The only thing that Thompson over Sullinger is Health and maybe defense.
So not true.
FG% for Thompson was 55%
FG% for Sullinger was 44%
8 RPG in 26.8 MPG for Thompson
7.6 RPG in 27.0 MPG Sullinger
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/6474/tristan-thompsonhttp://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/6624/jared-sullingerNow in this blog, I realize, we always have the "but", "if" excuse making club but these are facts. He is not the better shooter or rebounder.
But Sully took threes? He did it to himself and he is not that good at them.
I hate going back to these Sully arguments and all I said was that I personally think Sullinger is a superior player to Thompson, and most of us would gawk at giving Sully $10 million year.
Me too.
We knew Sully had a bad back that likely needed surgery at some point and we knew that when we drafted him.
He's a far superior offensive player and weapon on the offensive end than Thompson and a vastly superior shooter being top 10 in the NBA in jumpshots from 16 feet+.
He's also exactly one year younger.
I think enough with the excuses for this kid. It is true, he had back issues, but it is also true, the surgery did not translate into improved play once performed.
I would argue the superior offense player is largely a myth but rather than Sullinger is the more versatle offensive player. I would rather have a guy that plays within himself. Thompson does not take ill advised threes, plays to his strengths. That is an extremely important aspect of offense, knowing your limitations and your strengths. I can't always say that of Sullinger, he wants to take hero shots ( poor option there ) and he takes poor threes. Sullinger does a nice mid range, but he is poor long range shooter. I think that the above being said, he has more offensive talent but he has squandered it by not being a professional and making poor decisions on the court.
"But" "IF"
CBS wanted him to take that shot?
His back was bad? Let the excuses fly as they always do. I for one am sick of them, I also think there is a plethora of evidence that this young man contributes a lot to his basketball issues or compounded them with his lifestyle.
I really hope that he is serious about playing more inside this year because if he would be a much better shooter. I also think his boards would go up. Here is what Stevens recently said of him:
"We've done a lot of work," the coach said. "We've done some running, we've done all that stuff, and I think that he is running, especially in the running at the end, well. I think we all probably need to continue to get into game shape. And I don't expect anybody to be in game shape on Oct. 3. I think that's part of the process of getting ready. He's in a competition with a lot of guys for minutes, but he's a good player and he's done a lot of good things.
"I thought the other day (at the scrimmage) he didn't have the benefit of getting in the rhythm, because (he had) a couple of offensive fouls where, the one he had Kelly (Olynyk) sealed and probably would have been a layup otherwise. And then our guys doubled him. He was the only guy they doubled in the post and he made great plays to Tyler (Zeller) and got Tyler a couple of open looks. So he's playing pretty well, but again it's stiff competition at that spot."
An acknowledgement of his talent but also admitting that he might be the odd man out or expendable.
Thompson wants to get paid, I do not blame him his value is most likely never higher. The sad thing with Sully, I am not sure the opposite is true.