Cleveland Cavaliers: 5 goals for Isaiah Thomas in 2017-18
By Ryan Piers
3. Don’t be a pass-first point guard
LeBron, Love, Dwayne Wade, Rose…the list of ball-dominant players on Cleveland’s deep roster is long. Naturally, Thomas would take to being a pass-first point guard. He could rack up eight assists just by rolling out of bed.
But what makes Thomas special is his shoot-first mentality. He led the NBA in fourth quarter points not because he is a humanitarian. Thomas is a killer on the court; a lethal weapon at the point.
He attacks with the basketball, shooting better than 60 percent in the paint. He rolls off picks effectively, using his teammates to create his shot. And his ability to pull up from 35 feet out, like in the below clip, is only paralleled by Stephen Curry.
The point being, none of these characteristics are those of a past-first point guard. Thus, Thomas shouldn’t alter his game just to fit that role. That’s like fitting a square peg in a round hole and no coach wants his players operating out of their comfort zones.
So IT, fire away. Take the deep threes and look to score each time you touch the ball, even when sharing the floor with future Hall-of-Famers and former MVPs. There will be times when Thomas, LeBron, Wade, Rose and Love share the floor, and Thomas will be the go-to option, which is and should be perfectly fine — especially as the replacement for a similar scorer in Kyrie Irving.