Speaking to Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (subscriber link) prior to Milwaukee’s lopsided loss to New York on Friday, Bucks guard Cam Thomas said his departure from the Nets was “absolutely” because the team didn’t believe in him. However, Thomas said that lack of belief wasn’t exclusive to him.
“That’s just who they are,” Thomas told The Post. “They don’t believe in nobody.”
After failing to find a suitable deal involving Thomas, the Nets waived him shortly after the trade deadline passed on February 5. He had a de facto no-trade clause after signing his $6MM qualifying offer as a restricted free agent last summer.
Thomas’ representatives preferred that outcome so he could pick his next team; he signed a minimum-salary deal that covers the rest of the season with Milwaukee a few days later.
Asked by Bondy why the Nets didn’t believe in him, Thomas said he was more focused on the present than the past.
“I never asked. I don’t even care anymore. I’m on a different team. I don’t want to talk about them much. But that’s what it was. They didn’t believe,” Thomas said. “Always thought — I don’t know. They always thought something was better, I guess. I don’t know. Always chasing something.”
According to Bondy, the former first-round pick said “nothing” came to mind when he was asked to reflect on his four-and-a-half years in Brooklyn.
As Bondy writes, Thomas’ Nets tenure was marked by a significant amount of roster turnover, which may explain his opinion that the team doesn’t believe in anybody. He also played for four different head coaches in Brooklyn.
Thomas, 24, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
understandable take. brooklyn doesnt seem like they have had much of a vision at the top even before the kd kyrie era
They had a pretty good identity with Kenny Atkinson before kd and kyrie. They had a bunch of reclamation projects. Allen was up and coming with levert, dinwiddie and russell as decent assets at the time. Kyrie and KD wanted a different head coach, then harden came and kyrie covid stuff and they never got to play together. Then they traded harden for ben simmons. I think they have been doing pretty good after trading off KD and flipping cam johnson for michael porter. This off-season should probably take shape on what they will look like going forward. They have cap room and a ton of picks. I could see them being decent next year. We will see.
Actually, nobody believed in him. he’s always been a selfish player. The only thing that matters to him is me me me. money is his only motivator he never played defense, never even tried to fit into the team scheme, so that’s why they got rid of him. He Is the most selfish player in the NBA
He never played defense and never played or cared about a team concept s and you’ll see proof of that when he leaves the bucks for more money
Good Riddance
There’s a reason he was released he’s a bad influence on any team
the most selfish player in the NBA.
Take it he got the car in the divorce?
That’s his job as a pro to make money, he ain’t a sad fan that cares about winning, SMH!
perfectly said!!!! he’s extremely selfish, cares about nothing other than how many points he gets. Disrupted the offense, zero defensive effort, and could tell he was a locker room cancer no matter who the coach was. all had a problem with him.
I just want to clear something: do you think he’s the most selfish player in the NBA?
It’s so funny to me how fans create these narratives without any real clues a to what transpire off court. is he a bad defensive player? yeah. nba is full of them. that didn’t mean he’s only in it for the money and doesn’t want to win. hard to be mortgage when your on a team where the organization keys if be known by their actions that they’re playing for positioning to draft kids likely to replace you.
Nets in the forever poverty franchise group with the Wizards, Kings, and Pelicans
Supplemental poverty group: Hornets, Pacers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Wolves, Magic, Suns, Jazz
Also, lots of fail here, despite some being good teams right now: Nuggets, Raptors, Cavs, Mavs, Thunder/Sonics, Blazers, Hawks
Then there’s the Bulls, who have been hot garbage without MJ, but 6 rings with him. So…yeah. 1-man franchise
Celtics, Lakers, Warriors, Spurs are the GOATs of the league. The big 4. The teams who the league should be helping. The reason why we all watch.
“That’s just who they are,” Thomas told The Post. “They don’t believe in nobody.”
No son ……. Nobody believes in YOU. Go get a REAL job …..
Al, what is this? He might be a bad player but he’s 100% correct here. The team has to believe in its players, otherwise why even have them? Its the staff and their job to be professional and communicate things properly and make the players feel like they aren’t pieces of meat.
