Isaiah Thomas was an All-Star and MVP candidate during the 2016-17 season as a member of the Boston Celtics. Then came the hip injury. Thomas' career hasn't been the same since, as he is still working his way back from the ailment that halted his meteoric rise to near the top of the NBA scoring charts.

After his acrimonious departure from Boston following his trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Thomas was looking for a place to play ahead of the 2018-19 campaign. In an interview with Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe, however, IT revealed that he reached out to Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge and floated the idea of a possible return.

“I know we left on bad terms with me being traded. I wanted them to know that the interest was there,” Thomas said.

“I didn’t know if they were interested, and I wasn’t saying I wanted to come back and be the guy. I was just saying if the opportunity presents itself, just know I’m interested. That’s all it was.”

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Isaiah Thomas eventually wound up inking a one-year deal with the Denver Nuggets, with whom he made his season debut on Feb. 13. He has appeared in just nine games off the bench for the club, playing sparingly and averaging just 8.6 points and 1.7 assists across 15.6 minutes per contest.

The combination of Denver's deep roster, along with his slow ease into returning to full speed action has capped his productivity in 2018-19, but he has shown flashes of the dynamic scorer he was just two seasons ago.

Thomas will hit free agency again this summer at the age of 30. He may not have found a way to make a deal work with Boston prior to this year, but the door, at least from his end, appears to be open.