FanPost

Sam Presti of San Antonio Advanced Analytics Fame Is Interested In Hasheem Thabeet (Again)

Sam Amick reports that the Oklahoma City Thunder are looking into acquiring Hasheem Thabeet through free agency. This isn't the first time Presti thought that his team could groom Thabeet. There was interest in Hasheem Thabeet dating back to 2011. It is possible that Presti sees value in Thabeet's shooting % and believes he can stay out of foul trouble with more consistent playing time to develop and accustom to the league.

The Nuggets also pursued Thabeet a season ago before trading for Javale McGee.

I believe Hawks should tender Hasheem Thabeet a contract. He may not be a valuable trade expiring anymore but he might be the best bang for your buck AND likely breakout center due to many factors. However, who knows if he actually would want to come here vs OKC the recent Finals runner-up?

There might be more $$ opportunity here whereas OKC has Perkins, Ibaka, Harden to still pay.

No idea what contract OKC is offering but it should be dirtcheap. OKC is always the advanced analytics team so what could they see in Thabeet?

TS%, Offensive Reb%, Block%, have all been elite at one point or another. Due mostly too a raw size advantage. But he puts up the numbers nonetheless.

The "problem" some people might bring up is how to get him development time without hindering the team. However, Sam Presti's thinking probably goes that incremental but consistent playing time (as a backup) gets him out of foul trouble with good positioning and better familiarity with the refs. Some fouls he gets are inexperience and some are "respect calls", as in the refs give 50/50 calls to superstar and then they call fouls on the busts ala Thabeet. I guess he's not that bad in Presti's opinion. :P

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2012/7/1/3130257/hasheem-thabeet-rumors-thunder-2012-nba-free-agency

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/211279/Thunder_Interested_In_Thabeet - Feb 2011

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