This really needs to be sent home. In 2016 IT registered 70 defensive Isolation possessions in 82 games. That's fewer than 1 possession per game. Whether he was elite/awful it's not reflective of his overall defensive value.
Isaiah Thomas (2016)
ON-BALL DEF
41% PnR: 0.73 PPP (329 poss) - 75th percentile
9% Isolation: 0.70 PPP (70 poss) - 80th percentile
8% Post-Up: 0.88 PPP (65 poss) - 46th percentile
OFF-BALL DEF
21% Spot-Up: 0.95 PPP (167 poss) - 57th percentile
8% Hand-Off: 1.00 PPP (65 poss) - 82nd percentile
7% Off-Screen: 0.84 PPP (57 poss) - 68th percentile
The Celtics were the 4th best defensive team in the NBA in 2016. IT played a team-high 2644 minutes. Clearly, he wasn't a turnstile.
Did Avery Bradley take his share of tough assignments? Sure. Clearly those secondary assignments weren't abusing IT.
Did he get more help schematically than the average player? Sure. It certainly didn't affect the team adversely.
At some point we need to give credit to the player. Effort was never the issue with IT (ditto Muggsy Bogues, Spud Webb, Nate Robinson, Earl Boykins, J.J. Barea, etc).
Data reflects results, not skill (which is what the rating is attempting to indicate). I'm certainly not claiming it's perfect, just a tool to help guide us to an acceptable answer. There are plenty of players who don't maximize their tools, and just as many get more out of what they have than they should.
One additional note is IT has barely played in the last two years due to his hip injury and likely can't play an acceptable level of defense anymore. His data as a result is incomplete and that's where an editor can step in and make a judgement call. I certainly wouldn't parade him out with an 85-90 rating simply due to the data.
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