EXCLUSIVE: Cam Thomas Contract DRAMA Threatens His Nets Future | Is he a long-term fit in Brooklyn?

EXCLUSIVE: Cam Thomas Contract DRAMA Threatens His Nets Future | Is he a long-term fit in Brooklyn?

Coming up, the NBA offseason is winding down and Cam Thomas remains without a contract. I’ll tell you why his time with Brooklyn could be coming to a close after this. You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked On Nets podcast right here on the Locked On Podcast Network. It’s your team, the Brooklyn Nets, every single day. I’m Eric Slater, Brooklyn Nets beat reporter for clutchoints.com. Thank you for making me your first listen of the day. This show is 100% free on all those great platforms. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. And on today’s show, I’m going to be breaking down Cam Thomas’s future with the Nets. I’ll analyze his skill set, how it fits in with what Brooklyn is trying to build, and why his contract negotiations could be a telling sign of things to come. Now I’m joined now by Lucas Kaplan of Nets Daily for the second consecutive day because we are running through a series on the Brooklyn Nets rotation players from last year talking about how we think we they fit with the team long term and whether we ultimately feel that they are going to be fits throughout this rebuild with the Nets. We did Nick Claxton yesterday and Lucas. Today we are doing Cam Thomas. So just a refresher for those of you who didn’t catch our last episode. The premise for this for Claxton and for CT is this player being a starter. So for Thomas’s case, a starting shooting guard. How do we feel about him in that role assuming that he is being paid starting level shooting guard money, which in today’s NBA with the new salary cap probably somewhere between 20 to $30 million. So Lucas, a lot of uncertainty surrounding Cam Thomas’ contract, but it’s safe to assume that that is the role he wants. Starting guard, probably paying him somewhere in that range. It doesn’t look like he’s going to get it, but ultimately long term, if that’s where he wants to be, how do you feel about him being in that position for a team that is trying to make a deep playoff run? Well, it’s interesting because you look around and he will look at Jaylen Green making 35 million a year, Emanuel Quickley in the same ballpark. These kind of guys that you can make an argument that Cam Thomas is just a better player than. And yet there seemed to me to be a lot of valid reasons that maybe he is not that caliber of player of you know peace to a really good playoff team. So, I think that the market is maybe correcting at the worst possible time for him and he might be getting screwed right now, but I don’t think that it is unjustified, if that makes sense. Yeah, it does make sense. And I think this is poor timing for Cam Thomas. And I would understand the comparisons that he’s had. Like I’ve reported that his camp went into negotiations with some comparisons to guys like Jaylen Green, Emanuel Quickley, Jordan Pool, whoever you want to say in those contracts. And with no teams having cap space and also this being a new CBA, it just doesn’t seem like he’s going to get that. But in another world, you know, there’s a scenario where Cam Thomas gets paid on his rookie deal like a Jaylen Green or like those players that he’s in a similar tier to and it just hasn’t worked out that way for him. And in that in in his case that could be, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars that he lost out on. So I understand the frustration, but yeah, I mean, how do you feel about because I think when you’re talking about whether Cam Thomas is going to be a long-term starter in the NBA and with the Nets, it’s interesting to see this off season, the trend of NBA teams kind of going away from the offball scorers who are really like shot first guys. Like that archetype seems like it’s being valued less than ever before. or whether you talk about, you know, guys like Norman Pal or um Colin Ston or Malik Monk who supposedly been on the trade block and really hasn’t garnered much interest. Just all those different guys don’t seem to be valued by NBA teams. So, is that surprising to you? And do you agree with kind of that player archetype, how front offices are approaching with what their market value is supposed to be? Yeah, it makes sense to me and I generally do like the bar to be the guy or one of the top two guys on a good NBA offense, you know, 25 30% usage is just so high. I mean, if you’re not the A+ passer, playmaker, then you need to be scoring like Shay Gilis Alexander, who I think we can agree is, you know, maybe a tier two, tier three kind of passer and floor reader, but can’t say enough about his scoring. maybe Jaylen Brunson throws him in the same bucket. Then on the other hand, you know, you have allound playmakers that can do everything. Um like you think about Joic and Embiid when he’s healthy and you who’s become a great passer and guys like that. So the bar is just so high to have the ball in your hands all the time for a really good NBA team. And the thing with Cam Thomas and he’s gotten better at pretty much everything you could have asked of him. like he’s if not great, shown improvements in all these areas. And yet, is he good enough to have the ball in his hands all the time? Probably not. And if not, is he providing enough value everywhere else to command the 25 $30 million a year on a really good team? Like I think he’s gotten better on defense and maybe better as an offball offensive player and you know cutter and passer, but the answer unfortunately is no probably. Yeah. And I I don’t necessarily disagree with you and I’ve