Isaiah Thomas loves playing for the Phoenix Suns.
But he would have loved playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, too.
During a wide-ranging interview with Grantland’s Zach Lowe, Thomas touched upon his free-agent exploits from this past summer. When asked about the Lakers’ interest, he was candid and insightful, and said just enough to make the city of Los Angeles cry:
I heard you had a strong interest in signing with the Lakers.
Yeah, I did.
But they had to wait out Carmelo and LeBron. And now there’s a lot of talk about players not wanting to play with Kobe. What appealed to you about the Lakers?
First off, it’s the Los Angeles Lakers. Who wouldn’t want to play for them? Second off, I felt like they always needed a point guard — a small guard like myself. I always envisioned myself playing with the Lakers, but like you said, they were waiting on Carmelo and other moves. The Suns came out of nowhere and showed a lot of interest, and I fell in love with them.
Watching Thomas with the Lakers would have been so fun. Useful, too. They badly need a second option (and third and fourth) on the offensive end. Thomas could have been the sidekick Kobe Bryant doesn’t currently have.
It makes you wonder why the team wasn’t more aggressive in their pursuit of him. He landed in Phoenix on an incredibly reasonable deal, signing for four years and $27 million. Though the Lakers have grand free-agency ambitions these next two summers, that’s a cap-friendly pact.
Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images
But if nothing else, this is a good sign. No, not that the Lakers didn’t sign him. If they could have, they should have. Rather, Thomas speaks with such respect and admiration for the organization, which sort of puts to bed the idea that the Lakers won’t be a prime destination for free agents over the next few years.
Thomas isn’t Kevin Durant or Carmelo Anthony or LeBron James, but he’s a very good basketball player. That he wasn’t just willing to play for the Lakers but actively hoping for the opportunity bodes well as they go after the Durants and Marc Gasols and Greg Monroes in the coming years.
Still, that does little to ease the pain of now. And now is painful. The Lakers have lost both Julius Randle and Steve Nash for the season, and Nick Young is still sidelined for a few weeks. Carlos Boozer has been a mess through two games as well. The burden of scoring has fallen on Kobe and him alone. Not even Jeremy Lin has provided the requisite help.
This year’s Lakers are too thin and too inadequate. They’re going to lose loads of games. They might even flirt with keeping the top-five protected pick that’s owed to the Suns. This season is shaping up to be that bad.
Signing Thomas, though, would have made it a little easier to stomach. As the Lakers watch him wreak havoc on the Suns, within triple point guard lineups, that’s one of the many, many bitter truths they’ll have to deal with.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
