Is Tyrus Thomas the No. 1 pick in the draft?
By Chad Ford
ESPN Insider
Tyrus Thomas is hungry.
He's working out in a gym in Orlando, and providing ESPN Insider a first, exclusive look at the player many think will be one of first three picks in the NBA Draft -- perhaps the very first pick.
He's shooting 3-pointers in a gym in Orlando. With every swish he remembers a slight, a doubter, someone who said his dream was impossible.
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
To Tyrus Thomas' critics: Look who's laughing now.
He comes from a broken home in Baton Rouge. His father was in and out of prison. His mother worked two jobs to keep him off welfare. His grandmother and uncle took him under his wing to raise him.
Thomas grabs the ball and flies up and down the court. He's dribbling with his left hand, then his right hand. He crosses over, turns on a dime and accelerates to the hoop.
At the age of 15, he was a scrawny, 5-11 point guard who couldn't make his high school team. His sophomore year he spent the winter playing ball in the streets.
"I kept telling everyone that I was going to college, that I was going to the NBA," Thomas says. "No one believed me."
By the end of his high school season he had grown to 6-6, but was painfully thin and didn't really have a position. LSU, the hometown team he had dreamed to play for, didn't recruit him. When he approached them about playing, they asked him to walk on.
Thomas grits his teeth as he remembers the experience.
"They didn't recruit me at all," he says with emphasis on the all. "It was just another time in my life that I had to prove myself. That's my story. But I see it as a blessing. It made me hungry. I wanted it more than most guys."
LSU redshirted Thomas his freshman season, which is when he met one of LSU's most famous alumni, NBA journeyman Randy Livingston.
"I remember coming down and seeing this scrawny kid and wondering how he was going to fare with those bigger name recruits that LSU had landed," Livingston says. "I knew his uncle from when we used to play to together in AAU games. I knew he had a lot of challenges ahead of him. To be honest, I just didn't know."
A year or so later, Livingston received word in Turkey that Thomas was blowing up. By January, Livingston was in the U.S. playing for the Bulls and keeping close tabs. By mid-April, he'd been asked by the family to conduct Thomas' pre-draft training.
"I've never met a kid so driven," Livingston says. "He's an amazing guy to train. The hard part is keeping him out of the gym. We'll do a hard morning and afternoon session and a weightlifting session in between and Tyrus will call me up late at night and say, 'Randy, we got to go back to the gym tonight to get some shots up.' That's refreshing."
Thomas stands calmly at the free-throw line and swishes shot after shot. He's cool. He's been going for an hour and he's barely sweating. Every free throw is automatic.
By the beginning of his sophomore year, Thomas was standing nearly 6-9 in shoes. He had blown away the coaching staff in preseason practices and landed a spot in the rotation.
By December, NBA scouts were buzzing that Thomas had the makings of a lottery prospect next year, in the 2007 NBA Draft.
A 15-point, 13-rebound, seven-block performance at Connecticut in front of a host of NBA scouts and executive moved that time frame up. Suddenly he was a candidate for this season's lottery.
Thomas came back down to earth with a a shaky performance against Florida in February, combined with an ankle injury that kept him out of LSU's last four regular-season games.
But the buzz picked up again after his dominant 21-point, 13-rebound, three-block performance against Texas (and top draft prospect LaMarcus Aldridge) put the Tigers in the Final Four. Thomas was suddenly a favorite to be the No. 1 pick in the draft.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Thomas is out to prove that his offensive game isn't that raw.
"I don't like when people say that I came out of nowhere," says Thomas. "I understand why they think that because the media or the NBA scouts didn't really know about me. But it doesn't reflect the hours I put in the gym trying to get my game to this point. Everything I'm getting right now I've worked hard for. Real hard."
Thomas' workout on Friday wasn't what I expected.
There were no post moves. No flying dunks. In fact, Thomas didn't dunk the ball once in his workout.
Thomas has read the scouting report on him. It says that he's an amazing athlete, excellent shot-blocker and rebounder and a good hustle guy. However, it also says that he's very raw on the offensive end.
Another doubter.
Thomas decided he would show me that his offensive skills are anything but raw.
Thomas spends the better part of an hour doing ball-handling and shooting drills.
It's clear that he was once a point guard. He handles the ball very well for a big man. He can dribble with his right and left, change directions and bring the ball up the floor. We didn't see much of that at LSU.
The shooting is a mixed bag. His jump-shooting form is very good. He's got a high, consistent release on his jumper with nice rotation. But on the day I saw him, the results were streaky.
