Los Angeles Lakers: Why they’ll end up keeping Isaiah Thomas
By Keith Rivas
The future of Isaiah Thomas is the latest thing that the Los Angeles Lakers will have to decide over the summer — and it’s not so cut and dry.
Now that both Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. are out of Los Angeles, it’s time to figure out what the trade return — a not-so-MVP version of Isaiah Thomas — means for the team moving forward.
As a result of the trade, the Lakers have freed up the necessary cap space to sign two max deals for superstars if they can arrange to do so in free agency. This was the biggest factor in determining a timeline and location with regard to Jordan Clarkson, and it just so happened that Cleveland ended up being their best trade option in the moment.
Joining the Lakers means that Thomas is playing for his third team in the last two seasons. This, of course, after he was traded by the Boston Celtics for Kyrie Irving before the regular season began in a blockbuster move that may very well have shaken up the Eastern Conference.
While with the Celtics last season, Thomas was a big scoring part of what head coach Brad Stevens managed to put together. Boston went down early in their first round series against Chicago despite being the number one overall seed, but bounced back to advance in six.
His scoring production was literally cut in half after he was sent from the Celtics to the Cavaliers. In terms of his points per game output, his final numbers in Boston showed him dropping 28 points per game on average whereas in Cleveland he only was averaging 14.
Scoring 22 points in his Lakers debut may be a sign that it might not all be bad in Los Angeles for him, but there should still be a concern as to what his attitude has the potential to do within the locker room — especially with LaVar Ball also in town.
Needless to say, this was better than getting nobody if you’re the Lakers front office. With what in mind, here are three reasons the Los Angeles Lakers will actually keep Isaiah Thomas around and re-sign him over the summer instead of cutting him loose when his contract is up.