Isaiah Thomas was an All-Star last year for the Boston Celtics. He’s coming off the best season of his career, and he’s still in his prime. The future seems fairly bright for Thomas, but there is one guy who is less sure about that. That would be ESPN’s Draft analyst Chad Ford.
The Celtics have the third overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft thanks to a trade with the Brooklyn Nets, which means they’ll pretty much have their pick of anybody save for Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram. Ford has them pegged to take Kris Dunn, a dynamic floor general out of Providence. Point guard is, of course, the position Thomas plays. Ford had something to say on that point in a recent mock draft:
“Dunn seems like less of a fit until you realize that he would be the best pure point guard on the roster — right away. Marcus Smart can play off the ball. Isaiah Thomas, an All-Star, can be dealt. Having an elite distributor, especially one that defends like Dunn does, would be very appealing.”
Thomas, for his part, was not pleased with Ford’s lack of faith on his potential.
https://twitter.com/Isaiah_Thomas/status/745408600126873602
Nobody is surprised to see Thomas standing up for himself at this slight. What else would he do? It’s also very easy for Ford to say that Thomas “can be dealt,” because anybody can be dealt. There are reasons to have questions about Thomas. He is undersized, and he is more of a scorer than distributor, but he is also an All-Star who averaged over 22 points per game last year. Ford may think Dunn will be an immediate upgrade for the Celtics, but there is an argument to be made in favor of Thomas as well.
You won’t have to wait very long into the Draft to find out if the Celtics do end up taking Dunn, or another point guard — especially if you’re tuning into Yahoo Sports’ live spoiler show with Adrian Wojnarowski.
(Via masslive.com)
