Ugh, Abrams using thrawn would suck. I don't want them to adapt any of the EU elements. Thrawn is the best villain in the SW Universe (I like him even better than Vader, especially since what Lucas did to make Anakin such a whiny ass has kind of rubbed off on Vader's original awesomeness for me). If Abrams is going to ruin Star Wars, he should ruin it his own way. Don't drag much better people's characters through the mud. I don't want Thrawn, or for that matter I don't want Luke with Mara Jade (who is my second favorite SW character) or Han and Leia together. If old Luke is in the movie, don't have him married or find someone else to hook him up with. Have Han and Leia married to random other people. The EU is probably going to be killed by this anyway, they might as well not try to ruin the work of Timothy Zhan and all the other great Star wars writers. Abrams doesn't deserve to ruin great character like Mara, or Leia/Han's family. He should just make his own characters to screw up. Him using EU characters or concepts would be like if JJ Trek had a scene where Nero tested out his planet destroying red goo on Bajor before destroying Vulcan, just as an FU to DS9 fans.
If Abrams is taking Star Wars down, he should at least not be a big enough ass to specifically try to ruin some of the great non Lucas creations/stories.