Boston Celtics rumors: Cs would prefer signing youth over Isaiah Thomas
It’s still not time yet, Boston Celtics fans. Isaiah Thomas appears no closer to a return now than he has during his entire near-five years following his Beantown exit.
MassLive’s Brian Robb answered a Boston Celtics Mailbag reader’s question about the ‘King of the fourth’ returning to his TD Garden throne (though admittedly in a scaled-back role) with a most disappointing answer:
Not at this time.
Apparently, as Robb states, that ship has sailed:
"I think, honestly, fans missed the best chance at Boston bringing Thomas back during the team’s COVID outbreak a couple months back. Thomas was already under contract with other teams at that point so the timing never worked out to bring him back for a 10-day deal or two. Now? The Celtics are likely far more interested in bringing in young talent they think they could develop for the long term with their final roster spots rather than Thomas."
The Boston Celtics are more likely to sign someone from the Maine Celtics
Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens took on two long-term contracts at the trade deadline in acquiring Derrick White from the San Antonio Spurs and re-acquiring Daniel Theis from the Houston Rockets.
In doing so, he cleared up roster slots because of all the outbound deals involved in the proceedings. In particular, the Theis trade was a 3-for-1 arrangement that cleared end of the bench guys like Enes Kanter Freedom and Bruno Fernando.
The open roster spots appear likely to be used on young guys that could be auditioned on 10-day deals and rest-of-the-year pacts, not Thomas.
It’d be an exhilarating boost to the Cs fanbase ahead of what could be a surprising run through the east given the team’s 2021-22 start, but IT isn’t phoning home. Instead, guys like Denzel Valentine and Chris Clemons of the Maine Celtics could get the look as backcourt targets.
Of course, maybe that tune changes if a Goran Dragic becomes available. But no matter how you slice it, the five-foot-nine messiah’s NBA journey will continue on, and he may even win an NBA Championship somewhere…but it still doesn’t look like that somewhere is Boston, Massachusetts.