Isaiah Thomas is no longer expecting a Brink's truck to back up for him in free agency. Now that he's fully healthy and looking ahead to a summer spent honing his game for the first time in two years, though, the veteran point guard is convinced he'll regain the form that not so long ago made him one of basketball's most dangerous offensive players.
As he made clear on Twitter on Wednesday, Thomas is just looking for one team to give him the opportunity to prove himself.
All I need is one chance!!! Legit chance tho…. I’ll do the rest!!
— Isaiah Thomas (@isaiahthomas) June 26, 2019
Despite his public boasts about returning to All-NBA form going forward, Thomas is extremely unlikely to receive a multi-year deal in free agency. Like last summer, he'll likely have to a settle for a one-year contract, almost surely worth the veteran's minimum, in hopes of proving himself on the floor in 2019-20 before getting back out on the open market next year for a lengthy payday.
Of course, that possibility will only come to fruition if Thomas is given the chance to succeed. He played just 12 games with the Denver Nuggets in 2018-19 after missing the first five months of the season due to recovery from offseason hip surgery the previous spring. After averaging averaging 8.6 points on 37.3 percent shooting off the bench and proving imminently exploitable defensively, Denver coach Michael Malone benched Thomas for the duration of the regular season and playoffs, a decision he now says he understands.
It's unclear what teams will have interest in Thomas once free agency opens next week. If he's really re-discovered the burst and explosion that helped propel to him Second Team All-NBA with the Boston Celtics, though, there should be no shortage of suitors in need of offensive firepower off the bench. Whether or not the team Thomas chooses ultimately gives him a longer leash than the Nuggets did remains to be seen.
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