Los Angeles Lakers: Three reasons why the Lakers will never re-sign Isaiah Thomas

2. His defensive holes outweigh his offensive performance

Say what you want about Isaiah Thomas when he is in the right offense that is built around him and he is completely healthy, he is dangerous. Despite being just five-foot-nine, Thomas has excelled at hitting his shot and finding open lanes to prove that his size limitation cannot hold him back offensively.

However, his size is a major limitation defensively. This may sound harsh, there is just no better way to cut it; Isaiah Thomas is horrible at defense and the last thing the Los Angeles Lakers need long-term is someone that cannot play defense.

The Los Angeles Lakers are already not the greatest at defense this season, ultimately, it is what is holding them back. Los Angeles is 11th in scoring, second in rebounding and ninth is assists. All of those metrics point to the Lakers being a playoff team. Except they aren’t, because of their defense. LA allows 109.5 points per game, which is 25th out of 30 teams.

That was apparent against the Dallas Mavericks, the worst team in the league. Dallas scored 130 points in Thomas’ first game; they average 102 per game, the 26th in the league.

And while it did not all boil down to Thomas, he certainly is not helping the cause in Los Angeles. If there was a designated shooter in the NBA, like the designated hitter in baseball, Thomas would be perfect.