EMERGENCY POD: Cam Thomas Signs Qualifying Offer After Failing To Reach Contract With Brooklyn Nets

EMERGENCY POD: Cam Thomas Signs Qualifying Offer After Failing To Reach Contract With Brooklyn Nets

Coming up, Cam Thomas signs his qualifying offer after failing to reach a contract agreement with the Nets. Is this the end of his time in Brooklyn? I’ll dive into that after this. [Music] You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked Onet. 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 reporter for clutchpoints.com. Thank you for making me your first listen of the day. The show is 100% free on all those great platforms. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is closer than you think, and right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets. Download the Fandal.com app to get started. And on today’s show, it’s an emergency podcast because Cam Thomas just signed his one-year $6 million qualifying offer after failing to reach an agreement on a long-term deal with Brooklyn. I’m going to be joined by an NBA insider to react to the news, detail what it means for both sides, and whether we ultimately feel it is the end of Cam Thomas’ time in Brooklyn. Joining the podcast now, we got hoops hypes Michael Scott and Scott. We have breaking Nets news this morning. Cam Thomas, his free agent stalemate with Brooklyn finally coming to an end as he signed his one-year $6 million qualifying offer according to Shams Chirania. And setting the stage for what went down here. We’ve heard obviously about the negotiations and there being a big gap between the two sides, but Shams reported on the heels of this that Brooklyn’s offer to Thomas included a 2-year $30 million deal with a team option in the second year and also a one-year $9.5 million deal with incentives up to 11 million, but he would have to wave his no trade clause. And with him accepting this one-year $6 million qualifying offer, he will be an unrestricted free agent next summer. also has a no trade clause during this season. So, in the leadup to this, you know, following this and now him finally doing it and taking the qualifying offer, just what was your initial reaction to the news? Well, Eric, I mean, I felt like we were headed this way for a while with Cam Thomas and the Nets just in the sense of I had never heard they were going to offer more than two years. I had heard for a long time two for 28, which was about, you know, pretty much around the mid level. Champs had two for 30. So that uh you know came to fruition as far as like an offer, but the team control on year two was a must for them. They’re in a complete rebuild right now. And so they want the most flexibility possible. What I think is interesting most of all, Eric, is that when you look at last year when we were at media day, I’d asked Cam Thomas, do you feel like you’ve done enough to be a part of the court? And at that time, he said yes. And so he comes in, he plays 25 games this year. He had multiple hamstring injuries, but he scored and he was decently efficient, which is, you know, pretty much what he does. And so then didn’t that didn’t materialize to being a core guy. You look at the draft they had, they took a bunch of players at the guard spot, five total first round picks. Uh, it’s clear they’re kind of shuffling the deck a little bit here and where Cam Thomas is in that pack really is up in the air. I think at this point long term, I wasn’t surprised at all by this news. You know, I thought that it it was always a possibility. Like I thought that, you know, I had questions about whether Cam would actually go there, but I’d said, you know, it’s a risky gamble, but if there’s ever a player who would be willing to gamble on himself and has that level of confidence, it is Cam Thomas. But I’m not surprised, you know, to me this is an admission that the Nets don’t value him as a core piece moving forward and they don’t view him, you know, as a starting caliber player in the rotation. And the reporting had been, you know, at least from from what I’d heard, you know, leading up to this free agency and into it was that his camp came into negotiations with, you know, illusions and comparisons to guys like Jaylen Green, like Jordan Pool, Emanuel Quickley, you know, those young guards who had gotten paid $30 million, you know, in annual salary. And with the Nets being the only team that has cap space this off season, that just really didn’t come to fruition. And I’ve said that, you know, like there’s been this this discourse that the Nets aren’t going to bet against themselves. And even though they’re not offering him a ton, like they don’t have to. They could still value him. But I had pushed back and said that if they’re actually risking him taking the qualifying offer and they’re squeezing him down to the point where that is a legitimate possibility, to me, that