Thomas Acquisition a No-Brainer for Celtics

http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar/misc-021915-thomas-acquisition-no-brainer-celtics



Thomas Acquisition a No-Brainer for Celtics


Posted: Feb 19, 2015


By Marc D'Amico |  @Marc_DAmico
Celtics.com
February 19, 2015







SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens covet skilled players. Ainge added one to Boston’s roster this afternoon with his acquisition of point guard Isaiah Thomas.

Thomas joins the Celtics by way of the Phoenix Suns, where he signed as a free agent this past offseason. Ainge snagged the 5-foot-9 sparkplug from the Suns just ahead of Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline by agreeing to part ways with guard Marcus Thornton and a future first-round pick that Cleveland had previously conveyed to Boston.

Thomas may be short in stature, but he is large in impact. He has been an elite scorer since the moment he entered the league out of Washington in 2011.

All four of Thomas’ professional seasons have featured double-digit scoring averages. He was one of only 19 players in the entire NBA to average at least 20.0 points per game last season. He averaged 20.3 PPG for the Kings, ranking 17th in the league.

Thomas moved on from Sacramento and landed in Phoenix during the offseason as the Suns attempted to create a three-headed monster in their backcourt. Thomas joined Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe, both of whom are considered to be upper-echelon guards as well.

While many would consider Phoenix’s experiment to be a failure now that Thomas and Dragic have both been dealt, Thomas and his backcourt partners continued to produce at their accustomed levels. Thomas accepted a move to the bench with grace and quickly became one of the league’s most feared reserves.

Thomas averaged 15.2 PPG during 46 games with the Suns. All but one of those appearances came in a reserve role.

His stellar play off the bench proved that he could maintain his efficient scoring punch regardless of his minutes or role. In the slightest of ways, he has actually become even better.

Thomas’ offensive numbers are nearly identical this season as they were last season when computed to a per-36 minute basis. Last season with Sacramento, Thomas averaged 21.1 points per 36 minutes with a true shooting percentage of 57.4 percent. As a reserve this season with the Suns, he averaged 21.4 points per 36 minutes with a true shooting percentage of 57.9 percent.

Celtics fans will be in for a wide-ranging offensive display when they begin to watch Thomas on a nightly basis. He has proven to be an efficient 3-point shooter, nailing 36.5 percent of his career attempts and 39.1 percent of his attempts this season. He is also a downhill point guard who can get to the basket. Thomas attempted 379 shots in the restricted area last season. To put that into perspective, James Harden, one of the league’s top downhill players, attempted 449 such shots last season.

Thomas is also a very capable passer. Despite being a score-first point guard, he has averaged 4.6 assists per game during his young career. He also boasts a respectable assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.2-to-1 during his career. As a starter last season in Sacramento, he ranked 15th in the league in assist percentage (31.3 percent), all while ranking third in scoring among those top 15 passers.

To sum it all up, Thomas is an electric scorer who can put the ball through the basket in a variety of ways while also distributing at a quality level. There aren’t many players in the league who can do what he does, regardless of height.

Ainge’s Celtics have added a highly skilled player who is on a very reasonable long-term contract and they didn’t need to sacrifice much on their end to make it happen.

Thornton played well for the C’s this season, and he was a great teammate behind closed doors, but he was set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason. The odds were that he would not have been back in a Celtics uniform next season had he not been traded.

The 2016 first-round pick that Boston surrendered in this deal is likely to fall in the late 20s due to the impressive roster that Cleveland has amassed. The probability of landing a player of Thomas’ stature with a pick in the late 20s is very low, to say the least.

This deal was a no-brainer for Ainge to sign off on, and now Stevens has a lot more skill to mix into his rotation.



bob



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Interesting that with the flurry of last minute trades yesterday, something like 7 backup point guards, Thomas included, changed teams.

Certainly a position where depth is needed, but that's a big number to move in a short period of time. You can never have enough depth at the point.

Isaiah Thomas ✔ @Isaiah_Thomas
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Boston, I cannot WAIT to put on my @celtics jersey & help lead us to the playoffs! Looking forward to making this my home. #TMC
10:23 AM - 20 Feb 2015


bob
Well, he sure is coming in saying the right things...



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Sounds good to me.

Sam

The Cs have made a bunch of trades this year, but this may be the first one that has actually brought in a more talented guy who also has a few years of quality NBA play under his belt.

Most all of the other deals have been for stockpiling the draft picks and building up the player exemptions and/or lowering the cap hits for next year.

As much as I like the Zeller, Randolph and Crowder type guys they will only be bench depth as we move forward. Yes, they work like crazy, hustle all the time, continue to improve week by week, are great 'team players', but none of them have the talent it will take to fully turn the corner to true competitiveness in the NBA. Just like Bass is a good player, he will be the ninth or tenth man when the team gets ready to challenge to higher playoff status.

I am not even sure that Thomas has enough talent to be around when the tide turns, but he is a major step up on the talent scale and is completely needed right now.

I think that dbrown4's statement about Thomas "knows and likes what he is getting into in Boston" represents the culture that the Cs have built since Stevens got here and the re-build began.

Certainly, many other players can see what is happening in Boston. Good, honest communication with players, coaching that is making players individually better, guys learning to play hard all the time, etc, etc. These factors are going to help lure some free agents in the future although maybe not quite yet the really big name guys.

The Celtics team culture seems to be much ahead of other rebuilding type teams, and it is going to translate into some guys wanting to come to Boston to be part of it. A couple of these free agents, a couple of more trades to bring in additional talent, a couple of more quality rookies like Smart and then a premier free agent will follow to further increase the team's talent levels.

Heck, there may even be a big time free agent who may well decide to join early to help make the transition even a little bit faster. Some people like to take on the challenge of "growing" with a team rather than just join on later on.

I think that Thomas' comments are a combination of just using good sense (as opposed to, say, Zach Lavine's unscripted but caught on video comments at the draft when he was picked by Minny and said "F--k Me!") and the effort by Danny Ainge to make him the first player he called when the free agent moratorium was lifted last summer.  That makes an impression on players, when you know that midnight is when the first calls can begin and at 00:01 your phone rings and it's the GM of (fill in the blank).  

Is he impressed with what's going on here in Boston?  I suspect, as a WC player for the past few years, he doesn't really know what's going on here.  He does, like all professional athletes, have a pretty high opinion of himself and his value to a team (this might be even more so with a Mighty Mite like him and even Phil Pressey) since self-confidence bordering on arrogance is part-and-parcel of their stock-and-trade and when 3x World Champion Danny Ainge (2x as player, 1x as GM) makes him his first call and tells him how much he loves him and wants him to be part of this and tells him about all the changes he has made and will make, that says it all to him.  It strokes his ego while at the same time filling his head with visions of dancing sugar plums.

The word, with or without Danny's featherbedding, will get out.  Thornton and Prince, Rondo and Green, they will all talk about their time here and how they enjoyed playing here and under Brad.

The Celtics' team culture is ahead of other rebuilding teams' cultures and is ahead, quite frankly, of our own rebuild.  As Tommy has pointed out repeatedly it is harder to build a winning culture than it is to get players to execute plays.  A winning culture is the long pole in the tent and, between our traditions and the good efforts by Brad, we're off to a good start.


bob


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