Would you like to see the Los Angeles Lakers bring back former All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas for a third non-consecutive stint?
Probably not, especially since team president Rob Pelinka said today that LA was looking for a new backup big man, but a person can still wonder.
Jamal Crawford, who won the Sixth Man of the Year award three times, says that “multiple” NBA teams will watch Thomas on Monday. Thomas, who was once a top-five candidate for league MVP, wants to make another NBA comeback.
Crawford, who grew up in Seattle like Thomas, didn’t say which teams would be at Thomas’ workout.
Isaiah Thomas, who is 34 years old, has had a hard time since he became a two-time All-Star and one-time All-NBA Second Team player with the Boston Celtics from 2015 to 2017. He was always a defensive liability because he was a small, score-first point guard (he’s listed at 5’9″, but he could be shorter). In 2017, he got a hip injury that needed surgery, which took away his athleticism and turned him from a top-five MVP candidate into a journeyman bench cog.
This version of the Washington University graduate with less talent came to the Los Angeles Lakers in two different stints. He first joined the Los Angeles Lakers, who were on their way to the draft, in 2018. He was part of a trade that gave All-Star small forward LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers more depth and made it possible for them to reach the NBA Finals for the fourth straight year.
Despite the fact that James would sign with Los Angeles as a free agent later that summer, he became a fan favorite during a difficult year. He averaged 15.6 points, 5.1 assists, and 2.1 rebounds a night, but his stats could have been better (.383/.327/.921), so it could have been a better line.
Later, Thomas signed a ten-day deal with the Los Angeles Lakers to play with James again. This was in the middle of the Lakers’ 2021-22 season, which was again going to end in the lottery. During those four games, he had much less of an effect. He averaged just 9.3 points on .308/.227/.727 shooting with 2.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists off the bench.
Even though his best years with the Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns, and Boston Celtics are clearly behind him, Thomas has shown as recently as the spring of 2022 with the Charlotte Hornets that he can be a fun energy-shifter off the bench for a lottery team. He may still get a deal with the NBA, but if he wants to get as many touches as he did in his glory days, he may need to start looking abroad.
