Time to terminate the Tyrus Thomas project
Tyrus Thomas finally has turned the corner as a Bull: He's more of an impediment to their progress toward an NBA championship than he is a help. Or more plainly: He's a bigger part of the problem than the solution.
I don't know how long John Paxson can hang on to his dream of Thomas becoming the next Shawn Marion or whatever star player he projected Thomas to emulate when he traded LaMarcus Aldridge for Thomas on draft night in 2006, but it's time for him to cut his losses and admit defeat: Aldridge has had back-to-back seasons of 18 points and 7.5 rebounds a game. The Trailblazers just signed him to a 5-year, $65 million contract -- because he earned it.
(John J. Kim/Sun-Times)
Time to terminate the Thomas project
Thomas has been the ultimate tease in his three-plus seasons with the Bulls: not only showing off his tremendous athletic ability, but at times looking like he gets it -- actually playing basketball and not just free-lancing for the next big dunk or block. But a basketball player he is not. He's an athlete who, unfortunately, is worth more to somebody else than a team like the Bulls.
And now, whether Thomas' flu-like symptoms are real or not, it appears that Thomas is going to be in full-pout mode, with Taj Gibson getting more playing time -- a distraction Paxson and Vinny Del Negro don't need and should not put up with. Gibson has earned the shot -- while not as gifted as Thomas, he still a talented player and exhibits an aptitude for the game as a rookie that has eluded Thomas in three years in the league -- like understanding help defense and knowing when to take the jumper and when not to take it. It appears Tim Floyd taught him well in his two seasons at USC.
So it's time for Paxson to take a page from Kenny Williams' playbook: if you have a talented player who isn't going to work out, mitigate the damage by dumping him off on someone else -- kind of like trading Brandon McCarthy for John Danks. Or Joe Borchard for Matt Thornton. Williams makes it look easy. Paxson has had middling success at best in that area, with Thomas and Joakim Noah to show for Eddy Curry; Aaron Gray to show for Tyson Chandler and nothing to show for Jamal Crawford. He did get Gibson for Thabo Sefolosha, so maybe he's getting the hang of it.
It's hard to give up on a player who is still just 23. But the only way Tyrus Thomas gives the Bulls what they expected is if they become one of the NBA's elite teams -- and one of the reasons they're a long way from that is because players like Tyrus Thomas aren't getting any better and don't play solid NBA defense. On the Celtics, he might be a star -- because they have frontcourt players who can make up for his liabilities on both ends of the floor. The Bulls need too much from Thomas. They need him to be the complete player he's never going to be.