A Brief Look at Tristan Thompson Courtesy of Fear the Sword

After finishing his rookie season a few weeks ago with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Tristan Thompson now has an off season to rest, recooperate and improve his overall game for NBA year two. To get an idea on the latest big time Canadian to enter the NBA fared, we tapped into our fellow SB Nation colleagues at Fear the Sword to get an idea on how they feel he did in the lockout shortened season John was able to help by briefly answering three big questions ...

For the season, Tristan Thompson averaged 8.2 ppg, 6.5 rpg and 1.0 bpg in 23.7 minutes. He shot .439 from the floor and .552 from the line. Of his 60 games played he started 25 of them. Not bad for a rookie season at all. Now to the three questions ...

Fear the Sword: The thing that really stood out with Tigger was his effort. No matter what night it was or who the opponent, he was a consistent hustler and that caused him to stand out because it had a direct correlation to his production. He played quite a bit of center and was undersized in doing so but did a very admirable job while filling in
for Anderson Varejao.

FTS: He gave the Cavaliers the first exciting piece to build around Kyrie Irving with. There were certainly some other people who looked solid this season but the only one that really needs to be in Cleveland with Kyrie is Thompson. The main thing Thompson has to develop is some offense outside of the paint as a very high number of his points came from free throws and offensive boards.

CBR: What do you project his role will be next season?

FTS: The dream scenario is that he'll be paired with Anthony Davis in the front court but that's not something Cavs fans can assume will happen. He'll definitely start up front as Antawn Jamison is a free agent and there is a small chance Anderson Varejao could be traded. The key thing with Thompson this year was improvement. He actually ended the
year as one of the best per minute offensive rebounders in the league (15th in the league overall at 3.1 per game) and significantly upped his free throw percentage by the end of the year. There is just so much potential with Thompson, and while he's a few years away, he needs to take a step up next year by being someone who can take the ball in the post and at least trying to score even if his moves are very raw.

Big shout to our SB Nation partners at Fear the Sword for taking the time for this brief look on TT. Check out one of their more in depth looks at him and his season right here. Stay tuned for more of these looks on our Canadian players as the weeks go by right here.