Isaiah Thomas visits the Suns on Sunday as the league’s second-leading scorer.
“He has a heart the size of Texas, but a play-making game the size of Rhode Island.”
That’s what an NBA scout said about Isaiah Thomas, a few weeks before the 2011 NBA draft. Six years later, it’s clear the heart has won out. The Boston Celtics guard is the league’s second-leading scorer and an MVP candidate. He faces the Suns on Sunday afternoon in downtown Phoenix.
“When I was in Seattle, Isaiah Thomas was in high school, and he was killing it in high school,’’ said Suns coach Earl Watson, who played for the Sonics from 2005 to 2008. “He’s always been a phenomenal scorer.”
The Suns on Friday topped the NBA’s top scorer in Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook. Thomas and the Celtics, however, might offer a stiffer challenge. Boston is 14-4 since Jan. 24. Entering Saturday, the Celtics were within three games of Cleveland for the Eastern Conference’s top spot.
Leading the charge is Thomas, a 5-9 dynamo who has turned into one of the NBA’s top stories. The final pick of the 2011 draft, Thomas has gotten better each season with the possible exception of his brief time spent with the Suns. In 2014, Phoenix signed Thomas, selling him on a sixth-man role on a team with three point guards. It didn’t work out, and General Manager Ryan McDonough traded Thomas to the Celtics at the trade deadline.
“He’s a special talent and he’s shown what he could do, but it wasn’t like all of a sudden he figured it out,” Watson said. “To me, it was all of a sudden he got an opportunity.”
Suns rookie forward Marquese Chriss isn’t close to Thomas, but given their roots – both played for coach Lorenzo Romar at the University of Washington – he’s gotten to know Thomas playing offseason pick-up in Seattle. It didn’t take long for Chriss to see Thomas’ dominant on-court personality.
“He’s a dog,’’ Chriss said. “He’s a little guy, but he plays like he’s 6-7. If he was able to dunk on people, he’d do it every possession. He works hard to get to where he wants to get, and nobody’s really able to stop him.”
Defensive audition
An option the Suns might use to slow Thomas: Derrick Jones, Jr.
Watson has said all along: For the rookie wing to make it in this league, he’ll have to do it with defense. Long-term, the Suns coach can see Jones turning into someone like Stacey Augmon, a wiry forward whose defensive skills kept him in the league 15 years.
With that in mind, Watson on Friday assigned Jones (6-foot-7 and 190 pounds) to Westbrook for stretches. Jones said he found out right before tip-off. His reaction: “I liked the challenge. I want to guard the best player all the time. I want to be a lock-down defender.”
In the first half, Jones appeared to get under Westbrook’s skin, drawing a shove from the All-Star guard as both waited for an inbound pass. Even though Westbrook put up 48 points, Watson called the moment a turning point because it fired up the Suns and the sold-out crowd.
“The coaches are getting more and more faith in me,” Jones said. “I’m going to keep embracing that defensive role because that’s what’s going to get me on the floor.”
Ball movement
Perhaps the biggest result of Phoenix’s recent youth movement: The Suns are moving the ball better. At the All-Star break, they ranked tied for last in the NBA in assists per game. Since then, with rookie Tyler Ulis running the second unit over Brandon Knight, that has started to change.
In their last five games, the Suns have averaged 26.6 assists. Since the All-Star break, that ranks only behind Golden State (28.6 assists per game) and Chicago (27.5). Not coincidentally, the Suns have shot 52.2 percent over this stretch, assisting on nearly 60 percent of their field goals. Ulis’ numbers: 7.8 points and 5.6 assists.
“He deserves it,” guard Leandro Barbosa said of Ulis. “He’s worked really hard to be in the position he is in right now.”
Contact Doug Haller at 602-444-4949 or doug.haller@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him at Twitter.com/DougHaller.