Michigan had five players picked in the first 95. That’s an elite accomplishment, considering most Power 5 schools didn’t even have five players picked in total.
But Alabama had five in the top 34 and nine in the top 79. Bama had more first-round defenders than Michigan had first-rounders. The Tide won by loading up the first few rounds, and that’s despite watching its first-round crew briefly slip behind Western Michigan and Temple, to much internet delight.
The beatings will continue, as Alabama just signed the highest-rated recruiting class of its seven-year Signing Day streak and had the top-rated remaining recruit from the 2014 class just chilling on its roster as his peers got picked in the 2017 first round. At least five Tide players already have Cheap Throwback NFL Jerseys potential 2018 first-round buzz.
And just think: Mr. Irrelevant beat this program. That’s wild.
This could be interpreted at face value as Thomas admitted he agrees with those people, but it seems more like he’s being facetious and just playing along with their narrative.
But the truth is Thomas isn’t a good defender, and that’s always going to be one of his limitations as a 5’9 player living in a world where most point guards are a half-foot taller than him. The question is how bad Thomas has been, and whether the Celtics can get over his weaknesses on that end.
Boston has actually been better defensively while playing Thomas this postseason.
With Thomas on the floor, the Celtics sport a 102.8 defensive rating, something that plummets to 112.5 when Thomas is sitting down.
That might not mean anything, because five games isn’t nearly a strong enough sample size to reverse an 82-game trend. In the regular season, Boston was nine points better defensively whenever Thomas sat on the bench. (In fact, their 99.7 defensive rating would have easily been best in the league.)