Halfway through the NBA season and we’ve already seen our fair share of dazzling dunks, crazy crossovers, lazy layups, delicious dimes and a whole lot of basketball. There’s still over 40 games to play and a lot can change in this time however we’ve seen enough to make some guesses about the end of the season awards.
Here’s a look at one of our MVP front runners; Isaiah Thomas.
Diminutive. Daunting. Dangerous. All words that perfectly describe NBA point guard and Boston Celtics’ leading man, Isaiah Thomas. At just 5’9″, it’s easy to overlook Isaiah before he steps on a basketball court but once he does, he may as well be 6’5″. The story of how he came to be the face of such a historic franchise is an unlikely one but once the opportunity presented itself, he took it with both hands. Now in his second full season with the Massachusetts-based team, Isaiah Thomas continues to prove his worth at the right end of the floor.
He became just the fifth player in Boston history (joins Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Sam Jones and Paul Pierce) to score 50 points or more, in a 117-114 squeak-by against Miami on the 13th of January. That scoring outburst included a 29-point fourth quarter just 2 points shy of Wilt Chamberlain’s NBA record for most points in a 4th quarter (31). It was also the fourth highest scoring output in Celtics history. Getting mentioned among the greats is no longer as strange as it once was for the possibly 2-time All Star, who was the last pick in his draft class and a third string point guard on a tanking Phoenix Suns team. Now, he’s playing night-in and night out for the 3rd placed team in the Eastern conference with their sights set on toppling LeBron James and his reign of terror. He leads the NBA in 4th quarter scoring and has continued to embrace those moments that distinguish great from good.
Thomas is averaging 29 points (2nd in the league) while dishing out 6 assists, shooting 38.4% from deep plus 91% at the free throw line – good for 4th in the league. A tough player with underrated upper body strength who can mix it up with the trees in the paint, he excels at drawing contact and is 6th in the association for free throws made. He’s not only putting up points in bunches night after night while still setting up his teammates, he’s doing it efficiently as well. His Player Efficiency Rating (PER) of 26.9 is 4th among NBA guards and 9th overall (even better than superstars like Lebron James and Steph Curry). His offensive box plus/minus (8.9) is the second best in league and his offensive win shares (6.0) ranks as 5th in the league. Simply put, Isaiah is an offensive juggernaut, barreling down every and anything in his way with the deftness of a stepback three or the resilience of a contested layup. He leads his team in points and assists again this season, a feat last achieved by NBA legend, Larry Bird in the 89-90 season before Isaiah did it in his first full season with the Celtics last year.
His team need him to carry a heavy offensive load every night and he does so decisively and with a huge smile on his face. The Seattle native named after 80’s “Bad Boys” leader, Isaiah Thomas (his father lost a bet on the 1989 finals) plays with an uncharacteristic fierceness even as this young Boston team continues to defy the odds under the immense coaching of Brad Stevens. He has a lot of competition if he’s to win the Maurice Podoloff Trophy (Westbrook and Harden are having a stormer of a season) but Thomas has never been one to back out of a challenge, no matter how tough.