Getty Images After years of the Kings’ management seeming to just not believe in him and bringing in guy after guy to take his job, Isaiah Thomas wanted to be wanted as a free agent this summer. Sure, he wanted to get paid, money is king, but part of attracting a free agent is making him feel like your organization cares and really wants him to be part of it.
Thomas was hoping that could happen with the Lakers.
Instead he ended up forming one of the more interesting and potentially dangerous backcourts in the NBA in Phoenix — with Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe — but Thomas told Zach Lowe of Grantland he wanted to be a Laker.
I heard you had a strong interest in signing with the Lakers.
Yeah, I did….
First off, it’s the Los Angeles Lakers. Who wouldn’t want to play for them? Second off, I felt like they always needed a point guard — a small guard like myself. I always envisioned myself playing with the Lakers, but like you said, they were waiting on Carmelo and other moves. The Suns came out of nowhere and showed a lot of interest, and I fell in love with them.
The Lakers were swinging for the fences this summer (as they will next summer) but when they went Adam Dunn and struck out again, they started looking for guys to bring in on short contracts — they want to keep their flexibility going forward. Thomas wants to get paid and get some security. There wasn’t much of a fit there.
But damn could the Lakers use the spark of Thomas. Los Angeles fans would have loved him. Frankly he’d be the second best scorer on that team. A spark plug — and the Lakers need a spark. But Los Angeles has its plan.
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- musician0785 - Oct 29, 2014 at 11:16 PM
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But I thought no one wanted to play with Kobe…
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- musician0785 - Oct 29, 2014 at 11:18 PM
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After watching Aaron Brooks and Isaiah Thomas tonight……Mitch definitely dropped the ball this summer gambling on Melo
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- cluelessdufus - Oct 29, 2014 at 11:19 PM
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Thomas is more of a shooting PG than someone who can orchestrate an offense, which seems like a bad fit when the ball is going to move through Kobe tell he reitres. Although it wouldn’t be bad if he was coming of the bench and and filling in when Kobe would be out.
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- imthedudedude - Oct 30, 2014 at 3:11 AM
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Well he didn’t. And now he is in love with Phoenix, PHX loves him. And he destroyed the lakers tonight. Lin.. Price…? Please that’s a joke. Kobe will want out by December.
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- dodgers93lakers - Oct 30, 2014 at 4:03 AM
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Still don’t know wtf Mitch and Jim were thinking not offering this guy a contract, he’s been saying he wants to be a Laker for a few seasons already. Unless were getting Rondo or something then these guys are idiots, he didn’t even want that big of a contract from PHX pretty sure he would’ve tooken a slightly smaller pay to come to the Lakers, he wanted to be a Laker so bad a very minor pay cut from what PHX gave would’ve been ok, and especially compared to what he was being payed by SAC.