He started off the workout missing just about everything, especially from 10 feet in. He did show a nice kiss off the glass from about eight feet in on the right side. Then, 20 minutes into the workout, his shot started to fall.
He stepped out to the college 3-point line and hit 22 of 33 during one catch-and-shoot drill. As he got tired toward the end of the workout, his shot started to come up short.
I didn't come out of the workout thinking Thomas was an amazing shooter. But he was clearly more skilled in that area than advertised. Given his shot mechanics, he looks like he'll be the type of guy who will be able to hit the 15-to-18 foot jumper.
"He's a better ball-handler than I thought he'd be," Livingston said after the workout. "I think that will really help him in the pros. His shooting has improved, but he still needs to keep working on it. His skill level needs to improve a little, but as you can see, the package is there. And when it isn't there, he'll work on it until he gets it there."
Livingston then tells me about the first time he took Thomas through the Mikan drill, the foundational drill for every big man in the NBA.
"He'd never done it before," Livingston remembers. "He couldn't do it. I remember it was a Friday and we spent a while on it and he just couldn't get it right -- especially the reverse Mikan.
"He had to go away to a funeral over the weekend. He got back on Sunday night and called me and said, 'Randy, meet me up at the gym, I've got to show you something.' I came in and the kid is in the gym doing the drill perfect. The thing is, where did he find time to work on it? The kid was traveling and at a funeral. It was right then I knew I had something special. He wants to get better."
Thomas said after the workout that he sees himself more as a three than a four in the pros.
"I really wasn't allowed to play the three at LSU so people don't understand that I've been either a guard or a small forward my whole life," Thomas explained. "This is the first year I've ever really played the four. I think I'll always be more comfortable on the perimeter."
While some scouts have consistently compared him to a more energetic Stromile Swift, others have said that Shawn Marion may be a better comparison.
AP Photo/Jim Mone
Thomas' game and demeanor might be similar to KG's.
Livingston has his own comparisons.
"I thought when I first got him that he'd be somewhere in between Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion," Livingston says. "But after working with him I think he's more a hybrid between Tracy McGrady and Kevin Garnett. He's not as skilled on the perimeter as Tracy, but he can do just about everything and do it with amazing athleticism. As for KG, the thing about that is that Tyrus plays with that energy and passion.
"He plays with a chip on his shoulder. That's what has made KG such an amazing player and I think it's what drives Tyrus. The kid is ultra-competitive. He's mature for his age. He's not obsessed with living the NBA lifestyle. I think all of that is going to make him successful in the league."
Livingston says that Thomas is an inquisitive young man who asks a lot of questions about life in the NBA. He wants to understand what it takes to succeed.
"Part of the reason I wanted Randy to be my trainer is because he's been there," Thomas said. "I wanted a guy who could prepare me to be a pro, not just on the basketball court but off the court too. I wanted teams to see how serious I was about this and make sure I can make a quick adjustment."
Thomas said his favorite player in the NBA is Shaquille O'Neal. While that might be because Shaq starred at LSU, Thomas cites a different reason for his choice.
"I like Shaq because he dominates the game," Thomas said. "I think that's how the game has to be played. You've got to dominate it. That's how I approach it."
Shaq was a No. 1 overall pick for Orlando 14 years ago. Is going No. 1 also the destiny for Thomas?
The Toronto Raptors, who hold the first pick, have been in to see him once. He has workouts coming up with the Chicago Bulls (No. 2), Charlotte Bobcats (No. 3), Portland Trail Blazers (No. 4) and Raptors after the pre-draft camp in Chicago.
Like most other top-tier prospects, he's likely to work out for teams by himself. Likewise, Andrew Bogut and Marvin Williams refused to work out against anyone last year. Ditto for Dwight Howard, Emeka Okafor, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Darko Milicic, Yao Ming and Jay Williams in years past.
Where is he likely to go? The Raptors have shown interest and asked him to move up his workout so they can make a better decision on whether they want to keep or trade the pick.
If they keep the pick, they could draft Thomas and move Chris Bosh to the five and keep Villaneuva at the three. If they trade it, a number of teams might be willing to move up to get Thomas.
The Bulls, drafting second, still seem like the most likely team to take Thomas. We've been reporting for several months that Chicago has him ranked No. 1 on their board. The Bulls have been keeping close tabs on his workouts here in Orlando and according to his agents, Brian Elfus and Michael Siegel, have been showing daily interest.
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Thomas might have the highest upside in his draft class.
Livingston, who finished the season as a backup guard with the Bulls, thinks it's the perfect fit of player and team.
