When watching how smooth and skilled Jason Thompson can be on film, it is easy to forget that he is a solid 6-10.  His fundamentals and feel for the game are as fine-tuned as any college prospect, but due to playing in the MAAC, he isn?t as battletested as a GM would prefer him to be.

He has a good chance of getting picked by a playoff team that already has their franchise players firmly set, so Thompson will be asked to plug holes at the four and five and be as versatile of a rebounder, shotblocker, passer, and mid-range jump shooter as he truly is.

He moves like a pro player already, and because of that and his size, I believe his lack of experience against top-conference competition will be largely irrelevant.

He is skilled in the mid-post because he is equally dangerous facing up or backing his man down and also getting into the lane.  He will frequently reverse pivot to begin going to work in this area.  He can out-quick most bigs that play him too closely in the mid-post; Thompson was able to consistently beat Michael Beasley in their game early in the season.

When his man gives him space, Thompson is able to consistently hit his jumper.  It is a fluid shotwith  good control and release although he falls back on it just slightly.  He shoots it well on the catch and shoot and off the dribble from about 15-feet in.  He will make the occasional 3-pointer, but it isn?t reliable enough to warrant many attempts from that distance.

Thompson is able to back himself deep with the post dribble.  He has a nice step back move in the low post, which creates space to get off his shot.  When he gets into the paint out of the post, he has a solid little hook and a more impressive high arching, soft shot.

His balance when he gets into the lane is very controlled, not rushing anything, and he can get acrobatic when necessary.

Thompson moves into space well on the perimeter but could cut harder to the ball to get open looks more frequently.

He has a really good open floor dribble and will be able to play the point forward on a good portion of his defensive rebounds.

He has good speed running the open floor in transition; he has nice control in the break when catching the ball and finishes smoothly despite going full speed.  

Thompson finishes many buckets with solid dunks, but he is certainly more finesse than power.

He is an athletic hard worker on the offensive glass.  His arms are long to the ball, and he has good tip abilities and doesn?t bring the ball down before going back up.  He has great lift as a stationary jumper.

Thompson is an above average defender directing his teammates, covering so much territory while playing effective help defense.  This is a role that he won?t be playing, at least not initially, in the NBA, and he?ll have to prove himself as a better on-ball defender.  

He doesn?t go for most shot fakes on defense and has a great instinct when to come over to help on drives.

Thompson also has impressive lateral quickness defending smaller players and has fast closeout speed to perimeter shooters.  But, he usually gives his man too much space and is prone to getting shots hit over him.

Ultimately though, he is skilled and athletic enough to defend three positions in the NBA although he would be a more attractive prospect if he guarded one of those (power forward) at a higher level.

As is the case with most seniors who enter the draft, Thompson enters about as talented as he will ever be.  But that level should be enough to be a rotation player for a decade due to his size and skill in all aspects of the offensive game.

- Click here to see our full list of 2008 Draft Prospect Reports

Christopher Reina is the executive editor of RealGM.  He can be reached at Chris.Reina@RealGM.com where he may use your draft questions in a future mailbag edition