Reports have indicated there’s a significant gap in contract negotiations between restricted free agent guard Cam Thomas and the Nets, his incumbent team. As Grant Afseth of FastbreakJournal.com writes, Thomas doesn’t appear to have much leverage, with so few teams having the ability to sign him to an offer sheet that might give Brooklyn pause.
“He’s a talented scorer, but he’s kind of stuck in the middle right now. He wants star money, but a lot of teams see him more like a microwave scorer off the bench,” a veteran scout for a team who made last year’s playoffs told FastbreakJournal.com. “That disparity is what’s keeping him on the market.”
Echoing reporting from Jake Fischer, Afseth also states that Thomas seems “increasingly likely” to sign his $6MM qualifying offer, which would give him an implied no-trade clause and a chance to hit unrestricted free agency in 2026.
Here are a few more free agent items of interest:
- League sources tell Afseth that the Jazz, who could theoretically make a run at a top restricted free agent using their $26.6MM trade exception, don’t appear to be interested in Thomas. However, rival teams believe Utah might be intrigued by another RFA who offers more versatility and defense. “If Utah uses that cap space, it’ll be for someone like Quentin Grimes, someone who can knock down threes and guard multiple positions, but still can create off the dribble,” an Eastern Conference executive told FastbreakJournal.com. “He’s also shown flashes as a scorer and play-maker in Philly. He’s shown he can grow into a more complete player in the right system. That’s a different type of bet than what you’re making on Thomas.” The Jazz wouldn’t be able to complete an offer sheet using a trade exception, but could make a sign-and-trade deal.
- According to Matt George of ABC 10 Sacramento (Twitter link), the Kings and veteran guard Russell Westbrook continue to have mutual interest. However, George has heard that Sacramento would probably need to trade either Devin Carter or Malik Monk to make room in the backcourt for Westbrook, who remains an unrestricted free agent after declining his 2025/26 player option in June. The nine-time All-Star suited up for Denver last season.
- Free agent wing Brandon Boston Jr. is in “advanced talks” with Greek EuroLeague club Panathinaikos, per Spurs reporter Dusty Garza (Twitter link; hat tip to Sportando). The 23-year-old guard/forward is coming off a solid season with New Orleans in which he averaged 10.7 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.3 steals in 23.6 minutes per contest, with all of those figures representing career highs. However, Boston was limited to just 42 games due to an ankle injury, which required surgery in April, and the Pelicans declined their team option on his contract for ’25/26, making him unrestricted.
I really don’t understand Sacremento’s front office… Unless Carter, who we haven’t seen, is bad or Monk is on the decline I wouldn’t play them over Westbrook, no shade on Russ.
Kings front office has no idea how to run a NBA team.
Monk is getting a little older and slowing down and is not as consistent as you would like.
He knows how to play and he has a lot of ability, but he’ll go one for seven or three for 11 too many times at this point.
Nice player off the bench, but Westbrook would be too much of the same stats wise, if you brought him in and kept Monk.
Monk is 27. Literally just starting his prime. Also if age was an issue why would 36 about to be 37 washed up Russ be the answer?
yeah seems like they backed off playing Monk not long after extending him… or at least the rotations seem to be erratic but that comes from changing coaches. I get that Ellis is pretty good but Monk is good as well… they certainly thought so if they committed $78m.
Only reason they want to trade Monk is to create payroll space to sign either Kuminga or Thomas. Westbrook can be had for around $5 million but Kuminga or Thomas will cost $25 million. They wanted to trade deroza but nobody will touch that contract.
DeRozan’s contract is only guaranteed for about 10 mil next season. The contract isn’t the problem. Kings aren’t going to get Kumimga but they’ll be happy to assist him in holding the Warriors hostage.
I would agree with you Siggy, and even go so far as to say that the number 27 is not even the prime yet. Prime is probably 31.
Malik Monk is different. He’s been effective but he’s slowing down or he’s not quite mentally confident as he’s been before or the money has gotten to him and he’s comfortable?
Who knows but you can’t bring in Russell Westbrook if you have Malik Monk coming off the bench.
That’s two guys who do the same thing when you look at the stat sheet at the end of the game.
Wouldn’t you agree with that or you want to keep monk AND sign Russell Westbrook? That’s a weird combo off the bench?
I actually think Monks shooting ability makes him ok to play with Russ off the bench and Devin Carter is an interesting defensive prospect so the trio offers different skillsets together. If anything those 3 fit together better than Schroder, LaVine and Derozan but who knows Sacramento would still find a way to screw it up even if it worked.
Should just do a two-part article on Westbrook… speculate where he may end up this season, and then what new team in 2026, penciling in his (upcoming) stats for this season of 9.8ppg, 4.5 apg, and 4.3 rpg on 43% fga and 82% ft
I’m a big Russ fan but the move wouldn’t make sense for Kings. Carter is younger and unknown, the team is going no where so play him and see what you got. Monk is a fan favorite, probably slightly more efficient than Russ and younger.
