Isaiah Thomas was an extremely offensively gifted guard in his prime, putting up 28.9 PPG during his best season with the Boston Celtics. However, he suffered some hip injuries in recent years and was a free agent until he was recently signed by the Los Angeles Lakers.
It definitely was good for a lot of fans to see Isaiah Thomas back in the NBA. While he isn’t the All-Star caliber player he was before, he has brought an offensive spark to the Los Angeles Lakers. Isaiah Thomas is averaging 16.0 PPG while shooting 38.5% from beyond the arc in his 2 games with the Los Angeles Lakers.
LeBron James has recently commented on Isaiah Thomas returning to the league and joining the Lakers. James stated that he’s “always had respect” for Thomas and added that “it’s good to have him” on the team. Damian Burchardt of Lakers Nation reported the news.
First of all, I’ve always had respect for him and I’m happy to see him back in the league.
The difference between when we were teammates in Cleveland and now is that he’s healthy now. He wasn’t healthy in Cleveland and he was playing out of pure grit and his hip was just not allowing him to be who he was before the injury. So obviously he has his pop back, he has his shot back and it’s good to have him.
We just tried to implement a couple things early on in shootaround. I know what he’s capable of doing, I know how he affects the game and what he’s good at, so a lot of uphill dribble handoffs when he’s coming to his left hand. You know he’s gonna shoot the ball very well, he gets into the paint and can shoot free throws extremely well.
So when you have a veteran ballclub, you can add a veteran and he’s able to mesh pretty quickly because we kind of know what he’s been able to do in this league so you know what you can do with him.”
It remains to be seen if Isaiah Thomas remains with the Los Angeles Lakers after the expiration of his 10-day contract, but he has definitely shown some good things on the court. Thomas has previously claimed that he “can help” LeBron James this year, and he’s proving that with his play thus far.
Even if Isaiah Thomas doesn’t get re-signed by the Lakers, he could help a lot of teams as a veteran guard that has a versatile offensive game. Hopefully, though, he is able to stay with the Lakers and continue to produce for the team.