is an admission that they do not value him as a core piece moving forward. because the qualifying offer is a bad outcome for both sides in the sense that for Cam, it means it’s a massive gamble. He’s playing on a one-year deal uh at 6 million. He’s passing up, you know, he’s not getting a significant payday. And for the Nets, when a player signs that QO, they usually are gone the following off season. And the Nets also don’t have um they can’t trade him, you know, they can trade him, but he has a no trade clause, so they lose leverage there. It’s just they’re not retaining him as an asset. And that to me is a signal that that really wasn’t too much of a priority to you. Do you feel we’re getting a lot of questions off the heels of this like what does this mean? Why did he do this? Do you feel that this is a signal that this is the end of Cam Thomas’ time with the Nets? Because that has been my read if he takes the qualifying offer that he is going to be gone. I think when you look at it, if the Nets viewed him, like you said, as a long-term guy, you would have did a multi-year deal, whether it was like a three-year deal, four-year deal, something like that. Clearly, they haven’t seen enough to value it more than around the mid level. And so, I took a couple things from this one, Cam Thomas thinking that he was worth more than the mid level, certainly around the league, wasn’t coming to fruition. He’s now banking on that next free agency he will get either the mid-level or more at this point. There are teams that at this moment will have that cap space and availability, but then you go through the trade deadline, teams could absorb contracts and fill up some of that space. It it’s not a lock. A lot of times now people don’t want to get to free agency for guys like Cam Thomas, Jonathan Kaminga, and you know, we’ll have to see what happens with Josh Giddy and um Quentyn Grimes. This is a shift. What we’re seeing right now is a shift. A lot of times people going into restricted free agency just kind of take what they can get. They’re betting on themselves. And in terms of his future or not with Brooklyn, it’s it’s hard for me to say that I’m not as confident that he’s going to be there long term now after this because if you’re Cam Thomas, you’re looking at this saying it yourself, they had a shot to give me a multi-year deal. They didn’t really want to give me anything great. That tells me all I need to know about them. And if you’re Cam Thomas now going into this year, I think the most minutes he’s played the past two years is about 30 31 minutes. I’d be shocked if he’s getting more than that. If anything, they’re going to try to curtail that to either give them the best advantage to keep him longterm on a reasonable number. Um, you know, you don’t you’re not going to let him just like go off completely. I don’t think there’s there’s the possibility that that could happen. Why would you want to let him boost his value that much that then you would lose him possibly for nothing to trade him now the ball is in his court? My push back. I think that that’s a double-edged sword though because it’s going to be interesting. We’ll talk about this in the next segment about what does this mean for Cam’s role this coming season because you just said, you know, why would you let him go off to a point where he’s boosting his value and it’ll be more difficult for you to retain him. I’d also say though if he does go off and he does play really well, maybe they get something for him in a trade even though he has the no trade clause. You know, they could find a deal maybe with the team where, you know, because perceivably he’s going to want to leave, I would think, you know, after this. I don’t even think, like you’re saying, why would they let him boost the value to the point where they want to retain him? I just don’t think that the Nets are in on Cam Thomas. I don’t think that he’s their guy, you know, based off of like let’s just like look at the actions like how many how long have we been going through this with Cam Thomas? Like it was understandable at the beginning of his tenure with the Nets when they didn’t play him because they were looking for more complimentary 3 and D pieces around KD and Kyrie, but then they traded KD and Kyrie. He still didn’t play during the second half of that season when they desperately needed scoring. You know, with Male Bridges and Dimwitty and DFS and Cam Johnson, those guys, he was still glued to the bench. They only really play played him when they absolutely had to. And then, you know, up to this point now, they have a chance to lock him down. And they didn’t do it. Like I I say actions I’ve said actions speak louder than words always with NBA teams and front offices and players. And I’d say in this case, I think we have actions and words that both signal that the Nets just aren’t a Cam