Scott Skiles hated Tobes while they were both in Milwaukee. Tobes was obviously a beast even then but he didn’t get minutes because Skiles hated the young phenom like he hates all rookies. Now that Tobes is a big-money player with several years of high-quality play under his belt, Skiles has no choice but to play him the minutes he deserves.
How many years of Tobes’ prime were we, as NBA fans, robbed of? Let’s count:
-The whole 2011-12 season, in which Tobes only appeared in 42 games.
-Half of the 2012-13 season, where Tobes didn’t get any more minutes than the previous year, and then got traded for a J.J. Redick rental and a tatty deck of playing cards.
That one and a half whole years of Tobes’ prime that nobody got to see because they didn’t happen. At least he’s only 23 years old so we get to watch him for an entire decade and no coach can ever take away his minutes. That makes me feel a little better.