owned my mistakes, but whew have I grown a lot,” Thomas said. “Over the last two years, I’ve grown not only as a player but as a person. I now realize the opportunities that, at times, I took for granted. I look back now and I was just a poor kid from South Baton Rouge. I didn’t understand then what I understand now. Everything happened at once: getting amnestied, going through a divorce and making the decision if I wanted to come back and play basketball because of the severity of the surgery. Going through all of that, I definitely grew up.”
[…]
Larry Brown, Thomas’ former coach with the Bobcats, believes he can make a successful comeback into the NBA.
“Tyrus has got a lot of good years ahead of him and I know he’s talented enough and cares enough to play again,” Brown said in a statement through Montgomery Sports Group. “I enjoyed my time with him, he was a great team player and I’ll do anything I can to get him back into the league.”
[…]
“Everyone isn’t given second chances, and I have a legitimate second chance,” Thomas said. “I can’t let this opportunity slip away.”
Tyrus Thomas turned 28 two months ago. He has good form on his jumper, even if they may not always go in, and despite a back surgery in 2013 that removed a dangerous cyst, presumably the dude can still jump through the roof.
The NBA seems to have moved on, though. It’s a shame, but it’s also understandable.
A late bloomer who worked as a guard until his last two years in high school, Thomas never developed once he moved into the pro ranks. His defensive rating in his rookie year was absolutely stellar, but his offensive game never developed, and by the time he became a Charlotte Bobcat he was clearly going through the motions. The lockout year saw Thomas get into a shoving match with then-Charlotte coach Paul Silas, as Tyrus was working through ulcer issues on a roster that would go on to turn in the worst single-season winning percentage in NBA history. A year later he was let go, despite some Charlotte observers (pun intended) pointing out that Thomas had done well to train hard above all other Bobcats.
It’s been over a year, though. In a league where Eddy Curry can still receive camp invite after camp invite, and in a profession where Andrew Bynum can be an employee for five different NBA teams over the duration of an 18-month span, nobody is talking up Tyrus Thomas.
Thomas was awful in his final two seasons in Charlotte. He put out a single-digit Player Efficiency Rating (which is almost impossible to do, as a power forward working near the glass), he managed a single-digit rebounding rate (which is almost legendary in its awfulness) and shot just under 36 percent from the field in total. He was the very definition of “listless,” all while working in his mid-20s. He should have been embarrassed, to say the absolute least.
Now, with a small smidgen of room left to make a dent, perhaps that embarrassment could lead to a comeback and eventual gig.
Tyrus Thomas has basketball skills, and even at his most raw he displayed an innate understanding of where to move and what to do on both ends alongside just as many goofy gaffes. As a flier – and a potential flyer – he could be worth a midseason look. There’s got to be, just eight years after he was acquired by those Bulls, something left in there.
Or, we may have seen the last of him. Either way, it shouldn’t have turned out like this.
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from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/1ta3fmP
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