spoken about this at length because I’ve done so much coverage of CT and the contract situation. It really is just that there’s so few guys that can be on the ball. And if Cam isn’t on the ball, you know, where is he providing value to warrant the 30 plus million dollars that he wants in free agency? You know, those those flashes in those other areas of his game just hasn’t haven’t been there up to this point. And we’ll get into, you know, each side of the ball. Let’s start on offense, though, and let’s just start with his scoring ability because obviously that’s the main calling card. And if you are going to be that, as you said, that you know, lead guy who has the ball in your hands, your scoring ability has to be just astronomical. And Cam has flashed lead scoring ability. There were questions about his efficiency that, you know, went up to, I think, a little slightly above league average last season in the games that he did play in. But when you look at what he’s done, how he’s changed throughout his career, how do you feel about his scoring ability, the efficiency, and the process, is it something where you think what he does on in that area really warrants him having the ball as much as he’s going to want to? Yeah, I mean last year he was well over a 30% usage and I don’t think that’s a winning formula for 99.5% of guys in the league. And I’m not even saying that as a slight to Thomas. And you know, I don’t even think he if you asked him, do you like want the ball that much? I don’t think he would maybe be as excited about it as you might think. Maybe if he’s on a more talented offensive roster, his usage goes down. And I think, you know, for whatever you want to say about Cam Thomas, I think he would understand that. And if he’s playing with Kyrie, he would defer some shots. KD, James Harden, these guys that he entered the league with. Um, you know, his offensive co-star, if he had one last year, was Cam Johnson, Dennis Shruder, and then the offball guys like Keon, Tyrese Martin. Like, these guys aren’t creating shots. So, I don’t think his massive usage rate is totally a product of him being like, “Give me the ball. I want the ball.” You know, that being said, um he has I think he’s gotten to the point I think he’s a positive offensive player. Like I there is enough catch and shooting. He’s a really good um you know, just catch and shoot guy from three and that will always provide value. Um his last two games he played before his final hamstring strain were some of the best kind of floor reading, playmaking games of his life. uh 10 assists I believe against Chicago and in the last game of the season. It had to be like for the CT discourse it had to be the last game of the season just to leave us with that note of like the last thing we see like oh Cam Thomas is scaling up the passing and then he goes after the season but of course but it’s so it’s so fitting for his career and Nuts tenure. It’s like I damn this could have been all year. Uh, but it like it matches everything like the assist to turnover, all that stuff, all the ancillary stuff has gone up and you know he’s creeping right up towards you know league average true shooting if you want to use that as a very basic barometer for how efficient he is. So, this is a guy that I think is a positive offensive player and that is not quite enough, you know, by itself, but I’d be very happy with the strides he made, you know, just on offense over the course of his rookie contract, especially, and I I don’t want to get too far off on a tangent, drafted 27th or whatever he was, he’s outperformed that. Jaylen Green’s underperformed number three draft pick, but because of, you know, where they were drafted, that’s why the contracts have gone these different ways. But that’s where I’m at on Cam Thomas offensively generally. He can help a good offense. It’s just how much. And you said that, you know, he’s a positive player offensively at this point, but that’s not enough. And I think the reason that that’s not enough in his player archetype is because of what you’re giving up on the other end of the floor. and we’ll get to that. But I do want to talk about the playmaking quickly because we talked about the scoring. Obviously, that’s been his calling card, but people have said, you know, offensively he’s going to have to be more of a playmaker to warrant having the ball in his hands that much. I think we’ve definitely seen improvement and growth from him as a playmaker. And, you know, I don’t know if that’s saying all that much because he really couldn’t go any further in the other direction. Like, there was only you can only go up from where he started out. So, you know, I don’t want to take I don’t want to diminish what he did, but I think we still do. If you just look at the numbers, there’s a lot of advanced numbers on it. He passes the ball and generates potential assists less compared to how much he has it relative to a lot of his other guard counterparts. And I do think even in that stretch at the end of the season where he was passing more and he had a lot more like six, seven assists games, there were a couple of really big moments down the stretch of games that were close where he was missing wide open passes and it seemed like it was just going up no matter what. So how do you feel about his playmaking growth overall? It’s you look at the numbers and you look at some of the film and granted a lot of the playmaking is like oh basic kind of pick and roll read. not basic, but you know, you’re hitting the roller and then if this guy comes over, you’re hitting the corner. And those are good and valuable passes. But it’s regimented offense. It, you know, when you