Thomas team. I mean, the actions being they didn’t offer him, you know, a significant contract and they let him take the QO. Also, they just made a draft where they made five first round picks, all of which were, you know, high field, pass first guy. Shawn Marks gave us a quote. You were there for that press conference after the draft saying, “We want to play 0.5 second basketball. The ball doesn’t stick. All guys who are bigger, multi-positional defenders can make it tough on defense.” None of that. As soon as I heard that quote, I was like, I think Cam Thomas is gone. because none of it matched the way that Cam Thomas plays or the way that it seems like the Nets want to build. And now they’re at a point where I just think that, you know, this signals the beginning of the end whether he leaves in free agency or whether they get um, you know, whether they get something in a trade for him. But we do have an interesting question about was this a mistake for Cam Thomas to take this to uh take this QO? How will this affect his role this coming season? There’s going to be a lot of questions about what is he with the Nets moving forward. So, we’ll dig into all that after a quick break, but before that, want to tell you about our friends over at FanDuel. The NFL season is almost here, and FanDuel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’tmiss offer. 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Just refreshing the listeners, Brooklyn’s offers were reportedly a two-year $30 million deal with a team option in the second year and a one-year $9.5 million deal with incentives up to 11 million, but he would have to wave his no trade clause. Um, and Cam passes up on those and he chooses less money and keeping his no trade clause and pretty much keeping control of his next team moving forward. So, when you look at Cam Thomas in that decision, do you think that this was a mistake by Cam Thomas in his camp? Do you think that this was a mistake by the Nets? You know, what’s your opinion on the way it shook out and kind of how Thomas’ representation approached this? No, I I I I don’t think it was a mistake by Cam because my thought process is he valued the three he instead of valuing the extra $3.5 million on a one-year offer. You don’t know what the incentives are. He’d rather just have control over his future and where he could end up, which for a young guy in his position entering unrestricted free agency, that matters the most. Um, so that that’s the way I looked at it from there, for sure. And I I also, you know, it’s interesting because I think we need to talk about the two-year deal and the one-year deal separately. I think the one-year deal speaks more to what I was saying before about the Nets maybe, you know, wanting to move him or wanting to get out of the Cam Thomas business because they offered him, I mean, they do need to spend more just to reach the salary floor, but the qualifying offer is one year 6 million. They offered him an extra $3.5 million pretty much almost as like a bribe to wave the no trade clause because they would be able to move him freely then and have a little bit more leverage in negotiation. So, to me, that is a signal that they could be looking to trade him this coming season. And Cam obviously wants to was willing to give up that $3.5 million to have full control over his next team. Because Cam, that’s the biggest takeaway from this is that Cam has full control over what his next team is going to be. He has control over where he gets traded this coming season, and then he’s an unrestricted free agent next summer and can sign wherever he wants. But I think the two-year deal is kind of interesting because if you’re going to trade him though, I feel like you got to put him with somebody else’s salary. Like he doesn’t make enough money in my in my view right now. Like who you going to get back that that makes it kind of worthwhile or even a young guy you want to look at maybe down the line? I think you’re putting him then if you’re going to trade Cam Thomas and you’re the Nets, I think he’s an additional piece to a bigger package. He could be. Yeah. Like you could definitely aggregate him with other contracts. he would obviously have to agree to it, but I also think like this could just be something where they trade him for another expiring for a couple of minimums just to make, you know, salary fillers to make it work and they get like a second round pick for him. And I know that that might sound crazy to some Nets fans because they perceive Cam Thomas as this, you know, maybe star level player or approaching that, but I’ve heard, you’ve probably heard similar things. I’ve heard from people around the league like in any the Nets have never been offered a first round pick or anything significant for him up to this point. And if they had been, I think they would have jumped on it. And