On January 25th, I attended my first Celtics game of the season, with Boston holding a solid, if not spectacular, 24-21 record. In the age of the binary "contending-rebuilding" terms used to describe NBA teams, the Celtics have proven to be aberrant due to shrewd maneuvering from General Manager Danny Ainge.
Ainge has done a masterful job reshaping the Celtics over the past few seasons, starting with converting the fossils of future Hall of Famers Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett--along with fellow NBA artifact, Jason Terry--into three of Brooklyn's future first round picks in 20141, 2016, and 2018, a right to swap first rounders in 2017, and a $10.4 million trade exception.
After the trade was consummated on July 12, 2013, the Nets billionaire owner declared victory. "Today, the basketball gods smiled on the Nets," proclaimed a giddy Mikhail Prokhorov. "With the arrival of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, we have achieved a great balance on our roster between veteran stars and young talents. This team will be dazzling to watch, and tough to compete against."
The quote looks laughable years later, but it's important to remember that numerous analysts agreed with Prokhorov at the time, viewing the acquisition as a major coup by Nets GM Billy King. The Nets would be title contenders for years to come, with the Celtics languishing away at the bottom of the standings, trapped in an inextricable state of limbo.
Or so they thought.
Much to the glee of Celtics fans, the Nets have been an unmitigated disaster since the trade, precipitously atrophying into one of the association's worst teams. With a roster devoid of talent and management seemingly rife with incompetence, Brooklyn lacks a quick solution to pull its way out of NBA purgatory, all but ensuring the 2017 pick swap and 2018 first rounder Ainge procured from Brooklyn will yield tremendous value. As a result, Ainge now possesses three assets, including the 2016 pick that will fall high in the lottery, that have greatly appreciated in value, a heist that would cause even Bernie Madoff to genuflect in awe.
But that was just the start of Ainge's makeover of the Celtics roster.
Last season, with the Celtics off to an uninspiring 9-14 start, Ainge jettisoned Rajon Rondo, the last remnant of the 2007-2008 title team, to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for a package including seldom-used small forward Jae Crowder. While not highly regarded at the time of the trade, Crowder has blossomed into a versatile (he plays small forward and power forward for Boston) and indispensable two-way player for the Celtics, pairing excellent defensive skills and intensity with a still-improving yet formidable offensive game.
As good as Crowder has been for Boston, however, this move would ultimately end up being only the Celtics' second best move of the 2014-2015 season.
Remember that trade exception I alluded to in the second paragraph? It was used to acquire Marcus Thornton and Tyler Zeller. On February 19, 2015, the then 20-31 Celtics acquired diminutive point guard Isaiah Thomas in exchange for Thornton's expiring contract and the Cleveland Cavaliers' 2016 first round pick. It was a small price to pay for a player with Thomas' prodigious scoring ability and favorable contract2, but he had developed an unfortunate reputation as a selfish, ball-dominant player during his tenures in Sacramento and Phoenix.
Since acquiring Thomas at the trade deadline, the moribund Celtics have quietly coalesced into one of the league's better teams with a record of 52-34 over the course of two seasons--good for the equivalent of 50 wins over an 82 game season. For perspective, last year's Eastern Conference champions, the Cleveland Cavaliers, won 53 games.
Buoyed by Thomas' scoring and playmaking prowess off the bench, the Celtics improved their offensive rating3by 1.9 points per 100 possessions over the final 31 games of the 2014-2015 season. More important than the raw statistic itself, the Celtics finally had a player that could create his own shot and proficiently operate the pick and roll--the foundation of most NBA offenses. The suddenly red-hot Celtics charged into the playoffs, but were swiftly dispatched in four games by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Entering the 2015-2016 season, Thomas was not content resting on his laurels.
Asked by reporters in the preseason whether he was content as a 6th man, Thomas bristled back. "Hell no," Thomas declared. "Everyone wants to start. But I'm a team player, will do whatever is best for the team."
Fortunately for Thomas, he got his wish. And fortunately for the Celtics, he has thrived as a starter so far this year, averaging career-highs in points per game (21.5), rebounds per game (3.0), assists per game (6.6), free throw percentage (90%), assist-to-turnover ratio (2.44), and PER (21.30)4. Moreover, with Thomas playing even more of a featured role on offense this season, the Celtics have the 9th best offensive rating in the league.
