Veteran point guard Isaiah Thomas is trying to make an NBA comeback, starting with a G League stint with the Salt Lake City Stars.
Again.
It’s a headline you’ve seen before: The 35-year-old Thomas did the same last season, signing with the Stars in March before scoring an NBA call-up with the Phoenix Suns.
Thomas averaged 32.5 points and 5.3 assists over four games with the Stars last season. That was enough to earn him another NBA opportunity.
Thomas played six regular season games with the Suns, plus one playoff contest, before Phoenix was swiftly eliminated from the NBA playoffs in April by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Once the No. 60 pick by the Sacramento Kings in 2011, the diminutive 5-9 Thomas made a name for himself with high-level scoring, before being traded to Phoenix and then Boston three years into his career.
Thomas had the best years of his career under now-Utah Jazz CEO Danny Ainge when the pair was with the Celtics. Thomas scored 28 points per game as the team’s starting point guard, even pushing the young Celtics to an Eastern Conference Finals run.
Ainge would later receive criticism upon trading Thomas, teammate Jae Crowder, plus the first-round pick that later became Collin Sexton to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Kyrie Irving. The deal didn’t really work out for either team — Irving left the Celtics soon after, while Thomas began dealing with a hip injury that ultimately saw him fall out of the NBA.
Thomas has now played for 10 NBA teams in his career, mostly on an assortment of 10-day contracts. As he rejoins the Jazz organization, he’ll be trying to make it 11 teams with his play in the G League with the Stars.