Stephen A. Smith has often said that Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks traded Iman Shumpert and JR Smith for a bag of cookies. Well that bag of cookies has turned into Lance Thomas.
Thomas worked on his game after the Knicks’ franchise-worst season and he developed into a solid sixth man last year. Many fans were irritated when Thomas was the first guy off the bench instead of the draft bust Jackson and company were paying $5 million dollars, but Derek Fisher saw something everyone else didn’t until much later in the season.
Thomas was a completely different player than when he was first traded to the Knicks.
How important was Thomas last year? The Knicks were 25-34 when he played. They were just 7-16 after they lost him to injury.
Thomas is the perfect glue guy that is a less polished version of Courtney Lee. If Thomas can develop into Lee, the Knicks will have two very good rotation players: Lee in the guard position and Thomas in the forward position.
Thomas also took a hometown discount and did not chase the money, even though no one should have blamed him if he did given the way some of these players were getting paid. At about $6 million a year for the next four years, the Knicks actually underpaid for a player.
Many fans wished Jackson locked up Langston Galloway for the same contract, but Galloway went home to the New Orleans Pelicans. If you want a grade on Jackson letting Galloway walk it would be an F, but that’s another story for another day.
Now Thomas is back with the Knicks and he wants to get the taste of losing out of his mouth. Thomas was a part of the 17-win Knicks two years ago and the 32-win Knicks from last year.
If Thomas is working on his game as much as he did last offseason who knows how good he’ll be for the Knicks bench? That makes for one delicious bag of cookies.
GRADE: A+
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