Why The Cavs Should Trade Isaiah Thomas
“What? He hasn’t even played yet?”
That’s probably what you were thinking after reading the title of this article. Point guard Isaiah Thomas came to Cleveland as the main focal point of the Kyrie Irving trade before this season. He has been out, recovering from a hip injury that he actually sustained against the Cavs in last year’s playoffs.
Without him, the Cavs are 22-8, two games behind the Celtics (one in the loss column), in second place in the Eastern Conference. They rank first offensively in the East, dropping 111.2 points per game, but fifth-last with 107.3 points allowed.
Last year, everyone seems to forget that the Cavs dismantled the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, a team who actually played BETTER without Isaiah Thomas once he got hurt. Do you want to know why that is? He is a complete and total liability on defense.
There is no way in hell the Cavs beat the Warriors with the 5’8″ Isaiah Thomas out there trying guard Steph Curry, a generational talent at point guard. He will destroy IT2 and the Cavs will spend the entire five-game series trying to hide him on defense.
I don’t care if he scores 30 points a night. We don’t need that with this team. So many guys have stepped up under the leadership of the GOAT, LeBron James, and have provided the Cavs with amazing production offensively. Kevin Love, D Wade, Kyle Korver and Derrick Rose (if that matters) all are averaging double figures for the squad. Jae Crowder and JR Smith are also right there, fitting nicely into their roles. Plus, we’re just getting Tristan Thompson back.
So what does Isaiah Thomas do for this team besides make them much worse defensively? He’ll definitely add a scoring spark. He is a playmaker. He makes things happen. But we don’t need that when we already have LeBron James running the show, doing the same thing and could be a capable full-time starting point guard…or center…or anything.
I would like to trade Isaiah Thomas for a player like DeMarcus Cousins or DeAndre Jordan. A big man that anchors the middle and doesn’t allow a team to just waltz in and get easy buckets. Thompson is the closest thing we have to that and he is not that great defensively but shines on the offensive glass.
Either of those two big men provide a different breed of scoring and shine on the defensive. The Cavs also look elsewhere, but those were the two that stuck out to me.
Additionally, using IT2 as a trading piece ensures the Cavs can keep their top-pick they received from the Celtics (Brooklyn’s pick) and select a young star in next year’s draft, hopefully for LeBron to groom if not to sadly replace him.
Finally, IT2 is recovering from a hip injury and no one really knows how well he’s going to perform. He may not be the same player he was last year and he also could re-injure it throughout the season.
When the Cavs were 5-7 to start the season, I was begging for IT2 to get on the floor. But this team has figured it out, winning 17 of 18 games. Isaiah Thomas will do more to hurt the Cavs than help. He could be a huge asset for another team and bring a piece to Cleveland we actually need.
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Image: ESPN
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