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Don’t Call Isaiah Thomas Anything Other Than ‘Superstar’
- Updated: November 22, 2016
In today’s star-driven NBA, one question has a seemingly endless number of answers: What defines a superstar?
It’s subjective, to say the least. But when it comes down to it, on-court performance should play a significant—if not the most significant—role in determining who earns such high praise. In an attempt to let basic statistics reform how we perceive certain players, let’s quickly compare four unknown point guards. All raw stats are per 36 minutes:
Player A is Kyrie Irving. Player B is Damian Lillard. Player C is John Wall.
Player D is (surprise, surprise!) Isaiah Thomas.
The first three players on this list are unquestionable franchise players. All have max contracts, multiple All-Star appearances and are either the sole face of their organization or an irreplaceable slice of their team’s identity.
Thomas was, statistically, on this level last year. But he’s elevated his game in the first month of the 2016-17 season, to the point where—depending on what properties you value in a point guard—he may be the best of the bunch.
“The game is slowing down for me,” Thomas said. “I worked so hard this summer just to continue to get better and not be satisfied. And I’m just reading the game of basketball. I’m reading it at a different level.”
He’s shining as one of the five best offensive players in the entire Eastern Conference, and his brilliant play continued Monday night with 29 points to help the Celtics escape Minnesota via a thrilling 99-93 victory. Thomas couldn’t be stopped, finishing with four secondary assists (as many as the entire Timberwolves team) and a flurry of free throws that gave Boston the offensive firepower it badly needed.
Yet, when it comes to appreciating Thomas’ skill and viewing his production through the same lens as other elite NBA scorers, several understandable and unfair factors outside of his control hold him back.
The first concern is that the 5’9” point guard is obviously short for a professional basketball player. Then you add where he was drafted (60th overall) and how much money he’s making (four players on the Boston Celtics will earn more this season). The resume doesn’t feel suited for the type of superstar acclaim Thomas deserves.
But Thomas isn’t a stopgap or one-and-done All-Star. He turns 28 in February, but continues to improve. He now looks like the foundational piece any aspiring title contender would love to have; he’s a critical building block who can score in myriad situations while also making life easier for his teammates.
The further we go into the numbers, the more impressive he is. Pick-and-rolls initiated by Thomas generate 17 points per game, according to Synergy. Only seven players have a higher average, and none of them eclipse his 1.105 points per possession. These stats are even more impressive when you consider that Thomas produced them without Al Horford and Jae Crowder (two of Boston’s three best players) by his side in nine of the team’s 14 games.
He reads help defenders as well as anyone, always measuring where opposing bigs are and finding open teammates on the weak side:
Boston’s offense is more egalitarian than most, especially those teams with high-volume shooters at the point (think Oklahoma City Thunder or Washington Wizards). But its pass-happy tendencies fit Thomas’ aggressive skill set like a glove: The Celtics move the ball a ton, allowing Thomas to feast as a shifty target who can’t be …
