Denver Nuggets guard Isaiah Thomas has had a rollercoaster ride within the past calendar year, now bound for his fourth city after getting traded from the Boston Celtics to the Cleveland Cavaliers and consequently moved mid-season to the Los Angeles Lakers, who offered nothing to retain him.
The 5-foot-9 dynamo is only a year removed from posting the league's third-best scoring average of 28.9 points per game in 2016-17, but two hip surgeries later — he's been viewed as damaged goods.
Thomas struggled to average 15 points per game last season through 32 games played between the Cavs and the Lakers, but is hoping a full season with the Nuggets could resurface his previous market value.
But don't mistake this sixth man run with Thomas having something to prove, as the Washington product only wants to get through 82 games without any setbacks.
“Nah,” he told Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post during USA Basketball's minicamp in Las Vegas. “I don’t got nothing to prove. I just got to get healthy. I get healthy, the world knows what I bring to the table. When I averaged 30, they doubted it then. So it doesn’t matter. No matter how high or how low it gets, they’re always going to doubt.”
“I’m just focused on getting healthy, and doing whatever I can to be as healthy as possible and going out there and competing,”
No bench player has topped the 20-point average mark in recent memory besides the L.A. Clippers' Lou Williams, who played massive minutes under coach Doc Rivers — but if there is a player with the talent and skill to do so, it is Thomas, who will have a redemption tour of a season with the Nuggets, tasked to take them to the playoffs and get his name among some of the NBA's most wanted for the 2019 free agency period.
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