I got thinking last night about all the big men in the league that are considered above average. It made me wonder just how long it took them to get good. So what I'm gonna do it break down this list into 4 different category's in a very straight-forward way. What year was their 1st great year

1st year

There are only 2 really. Tim Duncan and Pau Gasol. They both averaged about 20 and 10 in their first year.

2nd year guys

Kevin Garnett (17/8)

Amare Stoudemire (13/8 to 20/9)

Carlos Boozer (10/7.5 to 15/8... Ended up with multiple 20/10 seasons too)

Greg Monroe (9.4/7.5 to 15/9.7)

Dwight Howard (12/10 to 15.8/12.5 and a whole lotta 20/10 seasons)

LaMarcus Aldridge (9/5 to 17.8/7.6)

Dirk Nowitzki (8.2/3.5 to 17.5/6.4)

Marc Gasol (11.9/7.4 to 14.6/9.3)

Then there are the 3rd/4th year players that were mostly taken later in the draft. It took em a while to progress and quite a few of them had some big question marks. This, I believe, will be the group Thompson could fall into.

David West (3.8/4.1 to 6.2/4.3 to 17.1/7.4)

Josh Smith (9.7/6.2 to 11.3/6.6 to 16.4/8.6)

Al Horford (10.1/9.7 to 11.5/9.3 to 14.2/9.9)

Paul Millsap (6.8/2.9 to 8.1/3.6 to 13.5/8.6... year 5 was 17.3/7.7)

Al Jefferson (6.7/4.4 to 7.9/5.0 to 16/10.9)

Kevin Love (11.1/9.1 to 14/7.2 to 20.2/10.7)

Zach Randolph (2.8/1.7 to 8.4/4.4 to 20/10.5)

Luis Scola (10.3/6.4 to 12.7/8.7 to 16.2/8.6)

David Lee (5.1/4.5 to 10.7/10.4 to 10.8/9.0 to 16/11.8 to 20.2/11.7)

Now I realize I did this during a boring class at school so the third and fourth years of guys' careers are harder to follow. If I had lots of time I'd make a neat little graph. As a starter, Thompson's averaged about the same types of numbers as most of these guys have. Even over the course of the season they're still pretty darn similar.

If he's gonna have a breakout year, I expect it to be in his third, maybe his fourth year. I'd also add that a lot of these guys have no desire to play defense, or it took them years to get the whole concept of team, or their motors suck. TT doesn't have any of those problems. If he can add a little bulk and a couple offensive moves, I wouldn't be surprised if he was averaging something like 15/10 by his 3rd or 4th year.