– Playing for a contract
One of the main reasons why Thomas can help the Lakers is because there might not be a more motivated player in the NBA right now than Thomas. After being shockingly traded by the Celtics to the Cavaliers, Thomas has taken a lot of the blame for the struggles of the Cavaliers when he returned. While he wasn’t playing great for them, he was coming off a major surgery and was playing with an entirely new team.
The Cavaliers traded Thomas for the same reason that the Celtics did, and that is because they thought they could upgrade at the point guard position. Thomas is certainly motivated by these two teams trading him, and the best way to do that is to play well and prove them wrong.
In addition to being traded by both of these teams despite his MVP caliber season in 2016, Thomas is set to be a free agent at the end of the season. Due to his struggles with the Cavaliers, Thomas needs to have a strong second half with the Lakers in order to get the big deal that he seeks.
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For Thomas, millions of dollars could be on the line this offseason depending on how he plays with the Lakers. That will certainly motivate him to play to the best of his abilities. If Thomas like he did in 2016, the Lakers will be able to win a lot of games.