Isaiah Thomas‘ return should happen any day now and it could not come a moment sooner for the Cavaliers, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com writes. Cleveland has dropped four of its past five games, including back-to-back losses to the sub-.500 Kings and Jazz. Thomas’ ability to score will help a Cavaliers team in need of an offensive punch.
“You always look forward to having a great player back on your team,” head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters, including Fedor. “He’s been going through the process he’s going through. He came out yesterday feeling pretty good so we’ll see what happens after that.”
Thomas completed his first scrimmage with the Cavaliers on Friday and came out of it well. It has been reported that tomorrow’s contest against the Trail Blazers could see Thomas return or the following night against the Celtics in Boston — his former team. Either way, Thomas’ return is close and if he manages anything close to his 28.9 PPG average from last season, Cleveland will be better off.
Check out other Central Division news below:
- Nikola Mirotic‘s 2017/18 has been a roller coaster but his outspoken confidence since he returned from a facial injury has been noticed by his Bulls teammates and coaches, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. Head coach Fred Hoiberg said that Mirotic’s confidence is rubbing off on his teammates. However, some teammates may be rubbed the wrong way by a player who was involved in a physical confrontation with a Bulls teammate — which caused the facial injury — and has publicly demanded a trade.
- In his second NBA season, Denzel Valentine has expanded his role beyond a simple catch and shoot three-point shooter, NBA.com’s Sam Smith writes. Injuries have given Valentine more playing time and his improvements have been noticed. “I give Denzel credit,” Hoiberg said. “He’s not playing outside himself right now. Earlier in the season, if he wasn’t getting shots he’d take a crazy one. Now he’s letting the game come to him.”
- Reggie Jackson‘s grade 3 ankle sprain has changed the Pistons’ plans and it will take time to adjust to life without one of the team’s best players, NBA.com’s Keith Langlois writes. Wins and losses will not be as important as achieving consistency while Jackson is on the shelf. The responsibility of that falls on Ish Smith and Langston Galloway, the two players who will see increased roles in Jackson’s absence.
Denzel Valentine is garbage and has no right to be upset by anyone’s cockiness.
Avery Bradley should be returning from injury this week for the pistons and he could see a much larger role controlling the ball in jacksons absence
I see this as a good thing for Detroit and Bradley. He’s my vote for most underrated player in the nba.
Lol no one in Cleveland is playing chess against Boston.
All about Golden State.
Good point for the IT article ☞☞
about two pages over ☞☞
Or maybe on the desktop version ☝☝?