Not too long ago, Isaiah Thomas was poised to sign a max contract somewhere and secure his bag. But after two trades to Cleveland and then Los Angeles, Thomas found himself without much of a market.
After testing the waters, Thomas signed a one-year deal with the Denver Nuggets worth $2 million. A far cry from a max deal.
But one of Thomas' old coaches believes he's ready to reestablish himself as one of the best guards in the game. Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga spoke to Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe about Thomas' progress this summer as he looks to return from injury, and there is plenty of optimism.
“Isaiah is the best. I told him a bunch of different times in Vegas how much I’ll always owe to him. He’s doing great. He wasn’t able to do any of the live stuff, but he was like the best shooter in every shooting drill. He just made shot after shot, and he feels good. He’s motivated to reestablish himself as one of the best point guards in the league.”
Thomas' stock has dropped significantly since the 2017 summer when he was coming off the best season of his career. But it's clear that multiple trades and a nagging hip injury cost him his chance to get paid in 2018.
Larranaga thinks Thomas looks good and says he's poised to return 100 percent healthy.
“I think he’s healthy. I think he’s in the same situation he’s been in about 100 times in his career where he’s got to just re-prove himself.”
Larranaga isn't wrong. As a 5-foot-9 player in the NBA, people will always doubt Isaiah Thomas. Up to this point, he has always proved those doubters wrong. Now he just gets to do it one more time.
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