Amidst the chaos of the draft, some good news about IT's hip

Last night kept with the trend of league-wide instability forcing trades at a high rate during the 2017 NBA Draft, though perhaps to the chagrin of Boston Celtics fans, none of those trades involved the Celts.


Even if this is the case, and you're feeling a little let down after what seems like a decade of promised fireworks, there was a nugget of very good news to be had that wasn't at all related to what was going down in Barclays Center - it concerned Thomas's health. Turns out, the hip injury - a serious injury for a player reliant on getting past defenders with speed and mobility - has improved considerably, allowing him to continue monitoring the rehabilitative process in the hopes that surgery can be avoided.

This matters a lot, as recovery from significant surgery on such a joint may never return to pre-injury levels, and while Thomas could likely return to form well enough to continue in his career, the odds of him returning to the levels we saw this last season would be slim to nil, and even the best-case scenario would likely put this year's near-MVP-caliber performance as the high water mark of his career. Of course, there's no guarantee rehab will get him back to such a level either, and the league's history is littered with examples of players who hit such heights just once, never to regain the ground despite not having issues of health, too.


All that considered, such news - while not conclusive - bodes well for the future of the King in the Fourth, and by extension the club. We should know more details after free agency begins to die down in a few weeks after Thomas has his follow-up appointment to determine how his rehab has been going.

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