Unfortunately, I think Weiss nails it- he made a lot of the same mistakes last night that he has always made, which is discouraging. Leaving his feet too soon, dropping way to low on good shooters coming off of the screen, and generally just being a step behind in processing rotations.
The mental aspect of the game is the reason he slid so far, but he’s at the age where bigs often start to put it together and he’s in a good environment to learn, so I’m hopeful he’s developing good habits. In recent interviews he sounds more composed and knowledgeable, which is good to hear. He needs reps to really start putting everything together, but I’m concerned his lack of improvement in some important areas is likely to lead Brad to keep him stapled for the bench. Signing Thompson when we lacked wing depth wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of the team’s faith in him to provide decent back up minutes, but he really does have special vertical pop, and given his passing ability, you’d think there’s significant room for improvement on the game-processing front on defense. Hopefully we see some of that soon.