Isaiah Thomas made his G League debut Wednesday night, and perhaps Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine put it best.
“Get him back in the league already damn….” LaVine tweeted.
Thomas insists he’s healthy, and that’s hard to dispute after watching him play for the Grand Rapids Gold.
The idea of Thomas returning to the Celtics long has been a better idea in theory than it probably would be in practice. That said, if there ever was a time for Boston to take a flier on its former point guard, it might be now.
It is too early to say Thomas will be able to become an impact ball-handler and shooter off the bench at the NBA level again. But that is what you would expect from him, and adding somebody with that skillset seems imperative for the Celtics.
One thing you can never say about Thomas is that he lacks energy. The Celtics have looked listless far too often this season, and Thomas could, if nothing else, be a sparkplug player a la Shane Larkin. Expecting him to return to being the type of player he was in his first tour with Boston would be unreasonable, but even a store brand version of that would be beneficial.
There also could be a fairly obvious fit. Chatter around the NBA seems to hint at the Celtics being willing to trade Dennis Schroder. If that’s the case, the Celtics would be fairly limited in the ball-handling department, and adding Thomas would give Boston a bench option in addition to Payton Pritchard.
It always seemed like there were hard feelings toward Danny Ainge from Thomas, and understandably so. But Ainge is gone, and Brad Stevens, who loved Thomas, is running the show. Plus, this is a different Celtics team now than the one he was traded from over four years ago, so it’s about as clean of a slate as both sides could get. While this shouldn’t guide decision-making, Thomas would be a reason to get fans excited about a team that’s not presently the most likable or performing that well.
Thomas just wants to play in the NBA again. And if you set all external storylines aside, adding Thomas the player does make sense for the Celtics. He’ll be cheap, add guard depth to the bench and he’d come with a fair amount of upside.
It just helps that he’s already a fan favorite.
