Isaiah Thomas isn’t necessarily insisting on starting as a Los Angeles Laker.
Amid talk that the veteran point guard would not want to come off the bench for the young Lakers, Thomas said Saturday that, while he’d prefer to be starting, he will do whatever the team wants him to do.
“This is the best they have been playing,” Thomas said, via Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “I don’t want to mess anything up. And I told [coach Luke Walton] that. Whatever he needs me to do, I am willing to do that.
“Yes, I would love to be a starter. I feel like I deserve that and earned that. But at the same time, it’s a new chapter for me. I am here to help this team, help these young guys, continue to be professional, continue to work hard and continue to gel together.”
Thomas’s agent had told a very different story, but the player himself may have evaluated his options and deduced that there wasn’t a whole lot he could do. For now, he’ll be behind Lonzo Ball in the pecking order, but he’ll still get a lot of minutes.