Monk isn’t a PG, skillset overlsps with DeRozan and LaVine. He lost his job to Keon Ellis late in the year.
Of course I wouldn’t be rushing to pair Westbrook and DeRozan in 2025 either.
Why are all these people parroting “Thomas doesn’t appear to have much leverage, with so few teams having the ability to sign him to an offer sheet”? And are saying the same about Kuminga, Giddey and Grimes?
Barely anyone was giving offer sheets to RFAs even when teams had plenty of cap space, and under the old CBA. Out of 36 RFAs in the last 5 years, only 2 have received an offer sheet.
Offer sheets have never been a prominent factor in these negotiations, nor are they now. Just because all these writers and journalists found out about their existence, the reality of how the NBA works didn’t change.
Offer sheets don’t happen because teams will typically agree to a sign & trade once it gets to that point.
Well, yes, kind of.
But that’s not the point. The point is that offer sheets don’t happen because teams giving them out know they are getting matched. That’s the gist of it.
Offer sheets have never been a powerful leverage tool for players.
They are a weaker leverage tool now because teams are more cap conscience. There is also less cap room than ever due to veteran + rookie extensions.
Players don’t hit free agency anymore, which means there is less money available for the ones who do. It’s not the same climate as when the Nets gave mammoth sheets to the likes of Otto Porter, Tyler Johnson, and Allen Crabbe.
Exactly. Brooklyn giving out those offer sheets was the most notable example of the usage of that tool. And let us all learn what it is in reality: the teams will always match. Even if the contract is an overpay. And the only thing the team giving out those sheets achieves is harassing the team the player is with, and putting them in a bad financial situation. Just like Brooklyn messed up all those teams. If I remember correctly, all those contracts became problems.
There is zero benefit for teams to give those out. And it also makes a GM giving those out look like a bad apple, and very quickly, they might find themselves in a situation where nobody wants to do business with them.
Nobody is getting a good player by giving him an offer sheet. Nobody would have signed Kuminga, Giddey, Grimes and Thomas by giving them offer sheets. That’s why nobody did it.
However, writers and journalists have suddenly discovered the existence of these contracts, and declared that the players “have no market” because nobody is signing them to these sheets.
“However, writers and journalists have suddenly discovered the existence of these contracts”
No accredited NBA writer has “suddenly discovered” offer sheets.
“and declared that the players “have no market” because nobody is signing them to these sheets.”
You’re upset because they are reporting the truth?
@Peter_Cantrope No one “just discovered” offer sheets and everyone understands they’re a rarity. But the threat or outside possibility of an offer sheet is a useful leverage tool for an agent to wield that’s essentially nonexistent this year.
Wording is important, Luke. I opened the article by Grant Afseth this post leads to. It is titled “Why No One Is Paying Cam Thomas What He Wants in Free Agency”.
Cam Thomas is not a free agent. He’s a restricted free agent, which is a completely different story. So from the get-go, that article is questionable.
It uses phrasing like “lofty contract demands and a league hesitant to meet them”, as if he were a UFA and the league could meet his demands.
When talking about Cam and other RFAs, and mentioning offer sheets, the much more accurate representation would be “An offer sheet is a rare type of contract seldom used in the NBA. (Note: it’s important to not add “under the new CBA” or “this summer”, because offer sheets have always been rare, under the old CBA and in previous summers). So far, nothing is pointing to Cam receiving one.”
Malik Beasley, Juancho Hernangomez, Brandon Ingram, Jakob Poeltl, Dario Saric, Denzel Valentine, Lonzo Ball, John Collins, Josh Hart, Lauri Markkanen, Deandre Ayton, Marvin Bagley, Miles Bridges, Collin Sexton, Anfernee Simons.
Those 15 were RFAs in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Only one was signed to an offer sheet – Ayton.
There are many good players on that list. But there wasn’t so much written about those players being ‘Unwanted’ or ‘Had no market’ or ‘Nobody was willing to meet their demands’ or ‘Teams with cap space showed no interest in these restricted free agents’ or ‘These RFAs were not finding leverage in offer sheets they were hoping to receive’ or ‘The interest in these players is non-existent’ when their situations unfolded.
Out of curiosity, I searched “Lauri Markkanen offer sheet” for August 2021, when he was a RFA. The search returned only 3 pages of matches, with about 15 articles, most of which just outline what an offer sheet is and that Chicago could match, a couple of Twitter and Facebook posts and some videos. The most interesting of all of those searches is an article stating that Charlotte was thinking about signing Lauri to an offer sheet. All in all, not too much.
