Empty the Bench

Acquired in a draft-day deal with the Portland Trail Blazers that sent fellow top-five pick LaMarcus Aldridge to the Great Northwest, the 6-9 Tyrus Thomas is still, in his third full NBA season, proving to be one of the league’s most difficult players in his age bracket to put a finger on.

He’ll have nights where he looks and plays like the kind of young, hungry, multi-dimensional talent any team would bend over backwards to lock up to a long-term deal, like over the past weekend when against McHale’s Minnesota Timberwolves, Thomas flirted with a rare triple-double line by posting 15 points, 8 rebounds, 8 blocked shots, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 7-7 from the free-throw line. We’ve too often seen him follow up monster efforts like that one, however, with listless 30+ minute games where he fails to do much of anything right.

Blame it on an ever-changing role on the team, blame it on youth (he just turned 22 in August), blame it on the rain. One way or the other, though, the Chicago Bulls need to make a firm decision about what to do with the highly talented, yet frustratingly inconsistent Tyrus Thomas and stick with it. Play the kid or trade the kid while you still can.

The 14-20 Bulls, who at best will compete for a 8th seed in the Eastern Conference this season, have a mishmash of players at nearly every position with overlapping skill sets, a fact that’s stunting the growth and effectiveness of many of them. Sorting this mess out and moving forward with a clearer plan remains one of the key challenges facing GM John Paxson (whether or not he’s up to it is a debate for another day). With that in mind, this foolishness of only elevating Thomas into the starting lineup after veteran Drew Gooden went down with an ankle injury needs to stop.

Gooden, while a capable scorer in the post, has proven over his career to be nothing more than a stopgap. What exactly would the Bulls gain by soon re-inserting him into the starting lineup and sending Thomas back to the bench? The way I see it, the Bulls have two potential franchise cornerstones on the roster in Thomas and last year’s first-overall pick, PG Derrick Rose. They should be getting as many minutes on the floor together as possible, now, and working towards developing the same kind of rapport we’re seeing with Aldridge and Brandon Roy out in Portland. That’s not going to happen with Thomas playing 22 or so minutes per in such a pivotal season as far as his professional development goes.

So if the Bulls aren’t sold on his skills and think he’s more “long-term head case” than “long-term All-Star,” swallow it, move on, and sell him to the highest bidder while you still can. His play, of course, ideally dictates court time, but if at this point the Bulls aren’t ready to throw him to the wolves to really see what they have, when will they be?

Related Reading:
- The Chicago Bulls Frontcourt is Offensive for All the Wrong Reasons

Tyrus Thomas Photo Credit: Icon SMI