Boston Celtics: Isaiah Thomas Is A Legitimate MVP Candidate
Boston Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas may not be the most impressive of players from an analytical perspective, but he’s a legitimate MVP candidate.
If you evaluate advanced metrics such as Real Plus-Minus, you could conceivably argue against an MVP case being made for Boston Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas. He’s No. 17 amongst point guards and No. 92 overall in RPM.
True as that all may be, Thomas has become a legitimate MVP candidate for the Celtics during the 2016-17 NBA regular season.
Advanced metrics like RPM are valuable tools for determining how valuable a player is to their respective teams. In this instance, the statistic indicates that Thomas is a defensive liability who does his team harm and digs it into avoidable holes.
The name of the game is winning, however, and Thomas is as valuable to his team’s ability to do so as any player in the NBA.
The Celtics are currently 29-18 and in possession of a slight lead for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. That’s an astonishing fact when one considers that Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, and Al Horford have all missed at least eight games.
At the heart of Boston’s success is a 5’9″ point guard who simply will not be denied when the game is on the line.
Thomas is currently averaging 29.1 points, 6.3 assists, 2.8 rebounds, and 3.1 3-point field goals made in 34.2 minutes per game. Not only is he producing elite numbers, but he’s doing so on an efficient slash line of .466/.386/.910.
That puts Thomas at No. 2 in the NBA in points per game, No. 4 in 3-point field goals made per game, and No. 14 in assists per game. In total, he’s creating 44.4 points per game for his team.
Over the course of his past 20 games, Thomas has upped those numbers to 32.9 points, 6.7 assists, 3.0 rebounds, and 4.1 3-point field goals made in 35.5 minutes per game. He’s doing so on a slash line of .502/.423/.939.
During that time, the Celtics are 14-6 with wins over the likes of the Atlanta Hawks, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, and Utah Jazz.
On the season, Thomas has games of 52—which included 29 in the fourth quarter—44, and 41 points. In total, he has 16 games with at least 30 points for a Celtics team that has a number of talented scorers, but a dearth of players who can create their own offense.
One can fairly knock Thomas’ defensive inconsistency, but there’s no way around the fact that he’s the only player who has proven capable of consistently generating offense in isolation.
Being able to create offense in isolation may not be the end-all, be-all from a broad perspective, but it’s what inevitably decides close games.
In those close situations, there’s no one in the NBA who holds a candle to what Thomas has done. He’s averaging a league-best 10.0 points per fourth quarter on a slash line of .475/.423/.901.
In other words, when a game is on the line, no player has been able to take over quite like Thomas.
For a team like Boston, which has an average margin of victory of just 2.5 points per game, that’s an absolutely invaluable reality.
Knock Thomas’ defense, talk about his RPM, and do what you please with those two pieces of information.
The reality is: the two-time All-Star has been the difference between winning and losing close games for a team that consistently finds itself in clutch situations.
If you still value winning over individual statistics, then you should view Thomas as a legitimate MVP candidate and, if he maintains this pace, a surefire All-NBA honoree.
More from Hoops Habit
This article originally appeared on 
