[EricaLubarsky]

Its always nice to have an overabundance of "x-factor" guys that can come in and dominate. We know Dirk is a superstar and Terry can lock in on the basket like it was 5' instead of 30'. We know what we have in them, but its guys like Howard, Gooden and Thomas that can give you 20 efficient points on any given night that can really mean victory in any given game, especially with Kidd and Marion out there punishing defenses that cheat. Thomas is still a darn nice ball player and what Ive seen from him so far is an extra-versatile 6'10" big man who has WAY more in his tank than Walt "Wizard" Williams had when he was with the team.

I favorably compared him to the Wiz, but we've already seen that he is capable of way more than knocking down a coldblooded three and making a wily no-look pass in a playoff game. The guy can be an impact player on any given night and the fact that we dont depend on him but have him on the bench in case other guys are cold means that we can really throw 5-6 guys out there that can absolutely go off on another team. If Thomas is healthy he can easily win us 4-5 games that we would have otherwise lost due to poor shooting from our regulars.