Isaiah Thomas Will Adapt Again With Gordon Hayward

It’s hard to imagine Isaiah Thomas topping last season, but you can expect more improvement this season

Isaiah Thomas has only been with the Boston Celtics for two and a half seasons now, and one of the most remarkable aspects of his tenure is his ability to improve and adapt.

In that first half season, the Celtics needed Thomas to be a spark scorer off the bench. He came in and immediately lead the team in scoring, en route to an unexpected playoff appearance.

The next season, the Celtics needed a real point guard, and Thomas took on the distribution duties that were missing in his first season. He did so, without sacrificing his scoring and, most importantly, maintaining one of the best assist to turnover ratios in the league.

Then, last season, Thomas took the step that maybe no one saw coming. He established himself as one of the truly elite scorers in the league, competing for the scoring title in one of the most prolific statistical seasons ever. And he did that without sacrificing any of his distribution responsibilities or increasing his turnovers.

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Thomas has adapted his game according to what Stevens put around him, and every time he adjusted it made himself and the team significantly better.

People questioned whether Al Horford reducing his responsibilities would bring down his scoring. Instead, Thomas used Horford and allowed him to make his game better.

While it would be crazy to expect Thomas to statistically improve from last season, he is going to have to adapt yet again. This time it is Gordon Hayward that is changing the landscape of his team, and there is no reason to think Thomas will not become a better payer because of it.

For the first time in his tenure with the Celtics, Thomas is going to have another go to scorer. He is going to have another player that can manufacture points by himself, who also handles the ball and is probably going to be at his best off the ball with all the open looks created for him.

At this point, lineup confusion makes it far too difficult to know exactly how Thomas will change his game, but everything he has done in his career points to him becoming the best player to go along with the teammates around him.

Every step of the way, Thomas has blown away any expectations people could have for him. Right now, he is dealing with those haters yelling that all he can do is score in isolation. Watching just one game will show you how Thomas is so much more than just a scorer, and now that he has another top scorer playing beside him, you can expect the rest of his game to flourish in a way we haven’t seen before.

Thomas managed to become a more efficient player while seeing his volume sky rocket last season, so try and imagine how much more efficient he can become playing with the best pure offensive player he has ever been with in his career.

A big reason why Thomas had so much success last season was the space created by Horford’s passing and three point shooting. Hayward will come in and make more room everywhere on the court. And, all those times when teams would blitz a driving Thomas, they now have to account for Hayward being left all by himself, making more space and opening passing lanes.

The Celtics are going to be a very different team next season, and players will have to adjust. Fortunately, Thomas has used adjustments to improve his game every year with the Celtics, and there is a clear correlation between the talent around him and how well he is playing.

Add on that Stevens has a better idea of what he can ask Thomas to do and everything is pointing to another career year for Thomas, but in a different way than we have ever seen before.

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A players’ willingness to sacrifice in order to optimize what Stevens is looking for has been a defining aspect of this team, and Thomas has lead by example every season. Once again, there are certain things Thomas will have to sacrifice with Hayward on the team, but everyone should be confident that those changes will both make him a more complete player, as well as the Celtics a better team.

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