IT has already been anointed to superstar status by the NBA and sports media family. He's in all the pregame advertising, and NBA soundbites. He's a Media darling, a living example of "you don't have to be 7' to be a star in the NBA" Its almost like the NBA felt it symbolically necessary this theory to be brought forward. He actually gets more exposure than say John Wall, while being less of a player.
No, from here on its all about reality...tonight is definitely an important night for the Celtic organization. A trip to the ECF is a nice feather in the cap...win or loose. It would go a long way to netting us an important free agent this off season, and taking the next step.
But also for IT personally... will he be held in check by the Wizards, play hero ball, and be exposed on D? Or will he score 40, while still being exposed on D?
A win tonight, and all deficiencies are forgotten. A loss, and well still all deficiencies are forgotten I guess.
Sooner or later the question has to be asked, how much is his being a total defensive liability worth, or not worth.
Should be fun.
Disagree that he gets more exposure than Wall. Up through last night -- in national coverage I think most of the sports media has done nothing but pump air in Wall's tires constantly. Constantly saying he was finally proving he was the best PG in the East and even the 2nd best player in in the East. The pre-game last night on TNT was thick with that.
Whatever. He may be. But Isaiah has almost totally owned Wall in all their career head-to-head match ups and he did again in this series.
I don't think IT OWNED Wall this series. Both played real well.
Ok. Well, he has a lease on him. 
Hypothetically, Washington GM just called Danny...Wall even up for IT. What would you say?
That one's easy. One can argue back-and-forth all day on which player you like better. But contracts matter. Thomas is overwhelmingly cheaper than Wall. And even though Thomas is due to make a truck load of money after next year, Wall himself is also due to get paid huge bucks the year after that.
However much you might imagine that Wall is better than Thomas (he's not), he's not worth the additional 12M+ he will cost this coming season.
You get some of that back the following season as IT would then be on a bigger deal, but then Wall would jump ahead again the next season for the long hall in cost.
Basically, over the next 4-5 seasons, Wall will cost you overall quite a bit more $$ than Thomas and there is no way he is worth that difference.
And no, he doesn't really have 'more upside' on Thomas either. Thomas is only 1 year older than Wall, and Wall actually has significantly more wear-and-tear (NBA minutes) on him.
Think about this: Wall has played over 18K regular season minutes already in his career and has accrued 40.4 Win Shares.
Thomas has played just 13.2K regular season minutes and has accrued 45.4 Win Shares.
The answer to your question is simple.
Topic: IT4- Tonight could be the night he arrives as a superstar. (Read 4165 times)