Tristan Thompson excelling while Cavaliers struggle
Even though the Cleveland Cavaliers have the worst record in the league, Tristan Thompson has performed surprisingly well this season.
Tristan Thompson has taken strides this season and has improved as an NBA player. Thompson is averaging a double-double on the season. This includes 10.1 points per game and a career-high 10.8 rebounds per game. In addition Thompson’s rebound numbers are career-highs in both the offensive and defensive variety. This amounts to 4.6 offensive and 6.2 defensive rebounds per game. Thompson is currently third in the NBA in regards to offensive rebounds. Only behind Andre Drummond and Steven Adams. On the other hand Thompson ranks 35th in the league in defensive rebounds.
Improvements on offense are also present with Tristan Thompson
Tristan Thompson’s 10.1 PPG is his third-highest in his career. This is in part due to the fact that Thompson has improved his shooting on shots beyond 3 feet. Thompson is taking 30.5 percent of shots from 3-10 feet and is converting them 55.6 percent of the time, a career-high.
On the other hand Thompson is only attempting 58.5 percent of his shots from inside 3 feet. This is the lowest percentage of shots in five seasons. Thompson’s conversion percentage is 59.4 percent, also a five year low. While it would be nice to see this number closer to the 65-67 percent that Thompson made over the previous four seasons, sacrificing a bit of success closer to the rim for better results from further out comes as a fairly even trade-off. In a perfect world both percentages would increase, but that is not how things work.
Odds and ends
Tristan Thompson is one of five players on the Cavaliers who possess a greater offensive rating than defensive rating per 100 possessions. While the difference is only three points, it is positive to see that the team scores 115 points per 100 possessions while only giving up 112 with Thompson on the floor.
Thompson is grabbing 17.9 percent of offensive rebounds and 25.9 percent of defensive rebounds while on the floor. This amounts to 21.7 percent of total rebounds. This is easily the highest number on the Cavaliers who have appeared in five or more games.
Thompson currently has a 16.9 percent usage rate. This is the highest number since Thompson’s third season. This is due to the fact that Thompson is playing without All-Star teammates this season, LeBron James departing in free agency and Kevin Love suffering an injury in the fourth game of the season. Essentially without All-Star caliber teammates Thompson is experiencing an increase in usage, this should decrease as the season goes on and Love returns.
Thompson is more than able to continue his uptick in play. Even when Love does return and hopefully the team starts playing better as a whole. What Thompson has excelled at this season is not the result of having excellent teammates. In fact for the most part his improvements are independent of the play of his teammates. As the team makes trades Thompson’s usage rate and points scored per game are really the only numbers that will be impacted. Others such as field goal percentage and rebound rate will most likely stay at the same rate. This is a good sign for the remainder of the season and for the future of Tristan Thompson in a Cleveland Cavaliers uniform.
