After joining the Los Angeles Lakers on a deal at the trade deadline, Isaiah Thomas had a solid showing through 17 games for his favorite childhood team. Unfortunately, those 17 games were all that Thomas lasted before he decided to have surgery on his bothersome hip.
Thomas originally injured the hip last season and it forced him to miss the beginning of this season while he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Most believe he probably should’ve had the surgery last offseason, but Thomas decided to delay it in hopes that he could simply rehab the injury
That didn’t quite work out as Thomas was clearly bothered by it, and was not the player he showed himself to be a year ago. He believes, however, that this surgery will help him get back to that level, as he explained on “Chris and Caron” with Chris Mannix and Caron Butler:
“Yeah, right around July. It was a four-month recovery process. I’m at two months right now, so when it hits the 12-week mark, I’ll be cleared to do all basketball activities. I actually got cleared this week to be able to shoot and work out. It’s slowly coming along, it’s all positive. I’m happy with the decision I made. This is going to help me get back to where I belong.”
Thomas believes that where he belongs is where he was in 2017. That year he averaged 28.9 points and 5.9 assists while shooting 46.3 percent from the field and 37.9 percent from 3-point range while being named to the All-NBA Second Team.
This season, in 32 combined games between the Lakers and Cavaliers, Thomas averaged just 15.2 points and 4.8 assists on 37.3 percent shooting and 29.3 percent from deep.
An unrestricted free agent this summer, Thomas has said that he loves the Lakers and would be open to re-signing with the team. However, his focus will be on making the best basketball decision for him.
Wherever Thomas winds up, he will definitely be expecting to return back to his 2017 form, and this surgery could help him get back there.
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