Isaiah Thomas’ NBA story started as a feel-good one. Selected last by the Sacramento Kings in the 2011 NBA Draft, Thomas worked his way through a number of challenges to prove his critics wrong. He has become a two-time All-Star, and just a year ago, was an MVP candidate and a playoff hero for the storied Boston Celtics.
Things have gone south for Thomas since, however. From being an adored Boston legend, Thomas saw his image transform into that of a mere controversial and divisive figure for a Cleveland Cavaliers team that did not have the system in place to capitalize on his talents. Still with the Los Angeles Lakers, Thomas’ future suddenly looks foggy.
The diminutive 5-foot-9 guard is about to be a free agent this coming June when his current contract expires. In Thomas’ mind, he deserves to get big money offers. With that thinking, any team that offers Thomas the super-sized deal he so covets should also be prepared to make him a starter.
But would Thomas, who only played 32 games total in 2017-18 and is currently recovering from a hip surgery, be better off at this point in his career as a sixth man?
The case for Isaiah the starter
Thomas can’t remove his relatively bad 2017-18 campaign from the minds of NBA general managers. There is no Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind procedure that Thomas can resort to in order for him to convince NBA front offices that the entire 2017-18 season did not happen. Thomas’ agent, however, does not need to bring stacks of stats to prove to GMs that his guy can score.
Assuming Thomas will be 100 percent healthy by the time the 2018-19 season rolls around, there’s little doubt that Thomas can be the offensive force he used to be – particularly during his time in Beantown.
There will always be teams looking for a bona fide scorer, which is who Thomas is. In an NBA era when pace and speed both trump size, Thomas is living at the right moment for a guy with limited physical gifts to excel on the court.
He plays hard and gives it his all. If anything, he’ll speak his mind without thinking of the repercussions his words may have to the chemistry of his team, like what happened in Cleveland.
But, for teams looking for practical solutions to their offensive woes, that’s not something they will have to deal with if they want to keep Thomas happy. To keep Thomas happy, he needs minutes and touches.
Cleveland was not able to do give him much of those because LeBron James is so ball-dominant. In Thomas’ last season in Boston, he led the team in touches by a mile, getting 85.1 per game, nearly 20 more than anyone on the team, in 33.8 minutes a night. In Cleveland, Thomas got just 60.9 touches per game, and he saw his playing time dwindle down to 27.1 per contest.
It’s hard for one-dimensional stars like Thomas to find their worth on teams without cradling the rock and being aggressive on offense. But, if you start Thomas on a team like Milwaukee or San Antonio, which ranked among the worst in the league in backcourt scoring don't have superstars akin to a LeBron James, it’s going to be fair to expect Thomas partying like it’s 2016-17 again.
The case for Isaiah the 6th man
Credit Celtics head coach Brad Stevens, general manager Danny Ainge, and the composition of the Celtics’ 2016-17 team for helping Thomas become a household name. Stevens is the first and still the only coach to put Thomas as a team’s centerpiece and win regularly.
With Ainge surrounding Thomas with pieces whose capabilities jived with IT’s tendencies and skills, the Celtics were able to reach the Eastern Conference Finals last year. They did get wrecked by Cleveland, but not before proving that a team with Thomas as the offensive focal point could succeed.
But wait, it was not as simple as that for Boston. For one, Thomas was a great defensive liability and it took a tremendous amount of personnel and dry-erase adjustments for Boston to mask that glaring chink in IT’s armor. Boston did not have the option to take a subtle approach with Thomas.
By making IT a regular starter, the Celtics needed to give him the keys to the offense, because what’s the use of risking their defense if they were not going to try to make up for it by getting buckets from Thomas? He was not being put on the court by Boston to fool opposing teams into thinking that he was out there to serve another purpose besides being an offensive power plant.
Thanks to Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley, and Jae Crowder, the Celtics were able to compensate for Thomas being the Celtics’ biggest weakness on defense. Conversely, Thomas gave Boston the scoring and elite playmaking no one among Smart, Bradley, and Crowder could supply.
With Thomas on the floor, the Celtics were able to score 4.4 points more per 100 possessions. On the flipside, they were able to limit opponents to 9.6 fewer points per 100 possessions with Thomas sitting on the bench.
In Boston, Thomas relished and embraced the role as the go-to guy, but how many teams can commit to that kind of system just to make an elite player like him satisfied? Having Thomas as a central figure of an offense greatly limits a team’s long-term flexibility.
Had Boston kept Thomas for the long-term, the Celtics would always have to worry about constantly surrounding Thomas the right players. This is also why Thomas did not work in Cleveland, a team with a porous defense made even leakier by Thomas’ presence. In fact, Thomas owns the worst defensive rating of any player over the past 25 years.
Thomas is 29. He just went under the knife. No one knows for now how effective he will be beginning next season. While it’s true that Isaiah Thomas can be a fun player to watch, he can also be a huge conundrum for NBA think tanks.
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