The Nets have not made an aggressive effort to sign restricted free agent Cam Thomas on a long-term deal, Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reports.
Thomas, who is entering his fifth NBA season, has posted some big offensive numbers the past two seasons. He averaged 22.5 points in 66 games during the 2023/24 season and 24 points last season. However, he only played 25 games due to persistent hamstring issues.
Thomas is more of a scorer than a shooter and has other holes in his game, which has limited his market in sign-and-trade scenarios. In a recent story from The Athletic, 16 NBA executives were polled regarding current prominent RFAs. Josh Giddey, Jonathan Kuminga and Quentin Grimes were considered more valuable than Thomas. Whereas 15 of the 16 respondents proposed contracts of at least three years for each of Kuminga, Giddey and Grimes, only eight did the same for Thomas.
Fischer writes that Thomas might be the most likely of those RFAs to accept his $5.9MM qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Last month, Fischer reported that Brooklyn had not offered Thomas anything further than a two-year deal with a team option for not much more than the $14.1MM mid-level exception. Thomas is believed to be seeking a contract of at least $20MM annually.
Nobody should be in a hurry to give a inefficient player like Thomas 20+ mil a year