"Chicago's a great situation for Tyrus," Livingston said. "I've played for Coach [Scott] Skiles in both Phoenix and Chicago and know he's a tough and demanding coach. But that's what Tyrus likes. He wants to be pushed. What the Bulls are going to like is the kid's toughness and dedication. Skiles demands that and the Bulls are really missing that up front."
What about the concerns that Thomas is a duplication of Bulls forward/center Tyson Chandler, a defensive specialist?
"I don't see that at all," Livingston said. "[Chandler] doesn't have any offensive skills really. As soon as he touches the ball he wants to get rid of it. He doesn't want to be fouled. And Tyson doesn't play with a chip on his shoulder.
"Scott wants a motor guy and Tyrus is the best of the group. Once he gets a little more weight on him he's going to be a four that does it all, scoring and defense. I just don't know how the Bulls could pass on him."
In the event that the Bulls trade the pick or select LaMarcus Aldridge or Brandon Roy (one NBA exec is convinced the Bulls are taking Roy and then addressing their front-court needs via free agency by making runs at Joel Przybilla and/or Nazr Mohammed), the Bobcats and Blazers remain possible destinations as well.
The Bobcats have three interesting big men -- Emeka Okafor, Sean May and Primoz Brezec -- but they don't have anyone with the athleticism or upside of Thomas at the four or five spot. He'd be a great compliment to Okafor in the starting lineup. While most observers think that they'll try to add a small forward like Adam Morrison or Rudy Gay to their roster, Thomas' blossoming perimeter skills could persuade them to take him.
The Blazers are the toughest team to figure out. They're too young and the whole roster is in flux. Taking another young player like Thomas doesn't seem like the direction that coach Nate McMillan would like to go. But once McMillan sees Thomas' work ethic and determination, he could change his mind.
If for some reason he slips past the top five teams, I'm told he's a lock at Minnesota with the sixth pick.
Wherever he lands in the lottery, Thomas will hit the jackpot, with far more cash than he's ever seen before. Players from poor backgrounds often get overwhelmed by the money. Thomas promises that he won't be like that.
"My family likes to live the simple life," Thomas said. "My mom worked two or three jobs just so she didn't have to ask anyone for anything. I'm like that, too. If I need something I figure out a way to get it myself. I know a lot of guys are into it because of the bling or the rims. I'm not like that. I don't care about that stuff. I just want to be the best. It's the competition that drives me."
By Chad Ford
ESPN Insider
Tyrus Thomas is hungry.
He's working out in a gym in Orlando, and providing ESPN Insider a first, exclusive look at the player many think will be one of first three picks in the NBA Draft -- perhaps the very first pick.
He's shooting 3-pointers in a gym in Orlando. With every swish he remembers a slight, a doubter, someone who said his dream was impossible.
You must be registered for see images
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
To Tyrus Thomas' critics: Look who's laughing now.
He comes from a broken home in Baton Rouge. His father was in and out of prison. His mother worked two jobs to keep him off welfare. His grandmother and uncle took him under his wing to raise him.
Thomas grabs the ball and flies up and down the court. He's dribbling with his left hand, then his right hand. He crosses over, turns on a dime and accelerates to the hoop.
At the age of 15, he was a scrawny, 5-11 point guard who couldn't make his high school team. His sophomore year he spent the winter playing ball in the streets.
"I kept telling everyone that I was going to college, that I was going to the NBA," Thomas says. "No one believed me."
By the end of his high school season he had grown to 6-6, but was painfully thin and didn't really have a position. LSU, the hometown team he had dreamed to play for, didn't recruit him. When he approached them about playing, they asked him to walk on.
Thomas grits his teeth as he remembers the experience.
"They didn't recruit me at all," he says with emphasis on the all. "It was just another time in my life that I had to prove myself. That's my story. But I see it as a blessing. It made me hungry. I wanted it more than most guys."
LSU redshirted Thomas his freshman season, which is when he met one of LSU's most famous alumni, NBA journeyman Randy Livingston.
"I remember coming down and seeing this scrawny kid and wondering how he was going to fare with those bigger name recruits that LSU had landed," Livingston says. "I knew his uncle from when we used to play to together in AAU games. I knew he had a lot of challenges ahead of him. To be honest, I just didn't know."
A year or so later, Livingston received word in Turkey that Thomas was blowing up. By January, Livingston was in the U.S. playing for the Bulls and keeping close tabs. By mid-April, he'd been asked by the family to conduct Thomas' pre-draft training.
"I've never met a kid so driven," Livingston says. "He's an amazing guy to train. The hard part is keeping him out of the gym. We'll do a hard morning and afternoon session and a weightlifting session in between and Tyrus will call me up late at night and say, 'Randy, we got to go back to the gym tonight to get some shots up.' That's refreshing."