watch these games, it’s like it’s that it’s what you just said. It’s like if it gets close, if if we’re in clutch time, if it’s like a dynamic situation, if he, you know, catches it on the wing and it’s kind of a scrambled play, you probably don’t trust him to like read the floor. And there are these modes where it’s just like, okay, the shot’s going up. Like he’s not going to pass until it is the last option. And when you are uh probably, you know, project to be at the highest level, a little bit more of an offball, scoring guard, catch and shoot threes, some side pick and rolls, stuff like that. It can’t be, it’s just easy to game plan against. Mhm. And that is really why the offense will leave you wanting. Even though we see the lobs and the dump offs to Nick Claxton. Like that is great, but it just doesn’t feel like, and I don’t want to say ever because he’s 23, whatever. He’s only played four years, but it really, you know, gun to my head, it doesn’t feel like the offense is going to reach a point where he’s tough to game plan against in that sense. And I understand that. And I think, yeah, for me, from the passing perspective, I think it’s always been a willingness. And I think like he shows it in flashes and he might do it just enough for people to say like, look, he had this many assists in this game and it’s improving. But I do think that it is what you said like a lot of the pick and roll stuff we see, he’s operating in the pick and roll. He’s snaking. He’s getting to his spots with the intention completely of shooting. Like he is not looking usually to get the rid of the ball. And that’s not always a bad thing. Like I love players who have that kind of confidence, but I do think there’s a lack of willingness and I think that that will lend itself to some issues when you’re trying to be an offensive engine and have the ball as much as he’s going to. There all are also obviously issues on the other end of the floor with defense that impact it. So, we’ll talk about that. We’ll talk a little bit more about his offensive game and all the different areas that he’s going to need to improve if he wants to be a starting caliber player in a rotate in a playoff level rotation. So, all that after a quick break. But before that, want to tell you about our friends over at Open Phone. Guys, if you’re running a business, you know that every missed call is money left on the table. Think about the last time you had an urgent need, maybe for a plumber or a service provider. 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Coming back from the break on today’s Locked on Nets episode, talking with Lucas Kaplan of Nets Daily about Cam Thomas and whether we think he is going to be a long-term fit with the Nets as a starting uh two guard for this team through their rebuild. And we talked about his offensive game. We’re going to talk about the defense, but obviously Lucas, the two knocks on Cam Thomas’ game have always been Well, there was three. The efficiency was part of it. I think that has scaled up to a point where it’s it’s good. It’s, you know, for how much he’s shooting, it’s above league average last year that has improved. It’s now the playmaking and the defense are the two big ones. We just talked on the playmaking a little bit, but if Cam is going to get to a level where he’s going to be a starting caliber guard in a playoff level rotation, what do you think is a more important area of improvement, the playmaking or the defense? That’s a good question. Let me try to like work my way to an answer. The Pacers in a lot of ways are an atypical NBA team, but in many ways, I think we can agree that they’re kind of where the NBA is and is going. They closed with any one of eight or nine guys even in this play in these playoffs. Matarin was kind of giving them the scoring punch they need. He would close games. Sometimes they needed Obie at the five or Obie and Miles. Sometimes Nesmith was really what they needed. Sometimes Nemhard sat. Sometimes he closed games. Point being all these guys can kind of like have enough skills to thrive in a variety of contexts. How many different types of lineups can you design around Cam Thomas? Like who it’s Yeah. He kind of pigeon holes you. It’s not It’s not very It’s not very malleable the skill set. It’s It’s Yeah, you need to you need to build a lineup around him. And that’s one of the tough things is it limits the way that you can play and it also limits the personnel and the different people that you can go after and the way you can build out your rotations. Exactly. And that’s why it’s like hard for me to answer that question because you know in it if I had to probably the defense like if he’s suddenly a plus defender you can stick him on once and live with everything else but the amount of curating you need his ideal lineup to be it’s like you need a rim roller because he his passes are really like I can throw lobs against drop or I I can hit the roll. So you need that guy. You need your wings and whatever guard is next to him to be able to guard the point of attack and you need the other team to probably be playing somewhat of a offensive liability for him to guard. So that that’s just not really how we see playoff teams thrives. It’s like, well, if we’re going to play this player, then all these things need to go right. That’s not OKC. You know, that’s not Indiana. Um, you could argue that was some of New York’s downfall because they didn’t have that against Indiana. So, when you ask me, you know, playmaking or defense, what would be the real crux of his improvement, it’s it’s both. It’s everything, you know, and it sounds very negative about him, and I don’t mean it that