Breaking Down Cam Thomas’ Year 3 Leap | Nets Film Focus

Breaking Down Cam Thomas’ Year 3 Leap | Nets Film Focus

in his third year with the Brooklyn Nets Camp Thomas stepped into a larger role and showcased all of his game let’s break it [Music] down what’s up everybody my name is Lucas Kaplan and this is Nets film Focus where we’ll be looking at some various improvements that some Nets made last season and for the first episode who better to start with than everybody’s favorite bucket cam Thomas now I think it’s fair to call Cam Thomas at 6’4 a combo guard meaning ideally he can contribute by playing with The Rock in his hands or playing off of it and in my opinion he made strides in both of these areas last season and we have some numbers and film to back it up starting off the ball Thomas was a real weapon on the catch this season per Synergy Sports Thomas scored a hair under 1.2 points per shot whether a catch and shoot or a drive off a spot OB situation that ranked in the 86th percentile among all NBA players up from the 63rd percentile in his second year it’s not hard to figure out why CT shot a blazing 43.6% on catch and shoot threes easily a career best and in looking at these clips you see how this is a valuable skill set for cam a high elevation and release point on his jumper means that that contest doesn’t affect him this one at the end of the shot clock can’t bother him either and he’s hunting these shots which is real important on this one he pass fakes the first Defender then shoots it over the second one and perhaps my favorite example he drives the lane kicks but relocates to the corner and splashes a three that’s just efficient easy offense for cam overall about 10% of Thomas’ field goal attempts were these catch and shoot threes last season and that number increased to 15% in the 2024 campaign that’s not a drastic overhaul but it does mean that Thomas was taking more of the scariest looks possible for a defense especially coming from a shooter of his caliber so you’d see Defenders flying at Thomas beyond the three-point Arc which allowed him to get to the rim for two or when he blew by the first layer of defense and the secondary Defenders would step up he could drop an assist even though that driving dish came from a spot of situation it leads us to Thomas’ most significant Improvement this season and one that bodess well for his development handling the ball the 22-year-old showed real growth in the playmaking department in his third season and it was fun to track his progress in this area over the course of the season now cam Thomas came out of the gates throwing this lob pass consistently and the timing and placement on many of them were just about perfect it was the key to his playmaking growth this season and it happened right from October obviously it helps when Nick Claxton is finishing on many of these good athlete soft hands but the reason it was so potent for Thomas is because it paired so well with his floater and intermediate scoring you see drop coverage often in the NBA exemplified here by our old friend Brook Lopez the big man sitting far behind the level of the pick and roll Lopez is understandably worried about Thomas’s floater here and goes out to contest it from like 17 ft but it doesn’t matter swish so when you pair that with the ability to throw a lob it creates a nightmare scenario for that drop Defender coming off this screen against the Spurs Dom Barlo cam gets clax in a dunk and let’s just run it back as soon as Barlo makes his decision right there rotating his body towards Thomas to take away his floater it’s an automatic lob On Target a big dunk and that was the key the first step to Thomas’s increased playmaking this season Thomas’ lob throwing was likely the single biggest factor in the major uptick in his pick and roll efficiency when Thomas either shot or made a pass that directly led to a shot the Nets scored 941 points per pick and roll per Synergy that number ranks in the 52nd percentile for all ball handlers a massive year-over year Improvement for Thomas after ranking in the 21st percentile in that same category last season as such defenses were forced to vary their coverages against Thomas as the year went on playing more aggressively in the pick and roll showing two Defenders to the ball initially this served as a speed bump for Thomas but eventually it accelerated his growth in the playmaking department when I say showing two Defenders I mean that instead of the big dropping back in the paint he’ll help guard cam Thomas near the level of the screen forming somewhat of a double team and while this can create opportunities for other Nets Thomas did struggle with the ball pressure that results from this coverage here getting swarmed by two rockets and turning it over but Thomas’s struggles with this coverage were brief all he needed to do was see a few reps of it by this late March game against the Wizards he had figured it out and the proof were these three plays all in the second quarter Thomas catches this on a handoff and he gets double team but he’s not even looking at them he’s looking at this third Defender a helper responsible for guarding both Brooklyn’s shooter on the perimeter and tagging the roller to the basket he makes the wrong decision so cam Thomas punishes it with an easy pass for a dunk a couple plays later that Defender makes the opposite decision cam Thomas easy read hits male bridges for a wing three now he’s in a rhythm and knows exactly what to do this third possession he sees two Defenders again and he wants to hit this rle man so what he’ll do is look to the perimeter sending that Defender flying before throwing the lob he’s not just reacting to the defense right there but he’s moving them around with his eyes to throw the highest value pass as you might expect the assist numbers bear out the improvements we see on film Thomas jumped from 3.9 assists per 100 last season to 4.4 in his third year in the league better yet there was a clear jump in his ability to Dish the rock as the season went on after the Nets got back from their Paris trip in mid January Thomas averaged 5.2 dimes per 100 possessions despite dealing with his own injuries and Brooklyn reshuffling the roster at the trade deadline eventually it wasn’t about recognizing coverages and memorizing certain patterns but just playing aggressively and making the right reads all these assists came in Brooklyn’s penultimate Game of the Year in MSG against the Knicks and you can see Thomas just weaving through multiple Defenders there’s a lob and he did a lot of this at the end of the season as well driving deep into the paint before making a decision this play is just awesome High coverage in the pick and roll between the legs keeps the dribble alive and a last second decision for the alley just really impressive stuff by the end of his third year Thomas was making all sorts of plays that frankly he might not have made in his first two years in the league at 22 years old he displayed growth in critical areas when it comes to evaluating the modern combo guard he converted thre pointers off the catch at absurd rates turning himself into a real threat without the ball and with it Thomas showed an exciting ability to read defenses and find his teammates for easy looks not even growing year toe but week to week or game to game in the 2024 season when you look at CT season as a whole these are the improvements that stand out and these improvements do nothing but Inspire optimism about his future stay tuned for more Nets film Focus breakdowns as we look at more players and the improvements they made in this last season

In the first episode of Nets Film Focus, Lucas Kaplan of NetsDaily breaks down film from Cam Thomas’ third season in the NBA, with a focus on his growth as an off-ball scorer and playmaker.

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