Isaiah Thomas is the Future of the Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics will be in good hands when they inevitably give Isaiah Thomas the max contract he has earned
When you look at the Boston Celtics one of the first things you can see if their abundance of options. The Cleveland Cavaliers made it clear that they have a long ways to go before they can be true title contenders. Fortunately, the Celtics have more options that any other team to try and get to that next level of contention.
The Celtics are on the verge of getting their best prospect since the Brad Stevens era began. The Celtics have picked in the lottery before, but they are in a much more special situation with the top pick in a draft that is supposed to have a sure thing.
There is no doubting that Markelle Fultz is the most valuable asset to this team right now. He has the potential to bring the kind of talent that Stevens will be able to build a true title contending team around, at the position that continues to become more and more important in the NBA.
That being said, Fultz just turned 19 years old, and even if he blows past any test you might present now, there is always going to be risk. The consensus is that Fultz is the player that should become the kind of talent that will allow the Celtics to stop this incredible consecutive Finals runs of LeBron James.
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You cannot deny that the potential is there, but if we are going to look at what is real right now, something we have actually experienced with this Celtics team, Isaiah Thomas is the future.
You can go on about the net rating issues, and the depths he occupies on DRPM lists, but if this season taught is anything, it is that Thomas is the Boston Celtics.
Forget about Thomas being maybe the most unique player in the history of the NBA, his track record at Boston is a player that carried a no talent team to the playoffs, and a player that carried an inconsistent team to the top seed in the Eastern Conference. The main reason for those improvements has clearly been Thomas’ ability to elevate his game every year with the Celtics. Thomas has adapted and improved his game every season for the Celtics, becoming everything Stevens could possible have expected out of him, and then some.
You can go on about the scoring, because there is no doubting that he is one of the truly elite scorers in the NBA, but that is not only it. His ability to adapt to situations, play the one or the two, and understand what he needs to do to help the Celtics the most separates him from most of the NBA.
When the Celtics needed him to run a fluid offense and make sure the ball always moved, he would always instigate it. Then, when the open shots weren’t falling, and the Celtics were on the verge of giving up one of those runs, Thomas would take matters into his own hands and made sure the bleeding stopped.
You can nit pick about certain statistical areas that Thomas inevitably will hurt the team, but nobody in the NBA does more to make up for their shortcomings, and that is the mentality that has come to define this current Celtics core, and make them already so beloved by the fans.
You cannot ignore the size problem on defense, and the rebounding repercussions, but Thomas is the player that all fans better be prepared to be the highest paid player in the history of the Celtics and unless Thomas is not able to bounce back from this injury, there will be absolutely no regrets.
Thomas has one year left on his contract, so if this injury ends up impacting him long term, the Celtics will be off the hook. That being said, if Thomas comes back from this and returns to his MVP level form of last season, providing the kind of offensive balance that maybe no one else in the NBA could do for Stevens, the Celtics will have the max contract ready to sign before Thomas can figure out how many brink trucks will need to be backing up.
You cannot deny some of the problems Thomas creates. He is a size matchup that can be attacked every single game. Maybe Stevens is a defensive genuis beyond our understanding, or maybe he just has ways of making up for having an undersized player. It is hard to find any perfect defense in the NBA. Thomas may present one of the most glaring matchup targets, but that has never been the root of the defensive problems for the Celtics.
The Celtics have had a lot of success of defense with Thomas as their point guard. And if you think his awful defensive statistics are going to bother Ainge, you will be eating your words once Thomas comes back with the biggest contract in the history of the Celtics, after another season of proving the doubters that will probably be following him around all his career wrong.
The beauty of the situation is that Thomas has another year on his contract. Thomas was better this season than anyone other than he would have predicted he could become. It’s hard to imagine him getting better, but Thomas is a just a different kind of competitor.
There will be bumps in the road, and Stevens will have to find a way to work around the inevitable issues, but this current Celtics core is in the hands of Thomas. Other than Curry or Durant, there is not a free agent this season that should be paid instead Thomas, and the way Stevens and Ainge have talked, the organization will be on the same page. When it comes to cap space, Thomas is the priority, even if no decision is expected to be made for another year.
The Celtics have more options than franchises are supposed to have this offseason, but if we are looking at everything we have actually seen at the highest level, Thomas running Stevens’ offense has been and will continue to be the future of this team.
Next: Is Gordon Hayward Worth the Cap Space for Boston?
You can speculate about the ridiculous potential of Jaylen Brown and Fultz, but if we are looking at what the organization knows they can work with, Thomas is the player that they will make sure if a part of this team for the culmination of this rebuild that has accelerated faster than anyone could have predicted.