way, but it’s hard for me to just distill one area. Though, if I had to, it’d be defense. Yeah, I I agree with you. And if I had to, it would be defense also. And I also think that the criticism surrounding Cam’s game, a lot of it just with the general discourse, like the narrative that has followed him is ball hog and you keep hearing that and that obviously is about his lack of playmaking. And I think that that has been an issue and I think the process there has been an issue. But I think maybe the defensive end of the floor isn’t talked about enough with him because if you’re talking about him being an offguard, you know, being this guy who’s not going to be a ball or not going to be like the star 1A level scorer on your team, the guys around that guy obviously have to be able to play defense. And up to this point in his career, like Cam has just been a bad defender. Like they’re I think it got a little bit better last season, but I think like his playmaking, it was kind of a situation where you could only go up. Like the defense wasn’t going to get really much worse, I don’t think. And when I look at him on that end of the floor, it is interesting because like he’s smaller, he’s shorter, he obviously has some limitations there. But for me, it’s just like the engagement and the want to just has not been there consistently. And I feel like especially like offball defense, he seems like a guy who falls asleep a lot in my opinion. On the ball, I think it was a little bit better last season, but still just like leaving so much to be desired. And if you’re going to be that guy, like he’s just with the playmaking deficiencies and with like just him being an undersized player and some of while he is an elite scorer, some of the limitations that he has as an offensive engine, you can’t have that and be a bad defender. Like that’s just you’re not going to have success with a guy like that starting in the back court in my opinion. We just never really see that. So, no, no, we and and because it requires the team to make so many sort to protect this guy, you know, in a lot of lineup constructions without him scoring 30 on like on the most efficient shots and being an all-around offensive superstar, it is this like compounding of issues. And well, you go ahead, you finish your point. No, I mean, that was really my point. It’s just like this archetype is not being valued and it’s not being valued for a reason because it’s really hard to win with this kind of player. It’s really hard to craft rotations and build out personnel that surround this kind of player and it’s not it’s just with the way the NBA is being played now, it’s not a type of player that has really shown success. So that was my whole point. Yeah. And I mean the best, someone asked me this at summer league. It’s like when have we seen really great truly, you know, NBA championship caliber teams feature kind of this player archetype or just a player like this, you know, in their starting lineup. And like the closest I can get, and this is going to maybe sound crazy to some people, like you could say Jaylen Brown because only because a lot of his shots come from the same areas of the floor that Cams do. Like he he will fall asleep on defense. Not the greatest playmaker, but at the end of the day, like he is a really good cutter. He is way he’s far more athletic and despite the offball lapses, like he gets into you on the ball in that playoff run. You know, he was providing value on defense. shooting passing lanes, better rebounder. So like, and he won finals MVP. I mean, I don’t mean that. Yeah, I don’t I’m just gonna say I don’t think the defense is comparable, but I get where you’re going with it. So, yeah. And even that is that being such a stretch and I I’m aware that’s a stretch, but like that see like that that’s the best I can come up with and it’s not very good. Yeah. So comparison it’s it’s tough you know with CT and I think that um you know the deficiencies on the defensive end of the ball to me are the thing that are that is more glaring to me. Like I think that his offensive process and his playmaking is an issue but defensively like we just saw the way that these playoff series were played. We saw how much guys get picked on defensively. We saw the Knicks like playing with Jaylen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns just not be able to survive and then just getting pick and rolled to death down the stretch of that game six and throughout that series. And when you have guys on the floor, you know, like Cam Thomas who can be picked on like that, the offense that they provide has to be at such a high level and you also have to insulate them with such good defenders. It’s just a lot of things that have to work in that favor where, you know, are you giving 20 $30 million or, you know, to a guy like that in a playoff caliber rotation? I’m just not sure I see it, but it could be possible. We’ll talk about what we think the most likely outcome is. We’ll talk about the fan discourse and a lot of other things when we close out Lockdown Nets after a quick break. But before that, want to tell you about our friends over at Game Time. Have you ever decided at the last minute to head to a ball game with family or friends? 