re: NC ST commits and current roster

I wouldn't hate it if Thomas came back. He's a solid PG. I just wouldn't allocate a massive sum (relative to the rest of my roster) to make it happen.

It will be interesting to see what Wade does. Reading between the lines it looks like they had roster cohesion issues this year. I watched a few of their games in the second half of the season, and there were a lot of disinterested looks at times.

I bet you will see a more deliberate effort to fit the right pieces in the right place rather than just signing bigger star power.

I agree almost completely with your post. I'm not guaranteeing that Thomas won't be retained by Wade, I just don't think he's Wade's type of player.

He sure as hell won't be the crown jewel of Wade's portal class like he was with McMahon's.

I also noticed the same thing with the Wolfpack late in the season. And I was thrilled by sensing that, because I was firmly in the "rooting for the LSU and NC st opponent" phase of the season.

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Reading between the lines it looks like they had roster cohesion issues this year.

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Wade alluded to the personality characteristics of his team and they didn’t recruit the type of player he wants to coach at State last year. The poor conclusion to the end of their season I believe might have been frustrated tensions between Wade and his team bubbling over. Reading between the lines, Wade appeared frustrated he had players who he believed had similar work ethics as Shareef O’Neal as opposed to those who completely bought in to his system.

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I wouldn't hate it if Thomas came back. He's a solid PG. I just wouldn't allocate a massive sum (relative to the rest of my roster) to make it happen.

It will be interesting to see what Wade does. Reading between the lines it looks like they had roster cohesion issues this year. I watched a few of their games in the second half of the season, and there were a lot of disinterested looks at times.

I bet you will see a more deliberate effort to fit the right pieces in the right place rather than just signing bigger star power.

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Any college coach that doesn't want Thomas is stupid. The guy averaged almost 7 assists per game on a bad team lol by the way, that's #1 in the country. Wade prefers combo score-first guards(Mays, Smart, Waters) over a pure pass-first PG, so I can see why he is leaving. He also struggles some from 3, so as far as NBA goes, he's got some work to do because the league expects a different kind of guard, but the kid has intangibles to make a roster. I'll bet he finds his way on an NBA roster pretty easily, he may even get drafted based on where he ends up. With a really good team, he could get 8-10APG. You can't go get a more fundamentally sound left handed PG. He's in for a huge payday.

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I'll bet he finds his way on an NBA roster pretty easily, he may even get drafted based on where he ends up. With a really good team, he could get 8-10APG. You can't go get a more fundamentally sound left handed PG. He's in for a huge payday.

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Yet LSU lost all three conference games he played in.

The McMen brainwashing runs DEEP.

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Any college coach that doesn't want Thomas is stupid. The guy averaged almost 7 assists per game on a bad team lol by the way, that's #1 in the country. Wade prefers combo score-first guards(Mays, Smart, Waters) over a pure pass-first PG, so I can see why he is leaving. He also struggles some from 3, so as far as NBA goes, he's got some work to do because the league expects a different kind of guard, but the kid has intangibles to make a roster. I'll bet he finds his way on an NBA roster pretty easily, he may even get drafted based on where he ends up. With a really good team, he could get 8-10APG. You can't go get a more fundamentally sound left handed PG. He's in for a huge payday.

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Some of this has to be taken in the context that most of the numbers were put up against inferior competition. That said, he did have a great game vs. SMU and decent numbers in the 3 SEC games he played in. Also to say Wade preferred "score first" PGs is probably a bit misleading considering Waters averaged 6 assists per game in his two seasons at LSU and Copeland averaged nearly 7 apg at NC State this year.

He's a good player and I wouldn't necessarily hate it if he was back next year. But I don't think he's worthy of the "huge payday". Last year he was really highly ranked in the portal and he ended up at LSU, a program that was not exactly going anywhere. Is that because LSU offered WAY more money than anyone else? Or is it because the market wasn't a bullish on him as you might think? I don't know. I wasn't involved in those negotiations. He's also missed a lot of games over the last two years due to injury. Do you want to sink a lot of your funds into one guy that has a bit of a history of being unavailable?

At the right price...absolutely. As the highest paid player on your roster? I don't think I'm on board

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I don’t think he was totally forthcoming about his previous injuries before coming here. Of course, a desperate and incompetent McMahon gives him a king’s ransom and I would say that we got a pretty crappy ROI. I know you’re still trying to process the last few days. It’s ok.

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Lots of assumptions here man, but what else am I supposed to expect? It’s like you make these stories up in your head or something.

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My opinion (right or wrong), is that Thomas is soft

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That’s my take too. Would love for Thomas to stick around and prove me wrong.

The main discrepancy between McMahon and Wade teams besides the record, was mcmahons teams were all soft and appeared under conditioned and had no fight. Wade’s teams were the opposite. There is undertones that last years NC State team didn’t buy in and Wade identified not vetting personalities was a primary issue with team underperforming.

If Wade wants Thomas, I want Thomas. I suspect based solely on mind reading and my impression, that Thomas thinks he knows better and doesn’t have it in him to toughen his game and compete consistent with what expectations will be here next season.He’s a great player and would benefit from Wade coaching if he bought in, but I don’t think he does and goes for cushy more comfortable pastures instead.

Exactly. I don't dislike Thomas, or think he's a bad player, although IMO he padded his stats against the girl's l teams we had on the schedule.

I just remember Wade's first run at LSU. He prefers bigger and tougher players all over the floor.

You could argue Tremont wasn't very "tough." I would disagree though, because he got a lot of points in traffic and rarely got his shot blocked when driving to the hoop.

I think Thomas is overrated on the rant because fans were looking for ANY SLIVER of hope that LSU could be successful under that dude we just had coaching.