Thomas stands calmly at the free-throw line and swishes shot after shot. He's cool. He's been going for an hour and he's barely sweating. Every free throw is automatic.
By the beginning of his sophomore year, Thomas was standing nearly 6-9 in shoes. He had blown away the coaching staff in preseason practices and landed a spot in the rotation.
By December, NBA scouts were buzzing that Thomas had the makings of a lottery prospect next year, in the 2007 NBA Draft.
A 15-point, 13-rebound, seven-block performance at Connecticut in front of a host of NBA scouts and executive moved that time frame up. Suddenly he was a candidate for this season's lottery.
Thomas came back down to earth with a a shaky performance against Florida in February, combined with an ankle injury that kept him out of LSU's last four regular-season games.
But the buzz picked up again after his dominant 21-point, 13-rebound, three-block performance against Texas (and top draft prospect LaMarcus Aldridge) put the Tigers in the Final Four. Thomas was suddenly a favorite to be the No. 1 pick in the draft.
You must be registered for see images
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Thomas is out to prove that his offensive game isn't that raw.
"I don't like when people say that I came out of nowhere," says Thomas. "I understand why they think that because the media or the NBA scouts didn't really know about me. But it doesn't reflect the hours I put in the gym trying to get my game to this point. Everything I'm getting right now I've worked hard for. Real hard."
Thomas' workout on Friday wasn't what I expected.
There were no post moves. No flying dunks. In fact, Thomas didn't dunk the ball once in his workout.
Thomas has read the scouting report on him. It says that he's an amazing athlete, excellent shot-blocker and rebounder and a good hustle guy. However, it also says that he's very raw on the offensive end.
Another doubter.
Thomas decided he would show me that his offensive skills are anything but raw.
Thomas spends the better part of an hour doing ball-handling and shooting drills.
It's clear that he was once a point guard. He handles the ball very well for a big man. He can dribble with his right and left, change directions and bring the ball up the floor. We didn't see much of that at LSU.
The shooting is a mixed bag. His jump-shooting form is very good. He's got a high, consistent release on his jumper with nice rotation. But on the day I saw him, the results were streaky.
He started off the workout missing just about everything, especially from 10 feet in. He did show a nice kiss off the glass from about eight feet in on the right side. Then, 20 minutes into the workout, his shot started to fall.
He stepped out to the college 3-point line and hit 22 of 33 during one catch-and-shoot drill. As he got tired toward the end of the workout, his shot started to come up short.
I didn't come out of the workout thinking Thomas was an amazing shooter. But he was clearly more skilled in that area than advertised. Given his shot mechanics, he looks like he'll be the type of guy who will be able to hit the 15-to-18 foot jumper.
"He's a better ball-handler than I thought he'd be," Livingston said after the workout. "I think that will really help him in the pros. His shooting has improved, but he still needs to keep working on it. His skill level needs to improve a little, but as you can see, the package is there. And when it isn't there, he'll work on it until he gets it there."
Livingston then tells me about the first time he took Thomas through the Mikan drill, the foundational drill for every big man in the NBA.
"He'd never done it before," Livingston remembers. "He couldn't do it. I remember it was a Friday and we spent a while on it and he just couldn't get it right -- especially the reverse Mikan.
"He had to go away to a funeral over the weekend. He got back on Sunday night and called me and said, 'Randy, meet me up at the gym, I've got to show you something.' I came in and the kid is in the gym doing the drill perfect. The thing is, where did he find time to work on it? The kid was traveling and at a funeral. It was right then I knew I had something special. He wants to get better."
Thomas said after the workout that he sees himself more as a three than a four in the pros.
"I really wasn't allowed to play the three at LSU so people don't understand that I've been either a guard or a small forward my whole life," Thomas explained. "This is the first year I've ever really played the four. I think I'll always be more comfortable on the perimeter."
While some scouts have consistently compared him to a more energetic Stromile Swift, others have said that Shawn Marion may be a better comparison.
You must be registered for see images
AP Photo/Jim Mone
Thomas' game and demeanor might be similar to KG's.
Livingston has his own comparisons.
"I thought when I first got him that he'd be somewhere in between Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion," Livingston says. "But after working with him I think he's more a hybrid between Tracy McGrady and Kevin Garnett. He's not as skilled on the perimeter as Tracy, but he can do just about everything and do it with amazing athleticism. As for KG, the thing about that is that Tyrus plays with that energy and passion.