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Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L O C K D O NA for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Closing out today’s Locked on Nets episode, talking with Lucas Kaplan of Nets Daily about Cam Thomas and his future and whether we think he will be a fit with the Nets as their starting two guard of the future. And Lucas, I think up to this point, like we’ve sound pretty negative, I think, you know, and and that’s not me saying I don’t like Cam Thomas like as a player. I I like a lot of things about Cam Thomas. I love his confidence. Like I think something I always value in a player is somebody who’s not going to be afraid of the moment, not being afraid to step up and have the ball in their hands if necessary. I think Cam has shown no fear whatsoever in that regard. I think our critiques are him as a starting caliber player, him as a guy who’s going to warrant having the ball as much as he needs to, you know, to really take advantage of what his offensive gifts have been. And I think a lot of fans are probably going to have a negative reaction to what we’re saying. So, how do you feel just like about the fan discourse surrounding Cam Thomas? I’m like I’m always curious about it because I understand why fans like him so much. I It’s some of the same reasons that I enjoy watching him. The fearlessness, you know, the showmanship, the scoring ability is obviously always going to be attractive to fans, but it does seem like there’s a lot of fans who have disagreements with us about what Cam is and, you know, where his place in the NBA is going to be long term. Yeah, I I think it does sound negative because we’re kind of we have probably the opinion that I think most of the NBA would have in terms of what his contract and role should be and he probably doesn’t share those opinions as he should as he should not. Um, but that being said, like I’ve always thought about this. We are harder as a general kind of, you know, analysts, whatever about guys whose best skill is scoring the ball because it is the hardest skill to make a living off of in the NBA. It is the hardest skill to be as good as he is at it. like, you know, we can talk all-time OIKL leading scoreer LSU 23 points a game, three 40point games in the NBA in a row as a as like a 20-year-old. It’s it’s incredible. And he is a very talented player. And when you’re watching like these ridiculous shots go in over and over and over again as he does from time to time like in these games or if he’s on the road in Madison Square Garden and he’s had a few performances where it’s like is this guy just going to score them into a victory. It’s hard to watch that and be thrilled by it and then turn around and watch us say, “Well, he’s like not that good because blah blah blah.” Yeah. But, you know, I obviously I think what we’re saying is valid. It’s just, you know, if he had a different skill set, but was relatively the same sort of impact type of player, this wouldn’t be the discourse. A, he wouldn’t be trying to get $30 million. Um, B, like there is there are, you know, if he was a more defensively oriented and like kind of some offball shooting but couldn’t really create it’s like you can have more of those guys on a roster at once. So, I I get the fan discourse and I do feel bad that like I don’t enjoy like just talking about him in the negative like, well, he shouldn’t get this. Um, but it’s that’s what it comes down to for me. Like it’s just hard when this is your skill set and the things you need to improve upon are really the things that like supporting NBA players like third, fourth, fifth best guys on a championship team really excel at. And in some ways he’s unlucky with that. He’s unlucky with the timing. Um, and I don’t blame fans for watching a guy score 40 points on like just a ridiculous set of buckets and being and having that reaction like this guy’s awesome. I want to pay him. I want to watch him play basketball. I think that’s probably the more common reaction versus what we’re doing. And let’s say let’s say this and we don’t have too much time so try to keep your response short if you can, but I think we’re saying, you know, if he’s not going to be the 1A guy on this team, you know, he has to improve in these other areas. And a question a lot of fans might ask is why can’t he be that 1A guy? Why can’t he be like the lead guy on a championship team offensively? And if you were to succinctly, you know, express why not, just what would you say? Defenses are so good and so varied and they will throw so many coverages at you and that is not compatible with the areas of the floor. he likes to score from his kind of floor reading, processing, driving ability, just all the things that make a truly great offensive player. I think the burden is just too high for him to be that 1A caliber offensive star. Um, you know, in his career. And I know it’s early to say that, but it’s kind of where I’m at. Yeah. as a a tough shot maker, a guy who, you know, isn’t necessarily reading the floor and, you know, making his teammates better all the time, a guy who works a lot out of the mid-range, is getting to the rim actually less last season than he did in prior seasons. Just all those things, those are the same reasons for me. We’ve got a few more minutes here. Let’s talk about where we think it’s going to go with the Nets because Cam has made it clear he wants, you know, or not made it clear, I’ve heard things about his camp and logically you would expect this for him to say he wants to be paid in that $30 million range like some of those other guards. He’s not going to get it. He’s going to, you know, nobody can pay him above $14 million, which is the non- taxpayer mid-level exception. It doesn’t seem like anybody is running to give him that full exception right now. So, it’s really what the Nets want to give him. And he has two options. he can take the Net’s offer, which is reportedly somewhere in the two years, um, $28 million with the team option in the second year, or he can sign the one-year qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent