The summer drama is over. Cam Thomas remained a Brooklyn Net, but instead of the big deal he’d hoped for, the fifth-year shooting guard wound up with a $5.99 qualifying offer, up in one year. Not what he expected but the two sides never really engaged in serious negotiations, as Jake Fischer and Tim Bontemps wrote over the summer. Indeed, Thomas’s reps didn’t even counter the Nets offer of two years and $30 million, according to a league source. The sides were simply that far apart and knew it.
So, what’s done is done and by all accounts, the two sides are handling things professionally. If there is bad blood, it hasn’t gotten spilled. Thomas in particular says he’s ready for the season. No worries.
“Nah, it’s easy. I’m not really worried about that. It’ll take care of itself,” Thomas said. “The main goal is just being on the court and playing, being out there. I love to hoop, I love to play, so that’s really the main thing I’m trying to do this year. Whatever happens, happens. I’ll let that take care of itself.”
The Nets will need him — and Michael Porter Jr. — if they are going to make anything of this season (which doesn’t seem like a goal.) His preseason had its ups (vs. Suns in Macao) and its downs (vs. Raptors in Toronto) and as Brian Lewis notes, his final averages were un-Cam-like: averaging just 13.3 points and shooting 39% overall and 15.4% from deep. But after missing all but 25 games last year, at least he’s healthy and ready to go.
He has slimmed down (although his hair is way up.) He says it wasn’t about avoiding another series of hamstring injuries, but rather an attempt to get quicker.
“Nah, it’s felt the same, it’s just more so the look. I really didn’t feel any different,” Thomas said. “Obviously, when you drop some weight you get a little quicker. I felt like I was kind of quick last year, but I feel like I’m quicker this year, in a sense. But, nah, I didn’t really feel any different. I felt good, just ready to go.”
Jordi Fernandez seems happy with what he’s seen so far from the 24-year-old who averaged 24.0 points per game last season as well as Porter who looked as smooth as can be expected in the final game of preseason. He wound up with 34 points without seemingly breaking a sweat.
“We’re doing whatever the team needs right now, and obviously, when you’re at the beginning of the season, there’s just so much you can do, and my job is to decide what that process looks like,” Fernández said. “I’m pretty much sure that the other day [Porter] took 20 shots and 10 3s, so I think it’s working very well for him.
“Same with CT, he got six assists and two turnovers. He didn’t shoot as well, but I want him to be aggressive because I know it’s gonna go in. So I’m not concerned with how many plays or sets I have for each one of them. They’re doing a very good job and they’re gonna be very impactful if they see the floor on both ends and give the effort defensively, I’m very, very pleased.”
While some have suggested that Thomas could be traded at some point before the deadline in February, that seems highly unlikely. Thomas will need to prove his case in Brooklyn, as Jake Fischer told Connor Long of The Brooklyn Boys Show last week. Fischer was dead on right the entire summer about the lack of engagement between team and player as well as the likelihood that Thomas would take the QO.
“I haven’t thought about him as someone who would get traded this year because, when you talk to front office executives, they’re really not interested in Cam Thomas for what he does,” Fischer told Long. “I think, while he is a great scorer, the shot selection and how he does it, along with the flow of an overall team offense, is not something that really is so commodified right now in today’s NBA.
“Values, pace, space, ball movement, creating two-on-one situations on weak sides of the floor when the ball swings around a half-court possession. And Cam Thomas doesn’t really do that. Cam Thomas takes quite a few dribbles when he’s operating, right?”
Moreover, there’s the reality that even if a team was interested in him — and that same league source said the Nets received no offers for Thomas this summer — the Nets will likely remain the only team with significant cap space through the deadline, meaning that Thomas wouldn’t be able to get the money and security he wants and believes he deserves in a sign-and-trade.
“Maybe along the way with… an injury or two to certain scenarios, there could be a team that says, you know what? We really need bench scoring to uplift our group when so-and-so,“ Fischer suggested as an outlier.
But under the terms of the QO, Thomas would have to approve any move and he’d lose his Bird Rights if he did. (If he remains with Brooklyn, those Bird Rights would attach, meaning the Nets could if they want, re-sign him outside the cap. But that’s a story for another day.)
In short, Thomas’ status is, at least at the beginning of the season, the most intriguing on a team that has little intrigue.
- Nets’ Cam Thomas insists he’s not worried about contract situation – Brian Lewis – New York Post