If you do the same search about Kuminga for this month, it would seem that offer sheets are the biggest thing in the world and are shaping the offseason for RFAs. But it’s just plucking stuff out of thin air.
6 summers, 36 RFAs, and only 2 offer sheets. It was never that big of a deal.
RFAs were always re-signing with their teams, for the most part, and for a fair value. This summer seems different because the teams are not afraid to take a very hard line, even on talented players, and not because offer sheets are not flying around. In the past, teams were more wary of damaging relationships.
Can’t speak to the “unwanted” stuff — I don’t think any current RFA fits that bill and I don’t think we’re writing anything like that. My point is that I don’t think it’s accurate to conflate “signing an offer sheet” and “the ability to sign an offer sheet.”
Signing an offer sheet has become increasingly uncommon because it’s an outcome that sort of leaves everyone unhappy (Ayton is a good example — the Pacers didn’t get the player they wanted, Ayton didn’t get to to go the team he wanted to, and the Suns ended up paying their player more than they would’ve liked).
But generally speaking, the ability and willingness of a rival suitor to theoretically sign a player to an offer sheet helps grease the wheels for restricted free agents — rather than going through with a formal offer sheet, an RFA can use that leverage to lean on his team to either increase its offer or try to work out a sign-and-trade with his new suitor.
IMO, that “offer sheet threat,” for lack of a better term, has helped a lot of RFAs get the deals they wanted (either via sign-and-trade or with his old team) without having to actually sign an offer sheet and go through a process that no one really likes or wants.
When there are no teams with the ability or willingness to make that offer sheet threat, it reduces the RFA’s leverage and improves his own team’s negotiating position. I think that’s a big reason why teams are more willing to take a hard line this summer.
Well, yes, ‘signing an offer sheet’ and ‘the threat of signing one’ are different things, and maybe you’re right that the latter has a bigger effect.
My reaction was sparked more by the quoted article.
I find that original content written here on hooprumors to be of very good quality, the comment section is good, and that’s why I use this website. It’s a good place.
And I like it when, for example, there’s a quote to an article saying that ‘anonymous execs were polled to ask what they believe a fair value of a contract for a player N would be’, but then there’s a comment that the results would be likely different had agents and not execs been polled.
I just felt that some articles, like the one quoted in this post, along with other ones, paint a picture of restricted free agency excessively relying on offer sheets as an explanation.
@Peter_Cantrope
I hear you. And I agree that some writers/sources are painting a slightly misleading picture of these RFA situations. Like the one in that Afseth article who claims that “Utah holds the cards for restricted free agency if they want to.” The Jazz have a big trade exception, not cap room! They can only sign-and-trade at this point, which means they’d require the other team’s cooperation. That doesn’t scream “holds the cards” to me!
Offer sheets means what it says. All FA and RFA receive one IF a team wants them lol. With new CBA no team has money to make offers. And it’s talking about Cam not being worth what he thinks he is worth.
There is no correlation between the CBA iteration, cap space and offer sheets to RFAs, Al. Not in the last 6 years.
Even when the teams had cap space under the old CBA, they were not signing RFAs to offer sheets.
No team has cap space this year. Most teams that could have it. Had to deal with their own players first.
Its not about offers lol. No has tge space. If there was a real FA out there. Teams that can, would make space. These players aren’t even considered starters yet. Only Giddey has gotten real PT. C Thomas is a one way player. Who doesn’t understand what passing the ball means. So if he is not scoring. All he can do is cheer. Cam is about one of worst team players tgere is. Plenty talent but couldn’t care less ……
Westbrook is not the type of player you trade Monk or Carter for smh
Not at this stage of career, Vivek gonna Vivek though.
Where would Westbrook fit well? Grimes would be a good signing for Utah. Kuminga is the one who is going to lose out.
How low is Westbrick willing to go down? Why in the heck would he consider Kings other than to stack up stats? It was ine thing to play for Denver or LA teams, but lowly Kings?? I guess he downt want Jokic to pass his triple double record soon, lol. He needs to go to China..
Why go to China when he can make the same/better money stateside on a vet min? He ain’t McGrady/Marbury, he can still play.
So he can get triple double every night and go home happy.
His family is in CA. Kings are the only CA team for him. Warriors are not signing, already played on both LA and the Lakers blamed him for all the problems.
Hiw abour retiring then?
Because he wants to play. 🤷
Cam Thomas is a good example of why you probably shouldn’t only develop one area of skills in a sport. Okay, you can score? But you can’t defend, you don’t pass, you turn the ball over… but you want star money. Seems like he should be making more what a highly productive sixth man makes. Jordan Clarkson money.
Sixers will resign Grimes. He is owed that much. They can always move him when VJ is ready. VJ is a future star. Utah would be smart to sign Grimes to start at SG. See what Sixers do. 15 mill a yr three yrs TO on last yr.