He has moved past being Mr. Irrelevant, the last pick of the 2011 Draft. If that's still your first thought when contemplating Isaiah Thomas' basketball gifts, you need to update your Wikipedia page. The 25-year-old guard has firmly established himself as one of the toughest night-in, night-out matchups with the ball in the league, and his Draft status and size are no longer issues to those who follow the game. Dude can ball, and he's getting paid handsomely now to do it (four years, $27 million), after agreeing to a restricted free agent deal last summer with the Suns that led to a sign-and-trade from Sacramento.
It seemed an odd courtship, given that Phoenix already had a dynamic backcourt of Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe. But the Suns opted to make their strength even stronger -- and, of late, Coach Jeff Hornacek has gone thermonuclear on the gas pedal, playing all three of his guards at the same time, and betting no one can really make him pay at the other end (there aren't a ton of post-ups called for ballhandlers, if you haven't been paying attention).
Suns vs. Sixers
Isaiah Thomas scores 23 points to lead the Suns past the winless Sixers 122-96.
The Kings went for veteran guard Darren Collison to replace Thomas, who scored 20 a game for the Kings last season, and hinted that one of the reasons why was that Thomas tended to pound the ball. Well, he does. But he also scores the ball, extremely well. No one can rip the ball from him, given his 5-foot-9 frame, and no one can keep him from getting where he wants to on the floor.
And if this three-guard thing works out ... Holy Muggsy Bogues.
Me: You are part of the Seattle-Tacoma Mafia that currently dominates the NBA (Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford, Spencer Hawes, Nate Robinson, Tony Wroten, Avery Bradley, Avery Brooks, Marvin Williams, Martell Webster, Luke Ridnour, etc.) Why do so many pros come out of that area?
Isaiah Thomas: First off, I think 'cause it rains. If anything, you're always in the gym. But I think it has a lot to do with the brotherhood we have there. I mean, when the older guys have seen talent, they kind of took the young guys under their wings, kind of showed them the ropes, what it takes to be a professional. Not just on the court, but off the court. I think that helps a lot. 'Cause we have a brotherhood up there where all the guys up there work out together every summer. We play with the high school guys, and we play with the college guys. So it's a relationship I really haven't seen around the country. I think that's a big reason to why. Guys are successful up there, and we have a lot of NBA guys.
Me: You stayed with Jamal while you went to high school in Connecticut, right?
IT: I went to prep school in Connecticut, and he and Nate Robinson was there on the Knicks. I became real close with Jamal. He became like a big brother to me, somebody that's always looked out for me. Not just on the court, but off the court. Growing into a teenager to a young man, he's helped me out a lot. And he would come to my games. That surprised me. I didn't think he was coming. He would take the long, two-hour ride from the city and come up to Connecticut. Everybody really cares about each other.
Me: Where is the run in the summer -- at the University of Washington, or somewhere else?
IT: It's at U-Dub, and we play at a Boys and Girls Club, Rainier Vista Community Center. That's where we have the runs, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And then Jamal Crawford has his Summer Pro-Am that we all play at. If it's not at Rainier Vista, then it's at U-Dub with the college guys, and then on the weekends it's at Jamal's Pro-Am. We're always together. It seems like other than going to each other's houses, or you going away or you going to your house and being with your family, you're with and around those guys.
Me: So last week, you tweeted, "we need this Win tonight vs the sonics!" That was not a mistake on your part.
IT: I feel like they are the Sonics. They're just not in Seattle.
Me: What do you think about what's going on in Sac right now?
IT: I mean, it caught everybody by surprise. I'm real close with Mike Malone. We talk all the time, every few weeks. It's tough. It's a tough situation. I didn't think it was going to happen. You can ask all the players there, it probably caught them off guard. 'Cause everybody fell in love with Mike Malone. He really changed the culture over there, and from the start they were having over there, it looked like things were changing for the better. But, I mean, you know how the NBA is. It's a business, and it seemed like they were butting heads a little bit, and they made their decision.
Me: Is there any -- I know you're still close to them -- but do you feel at all like now they can see that you weren't pounding the ball too much and that there may have been other issues there?
IT: I feel like it wasn't me. I feel like a lot of people feel like it wasn't me. But they've got to blame somebody. At the end of the day, I'm fine with it. They're happy with what they've got, and I'm happy with the situation I'm in. It goes from there. Sacramento wasn't my first team, and I have a lot of love for the city of Sacramento. I thought it ended kind of weird, the same way Mike Malone's tenure ended. It's questionable. You never know.
Me: With the way Goran and Eric played here last year, why did you think you'd find enough minutes in Phoenix?
IT: I really went home, talked to my family, prayed on it. I really tried to envision how it would really work, 'cause it didn't make sense. But when they put it on paper and they told me I was going to be a big part of what they do here, I believed them. I felt like they were genuine. And we've had ups and downs this season, but at the end of the day we're trying to do the best we can to make it work. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. We tried. But we're doing the best we can to make it work and we're doing the best we can for this team.
Me: How many times have the three of you been on the floor at the same time?
IT: Last two games. Before that, it would be stretches where it would be two or three minutes here or there. But not as much as I envisioned. When I signed here I thought we'd be playing a lot together. Maybe that changes. The last two games, we're on a two-game winning streak (three after winning in Washington Sunday night), Coach has changed it up a little bit to where we're ending the game together, the last seven or eight minutes of the game, we're all playing together. Hopefully that happens a lot more, 'cause I do feel like we could use that to our advantage, and it could work.
Me: With the west being the way it is, what has to happen for you not only to compete, but put some wins together?
IT: I think we've got to become a more consistent team, first and foremost. Every night, we've got to bring it. We've got to know that even with the great teams, and the not-so-great teams, we've got to play one way at all times. We've had a couple of tough losses this year that we thought we should have won, but that's behind us. It's going to be ups and downs, but in that Western Conference, there's no room for error. There's no room for slippage. You lose a few, somebody wins a few, you drop a lot. We know how close it is in the playoff race. We've got to really buckle down, lock it in. We know that every game really counts.
Me: How many times have you looked at that tournament-winning shot of that Pac 10 Final in '11?
IT: That shot?
Me: Yeah.
IT: I don't look at it that much anymore, but I used to look at it a lot, just to hear Gus Johnson's call. I always tell him when I see him, 'you made the shot. Like, the shot was nice, but the call that you made made it that much better.' I mean, I see it every now and then; somebody'll tweet it to me or put it on social media to me. It definitely brings back memories. It was the biggest shot of my life so far.
Me: See, I thought, when the league let people put the nicknames on the backs of their jerseys last season, you shouldn't have gone for "Pizza Guy"; you should have worn "Cold Blooded."
IT: I should have. That would have been it last year. I should have had it.
Me: When we do highlights of your games on GameTime, I'm screaming through the whole highlight, 'he's going left!' How do you still get to your left when everybody knows what you're going to do?
IT: I mean, everybody in the world knows I'm going left. I'm not going to stop going left. That's what got me here. Unless my right is wide open, then I'm going to go left. Everybody knows it. I think with a lot of lefties, that's just the way it is. Lefties are tough to guard.
Me: They used to say the same thing about Lenny Wilkens, and he still got to that left.
IT: Lenny Wilkens. I mean, if you can't stop it, why switch it up?
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