Isaiah Thomas is still recovering from his hip injury that is expected to keep him out until at least January, which means he is being forced to watch his new Cavaliers’ teammates struggle with nothing he can do about it right now.
This is frustrating for Thomas, who sits on the end of the bench each game in a suit, watching LeBron James and company play to a 4-6 record early in the season. Thomas took to Twitter to voice his frustration with the slow recovery process on Sunday night.
https://twitter.com/Isaiah_Thomas/status/927386838620409856
Thomas wants to be back to doing what he loves (and what he’s very good at), playing basketball. That’s not the only source of frustration for Thomas, though, as he feels his impact on the Cavaliers is being extremely overlooked.
The primary issue for Cleveland right now is on the defensive end, where they are last in the NBA in defensive rating. Because of this, there are plenty that wonder just how much better the 5’9 Thomas, who has never been known as a plus-defender, will make them.
Thomas isn’t pleased with this line of thinking, and wanted to remind everyone just how dominant he was a year ago.
https://twitter.com/Isaiah_Thomas/status/927391144589262848
There’s no doubt Thomas was one of the NBA’s top point guards a year ago, and his offensive output in Boston was in the tier just below Russell Westbrook and James Harden, the top MVP candidates. He was nothing short of sensational, and the Cavaliers could absolutely use that added punch on that end, especially his perimeter shooting.
That said, there are valid points to be made about how the Cavs’ defense likely won’t make much of an improvement with Thomas on the floor. They might see a small uptick simply because the offense will score more and do so more efficiently, leading to fewer transition opportunities, but otherwise, not an awful lot changes for the defense.
Thomas can hopefully get back to 100 percent and perhaps he and the Cavs will prove everyone wrong with his return. But until people see it, skepticism is going to remain whether Thomas likes it or not.
