Isaiah Thomas isn’t supposed to make his Cleveland Cavaliers debut before 2018 as he recovers from a hip injury, but his timetable might be moving up.
From Cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon:
Isaiah Thomas’ timetable for return seems to be accelerating from the original target of January 1. . . .
Though there has been no official update on that target from the Cavs, Thomas’ on-court work has increased at practice and before games. He received a full training-table stretching and treatment before Friday’s game in Washington, and then hit the court for stationary, one-dribble, and two-dribble shooting, as well as some half-speed drives to the hoop.
Sunday, he was running on the court.
“I don’t know,” coach Tyronn Lue said Sunday when asked if he still thought Thomas would be out until January. “You know, the staff is doing a great job of just, you know, just trying to get him ready, trying to get him right, so, we don’t want to rush him back if he’s not 100 percent.
The Cavaliers aren’t going to rush Thomas back. He’s too important to this season’s championship hopes. They have one of the worst guard rotations in the league right now, by net rating, according to NBA.com. He won’t do anything to fix their league-worst defense in this area, but he’s more playable than Jose Calderon, and his off-ball shooting and movement makes him a better complement to LeBron James than Derrick Rose.
All of which feels like a reason to get him back on the court as soon as possible. The Cavaliers need him that badly. But their need for him is precisely why they have to get this right. They don’t want to throw him back into the fray, only to see him struggle or re-aggravate an injury that no doubt factored into the Boston Celtics’ decision to trade him.
Plus, let’s be real: The Cavaliers don’t really need him right now. Their incongruent rotation will tread water in a wide-open Eastern Conference. They might enter 2018 with the best record. They might not even have one of the four best records. But they’ll be close enough to the top to make a run when Thomas returns—provided he’s close to 100 percent.
