Isaiah Thomas could go from the last pick of the 2011 NBA Draft to a $179 million contract. Not bad, eh?
Thomas will be in for quite the raise when his contract ends after the 2017-18 season, and he’s certainly earned it. The 28-year-old point guard quickly is becoming a household name throughout the NBA, and he’s in the midst of an MVP-worthy season for the Boston Celtics with his 29.7 points per game. So it’s safe to say the $6.26 million he’s owed next season will be a lot lower than what he’ll likely receive in free agency following the 2017-18 campaign.
The Celtics and Thomas do have a few options on how they get to that point, though, and USA TODAY Sports’ Sam Amick recently broke them down. Amick mentioned that the two sides could work on an extension, or Boston could pick a new point guard of the future in the upcoming NBA draft with its right to swap first-round picks with the Brooklyn Nets, but he said the far more likely scenario is that Thomas and the C’s — or another team (gasp) — work on a massive new contract after next season.
And with the way money is flying around the NBA right now, Amick reported the max deal would be for five years and $179 million, which includes a $40.8 million salary for the final season of the deal.
So if the Celtics want to keep Thomas, they’ll have to back up the Brinks truck like IT mentioned. And they might have to keep an eye on those rival Los Angeles Lakers, too.
“The Lakers (have) always been a team I wanted to go to, I mean desperately — before I was on the Celtics,” Thomas said on USA TODAY Sports’ “NBA A to Z” podcast, via Amick. “My Dad, being a Laker fan (growing up in Tacoma, Wash.), I was brainwashed as a kid of being a Laker fan, so that’s all I looked up to. I definitely (wanted to go there), especially in the draft (when) they had four second-round picks.”
Thumbnail photo via Tom Szczerbowski/USA TODAY Sports Images