The LA Times had what started out being an inspirational piece about TH's work ethic. Then, everything fell apart in one sentence from TH's mom:

"He has been frustrated," Stazel said. "He feels he can contribute more offensively. He would really like for Ben [Howland, UCLA's coach] to cut him loose a little more on offense."

I really don't want to read too much into this because every parent thinks their kid can do more and she might not be the most media savvy person in doing this interview, so I could see her being easily baited into this soundbite. But damn. Its bad enough that ML is likely to declare for the draft in a couple of months (enjoy your non-guaranteed second round contract ML), but to have someone around TH, who was one of the few brightspots of this season and the lynchpin for CBH turning this program around, to publicly make the same complaints we've heard about CBH for forever is not a good sign. I don't see TH leaving this year (next year is a different story), so I hope this isn't NBA draft posturing, but it very well could be.

The strange thing about this to me is that TH is not personally very aggressive on offense. He isn't someone who looks for his own shots which is often quite frustrating because he should. I don't agree with it, but I can at least understand ML, Holiday or Gordon complaining about the offense because they are gunners, not facilitators, but TH's game is the complete opposite. Like I said, I hope this was more of a unsavvy mom getting baited into a question than a true expression of TH's mindset. For CBH's future, it better be.

The most hilarious thing about this is how badly informed/insecure every one of these (not necessarily TH yet) primadonnas are in trying to put themselves in the best light for NBA scouts. Hello!!! Everyone in the NBA already knows that CBH coached players are going to have depressed offensive numbers. They draft them and play them though because they know that they can play defensively at the NBA level. If TH does make the misguided decision to declare for the draft, he will get drafted based on his defense and playmaking, not for his scoring ability. Too many young players think that the way to the NBA is by being a good scorer when the exact opposite is actually true. Unless you are an elite scorer, you need to be a specialist at something (defense, rebounding, playmaking, 3 pointers). The old saying around the NBA goes "A player who is great at one thing will make it into the rotation, a player who is good at a lot of things will be the twelfth man or playing in the D-league."