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Hasheem Thabeet is nothing if not a specialized basketball player. He does one thing (blocking shots) extremely well and is developing those other areas of his still inexperienced game.

There are a lot of obvious 'goods' when looking at Thabeet's game; he is an agile 7'3" in the halfcourt, is an equation changer defensively and surely has a lot of room to improve those areas in which he remains raw. He is far from a finished project and can raise his game quite a few notches, especially offensively.

The bads are rather obvious as well though; few players of his height have been good enough pure ballplayers or healthy enough to make a significant impact and he doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who would even want to play basketball if he were 6'6". The best big men of all-time (Shaq, Kareem, Wilt, Russell, even Oden) would still be very good players if they were six inches shorter.

Thabeet is a much, much improved offensive player compared to the level he was at when he was a freshman. The significance of his offensive improvement suggests he is capable of improving a whole lot more. He has enough ability to eventually develop a reliable jump hook shot. When he is feeling confident and catches the ball deep enough in the post, this shot is nearly unguardable. He is not surprisingly better on the right block, but he also has a decent left-handed jump hook.

He rarely covers much ground in the post, however, once he gets the ball. He will attempt that jump hook from just about the same spot where he makes the catch. Thabeet will sometimes get around his man with the dribble and it is very impressive when he does, but is currently infrequent. He needs to work harder ahead of receiving the ball in the post to begin at a lower position; his effort here is inconsistent, but should come along since he has a good motor in all other aspects of his game.

Thabeet also allows himself to get bodied away from the basket, sometimes inexcusably by defenders who shouldn't be strong enough to do so. Some of that might be how much Thabeet likes to lean on the man guarding him, which also leaves him susceptible to having the chair pulled out from under him.

His hands are far from excellent, but he is fairly sure-handed and he does a good job of going to get the ball.

As a passer, Thabeet will occasionally find a spot-up shooter cross-court out of the post, but the majority of his passes are pedestrian. He is sometimes conscious of the repost, but it seems as though he has to be reminded and doesn't come naturally yet. His court awareness has noticeably improved.

Thabeet is clearly not a very good shooter, but his form is far from awful. It probably will take three or four years minimum, but he should eventually hit a 15-foot jumper that defenders will have to honor. He shot 69.8% as a sophomore and 62.7% as a junior, which are two numbers that are far from awful.

As an athlete, Thabeet is very coordinated for his size, but he doesn't move nearly as well as Kareem or even Yao. He drags his feet when he runs in the open floor, which somewhat negates his natural quickness and makes those miles he puts on his feet add up quicker than need be.

Defensively is of course where Thabeet will bring the majority of his value. He has an innate sense of timing and uses every inch of his height and length. It is unlikely that he will ever have the killer instinct of a Mutombo, but he will make good use out of his size and mobility for as long as he can stay out of foul trouble. Greg Oden is a few inches shorter, but more more of a natural shotblocker and he has struggled to adjust, and I expect Thabeet's learning curve to be similar.

He has solid lateral quickness and also has a very good sense of ball and man on help defense.

Against quicker paced offensive clubs, Thabeet will sometimes lag to get back down the floor.

It might have something to do with Jim Calhoun's defensive assignments, but it seemed as if Thabeet was suckered into contesting perimeter shots entirely too often. This is another thing that will be an easy fix.

On the glass, Thabeet is quick to the ball and elevates nicely. He doesn't have the best natural instincts of how the ball will bounce when coming from a certain area of the floor or trajectory, but he makes up for that with being able to get higher than nearly anyone else.

Click here to read RealGM's draft reports on other members of the '09 class.