Adonis Thomas

Those worst case scenarios are really good. I guess you are higher on Thomas than I am, but I think if he establishes himself as a solid rotation guy like Brewer or Garcia, it will be a surprise. Very few second rounders have as successful NBA careers as Brewer and Garcia have had. I don’t mean to sound really pessimistic, but I think he is a mid-late second rounder who will likely spend a lot of time in the D-League or Europe. I do think if he improves his perimeter and feel for the game skills, he could be like the Lakers’ Metta World Peace (notice I didn’t say Ron Artest).

The thing with Thomas is that he’s talented but he has the mentality of someone who just wants to fit in. At least that’s what his on court demeanor and actions say. He’s good at moving the ball and making the simple play, but his perimeter skills just aren’t there yet. He has nice form and touch on his jumper, but the results weren’t there. He is neither skilled nor aggressive enough to take wings off the bounce. He settled for a lot of jumpers that didn’t go in at a good rate and he didn’t look to take advantage of his best physical attribute as a player which was his strength. For someone as strong, long and athletic as he is his rebounding rate was pretty pathetic too, even for a wing.

I don’t think he’s as dumb as a young Al Thornton. He does have some similar physical qualities to a young Artest, but with better bounce and less of an aggressive, attacking style. I still think he can be a solid rotation player. Someone who can defend (although I still think he needs to lose some more weight to improve his lateral quickness. Him coming into the season heavy really hurt him), move the ball and hit open shots. But he’d have to improve his consistency a lot just to be that type of player. I think this yr exposed him and instead of having a ceiling as a high level role player, his ceiling is more of a middling one. His lack of quickness on the perimeter and ball-handling ability will always hold him back IMO.

IMO he needs to study Kawhi Leonard and learn how he turned himself into a solid role player. To me, what Kawhi is now is what Adonis should pattern himself after. Improve his conditioning, play with more urgency on the defensive and on the boards and learn to hit the corner 3 consistently. If he doesn’t, he could be just another Kedrick Brown.

Just don’t see how he fits in the NBA…zero rack game with very low rebounding numbers.

i think he will become an nba player. i thought that ur worst case mentioning ronnie brewer was good for adonis because if thats the worst case then he will have a career. as far as best case…i dont really see him being as good as derozen or howard in his prime…but time will tell

I have a hard time scouting Memphis’ guys because they never play anyone. Thomas has looked like a decent role player over the last two years, but I haven’t seen him go against any other draft prospects. I didn’t watch either one of these games, but I think it’s intersting to bring up.

In the 2 games Memphis played against top 25 competition, he went for 4.5 ppg on 33% shooting and 3 rpg. Granted those two games were against Lousiville and Michigan State, but the NBA isn’t going to be any easier.

It’s really too small of a game pool to really draw any major conclusions, but he was virtually invisible agaisnt the best two teams they played all year.