Yikes. Feed bad for him. That sucker is not healing up and it's just killing him at the worst possible time for his most important contract ever. Too bad.
very unfortunate for IT2 to have this happen....could force him to miss rest of the season. And if that happens...he's not getting paid at all this summer. In fact...it'll slam the door shut on his prospects. It's already slammed shut actually...so this is just icing on the cake. I feel for him...but this definitely opens the door to him staying with us on a cheap 1 year deal and having to prove himself next year (regardless of who we get this summer...i think he can be had for 3-5M on a 1 year deal if his season is indeed over).
IF the Lakers were to sign one (or two) notable players for the slot(s), Thomas is expendable. I don't think he can subjugate his ego and will to accept a lesser/diminished role. Thomas' spirit is admirable but not realistic. Unfortunate about his hip trouble...
Has to play too much on the ragged edge of success and defeat. Needs to be 100% physically and now he may have to undergo surgery for what happened with the injury he continued to play with last year. Not a good use of a roster space for a team needing to be good defensively.
Best he would do with us is the Room Exception, but I'd be shocked if that didn't go to Lopez if/when we signed our two max guys. If we signed only one max guy, I could maybe see IT taking a small "prove it" check. Unfortunately I think @gcclaker is right: IT's ego might not let him be a 6th man candidate. If he was willing to take that role, would he have the swagger necessary to be effective in the NBA at his height? He'd need an outlook change. All in all, I'll be somewhat grateful for one thing he brought our team: fire. Our young guys all got a taste of what it takes to be competitive every night. IT clearly isn't right and clearly isn't who he used to be, but he brought fire every night on the floor and it was good for our young guys to taste that.
His loyalty to Boston really did him in... I mean it's ok to be loyal to a team but come on, you misplaced your trust on a sniveling goblin like Ainge who has a history of trading his aging stars for picks...that's his MO, even when he was still playing with the C Bags, he wanted to trade Bird McHale and Parish for picks lol
^...off topic a bit but to complement Thomas' fire, Frye I believe brought a calming influence to the team as well. Walton has noted how he was also teaching the young ones during practices and games.
that's just awful. the C Bags really did him dirty having him play through his injury all of last season and then dealing him now he's going to struggle to even land a contract next season. hope he makes a full recovery and wish him the best in the future, whether that's with the lakers or not
Yeah it’s going to be interesting to see what kind of offers he will receive. Nothing even close to max. Probably hoping now for a KCP type one year deal to show he can last a full season.
I do feel bad for the guy, that he never got that huge payday, and probably never will. I also feel good for me, in that I never have to see him in a Lakers uniform again.
He was degrading the team basketball mentality with him in the lineup. I didn’t like it one bit. Off the bench, in spurts, sure. But not for long periods of time, and especially not to finish games.
Seemed more of a physical thing here. Why so hard on him with the smarts thing? Unless you're referring to ball stopping or slowing it down too much. I think he put in good effort in those areas some of the time. There were just too many high degree of difficulty things he tried to pull off every game that he can't do any more. For now anyway.
