Isiah Thomas is not worth a first round pick.
So great deal for Sacramento if they pull it off.
huh. Do you think the 19th pick in the draft is going to average 14 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds with a true shooting percentage of 57.4% in just under 27 minutes a game?
If he's on a crap team, then yeah.
I'm pretty sure if Thomas goes to a good team he'll still be a productive player.
Like Nate Robinson, the main question there is whether a better team would be willing to deal with the defensive issues that you get having a tiny point guard like that.
I have watched a lot of both Nate and Isaiah (they both attended my alma mater) and I would rate Isaiah as a better overall basketball player. He doesn't have Nate's explosive bursts of energy, but he's a more consistent, intelligent player on both ends.
Nate can explode to put up amazing points in a very short amount of time but can also disappear. Thomas is more consistent, imho. Also, while Nate has made great strides the last 3 years in improving his skills as a facilitator (his passing / assists have really improved a lot), Thomas has started off his career already as a pretty good facillitator and I would project him to be a better passing guard than Nate in a couple of years.
Defensively, Isaiah, like Nate, gives up height. But in perimeter defense, being able to front your man is almost more important than height because there is so much value in (a) pressuring the ball to consume shot clock and (b) preventing looks to the interior. And in those two areas, Isaiah is actually pretty good. He's also good at fighting past screens when defending off the ball because of his quickness. He can get brutalized if posted up, though. And while he has great verticals that allow him to contest shots better than his height would suggest, if he gets flat-footed, he's too short to stop taller players from getting off basically uncontested shots.
I don't think I would want to rely on IT2 as my main, starting PG on a title-contender. But he's a solid, smart player to have as your backup PG and who can start for you for stretches when your main guy is hurt. I would definitely rate him over most of the PGs that are being rated in this draft below the middle of the 1st round. Certainly one or two of those guys will probably pan out and be much better. But most will not. Thomas has already proven he can produce at this level.