Ime Udoka on Isaiah Thomas: Celtics Didn’t Need a Point Guard

Isaiah Thomas will play his former Celtics for the first time since 2020 and only the fourth time since leaving Boston in the Kyrie Irving trade in August, 2017 on Wednesday. He joined the Hornets on a 10-day contract, his third NBA stint this year after short stays with the Lakers and Mavericks. Thomas has now played for four cities, along with the G-League’s Grand Rapids Gold, as part of a two-year attempt to get back in the NBA full time.

Thomas has only played 93 games since his 2017-18 season began with the Cavaliers, being traded to the Lakers mid-season after not meshing with LeBron James, playing sparsely with the Nuggets in 2018-19, getting back on his feet with the Wizards to score 12.2 points per game in 40 appearances in 2019-20 before Washington traded him to the Clippers at the deadline. He’s played in nine NBA games since, largely available while Celtics fans wonder why the team hasn’t given him a chance at a comeback. Throughout, Thomas expressed his desire to return to Boston, continuing at Hornets shootaround on Tuesday.

“I’ve tried to have conversations about that,” Thomas said.” It’s hard to speak on, because I’ve opened my arms to try to come back in so many ways. It’s not even about playing and trying to pick up where I left off, I’m past that moment, but I know there’s times I can help in that locker room. I’m not in there every day, so I can’t speak on what’s going on. This is from the outside looking in, but I’ve felt there’s been times where Brad could make a call and give me an opportunity and it hasn’t happened. That’s very frustrating, because the relationship we have, the friendship we’ve been able to have over the years, there’s been opportunities to make that happen and it hasn’t. So that’s disappointing in a lot of ways because I love Boston. I love everything about the city of Boston and the people who showed me the most love is obviously from Boston.”

Thomas spoke in the past about efforts to try to convince the Celtics to bring him back that fell short. Marcus Smart even advocated for the move in December, ahead of a flurry of COVID-19 absences that would force the Celtics to bring in veterans like Joe Johnson and C.J. Miles who were even further away from their last NBA games than Thomas. Stevens addressed the situation in January on 98.5 The Sports Hub, pointing toward flexibility and patience while expressing his respect for his former player.

That was after the team waived Jabari Parker and opened a roster spot that remained empty until the team traded Juancho Hernángomez for P.J. Dozier and Bol Bol in a move to start navigating Boston toward avoiding the luxury tax. The team remained in turmoil after an 18-21 start, trying to figure out its defense and fix its offense. Thomas wasn’t the solution then.

“Point guard was never really a position of need,” Ime Udoka told CLNS Media at practice Tuesday.” Obviously trading Dennis and getting Derrick back, that filled some of the hole and obviously Payton got more opportunity there. With Marcus playing at the level he is and Payton getting the opportunity and Derrick being able to do some, as well as Jayson and Jaylen handling quite a bit. Point guard was never really a position of need. It was more so other positions and you see we filled those roster spots with other guys.”

Thomas hasn’t proven he’s anywhere near his former level either, which made him an MVP candidate during 2016-17 as the center of Boston’s offense, averaging 28.9 PPG and 5.9 APG on 46.3% shooting and making his second consecutive all-star team and the All-NBA Second Team. Since, he’s averaging 12.3 PPG on 38.1% shooting and 33.4% on three-pointers, struggling to shift into a low usage, catch-and-shoot spark plug.

His downfall happened in an instant, tweaking his hip late in the regular season against Minnesota, an injury nobody on the outside noticed, before it forced him to exit the east finals midway through Game 2 after averaging 25.4 PPG and 6.5 APG through the first two rounds. He’d never play for the Celtics again.

It’s easy to forget the team originally signed Gordon Hayward in free agency to join Thomas, Jae Crowder, Al Horford and the 2017 cast. Thomas even recruited Hayward to Boston, before Irving asked out of Cleveland late in the offseason and Danny Ainge leaped. Thomas hoped to sign a five-year, $177-million max contract with the Celtics on his heroics after 2018, telling them to back up the Brinks truck. Instead, he’s earned just over $6-million over the past three years. It’s also worth remembering Thomas’ health nearly nixed the Kyrie trade, Cleveland holding up the deal before eventually settling on a second-round pick as compensation.

Thomas played through a right femoral-acetabular impingement, bruised hip and torn labrum in his final days in Boston into his Cleveland stint, finally opting for clean-up surgery in 2018 before a more full-scale hip resurfacing in 2020. The story blew up amid the team’s reported pursuit of Anthony Davis during the 2018-19 season, when Davis’ father told ESPN he would never want Davis to play for the Celtics after seeing how they traded Thomas after giving his heart-and-soul, including playing in the postseason through his injury and the tragic death of Chyna, his sister, at 22 amid Boston’s first-round series against the Bulls. He never missed a game, and went on to score 53 points over the Wizards to give the Celtics a 2-0 advantage in the series.

Regardless of Davis Sr.’s intentions and the validity of the trade, the criticism did stick for years and after Ainge and the Celtics organization moved on from each other in 2021, a new president in Stevens had a golden opportunity to bring Thomas back on a hardship exemption contract this winter. It would’ve closed the book on an ugly split, shown good will, however necessary to signal the Celtics’ loyalty to players, while giving a fan base that adores Thomas closure.

Perhaps Stevens dreaded the idea of putting Thomas on the bench next to a first-year coach in Udoka, forcing Udoka to hear inevitable chants to play Thomas when the team struggled or was losing games. Thomas’ 5’9″ stature is the opposite of what the coach is looking for in his switch-heavy defensive scheme.

It’s the same difficult position Stevens previously spoke about facing with Tacko Fall, when home and road crowds alike chanted for the coach to put him in, sometimes during third quarters. Udoka faced those anyway when Johnson joined the team, fielding questions from the media too, about whether Johnson could help them through struggles and why the team didn’t retain him after Jayson Tatum praised the veteran’s presence. Thomas had a heavy hand in transforming the from a post-Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett loser to a team quickly back in the playoffs that drew Horford to town and peaked Kevin Durant’s interest. He means far more to the franchise than Johnson, and it is disappointing that it seems like he’ll never receive his fitting farewell.

Thomas scored 10 points with three assists on 4-for-11 shooting in his Charlotte debut in a win over the Cavaliers, filling in for LaMelo Ball through heavy foul trouble. The Hornets picked him up after he poured 33 points and seven assists with the Gold on the Maine Celtics.

“It’s frustrating,” Thomas said. “But I’ve done my part in so many ways of trying to make a comeback and make a reunion and it’s not even about playing. I can just help. I tell everybody I can help without putting the ball in the basket. I think a lot of people understand and know that. Things happen. I’m not faulting anybody for not being able to come back. I just thought with how close we are and how close I am to a person like that, I thought there would be an opportunity, but there isn’t, so you just move on and you wish them well and I still have a lot of love for everybody that impacted my life in the city of Boston.”