Boston Celtics: Isaiah Thomas entertains possible return

After being traded and playing for two different organizations last season, Isaiah Thomas is apparently entertaining the notion of re-joining the Boston Celtics.

On August 22, 2017, Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics pulled off one of the organizations biggest blockbusters moves.

This however came at the cost of dealing away the heart and soul of their soon-to-be established team in Isaiah Thomas.

The deal shocked everyone, from players, to fans all around the league. Yet nobody was more heart-broken then Thomas himself.

Flourishment In Boston

It’s widely known across basketball that the best years of Thomas’ career came under the system that Brad Stevens has built under his tenure. Take Evan Turner for example. Following the trade of Danny Granger that landed him in Indiana, Turner declined. He found himself at all-time low in points, rebounds, steals, and field goal percentage.

All it took was two years in Boston and he’s sitting pretty in Portland with a $70M contract.

We saw a similar scenario when Danny Ainge acquired Thomas at the ’15 trade deadline.

Thomas hadn’t established himself in the league after being selected 60th overall by Sacramento in 2011. He showed flashes of promise, most notably in the 2013-14 season.

However, the Kings weren’t sold and neither were the Phoenix Suns. A team who at the time, were stacked with guards to pass around.

Then came Thomas’ days in Celtics green. Unarguably the heyday of Thomas’ career came under the same coaching that has exploited the strengths of many players under Stevens.

Now we’ve got the Isaiah Thomas All-Star game campaign, M-V-P chants from the TD Garden crowd. All things that Thomas had never experienced as an NBA player before.

“Bring out the Brinks truck”!

Then came this very quote.

One that soon became the talk of the city and opened up a not so friendly debate- Is Isaiah Thomas worth the max? Well according to Danny Ainge, no. However we could be seeing a possible reunion according to Thomas himself.

Off-season Instagram Frenzy

Yesterday this photo came out of Isaiah Thomas and A. Sherrod Blakely. Thomas himself dropped a pretty interesting comment in, “Tell Boston I’ll come back for a year LOL…Good to see you. Miss my Boston fam!”.

Last season Thomas finished with an average of 15.2 points and 4.8 assists in only 32 games. Certainly not the ideal finish to enter a contract striving year.

Now obviously its unknown whether there was any genuine sincerity into the one-year thought. Zach LaVine landed $78M this off-season, Tim Hardaway Jr. $71M last off-season. Now that’s obviously no super-max. However it’s still a worthy pay day in free agency.

It’ll be interesting to see how or even if this story develops.

Scenario Game

Since the NBA off-season is among the most unpredictable in sports, let’s play along. Take this scenario into consideration.

Marcus Smart comes to a multi-year agreement with the Sacramento Kings. This earns him around $13M in annual salary.

The Celtics take Thomas’ comment into consideration and land him on a one-year deal worth roughly what they were willing to pay Smart. Obviously Thomas is no Marcus Smart on the defensive end, however Boston has improved quite a lot since Thomas’ departure. The Boston Celtics were the NBA’s top defensive team last season. Boston finished with a 101.5 defensive rating.

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This could possibly work out for both sides. Just think about it.

Isaiah Thomas could take the year as an opportunity for Brad Stevens to help revive his market value. Boston on the other hand could get some fairly valuable production at a very low cost. Again it’s not likely considering Thomas is in need of a career year, but let’s keep the possibility open until we’re proven otherwise.

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