Thomas truly is the bonus of the deal, and its biggest question mark. The Little Guy told Wojnarowski he's “
not damaged” and will return “the same player again." If his hip injury is manageable, he’ll be the cake’s icing, sprinkles, and
the topper. Cleveland should be happy with the return.
But the leaked reports are especially unusual. The consensus from the 15 or so executives and agents I’ve communicated with over the past week is that it’s industry standard for deals to be agreed upon before the mandatory physical, but an agreement doesn't mean a trade is 100 percent finalized. For example, in 2009, the Hornets traded Tyson Chandler to the Thunder. Two days later, Oklahoma City’s team doctor “determined that the risk of reinjury was too great to give Chandler a clean bill of health,”
per ESPN, and advised the team to rescind the trade. They did. Chandler went back to the Hornets.
The difference with Thomas is everything was out in the open. One agent—who requested that his player’s name and the teams involved remain anonymous—told me that when one of his high-profile clients was traded, he couldn’t complete the physical because of a minor injury. The acquiring team took 24 hours to accept the risk, acquiring the player without a physical. They did. The deal went through. “Thankfully, it didn’t get out,” said the agent. “[The story] would have taken on a life of its own.”
That’s precisely what happened with Thomas, and we’ve seen how it snowballed. After the trade was announced last Tuesday, I
wrote about how the deal was effectively a win-win for both teams. It was so rare, and so nice, to see two top teams in the same conference make a deal that made sense for both sides. A week later, we’re right back where we started, but the way most people see the deal has changed.
There’s now a negative perception of Thomas—that he’s damaged goods as he enters an important contract year. But he can erase those fears with a productive and healthy season. The Cavaliers have become a team that, as one source put it, you don’t want to touch with a 10-foot pole given the way they’ve handled this situation. Meanwhile, the Celtics traded their team centerpiece who just months ago won the hearts of an entire fan base, playing a playoff game the day after his sister died.