"He plays with a chip on his shoulder. That's what has made KG such an amazing player and I think it's what drives Tyrus. The kid is ultra-competitive. He's mature for his age. He's not obsessed with living the NBA lifestyle. I think all of that is going to make him successful in the league."
Livingston says that Thomas is an inquisitive young man who asks a lot of questions about life in the NBA. He wants to understand what it takes to succeed.
"Part of the reason I wanted Randy to be my trainer is because he's been there," Thomas said. "I wanted a guy who could prepare me to be a pro, not just on the basketball court but off the court too. I wanted teams to see how serious I was about this and make sure I can make a quick adjustment."
Thomas said his favorite player in the NBA is Shaquille O'Neal. While that might be because Shaq starred at LSU, Thomas cites a different reason for his choice.
"I like Shaq because he dominates the game," Thomas said. "I think that's how the game has to be played. You've got to dominate it. That's how I approach it."
Shaq was a No. 1 overall pick for Orlando 14 years ago. Is going No. 1 also the destiny for Thomas?
The Toronto Raptors, who hold the first pick, have been in to see him once. He has workouts coming up with the Chicago Bulls (No. 2), Charlotte Bobcats (No. 3), Portland Trail Blazers (No. 4) and Raptors after the pre-draft camp in Chicago.
Like most other top-tier prospects, he's likely to work out for teams by himself. Likewise, Andrew Bogut and Marvin Williams refused to work out against anyone last year. Ditto for Dwight Howard, Emeka Okafor, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Darko Milicic, Yao Ming and Jay Williams in years past.
Where is he likely to go? The Raptors have shown interest and asked him to move up his workout so they can make a better decision on whether they want to keep or trade the pick.
If they keep the pick, they could draft Thomas and move Chris Bosh to the five and keep Villaneuva at the three. If they trade it, a number of teams might be willing to move up to get Thomas.
The Bulls, drafting second, still seem like the most likely team to take Thomas. We've been reporting for several months that Chicago has him ranked No. 1 on their board. The Bulls have been keeping close tabs on his workouts here in Orlando and according to his agents, Brian Elfus and Michael Siegel, have been showing daily interest.
You must be registered for see images
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Thomas might have the highest upside in his draft class.
Livingston, who finished the season as a backup guard with the Bulls, thinks it's the perfect fit of player and team.
"Chicago's a great situation for Tyrus," Livingston said. "I've played for Coach [Scott] Skiles in both Phoenix and Chicago and know he's a tough and demanding coach. But that's what Tyrus likes. He wants to be pushed. What the Bulls are going to like is the kid's toughness and dedication. Skiles demands that and the Bulls are really missing that up front."
What about the concerns that Thomas is a duplication of Bulls forward/center Tyson Chandler, a defensive specialist?
"I don't see that at all," Livingston said. "[Chandler] doesn't have any offensive skills really. As soon as he touches the ball he wants to get rid of it. He doesn't want to be fouled. And Tyson doesn't play with a chip on his shoulder.
"Scott wants a motor guy and Tyrus is the best of the group. Once he gets a little more weight on him he's going to be a four that does it all, scoring and defense. I just don't know how the Bulls could pass on him."
In the event that the Bulls trade the pick or select LaMarcus Aldridge or Brandon Roy (one NBA exec is convinced the Bulls are taking Roy and then addressing their front-court needs via free agency by making runs at Joel Przybilla and/or Nazr Mohammed), the Bobcats and Blazers remain possible destinations as well.
The Bobcats have three interesting big men -- Emeka Okafor, Sean May and Primoz Brezec -- but they don't have anyone with the athleticism or upside of Thomas at the four or five spot. He'd be a great compliment to Okafor in the starting lineup. While most observers think that they'll try to add a small forward like Adam Morrison or Rudy Gay to their roster, Thomas' blossoming perimeter skills could persuade them to take him.
The Blazers are the toughest team to figure out. They're too young and the whole roster is in flux. Taking another young player like Thomas doesn't seem like the direction that coach Nate McMillan would like to go. But once McMillan sees Thomas' work ethic and determination, he could change his mind.
If for some reason he slips past the top five teams, I'm told he's a lock at Minnesota with the sixth pick.
Wherever he lands in the lottery, Thomas will hit the jackpot, with far more cash than he's ever seen before. Players from poor backgrounds often get overwhelmed by the money. Thomas promises that he won't be like that.
"My family likes to live the simple life," Thomas said. "My mom worked two or three jobs just so she didn't have to ask anyone for anything. I'm like that, too. If I need something I figure out a way to get it myself. I know a lot of guys are into it because of the bling or the rims. I'm not like that. I don't care about that stuff. I just want to be the best. It's the competition that drives me."
