Isaiah Thomas is not shying away from the pivotal season he will enter in 2018-19 as a member of the Denver Nuggets.
Coming off two hip surgeries throughout the last two offseasons and now having signed a one-year deal with the Nuggets for the veteran's minimum, the 5-foot-9 tornado is hoping to cash in on the opportunity to kick up his value in the free agent market.
“The goal is just to show that I'm healthy and I'm the same player I was before,” Thomas told TMZ Sports. “I just need one year.”
Thomas took a deal with the Nuggets based on his rapport with former coach Mike Malone, who coached him as a member of the Sacramento Kings during his opening stint in the league. But the lefty scoring machine didn't make it all about his own pockets.
“We'll make the playoffs… and then we'll go from there,” he said.
The Nuggets came to a win shy from making the Western Conference playoffs last season, losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the final game of the 2017-18 campaign and burying their postseason hopes for a fifth straight season.
Denver has reloaded well after trading Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur, signing Will Barton to a long-term deal and finding a spark plug off the bench to replace him in Thomas as the high-scoring swingman enters the starting lineup.
Some of the best partnerships are based on merely common goals, and if Thomas' desire to bump up his value aligns with the Nuggets' postseason hopes, it might just be a match made in basketball heaven.
Follow Us
Subscribe