that just hasn’t been the case. And the market isn’t there for him. You know, I I you know, if we’re talking, let’s talk about the two-year offer now from the Nets and like whether I think Cam Thomas made a mistake. Financially, I think I think financially Cam Thomas may have made a mistake here or misplayed his hand because if you’re talking about a you know, and financially and what he wants, like financially isn’t always the biggest factor in some of these situations. It’s like, I’m not just going to act like that’s all that Cam Thomas is prioritizing. But from a financial perspective, if the Nets offered him a two-year deal at $15 million annual salary, he took the Qo at 6 million. So, he sacrificed $9 million. That means next off season, he has to get a contract with a starting salary of $24 million to make up the difference of what he lost. Is he going to get a contract starting at $24 million? I’m just I’m not banking on that. No. Yeah. I like I’m just not sold on that. And some people might think he he is going to and Shams put it in his article that you know a lot of the team like the 10 teams in the NBA project to have cap space next summer. And that’s great, but we’ve seen it that cap space and that money dries up real quick in this new CBA. Like guys are signing extensions. We’ll see how many teams actually get into the offseason with cap space. And then from Cam’s perspective, you know, I’m just not sure what the appetite is around the league for him because you look at these other restricted free agents like say Jonathan Kamingo or Josh Giddy even though there was no cap space around the league. We did hear reporting that other teams inquired about signing trades and were willing to give those guys significant contracts. And of in Cam Thomas’ case, there’s been no reporting of any team that’s come to the table with interest. So, you know, what do you feel about his market next summer? because I said if he has to make $24 million next off season to you know next the season after next to make up for that I don’t see that I don’t see that I don’t see all the Net fans on Twitter that were like oh this guy’s a $30 million player or like I remember Dennis Schroeder one time was like this is a max guy I was like what are you smoking like no that that’s in what world the market’s got to be there um the market hasn’t been Look here’s the thing Eric here’s the thing this is what Cam Thomas did okay he got had an offer that wasn’t great and he said, “All right, Sean, hold my beer.” That’s it. And I and I understand why he did it. The Nets had always said the whole time they anticipated he was going to come back. He’s back. It’s not a great situation. I don’t think in terms of like, if you’re Cam Thomas right now, there’s no way this guy is going into camp happy that he got a he had to take a one-year qualifying offer. Let’s start there. All right. So for the guy, you know, that had a So I remember when he was asked, you know, why why don’t you smile? He’s like, well, ain’t nothing funny. So it’s not it’s definitely not funny now. So if you’re Cam Thomas, you’ve got to go into this season changing some narratives. People think you’re just a scorer, even though, you know, he’s had some games where he’s had five plus assists, whatever. He’s got to like try to change a narrative. I think he sees the writing on the wall the same way that you do. Brooklyn probably isn’t it because if it was, they would have came to a longer deal with the new CBA. It’s interesting that these teams, whether it’s Golden State with Kaminga, Chicago with Josh Giddy, Philly with Quenton Grimes, everybody’s debating like how much of a percentage of the cap is a guy worth versus is it worth it to keep this guy or just move on quick, you know? And it’s like look at Chicago after doing like the Pat Williams deal. Now they’re playing hard ball with Josh Giddy who starts for them. It’s like this new CBA has made teams penny pinch more than ever by far and we’re really seeing that. So for Cam and he has to get more than from his perspective he has to get a mid level or more next year or else then this was all for not. Yeah. And even if he gets the midle I mean he’s sacrificing as I said $9 million. I mean, it’s a lot of money to give up for a guy who has, you know, he’s a late first round pick up to this point, has not gotten a big NBA payday. And I said I thought he made a mistake from a financial perspective. I think he’s going to end up losing money from this. But that’s not always the biggest thing for Cam. He might value, you know, he’s he clearly does value controlling his destiny and controlling what his next team is. Maybe he thinks if he can get to a situation that he deems more desirable where he’ll have a more consistent role, he can make up that money in the long term by increasing just the perception of what he is in the NBA. But