From All-Star to trade chip, Isaiah Thomas has seen his career take a turn for the worse in recent years.
It has been only two seasons since Thomas from was most prolific scorer in the Eastern Conference (28.9 PPG). However, Thomas has been unable to find his niche with an NBA team, as he has been traded twice in under a year. He saw free-agency open on July 1st and had to wait almost two weeks to find a deal with a new team, but someone has finally snatched him up.
The Denver Nuggets and Isaiah Thomas have reportedly agreed to a one year deal worth the veteran’s minimum ($2M). This signing offers the Nuggets a low-risk, high-reward option at the point guard position for an isolation scoring option that they have lacked in the past.
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The Nuggets are poised to make some noise this season and possibly for years to come. In addition to adding the 2-time All-Star to their retinue, the Nuggets also signed Will Barton and Nikola Jokic this offseason. This move cemented their young core under the watch of Nuggets head coach Mike Malone.
Thomas will reunite with Malone, who coached him during his days with the Sacramento Kings. Malone had nothing but nice things to say about his newest offensive player:
“I say this with all sincerity: I love the kid. We hit it off, and what I learned from those relationships was that if you are honest and you are real, it’s going to go a long way. The bigger picture was we had a lot of people around the Kings organization trying to get him to be somebody he wasn’t. I didn’t want him to be John Stockton. I think he respected that and admired that, because I wanted him to be the best Isaiah Thomas.”
Thomas has had to deal with people underestimating him all his life. Standing at only 5’9″, many people have told him that he wouldn’t make it because he wasn’t tall enough to compete at such a high level. However, Thomas has continually proved his doubters wrong.
Although it can be hard to deal with criticism, Thomas doesn’t let his height define him as a player. In fact, he believes that his height allows him to do certain things on the basketball court that other people cannot. He carries the words of Gary Payton with him, remembering when he told him that “the guy that’s lowest to the ground usually always wins.”
Denver offers Thomas yet another opportunity for a fresh start.
IT is plotting. (via @isaiahthomas/Instagram) pic.twitter.com/v3hf5MT4xi
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 12, 2018
Featured Image via Flickr/Keith Allison
