Cavs Notes: Thomas, Altman, Lue, Irving

After missing nearly half of the 2017/18 season while he recovered from a hip injury, Isaiah Thomas is poised to make his debut for the Cavaliers tonight. The Cavs and their fans probably shouldn’t expect much right away from Thomas, who will be on minutes restriction and has already been ruled out for the second half of the club’s back-to-back on Wednesday. Teammate LeBron James acknowledged that the Cavs don’t yet know what to expect from Thomas, but they’re glad to have him back.

“We really don’t know. We know he’s excited to once again grace an NBA floor and actually play. We’re excited for him as teammates as well,” James said, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “We expect him to be gassed. We expect him to just be very emotional about the whole, just his journey, just getting back. As far as his performance, that’s the last thing that we’re thinking about.”

Here’s more on Thomas’ Cavs debut, along with some more notes out of Cleveland:

• Benjamin Hoffman of The New York Times explores the potential impact of Thomas’ return on the Cavaliers.
• According to Thomas, the long process of rehabbing his hip injury has made him a better basketball player and a better person, “mentally and physically.” The former Celtic believes that 2018 holds “something special” for him and the Cavs, as Fedor writes at Cleveland.com.
• In an in-depth feature, Dave McMenamin of ESPN takes a closer look at Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman, who ascended to his new role in the summer of 2017. Altman called that offseason “chaotic and difficult, and at times agonizing,” with Kyrie Irving‘s trade request representing the most noteworthy issue the new GM had to address. According to McMenamin, head coach Tyronn Lue initially advocated for keeping Irving despite the trade request, but the team decided it’d be impossible to move forward with the point guard still on the roster.
• Altman on Lue, from McMenamin’s story: “He’s a big part of our free agent acquisitions. If I have a player that we think is good, we put him on the phone with T-Lue, and there’s an automatic respect level.”