Isaiah Thomas seems convinced he's on the fast track back to stardom. Now that he's fully healthy with a full summer spent honing his game ahead of him, the free-agent guard would much rather look forward than focus on the past. Not that he holds any grudges against the Denver Nuggets for how his brief tenure with the team played out, though.
In an article by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Thomas made clear that he was pleased with how Denver treated his return from offseason hip surgery in 2018-19 and understood coach Michael Malone's decision to bench him so shortly after he finally made his way back to the floor.
“Denver allowed me to take really as much time as I needed, to get back to 100 percent health,” he said. “Obviously I wanted to play and I thought I could've contributed in the regular season and playoffs, but I understood [coach Michael Malone's] decision and I think I contributed in other ways as a leader, as someone who was there to answer the questions of the younger guys. I stayed ready and prepared to play.”
The Nuggets took a one-year flier on Thomas in free agency last summer despite him going under the knife to address a lingering hip injury just three months prior. He didn’t debut for Denver until February, and was yanked from the team’s playing rotation for good after just 12 games of ineffectiveness and inefficiency, averaging 8.6 points on 37.3 percent shooting.
Expect Thomas to sign another cheap one-year contract in free agency this summer with a team in need of scoring punch off the bench.
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