Isaiah Thomas is finally on track to make his Cleveland Cavaliers debut after injuring his hip as a member of the Boston Celtics last season. Thomas landed in Cleveland as part of the trade that sent Kyrie Irving to Boston, and while Irving has led the Celtics to an Eastern-Conference-best 18-3 record thus far, Thomas has been forced to watch his new team play from the bench while he waits for the labral tear in his right hip to heal.
It’s not hard to notice that Thomas is tired of waiting. If you’ve been following him on Twitter throughout his recovery, his timeline is littered with simple tweets like the ones below where it sounds like he’s just begging the universe to fix his injured hip so he can remind the rest of the NBA what he’s capable of.
https://twitter.com/isaiahthomas/status/933070755570618368
https://twitter.com/isaiahthomas/status/933070254154174464
https://twitter.com/isaiahthomas/status/927386838620409856
https://twitter.com/isaiahthomas/status/927391144589262848
Everyone anticipating Thomas’ return received some good news on Sunday when ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news that Cleveland is “hopeful” that Thomas will join the Cavaliers on the court at some point in December. This is a month earlier than the previously-reported January return date, and at its most (and honestly, unrealistic) optimistic viewing of the Isaiah Thomas Return Timetable, that could technically come as early as next week. December will be here before you know it.
The good news didn’t stop with Wojnarowski’s latest report, because Thomas has started seriously teasing his return to the hardwood. On Monday morning, Thomas tweeted, “Locked in! It’s almost time.”
https://twitter.com/isaiahthomas/status/934999899141230592
“Almost” can mean just about anything, but we’re going to assume here that Thomas and Wojnarowski are on the same page about his new return timetable being sometime in December, and that’s excellent news for Thomas, the Cavaliers, and NBA fans everywhere. While the Cleveland Cavaliers have seemingly righted the ship after a bumpy start to the 2017-18 NBA season, with Thomas, Tristan Thompson, and Iman Shumpert on the injured list, and Derrick Rose considering retirement, it’s about time the Cavaliers got some of their players back.
