I love when bigs switch out on Isaiah Thomas, because then you get photos like this:
This is Isaiah Thomas’ reality every night…
- Use the pick
- Turn the corner
- Stare a human wall in the chest
- Score anyway
He does it every night even though he probably shouldn’t. No one that size should.
But he’s been 5’9″ for a long time, and he’s been pretty good for just as long. Yet somehow his genetics continue to be held against him in the court of public opinion. And the argument is always the same….
He’s such a defensive liability, I can’t consider him among the best.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
The same people will then drop James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Damian Lillard as examples of better point guards, as if their refusal to play defense is somehow better than Isaiah Thomas’ physical limitations on defense.
Enough is enough. It’s time to stop using Thomas’ height against him and measure him against the league’s best simply as a player. It’s time to look at the season Isaiah Thomas is having and appreciate the pure brilliance he brings on the court every night.
Your current NBA scoring leaders are point guard are:
- Russell Westbrook (30.9 ppg)
- James Harden (27.7 ppg)*
- Damian Lillard (27.4 ppg)
- Isaiah Thomas (25.9 ppg)
- Stephen Curry (24.7 ppg)
Your current NBA scoring leaders are point guard per 48 minutes are:
- Russell Westbrook (42.2 ppg)
- Isaiah Thomas (37.5 ppg)
- Damian Lillard (37.1 ppg)
- James Harden (36.1 ppg)
- Stephen Curry (35.8 ppg)
* Harden is often classified as a shooting guard, but that’s been up for debate considering his play this season. So for the sake of this argument, I’m going to consider him a point guard throughout this post. Thus, if you search for some of these stats, they may seem off since some lists won’t include Harden
Among those 5, only Harden (11.8) and Westbrook (10.9), who are both having MVP-level seasons, have more assists per game.
But among those 5, none has fewer turnovers that Thomas (2.2) per game.
So Isaiah checks in with 25.9 points, 6 assists, and 2.2 turnovers per game. Let me just run that through the old basketball-reference search to figure out who, in history, has had a season like that so we can put this into some proper perspective.
Oh.
No one in history has gone a full season scoring and passing this much while turning the ball over so little. And maybe Isaiah Thomas won’t either, but that’s the pace he’s on right now.
Isaiah’s having his most efficient season ever. His 24.5 PER is easily his highest and it currently ranks him seventh among point guards. He’s among the league’s best guards at finishing in the paint while being third among point guards in free throw attempts per game.
Some people say Isaiah Thomas is just in a perfect situation, and that if you put him on another team, he wouldn’t be this good. That’s a hypothetical that can’t be disproved, so it’s hard to argue. I’ve long said situation matters in sports (hell, in life, really) so, yeah, Thomas might be benefiting from being on the right team. But so is James Harden, who has been paired with one of the greatest offensive coaches of our generation and who is, in fact, in the perfect position to use all of his offensive skills. So too is Westbrook, who is on a historic pace thanks in part to the departure of Kevin Durant which (a) forced him to take on a massive burden on the Thunder and (b) pissed him off to such a degree that he’s gone on a “burn the f’ing NBA to the ground to prove a point” tour. Everyone’s situation has an impact on how good or bad they’ll be.
This is not all to say that Isaiah Thomas is a Harden or Westbrook or Curry. He’s not quite at that level, but he’s quite obviously at that next level of star point guards. He’s having an amazing season for a guy of any size.
It’s time for everyone to recognize Isaiah Thomas for the star he is.
Photo credits: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
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