The Cleveland Cavaliers refuse to talk about the Isaiah Thomas Hip Injury after they just traded for him. They will not broach the subject in any way so that they can focus on forming their roster, but that has to make us wonder how hurt he really is. They are either waiting to unleash a weapon on the NBA, or they are afraid that he is so hurt they just traded for damaged goods.
Of course, he would not pass a physical if they tried to trade him, but that does not mean someone would not give him a chance. This is all very confusing, and it should make us wonder if Danny Ainge had been planning on letting go of Thomas much sooner than this.
Perhaps his amazing season was a surprise the Celtics were not ready for.
They got surprised
Let us assume for a second that the Celtics were shocked by what happened, and they did not know how to manage the situation. Perhaps they thought that they could trade him in the season, but they did not realize that he would be dragging their team to the east finals. This caused them many problems because they knew that they could not trade him while he was playing that well. They had to wait, and this was the trade that they got. They were very lucky that Irving no longer wanted to be in Cleveland, and that is why is happened at all.
The Cavaliers merely capitalized on the fact that they knew Thomas had a hip injury, and that is why they jumped in in the first place.
They planned ahead
The Cavaliers knew that the injury to Thomas would be an issue, and they decided to use the hip injury to ask for more from the Celtics. They decided the way that they could get more from the Celtics would be to act surprised by the way that Thomas was hurt. Gasping when you get the medical report and saying, "oh my gosh, did you know about this, Danny," is a much better way to get more out of the Celtics than to pretend that it is not a big deal.
They are not talking about the injury now because they know very well that they do not have to worry about it because they won the trade. They got rid of the guy that did not want to be there, and they got more assets in return for the malcontent.
The rebuild is coming
The Cavaliers are going to rebuild fast because they may have found the best GM in the history of their franchise.
This is a smart trade if you think about it in this way, and it becomes even smarter if you realize that the Cavaliers will be able to trade Thomas at some point if they are afraid that he will not sign with them. They have all the leverage, all the pieces, and they have the GM who can pull it off.