Isaiah Thomas made his debut in front of a Cleveland Cavaliers backdrop on Thursday, which is notable because that’s the most associated he’s going to be with the Cavaliers in the near future. The former Boston Celtics point guard is still injured, and it doesn’t seem like anyone at Thursday’s introductory press conference believes Thomas will return to the court anytime soon.
Thomas refused to talk about his hip injury at the press conference, which was a bit of a bummer because that very injury was the reason the trade was in limbo for more than a week. Time has a tendency to move slow when you don’t want it to, and rehabbing an injury is never fun or easy, but plenty of people hoped they would get some sort of update on Thomas’ status or a potential timeframe for his Cavaliers debut.
That includes former Cavaliers general manager David Griffin, who praised the trade as “tremendous” in an interview on NBA TV last week. Griffin has become something of a barometer for the Cavaliers offseason since he abruptly parted ways with the Cavs shortly before the NBA Draft.
But while the former Cavs GM was disappointed there was no update on Thomas’ hip, he praised the Cavaliers for how the team and GM Koby Altman handled the injury.
“I think Koby did exactly what he needed to do to protect his player,” Griffin said on ESPN’s The Jump Thursday. “He did what he needed to do to be strong for the organization, but in aggregate everything that he and Ty Lue is saying made it very obvious that this is something that could be a longterm thing.”
Jorge Sedano joined Griffin on the panel and pointed out that it seems like “they don’t know” how long Thomas will be out, which is almost certainly true at this point. But the problem is it’s an answer that everyone involved needs to know to properly evaluate this trade. If Thomas can’t come back, or comes back and he’s never the same, Cleveland very well could go down as the loser in this trade.
Even Griffin, who still says “we” when referring to the Cavaliers on air, would have to admit defeat if Thomas offers diminished returns.
Rachel Nichols asked Griffin if he agrees with Thomas in saying that the Cavaliers are a better team at this point than when he left the team, and he agreed.
“I think they’ve done a really good job of getting more defensive versatility with the Crowder piece. Jeff Green is a nice acquisition at minimum that’s going to be a versatile piece for them as well,” Griffin said. “I think Derrick Rose gave them the ability to withstand something like this in a Kyrie trade. They made it so they can do a lot of different things. So they are deeper, they are more versatile.”
Griffin pointed out that Brooklyn’s unprotected pick, which the Cavaliers also acquired in the trade, may be the most important piece the franchise can use to rebuild its roster moving forward.
“The most important thing is that pick also lets them put another pick in play to trade because they have a pick certain this year,” Griffin said. “They actually have the ability to have other vehicles at work to improve the team, so I think Koby is a long way from done and I think they’ve started the process really well.”