NBA behind the scenes has gotten really lazy from the coaches side of things. Nets staff probably says nothing to anyone ever. Half days.
Davey he’s not a committed guy. He doesn’t care about playing. He thinks cause he can score at times. That he’s made it. Has no clue or concept of what being a professional athlete takes. He is wgat in the parks we call a nut. He has never worked on his defense or his passing or team ball. He thinks cause he can get 20 in the NBA. He should have a major deal. Want nothing to do with him.
Sure, but the teams should believe in their players!
They probably would have if he believed in defense. He didn’t. So neither did they.
Hahaha
Like Warriors with Wiseman and Kuminga. Cam does it to himself lol. Nets are building a team from scratch. They don’t need this attitude around 19-20 yr olds.
Sounds like the Nets were right to cut him. He’s obviously learned nothing from what was supposed to be a humbling experience to get him to focus on the other aspects of his game. And trashing your previous employer is never a good look, particularly when said employer HAS been giving plenty of young guys a healthy dose of minutes. He just comes across as a fool here and teams will take note of it. He’s simply not a good enough player to get away with not buying into a team/system concept.
And Bondy continues to show why he’s a terrible writer. Absolutely no backbone here, saying it’s maybe because of all the roster turnover lol who are you kidding with that? Then again it’s the NYP so that kind of nonsensical logic might actually work.
I love this take, he’s right. The Nets are a grift, not a basketball team. Just rich upstate idiots throwing money at them behind the scenes with no actual plan or cohesion. Wouldn’t be surprised if the Nets were the ones behind the scenes pushing gambling on the NBA head office.
Cam showing that he will never get signed to more than a min deal.
Ayton and this dude should play together.
Not a fan of Nets running a G-league team in NBA. In today’s NBA 95% of lottery are all 18-19 yr olds. I like Denim don’t really oniw any others. Clowney is good.
Yeah. Definitely looks like he’s going to be good. Maybe Clowney too. Not sure about the rest of them.
Not only is he a one dimensional player, but he’s selfish and doesn’t play tea, basketball as well. He gave us some good moments, and he can sure score the ball like crazy, but he really overvalues his worth in the league. He had every opportunity to prove himself as more than a scorer, and he didn’t.
The Nets are an organization that have just been existing since that Kidd run.
I mean… In fairness, the nets have been “tanking” since the Kyrie, kd, harden thing and have failed to develop a single prospect that I can think of. Cam Thomas definitely overestimated himself, but he’s not wrong here either. Hell, they drafted 5 first rounders to cannibalize each other’s minutes instead of identifying one they actually believed in
It is tough to try to develop all those guys, especially when you don’t have a few veterans to show the way. I’m not sure how good a mentor Porter will be.
Honestly, I personally never believed in Cam Thomas and I still dont so I dont think the Nets are wrong for not paying him. On the contrary, that was super smart from their side.
On top of that, in my opinion these comments make him look really selfish and immature. He could have simply not commented on it and stopped at “I dont want to talk about them, I’m not there anymore”. Sounds he felt like they owed him something when he literally did nothing for that team.
Nets have been a playoff team for 3 of his 5 NBA seasons. last year and this year they were tanking for a high pick in the draft. last year they played too well to get that high pick. So this year they wanted to ensure that high pick and they were playing too well for that for a period of time this year. They have a young team that is very willing to play together and for each other. Thomas refused to play team ball, refused to play defense, refused to play the offense that they were trying to run. He stops the ball and wants ISO all the time. extremely selfish player who was a locker room cancer.
Nets got stuck when Harden and Kyrie forced their way out but got a great deal for KD and then again for Bridges and Johnson. They are going to build through the draft just like OKC, Spurs, Boston, Warriors, etc. Marks has been fantastic in the draft considering he has never picked higher than Demin this past year
KD, Harden, Kyrie, Pierce and Garnett too. See a pattern?
breaking up is messy.
Nets lack a plan. Always have since they traded DLo away…