I would say that he’s going to have to do a lot to, you know, change that perception. And I just recorded an episode yesterday talking about the Nets players with the most to lose or gain this coming season. And I said Cam Thomas, and you just made the point, which was a great point. The ball’s in Cam’s court. I mean, there’s two things up to this point in his career that he hasn’t been able to do. It’s play defense and it’s make his teammates better. The defensive end of the floor, he’s been a glaring negative. I think he had the third worst defensive rating in the NBA among players to play 25 minutes per game last season. And then, you know, from the playmaking perspective, I threw out a bunch of stats in the last pot. I’m not going to go through them again. He just has not been a willing playmaker up to this point in his career. And we’ve seen it, you know, with the market for these guys. I went through it yesterday. You talk about Colin Ston who the Jazz had to attach a second round pick to get Jordan Clarkson. Sure. Keep going. Yeah. Jordan Clarkson, Norman Pal, Anthony Simons. There just is not a market for these smaller score first guards who struggle defensively. It’s just not an archetype that’s being valued in today’s NBA. So Cam, not like not like Jamal Crawford and Lou Williams. The the narrative has shifted. If you don’t shoot, and I’ve had this conversation with executives on team building. If you’re a two guard that doesn’t shoot a high percentage from three as like a three and D kind of guy or you know moves the ball and you’re just a scorer on like average to below average efficiency, those days of those guys getting paid because of this new CBA are done. Yeah. And you made, you know, you made the point about this new CBA causing teams to, you know, penny pinch and count every dollar, you know, more than ever before. And that’s because with the aprons, we effectively have a hard cap nowadays. So that, you know, every dollar is counting so much more. And that’s why you’re seeing I understand Cam Thomas’s frustration because he’s probably coming in, he’s looking at Jaylen Green, who I think he’s as good, you know, a player as up to this point in his career. That guy got 30 million. You look at Jordan Pool, he got 30 million. You look at Emanuel Quickley, all these other guys, whoever you want to say, and he’s going in. Well, here here let me just say one thing. Jaylen Green got paid to be traded. That contract was structured that way to be traded. Uh who’ you mention after him? Jordan Pool. Jordan Pool was coming off a championship. That’s why he got paid. I understand. But quickly quickly Toronto, you know, gave up OGN and OB for him. That contract now looks like a miss. And that that’s that’s completely my point. My point with all of those guys is Jaylen Green got paid to be traded. You talk about pool, he had a valuable run with the Warriors, you know, as a bench piece and a part-time starter quickly, whatever. But you talk about all those guys were paid in the prior CBA and Cam is coming to the table with comparisons to these deals and if I’m the Nets’s front office or any other front office, I’m saying are those deals I want on my books? No. Those are not contracts I want on my books in this new CBA. That’s why I’m skept I’m skeptical about the market. I think from a financial perspective, Cam may have overplayed his hand a little bit here. And I think that there’s also an interesting conversation of how does his affect how does this affect his role this coming season with the Nets and how does that impact what his next contract is going to be. So, we’ll dive into that, what the expectations for Cam are this coming season, how that could affect his market moving forward when we close out Lockdown Nets after a quick break. But before that, we have an important request. Lockdown wants to hear from you. We put together a survey to learn more about our listeners and make your favorite podcasts even better. This is your chance to tell us what you like, what you don’t, and answer questions about our advertising. Go to lockdownpodcast.com/servey to get started. Everyone who completes the survey will be entered for a chance to win one of 10 $100 Amazon gift cards. Again, that’s lockedpodcast.com/servey. You can also find the link in the show notes. Thank you all for helping us out. Coming back from the break, closing out today’s Locked on Nets episode, talking with Hoops Hypes Michael Scott about Cam Thomas’ decision to take the qualifying offer, his inability to reach a long-term agreement or a short-term agreement with the Brooklyn Nets in free agency. and Scott, we were just talking about whether it was a mistake for Cam Thomas to take this and pass up on the Nets’s biggest offer, which was a two-year $30 million deal with a team option in the second year. Cam has full control now. He’ll play the