Is Isaiah Thomas the 9th best point guard in the NBA?

Sean Deveny of The Sporting News put together his list of the top 15 point guards in the NBA. Isaiah Thomas was listed in the 9th slot, which is very respectable considering the depth of talent at that position currently across the league. If we know Isaiah like we think we do though, he will absolutely scoff at the lack of respect he is shown by not being listed higher. Love that. Here were Deveny's rankings 1-15.

1. Russell Westbrook
2. Stephen Curry
3. Chris Paul
4. Damian Lillard
5. Kyle Lowry
6. John Wall
7. Kyrie Irving
8. Mike Conley
9. Isaiah Thomas
10. Giannis Antetokounmpo
11. Kemba Walker
12. Reggie Jackson
13. Eric Bledsoe
14. Ricky Rubio
15. Goran Dragic

Here were some of Deveny's thoughts on IT. Love the stats on him taking it to rack.
The Celtics play good team defense, which hides Thomas’ height issue, and the offense feeds off his ability to wriggle into the paint and force a reaction. He took 34.0 percent of his shots from within two feet of the rim last year (according to Basketball-Reference.com), a big leap from the rest of his career (22.2 percent) and one fo the big reasons for his breakout 22.2 point-per-game season.

Getting to the rim allowed him to take advantage of his 87.1 percent free-throw shooting, as he attempted a career high 6.6 FTs per game. He is an above-average 3-point shooter, and though he has a penchant for getting himself into sticky situations, he has been a little guy all his life, and has developed creative ways of scoring or finding teammates no matter the degree of difficulty.

Again, stressing the depths of talent at the PG spot, he is pretty accurately listed. There is nobody listed 10-15 that I would put above him. Excluding the top 3 however, in Westbrook, Curry, and Paul, I think he is pretty interchangeable with anyone in the 4-8 spots. So in order to not offend my boy IT, I would have 1-3 still Westbrook, Curry, and Paul; a 6-way tie for 4th with Lillard, Lowry, Wall, Irving, Conley, and Isaiah; and 10-15 can do whatever the hell they please. Top 10 lists are where its at, not top 15. That's soft.

Who cares what he thinks of my rankings though? Hopefully he sees Deveny's list, again gets pissed and motivated, and continues to take it out on anyone in his path.



Photo Credit: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images



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