Isaiah Thomas still seems on course to beat projections for his return from a hip injury.
He was initially supposed to remain on the sidelines until sometime in 2018, but as Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck unearthed while reporting a fantastic piece on LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team thinks he might be able to take the court before then:
There’s a growing sense around the team that Thomas might be ready by mid-December, beating the team’s initial projection of a January 1 return. That alone will infuse the Cavs with a renewed optimism, or at minimum, some clarity.
“Nobody thought it would be a struggle like this,” Thomas said, before adding, “It can’t storm forever. At some point, it’s gonna click. And then when it does, we’ll be a really good team.”
Feel free to try overstating this news. It’s not really possible—not when you look at the Cavaliers’ season to date.
Yes, they have rattled off three straight victories. And no, the 5’9″ Thomas won’t do anything to remedy their league-worst defense. But they need someone to take the burden off LeBron James in general. He leads the Association in minutes per game while just weeks away from his 33rd birthday, and the Cavaliers play like one of the league’s worst offenses without him on the floor.
Thomas is someone who can fill in the gaps. He was the Boston Celtics’ offensive lifeline only last season, pacing the NBA in drives per game while averaging nearly 29 points a night. Though the Cavaliers don’t have any guarantee he’ll be the player he’s been for the past two years upon return, he should at the very least work as a bridge between James’ stays on the bench and his stints on the court.
The Cavaliers, after all, shouldn’t want to risk burning out LeBron before springtime, when their games actually start to matter.
