Isaiah Thomas is having one of, if not the best, scoring seasons in Boston Celtics history
As the NBA trade deadline passed on Thursday without the Boston Celtics making any deals, it marked the second-straight year Boston fans were left disappointed with president of basketball operations Danny Ainge’s remarkable patience in building a contender.
Yet, the sting of not adding a big piece for a playoff run doesn’t sting as deep as it did last year.
Why?
Maybe it’s because the Celtics own the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. Maybe it’s because Al Horford is on the team and so many other pieces are emerging as key contributors.
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Or, in the most likely of scenarios, maybe it’s because star point guard Isaiah Thomas is on pace for perhaps the best scoring season in franchise history.
Yes – barring a setback in production over these last 29 games of the season, “The Little Guy” is about to accomplish many scoring feats no player has ever accomplished in a single season for Boston. In fact, he’s already started to break records.
By scoring 29 points in a 104-103 loss to the Bulls right before the All-Star break, Thomas posted 20-plus points in 41-straight games, breaking John Havlicek’s prior franchise record of 40-straight games. And with 51 such performances already in store this year, Thomas also has a chance to surpass Havlicek’s franchise-high 76 20-plus point games in a single season.
Now, it’s easy to just look at Thomas’ 29.9 points per game this season and say his scoring stats are unique to the franchise in that he could become the first Celtic to average 30 points per game over a season. Larry Bird holds the current franchise-high by averaging 29.9 points in 1987-88.
You could also even see that Thomas’ current scoring average is just 1.2 points per game behind Russell Westbrook’s 31.1 point average for the NBA lead. No Boston player has ever won the scoring title.
But as great as both of those facts are, this storied season of record-breaking scoring goes way deeper than just the superficial numbers.
Thomas, who’s shooting 8.8 free throws per game at a 91 percent clip, is 201 made free throws away from breaking Paul Pierce’s 2005-06 franchise record of 627 converted free throws in one year. He would need to average seven made free throws per game for the rest of the year in order to break that record.
Let it be known that Pierce shot just 77 percent from the free throw line that season.
Beyond free throws, Thomas also has a knack for providing huge scoring chunks with 3-pointers. While shooting just 39 percent from beyond the arc, Thomas’ 3.2 threes per game has helped him rack up 172 made 3-pointers this season. Just 51 more (two per game) and he’ll pass Antoine Walker’s franchise record of 222 made threes from 2001-02.
Let it be known that Walker shot just 34 percent from 3-point land that season.
By combining his scoring talents of getting to the rim, making many free throws and hitting a plethora of threes per game, Thomas has reached 1,583 points so far this year while shooting 47 percent from the field. If he can accrue 756 more points – which would be about 26 points per game for the rest of the year – he will pass Havlicek (2,338 points in 1970-71) for most points in a single season for Boston.
Let it be known that Havlicek shot 45 percent from the field that season.
Are you catching the pattern here?
Not only is Thomas on the verge of setting so many single-season franchise records this year, he’s also scoring more efficiently than the current record holders did. If he’s scoring the most points in Celtics history while shooting at a very reasonable percentage, how could we not say this is the best scoring season for the franchise?
Obviously he isn’t having the best season in terms of overall play, as he probably won’t even win MVP over Westbrook or James Harden. But purely in scoring terms, Thomas is making a strong case for Boston’s best season.
Beyond the numbers already listed, Thomas has even established a unique niche in the Celtics’ record books with his fourth quarter performances. That much became clear when he set a Boston fourth-quarter record with 29 points against the Miami Heat on December 30.
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Thomas’ knack for scoring has become well known all throughout New England this year, and even across the entire NBA. Maybe it’s time we start looking beyond this season and recognize that in scoring terms, Thomas is etching his name atop the franchise’s list of best single-season performances.
As far as I’m concerned, I’m excited to see what comes next.