Orlando Magic: 3 reasons they should sign Isaiah Thomas

1. His impact offensively

By far the main reason to bring in Thomas would be what he could do offensively for the Orlando Magic. If you’ve watched even a five-game sample from the team this season, any five games, you have seen plenty of horrible offensive possessions that go nowhere. It has cost them games. It has been ugly to watch.

The Magic have fourth-worst offensive rating so far this season at 105.5, and looking at some of their play you would think it was even worse than that. The opportunity was there to do something at the deadline, and Ennis III alone was not it.

Thomas being waived creates another opportunity for the Magic here. He is averaging 12.2 points per game this season in limited action. He is still only 30 years old. Players as small as he is typically begin to regress badly once they hit that age, but the Magic aren’t looking to him as a long-term answer to their problems.

If he can come in and bring some offensive juice to make sure they get to the playoffs, then his job here will be done. Keeping him beyond that would depend on a lot of other things happening in the summer, and really it doesn’t make sense anyway. Yet Thomas is shooting a red-hot 41.3 percent from deep this season, the best mark of his career so far.

He was doing so as part of a Wizards offensive unit that, despite having just Bradley Beal as their star, seemed to work well together. His 4.7 attempts from deep per game may be down on the 5.3 he is averaging for his career, but it is actually up on the 3.6 he attempted per game with the Denver Nuggets last season.

Could it be that Thomas is actually quietly having one of his better offensive seasons, but that he was just doing it on a team in the Wizards who weren’t up to much? Kind of like what Augustin did last year, but with the Magic making the playoffs this was highlighted more. Whatever it is, Isaiah Thomas could do a job for the Orlando Magic, and right now he’s waiting to check back into the game.