I've always been a TA fan, but he's not a very good fit for the team. His non-existent J makes for terrible spacing when Rondo is on the floor, and his turnover-prone ways make him a poor fit as a ball-handler to pair with Eddie House. His erratic play makes him a poor fit for the playoffs as well.
But I still like a lot about his game. As bad as his ball-handling is, his first step is so explosive that he can still get to the rim in the half-court set. While his touch is pretty poor now that he isn't dunking everything, he's good at drawing fouls, and he hits his FTs at a decent rate.
And while his jumper is bad, I think his shooting this past season was something of an anomaly. He was sub 30% eFG% on his Js for the first time in his career (his best season was 07-08 when he was at 42%eFG). I predict an uptick from historically bad to just bad this season.
As for his defense, while he is often foolish, his tools are unmatched on the team. He has superb lateral quickness and strength, and pretty good length. While his foul on Ben Gordon was unforgivable, up until that moment, which was of course the most crucial moment, his defense was amazing.
I'm pretty sure TA will be elsewhere by midseason, but I am interested to see if his game improves at all with Sheed playing alongside him. On a 2nd unit with House, Scal, Sheed and either Pierce or Ray, I wonder if there would be enough floor-spacing and steady veteran presences for a guy like TA to play more effectively.
Last season we had some terribly-matched bench units, sometimes with only one shooter on the floor. But we'll see.