next summer. I have said based on how this has played out, which regardless of which circumst which, you know, option it ends up playing out to be, the way this has played out and a lot of stuff before it has led me to believe that he is not going to be a part of the Net’s long-term future. Do you agree with that assessment? I think he’s on the team next year, but long-term future probably not. Especially, you know, if you look at the Nets draft and all that. Yeah. And I think uh if you look at the Nets draft, like I I joked about this with Brian, it’s like it’s just really tough with CT Brian Lewis because I asked Sean about their draft picks right after the draft and he gave us an answer describing all the traits that they were looking for. And I’ve joked that like it was kind of the antithesis of Cam Thomas. Like it was Sean said 0.5 second basketball with the ball popping, it doesn’t stick. And then he said sizable, versatile, multi-positional defenders and guys who make it hard on defense. And that’s just I would not say that those are traits with Cam Thomas thus far throughout his NBA career. And I think the other thing that’s changing a little is, you know, people say, well, like sixth man, like score off the bench, you know, microwave guy. And that certainly exists. Like that’s a valuable, Again, I think he’s a positive offensive player. I think he can destroy bench units for a really good team. Um, and like have 28 points in like 22 minutes. I’ve seen him do it before. But when we talk about highle teams, that’s not really how uh benches operate anymore. It’s not like this guy is gonna come in and do this. Like your sixth, seventh, eighth guys now are like how can you fit with the starters? How can you bring a different kind of look to our best lineups? It’s not like come in and do your own thing and then we’re going to take you out at the end of the game. Like the most valuable bench players do both. You know, they come in and they rock with their bench unit, but then if they’re playing well, they give a different look. I just used the Pacers example earlier. And so I’m not saying that he can’t even be like a great bench player and a, you know, have a a really defined role for a good offense because I think he can even if it isn’t a starting lineup perhaps, but it’s there’s just a lot of things kind of working against him right now. And they’re not his fault. Like I like they’re not his fault a lot of this stuff. Yeah. And I I think the point that you made about the bench guy is it makes sense because if you’re going to pay a bench guy and it’s going to be one of your top paid bench guys, why would you want a guy who could only operate as this like I’m going to carry the second unit. I’m not going to be like a complimentary piece around your starters. Ideally, you’re going to want a guy who can do both. I still think there is a lane as you said for CT to bring a lot of value in that area. And he could be like he could be a starter. like there we’re we could be wrong on this and a lot of this has probably sounded negative and I think it’s tough because in his case we’re framing the conversation in can he be a starting caliber guard on a you know championship or a playoff level rotation which is so hard it’s so hard to I’m saying like this is a guy CT who was picked at the very end of the first round like you said earlier he’s already exceeded what the expectations for were based on where he was drafted and he’s going to have a role in the NBA for the foreseeable future, which is a win. Like that’s a win, but I think because he has this scoring ability, the discourse has become about something so much more with him. So, I think it’s tough in that regard. I It is. It’s that it’s scoring ability. It’s It’s always been tough, especially in the last like 1015 years for NBA fans to talk about guys whose best skill is scoring. um for a lot of reasons, but maybe that’s for another day, another podcast. All right, Lucas, I appreciate you taking the time as always. We will see how the Cam Thomas contract situation plays out. They’re really, it doesn’t really have to, you know, reach a conclusion anytime soon. It may dra out a lot longer. So, I’m sure we’ll have you on to have more talk about CT and the Nets other rotation players, but uh yeah, thank you for taking the time, man. That does it for today’s episode of Locked on Nets. Hope you guys enjoyed the talk with Lucas touching on everything relating to Cam Thomas’s future and whether he’ll be a core piece with the team moving forward. If you guys do not already, subscribe to Lockdown Nets wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple podcast or Spotify. Also, hit up the YouTube channel. If you enjoy my content, smash the like button, please. Only takes a second. Means a lot. Really helps with engagement. Also, leave a comment. Let me know what you think about Cam Thomas’ future. whether he should be a piece with the team moving forward, whether that’s a starter, a bench piece, what contract he should get. I want to hear from you guys about all that. I’ll try to reply, but we have a lot more Nets news going on. We have potential moves left with the team’s cab that could be made. We have the futures of all the rotation guys, the guaranteed, non-g guaranteed. So, I’ll have all that and more here on Locked on Nets when I’m back tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater and Lucas Kaplan discuss Cam Thomas’ future with the Nets. They analyze his skill set, whether it warrants a starting role, and how his contract negotiations could foreshadow his fate with the team.

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