Flash back to three weeks ago on January 25th, 2016. With the Washington Wizards hosting the Celtics in the aftermath of a Mid-Atlantic blizzard, the crowd was sparse, but enveloped by Celtics fans. Showcasing his dazzling array of crossovers, spin moves, jumpers, floaters, herky-jerky lay-ups, and his league-best hesitation dribbles, Thomas was a true maestro on the court, dropping 23 points and 9 assists en route to a 116-91 blowout victory over the struggling Wizards.
With the game well out of reach, Thomas sat on the bench for the entire fourth quarter. Actually, that's not an accurate depiction of what happened. Thomas wasn't in the game, but he certainly was not sitting.
For a vast majority of the quarter, with the Celtics bench continuing to roll, Celtics fans in the arena erupted with glee. "LET'S-GO-CEL-TICS," the crowd chanted.
Who directed the chants?
None other than Isaiah Thomas.
With a beaming smile on his face and his arms fluttering towards the rafters, Thomas continued to implore the fans to cheer on his teammates. This was the look of a man in pure bliss, totally satisfied with basking in the glow of the moment. I'm not a psychologist and I generally disapprove of sports writers who pretend to be, but it 's not hard to comprehend the reasons behind his unbridled joy.
In order to understand Isaiah Thomas, you must first understand what he has overcome in his NBA career. Ever since he bolted the University of Washington for the NBA Draft in 2011, he has relentlessly battled to debunk negative perceptions about him and his game.
At first, he was told he wouldn't be drafted. He was simply too short, too much of a shoot-first point guard, and way too much of a liability on defense against NBA point guards. He was poised to join the litany of underclassmen to declare early for the draft, only to be greeted by the cacophony of crickets and haughty "I told ya so(s)." When drafted with the final pick of the 2011 NBA Draft, he was told he wouldn't earn a spot on the Kings roster. After he proved he belonged, his detractors dismissed him as a 'ball hog' on a bad team. He moved on to Phoenix, where he became a basketball pariah, a misfit on an awkwardly-constructed roster. The Suns deemed him fungible, shipping him to Boston with the ink barely dry on the contract Thomas signed in the offseason. In Boston, he was told he couldn't lead the team to the playoffs, couldn't be the fulcrum of a robust NBA offense, and couldn't be a starter.
Thomas let his performance prove his critics foolish, winning his personal crusade against them by unanimous decision. All that was missing was a knockout blow.
On January 28, 2016, that changed. Isaiah Thomas was named an NBA All-Star. Punch delivered.
Instead of unleashing his fury against the critics, Thomas was magnanimous, acknowledging his detractors without attacking them.
"I asked myself, 'What can they say now?' But they'll find something," Thomas said. "I mean, if they talk bad about Kobe and those types of guys, I'm not close to as good as them, so they'll find something. But it's not about them right now. I'm just enjoying the moment and I'm excited about what happened [on All-Star selection] night."
To say Isaiah Thomas was excited during All-Star Weekend would be a gross understatement.
Grinning wide from ear to ear throughout the weekend, Thomas' ebullience and talents were on full display for the world to see.
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| Isaiah Thomas smiles as he competes in the Skills Challenge. |
Thomas placed second in the Skills Challenge on Saturday night before scoring 9 points and adding 3 rebounds and an assist for good measure during Sunday's game.
But don't mistake Thomas' happiness for satisfaction.
"Oh no, no," Thomas asserted. "We're trying to get more. Never satisfied, but definitely trying to get more."
No player better personifies this gritty, motley crew that is Brad Stevens' Boston Celtics more so than Isaiah Thomas, who has become the heart and soul of the team with the Eastern Conference's third best record.
And like Thomas, the Celtics aren't satisfied just yet. The fun is just getting started in Boston.
1: The Celtics selected guard James Young with the 2014 pick from Brooklyn. Although Young has yet to make an impact on the court for the Celtics in his nascent NBA career, he is only 20 years old and is capable of blossoming into a quality rotation player due to his ideal size (6'6") and purported ability to knock down three pointers.
2: Thomas signed a 4 year, $27 million deal with the Suns before the 2014-2015 season. Per terms of the deal, Thomas' salary decreases each year. Full information on Thomas' contract can be found here.
3: Offensive rating is computed as points per 100 possessions. It measures a team's offensive efficiency and is adjusted for pace.
4: PER measures a player's per-minute production. The average PER is 15. This statistic can be found on basketball-reference.com.
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