Well, this doesn’t sound good.
Isaiah Thomas has missed each of the last two Los Angeles Lakers’ games while dealing with another hip injury, and if the latest news is any indication of its severity, he may not be taking the court again for them anytime too.
As relayed by Lakers.com’s Mike Trudell, Thomas was not with the team during its Monday night loss to the Detroit Pistons, but he was instead back in New York, looking at his options moving forward:
Isaiah Thomas is not with the Lakers today, as he is going to New York to evaluate options for his hip. He missed last game due to soreness in the hip, and was ruled out of tonight’s game previously.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) March 26, 2018
Again: This does not sound good.
Thomas missed more than half the year before making his season debut with the Cleveland Cavaliers due to a hip injury. And it was his hip that, for a moment, looked like it could derail the Kyrie Irving trade last summer. The Boston Celtics probably aren’t so open to moving him in the first place if not for this injury.
Having it crop up again is an ominous sign. Perhaps this is just a flare-up of some sort. But the “evaluate options” bit reads like a harbinger of doom.
Any setback stands to torpedo Thomas’ free-agent stock even further. He isn’t getting the Brinks truck-load of money he initially coveted. Nor will he likely be in line for a primetime starting job. The league doesn’t have a lot of openings for starting point guards at the moment, and his touch-and-go health bill might even scare some suitors away from offering him significant money to be a backup.
Granted, we’re getting ahead of the game here. Further updates should provide clarity on what Thomas is dealing with. And yet, with his stock having already fallen so far, every bump and every wrinkle, no matter how ostensibly minor, comes to matter. And this latest setback specifically doesn’t seem all that minor. Given the seemingly recurring nature of this issue, it can’t be.
