The Nets have not made an aggressive effort to sign restricted free agent Cam Thomas on a long-term deal, reports Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).
Thomas, who is entering his fifth NBA season, has posted some big offensive numbers the past two seasons. He averaged 22.5 points per game in 66 outings during the 2023/24 season and 24 PPG last season. However, he only made 25 appearances in ’24/25 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 worth roughly the amount of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($14.1MM). Thomas is believed to be seeking a contract of at least $20MM annually.
NBA missing a great chance to solve this by saying “you have to sign this player for 3/$75, too bad so sad, trade them after Dec 15 if you want, lets a get a move on here, you are holding up a lot of other players right now” and then doing a lottery of the 4 hold ups: #1 team gets Giddey, #2 gets Kuminga, #3 gets Grimes #4 gets Thomas. Huge tv ratings going to waste, as all 4 of those teams involved make up huge tv audiences. Another cool thing the NBA could have done in partnership with the union, but nah instead we get this bland nothingness that drags into months, when everyone also is trying to write preseason reviews but cant because the Warriors only have 9 players on their roster right now.
Sign and trade him to Detroit for Ivey and Holland
Why in the world would Detroit do that?
Why in the world would Detroit not do that?
Nobody should be in a hurry to give a inefficient player like Thomas 20+ mil a year
Agreed, which is exactly why it hasn’t happened.
Careful, you say stuff like that he may try and come fight you after he finds Zach…
I rather give Grimes 20 mill than Thomas. I don’t see why Nets don’t make a decent offer to Grimes.
32 mill two yrs.
Trade rookie C-F Danny Wolf to Knicks for Mitch package.
Trade Danny Wolf, Whitehead and picks to Portland for Donovan Clingan
If to New York then offer Wolf for Pacome Dadiet, Dink Pate and the draft rights to James N