Isaiah Thomas will make his Denver Nuggets debut Wednesday against the Kings. Here’s what to expect.
Well the time Denver Nuggets fans have been waiting for seemingly forever has finally come.
Wednesday against the Kings, Isaiah Thomas will finally make his debut in a Nuggets jersey.
Thomas has been recovering for almost a full year from surgery on his hip he’s been dealing with since 2017.
Before the surgery last season, he was averaging 15.2 points and 4.8 assists per game, splitting time with the Cavaliers and Lakers.
But those numbers were a far cry from the MVP-caliber season he had in 2016-17 with the Celtics, averaging 28.9 points and 5.9 assists and leading Boston to the Eastern Conference Finals.
And He hasn’t played in a game since March 23 as part of the Lakers — a three-point loss to the Pelicans.
And being his first game, he’ll surely be on some type of minutes restriction, but to what extent?
It will also be interesting to see how he meshes with a Denver team that plays a very unselfish style of basketball.
But, most of the questions around his return can be broken down into two larger questions — how much will he play and with who?
So, without further ado.
How much will he play?
Honestly, your guess is as good as mine.
Malone hasn’t given much indication on how much Thomas will see the floor in his first game back, but you have to imagine it will be greatly limited.
Again, IT hasn’t seen action in an NBA game for 11 months now and with the All-Star break on the horizon after the Kings game, I can’t imagine Thomas will see more than 20 minutes of action.
It will most likely take some time to shake off the rust, but surely traces of vintage IT will shine through at least a couple times.
With who will he play?
This is almost more interesting than how much he will play, because it has multiple pieces. Not only will it be interesting to see with who he plays, but also who’s minutes he cuts into.
At some point tonight, he will likely be one of two point guards on the court for the Nuggets. He will most likely run point when he’s alongside Jamal Murray and slide over to the 2-guard spot when with Monte Morris.
IT plays with the mentality of a shooting guard, so he should have no troubles playing with Morris on the offensive end.
Defense, however poses a few problems. Thomas is already undersized at point guard, and pairing him with Morris could leave the Nuggets vulnerable.
And if IT is gonna get 10-plus minutes, who’s getting axed from the lineup?
Jauncho Hernangomez only played one minute against the Heat, and Trey Lyles only played six.
Malone has talked about playing a smaller lineup moving forward, so Torrey Craig may find more time at the 4 thanks to his defensive flexibility.
And Hernangomez and Lyles may find themselves with a lot more DNP – coaches decisions moving forward.