BOSTON — What were the Celtics missing most in their last two losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals?
A go-to scorer who can take over games and create offense by himself.
As talented as Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder and Al Horford are offensively, they aren’t close to the level of C’s superstar guard Isaiah Thomas, and his absence over the last three games against Cleveland due to a hip injury shined a bright light on how valuable he is to Boston’s success.
“At some point at the end of the game when you can’t get out and run beyond the break, you’ve got to have that person who you can give the ball to and say go to work,” Cavs forward Kyle Korver said. “Isaiah was that for (the Celtics) and a huge part of (their)Â season.”
There are maybe 15 or so players capable of truly dominating offensively. Every NBA champion has at least one, and the Cavs have two of the best in LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. This remarkable duo combined to score 134 points in the final two contests as Cleveland ended the series with a 135-102 Game 5 win Thursday night at TD Garden.
Without Thomas, the Celtics didn’t have one of these lethal scorers, and it’s why they couldn’t keep pace with a Cavs team that’s averaging 116.8 points per game in the playoffs. Boston had zero 20-point scorers in Game 4 and only one in Game 5. It’s almost impossible to beat the Cavs or the Golden State Warriors that way.
There’s already been plenty of debate about whether the C’s should trade Thomas in the offseason. That talk intensified after the Celtics won Game 3 in Cleveland without him.
But if the Celtics plan on contending for a championship next season, keeping Thomas is a must.
The Celtics need as much elite-level talent as possible, because the Cavs aren’t going anywhere. James shows no signs of slowing down at age 32, and Irving, who’s just 25 years old, hasn’t even hit his prime. It’s hard to imagine the Cavaliers not being the best team in the East over the next four or five seasons.
Thomas scored 28.9 points per game in the regular season, good for second-most in the league. He also was the only Celtic to average more than 17 points per game in the regular season or the playoffs.
Where else are the Celtics going to get scoring if he’s traded? No other player on the roster is capable of scoring 20 points per game. The Celtics still might lack scoring even if Thomas remained on their roster and they signed Gordon Hayward to a max contract as a free agent over the summer.
Sure, Thomas is bad defensively and has to be hidden on that end of the court. Good pick-and-roll teams often expose him, as the Cavs frequently did with James and Irving.
But today’s NBA is a fast-paced, high-scoring game. You need great scorers to win, and while Jaylen Brown and potentially Markelle Fultz could be those elite offensive players for the C’s in the future, this team has a chance to win right now because of Thomas’ offensive talent.
Keeping Thomas for next season and competing for a championship while letting younger guys develop at the same time is the best strategy for the Celtics. If Thomas walks as a free agent, it wouldn’t be a huge blow to Boston because of Brown, Fultz and the 2018 Brooklyn Nets first-round pick that the C’s own.
Trading Thomas before next season would be an unneeded step back for the Celtics.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
