For all his defensive limitations, he still took this team from a bottom 6 team to a #1 seed (and ECF) within the space of 3 seasons - I think that's plenty of evidence to show he has a LOT of value as far as winning is concerned.
Thomas is 27 years old
This is simply a fallacy (apart from he's 28). He hasn't taken us from bottom 6 into #1 seed. He's just been a big part of it in offense, with Horford as a facilitator, the rising of Crowder and Bradley, flashes of Olynyk, etc. And the defensive effort of all of them to help overcome his inability on that side has been the other.
We've improved so much because of our system and the whole core oriented to help Isaiah (yes, our most talented offensive player by far) succeed. But not because of just him.
Oh come on, give me a break.
When Ainge made the trade for Thomas, this team immediately became better. The instant he benched Smart and put Thomas in the starting lineup, the team took another huge leap forward.
You attribute our success to things like the development of Bradley and Crowder, and the addition of Al Horford?
Jae Crowder's Per 36 stats are right on par with what they were last year and the year before. They have increases slightly, but hardly 'dramatically'. The key improvement has been his three point shooting, but in all other aspects of his game he's largely the exact same player he was when he came two seasons ago.
Avery Bradley improved his rebounding significantly and has no doubt had the best season of his career, but his overall numbers still are not far off from where they were last year and the year before (rebounding aside) - unless you consider +1 PPG a dramatic improvement.
Al Horford came in this year and do you know what he averaged? 14 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5 assists. Jared Sullinger in most of his tenure here was giving us 13 and 8, and even in his last season (despite the drop in minutes) he still gave us 10 and 8. Sullinger was also an excellent passing big man. The only advantage Horford really gave us over Sully is defence. You cant even cite consistency, because Horford has been up and down like a yo-yo all season long for us and has put up career low numbers in almost every category.
So yes, we've gained some small improvements from those factor, but none of them come close to the gain that was made when we added a 19 PPG scorer, who then upped his game to become a 22 PPG scorer, who then upped his game AGAIN to become a 29 PPG scorer.
You don't think adding a 29 PPG scorer (to a team who's previous best scorers were Avery Bradley and Jared Sullinger) has had BY FAR the biggest impact on this team of all the changes, success wise?
You don't think adding a guy who ranks 1st in the entire league in 4th quarter points has had BY FAR the biggest impact on this team of all the changes, success wise?
The improvement of Bradley and Crowder has been nice, replacing Sully with Horford has been an upgrade. Nobody can deny those facts.
But NO move made in the past 3 seasons has contributed more to Boston's success then the acquisition of Isaiah Thomas.
Without Thomas, I can all but guarantee Boston doesn't make the playoffs last year.
Without Thomas, I can all but guarantee that we would not have made it past Washington in the playoffs.
And you can even add the impact of Horford TO the impact of Thomas, because without Thomas, I can all but guarantee you Horford never would have signed here.
Thomas may not be the only reason for this teams' huge jump, but he is far and away the biggest reason. Thomas' presence brought Horford here, and if we didnt have those two guys then this team would be unlikely to even make the playoffs.