Good find, and I agree with your assessment of the decision. Also,looking back, that's not a half bad scouting report on IT.
At that point in the draft you’re adding a camp body and hoping there may be a slight chance you get lucky and find a guy that can eventually come off the bench for a few minutes a game. We took the 6’4 chance over the 5’9 chance.
Isaiah Thomas
Strengths: Crafty scorer who can find holes in the defense … Passing skills have developed nicely over the past season … Has a knack for coming up big in the clutch … Good speed … Excellent quickness with a first step that allows him to blow by defenders … Natural leader … Measured better than expected at combine … Fantastic athletic aptitude with nice leaping ability … Able to deceive defenders with ball fakes while on the move … Able to get into the paint and create … Excellent at using his body to protect the ball from bigger, stronger opponents … Capable shooter with range to the three point line
Weaknesses: Very small, even for a point guard … Ability to get inside will be largely negated by the size of NBA players … Shoot first point guard who sometimes struggles with turnovers … Will struggle to matchup with NBA guards defensively … Sometimes hurts his team by trying to make highlight reel plays instead of making the simple pass … Prone to over-dribbling … Spent much of his time in college playing shooting guard … Will force his offense at times … Can get caught trying to leak out for fast breaks too often ...
Not half-bad is an understatement. I think this nails IT to a 'T'. The strengths have obviously overwhelmed the weaknesses, but if you had to identify weaknesses, pretty much right on target.
Really? I think most of the 'weaknesses' section has turned out to be complete crap.
Ability to get inside will be largely negated by the size of NBA players
No, it tends to mainly be negated when weaknesses on his own roster allows opposing teams to pack multiple bodies in the paint. IT has never, ever been dissuaded from attacking the paint just because of 'size'. In fact against teams that have a notable defensive 'big' like a DeAndre Jordan, Whiteside or Gobert, that they rely on too much by themselves to defend the paint, IT will tend to drive even more frequently.
Let's face it, in the NBA, almost _everyone_ looks like a tree to Thomas. Yet Thomas, at 13.5 drives per game is just barely 2nd behind Dragic (13.6). And Isaiah leads the NBA in points generated off of drives.
who sometimes struggles with turnovers
In a word: No. IT has ridiculously low turnover rates. ESPECIALLY given his high USG% & AST% rates. In the history of the game, there have been only two full seasons where a player has posted over 30% USG%, over 30% AST% and _under_ 10% TOV%. T-Mac (2002-03) and Jordan (2001-02). Thomas is on pace to be the third.
Prone to over-dribbling
Again: No.
Thomas gets rid of the ball on each touch at an extremely fast rate, holding it an average of just 4.63 seconds per touch. Among the top ball-handlers in the league (guys with at least 60 touches per game) , that is way down the list at 21st. And he's just 20th in the league for dribbles-per-touch at just 4.5.
Compared to guys like Wall (5.88 dribbles per touch), Barea (5.
, Jackson (5.74), Parker (5.62), Kemba (5.44), Ish Smith (5.4), Dragic (5.3), Teague (5.3), Conley (4.96), Rubio (4.96), D-Will (4.92), Chris Paul (4.91), E. Payton (4.91), Westbrook (4.89), etc., etc., Thomas barely touches the ball.
Sheesh - a guy like Wall holds on to the ball on average 30% more (total time of possession) in each game than Thomas does!
Yet Thomas _passes_ the ball as much as anyone. He averages 59.3 passes per game, just barely behind Wall at 60.0 per game. Basically, when IT gets the ball he either passes or attempts to score quickly. The ball does not stick.
Holding on to the ball and dribbling excessively are measurably NOT parts of Thomas' game.
The other parts of the scouting report tend to be subjective and not things that can be measured. But those parts that we can measure now don't line up with it at all.
Those things may have seemed true to the scout who wrote them way back when IT was still at the UW. They are not true now at all.