Isaiah Thomas has played in only five games thus far this season, as the Cleveland Cavaliers have gone an unexpected 1-4 with him on the floor, which has led to a great deal of frustration for the 5-foot-9 dynamo.
The Cavs floor general expressed the need for in-game reps to rev back up into basketball shape, given that his team doesn’t practice.
“That’s the only thing that’s gonna help me, because we don’t practice,” said Thomas after a 118-108 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Monday night. “Only thing that’s gonna help me is getting reps, running up and down the floor, getting my hip, getting my body accustomed to taking a beating and to running up and down the floor, getting in basketball shape.”
Not practicing isn’t new for the Cavs, who have been applying this for quite awhile, given that they are the oldest team in the NBA with an average of 30 years of age.
Thomas is coming off the best season of his career with the Celtics, and was burdened with learning a completely different system in which he isn’t the focal point anymore.
Thomas will need plenty of minutes on the floor before he gets back to his old self, and even more playing time before he can run this Cavs system the way head coach Tyronn Lue wants him to run it.
Splitting ball-handling possessions with LeBron James will certainly be something unlike he’s ever had to do in his career, and not practicing enough to know when to play off the ball and when to run the offense can be certainly a mis-step in this strategy of resting old legs.