Thomas deserves his day
I want Isaiah Thomas to get paid. He’ll almost certainly have to play under a one-year deal to prove himself after his recent hip surgery, but sometime after that, I want him to look out his front window and see that Brinks truck backing into his driveway.
This is not to say that the vehicle will contain a maximum contract. As much as I think of his game, I don’t believe Thomas is or ever was at that level. But I love the fact that such an opinion makes him work even harder, when he’s already one of the most diligent people in the league.
He prepared so hard and so well that he created a huge dilemma for the Celtics last summer. And that’s not including the hip injury, which, to his detriment, he tried to play through.
The Celts originally believed that Thomas’ best role on a very good team would be as a sixth man, and, if you’re talking about a title-worthy squad, that opinion may still hold. But they needed more from him and he provided it.
Isaiah Thomas took the Celtics out of their reconstruction mire and directed them toward the playoffs. He certainly had help, but he was the largest reason they began to be seen by the rest of the league — and its potential free agents — as a team on the rise.
The Celts needed a consistent volume scorer, so they gave the ball to Thomas and he provided it. It was a mutually beneficial relationship.
It’s a bit sad that some Celtic fans see him in a bad light because of the tribute video issue. Thomas wanted his family there, and he didn’t think the single timeout acknowledgement would infringe on Paul Pierce’s day — once he and the Celts realized the Cavaliers’ next visit would fall on the number retirement date. Pierce didn’t think it was a problem either, at first. Then it seemed he changed his tune as some around him complained.
No one looked good when it was done, and it was all rendered moot when Thomas was traded to the Lakers days before.
In the coming years, Celtic fans should embrace him as they did when he played here. When he played through injury and tragedy.
Ask yourself: Would Al Horford have signed with the C’s if they weren’t good enough to be in final contention for Kevin Durant in the summer of 2016? Would Gordon Hayward have made the move if they weren’t a top seed and conference finalist last year?
The presence of Brad Stevens played a major part in both signings, but people wouldn’t have been looking at Stevens quite the same if he didn’t have the win numbers to back it up. And he wouldn’t have the win numbers without Thomas.
And as much as the Nets’ pick was a big lure for the Cavs, they don’t fork over Kyrie Irving if Thomas isn’t in the deal. Dominique Wilkins put it well. “He’s a special player,” he said. “He plays his ass off. That’s a player. He brings a certain type of attitude. You know you’ve got to deal with him. He’s edgy. He’s confident. You have to be when you’re that small. You have to have that attitude, because you’ve got to believe you belong. And I think that’s an understatement when it comes to him.
“He’s a flat-out scorer. That’s what he is. He’s a scorer and a great ballhandler, and one of the things he does well that people don’t give him credit for is he’s a great passer, too. He’s setting guys up. How he gets a lot of his offense is through his teammates, because if you don’t know where they are, he’ll find them. That frees him up to do his thing oneon-one.”
The Celtics are doing bigger things now because Thomas did his.
‘He’s a special player . . . . He’s a flat-out scorer. That’s what he is.’ — DOMINIQUE WILKINS, on Isaiah Thomas