If there ever was a time to bring Isaiah Thomas back to Boston, now would be it.
The Celtics had a busy trade deadline to say the least but now have work to do. Boston acquired Derrick White and Daniel Theis but shipped away Dennis Schröder, Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford, Enes Freedom, Bruno Fernando, Bol Bol and P.J. Dozier in the process. The Celtics are better now than they were before the NBA trade deadline and with multiple open roster spots, there likely will be more moves on the way.
Boston already converted sharpshooter Sam Hauser and big man Luke Kornet’s two-way contracts and signed them to the big club for the remainder of the season but still has three open roster spots to fill. They don’t necessarily have to fill them all, but for depth purposes it wouldn’t hurt to fill at least a couple of them.
There certainly will be players to watch on the buyout market, but the Celtics could sign Thomas right now — either to a 10-day deal or one for the remainder of the season — and he could fill a need. After dealing Schröder, the Celtics now have Marcus Smart and Payton Pritchard to carry the load at point guard. While White, or even Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown could help fill in, Thomas would provide depth and a veteran presence that might be helpful in the long run. He also could seamlessly play as the off-ball guard.
The expectation wouldn’t be to come in and score 20 points per game, but Thomas could provide a spark off the bench to a team that desperately needs shooting. Thomas’ biggest weakness is his defense, but that shouldn’t be of much concern. The Celtics have had one of the best defenses in the league since getting healthy and now with the acquisition of White, you could always have him or Smart on the court with Thomas at all times.
That doesn’t include Tatum, Brown, Al Horford and Robert Williams, who all are great defenders themselves.
All in all a signing of Thomas would be extremely low-risk for Boston and could have some very high rewards. Smart already has tried to get the team to sign Thomas once this season, maybe this finally will be the time.
It also doesn’t hurt that if Boston actually did bring back Thomas, TD Garden might see its loudest cheer of the season when he checks in for the first time.
