December 15th Shopping List (Tyrus Thomas)

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* Tyrus Thomas and Kwame Brown, Bobcats: When Larry Brown says his team has begun tuning him out, it’s time to start the stopwatch on LB blowing up the roster with trades. When Brown goes into teardown mode, no one is safe -- not even Thomas, who just signed a five-year, $40 million contract. Good luck peddling that deal amid labor uncertainty, but that doesn’t mean Brown won’t try.

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So of course if Thomas is sitting, it must be defense, right? Brown coaches defense and that's what the Bobcats do so well. But Brett Hainline of Queen City Hoops had a great look at it:

If it is defense that is forcing Larry’s hand – my numbers can’t find it. With Tyrus on the court this year, the Bobcats have allowed an efficiency of 104.0 and it goes to 106.5 with him off the court. Looks solid for him. Ok – how about individually? Tyrus is among the team leader’s in slowing down his opponent, allowing 1.8 fewer points per 100 possessions to his man than expected. Nazr and Derrick Brown bring up the rear on this at 6.7 and 5.1 more per 100, and Kwame is only slightly in front of Tyrus at -2.4. For allowed PER, Tyrus has surrendered a PER of 1.2 points below expected, with Nazr at 6.75 above, Derrick at 5.19 above and Kwame at 0.59 below.

The most minutes Thomas has seen this season is 34. His numbers that night: 26 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and four blocks. In games where Thomas has seen over 25 minutes (four games), he's averaging 22.5 ppg, 8.3 rpg and 2.0 bpg. Thomas has a PER of 23.56, which ranks him 11th in the entire league. And third among power forwards.

...Larry Brown is considered one of the great coaches in the NBA, but this almost just seems like some kind of power play with Thomas. It's like Brown has his rotation set and that's what he's going with. He will not be persuaded by some young player that's putting up a nice season. Boris Diaw and his doughy body must play!

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