one-year $6 million out. He has a no trade clause. He’ll be an unrestricted free agency this coming season, and he clearly thinks that he’s going to be able to get a deal that makes up some of that and where he gets to a better situation. But, you know, with Cam being that, you know, on this deal, I think it’s a signal of, you know, him probably moving on from the Nets after this season if he’s not traded during the season. And with the Nets being in a rebuilding year, it’s really an interesting position because now, what incentive do they really have to play Cam Thomas and put him in a featured role over some of these other guys, especially these rookie guys that they just drafted? you know, if they’re going to lose him anyway, they may still do it, but there’s definitely less incentive now for them to do that than there was before if he would have taken this two-year $30 million offer. Yeah. I mean, look, you make five first round draft picks, the kids are going to play. So, for Cam, I just think Cam is whatever however many minutes he gets, he’s scoring that many points just about like Michael Porter Jr. is going to lead this team in scoring. Uh I think this is the yolo year for Michael Porter Jr. for Cam. He’s going to try to make it that I think and maybe at the start of the year, maybe the first 10, 15 games, he still gets that opportunity, but eventually the trajectory is going to shift towards the kids and the development because that’s it. And I I think the the only incentive like if you’re asking the question that I just posed like what’s the incentive that the Nets have to play him? The only one that I could think of is that to trade him to trade him. Yeah. Like that’s you play you play him. But that’s better. See that’s why I was saying like the first, you know, 15 games, maybe even 20, you know, a lot of teams do that in the beginning of the year and then it’s like you try to give them their value because because you know long term you’re what you’re going to do with the guy. So they’re like, “All right, play him.” You the team that I the way I see it with Cam is like the Nets are looking at him like even if we play this guy 30 minutes, not going to win a lot of games. So play him, let him put up his stats, maybe we move him, like you said, either as a contributing piece to a bigger package, if you’re moving him just by himself, maybe you’re taking a chance on somebody else that was a former pick and you get uh second round pick or something else back. Maybe you would need a team in my opinion that’s either a lottery team that thinks like he could flourish with them or if you get a team that’s a playoff team that’s desperate for scoring off the bench and you know that hey he’s coming here different role but you’re going to play and you’re going to get a chance to score off the bench. I think for Cam eventually like that’s gonna have to be a little bit of a mind shift for him because this is a guy that was a star like Oill LSU was an elite scorer always used to being the guy and in the NBA it’s a different shift from what teams are asking for him and I and I do think the mental aspect of that for him is going to have to be adjustment. Um, and just around being around these young guys and and and being a teammate, like the body language, everything is going to have to be there. Teams monitor this stuff as well, too. All of it. All the background intel, everything comes into play. And I think it’s interesting. I think you make a great point there about, you know, maybe him getting like a 15, 20 game runway in the beginning of the year with the Nets having the intention of trading him. Look, if I had to make a guess, like I think that’s where this is heading. I think it’s heading towards a situation where he’s going to play in the beginning of the year. They’ll give him his featured role. Maybe he can build up his value somewhat, but I think they end up just trading him for whatever they can midway through the season. And you know, maybe that’s earlier um you know, at that December 15th date like we saw with Dennis Shruder last year, but I think that he’s going to get traded. And I think that with him having the no trade clause, the Nets will be able to work with his representation to find him a trade to a place where he deems desirable. And that might be difficult because up to this point there haven’t been a ton of teams that have shown that much that much interest in him. But if you can bring him in, if you’re a team, like you said, who needs scoring off the bench as a playoff team, like if you can just add him for basically nothing, he’s a guy who could be valuable during a playoff run because we’ve seen like we saw it with Jordan P. Like Jordan P was a valuable piece to that Warriors finals team coming off the bench for a lot of those playoff games. I think Cam would have to shift obviously like you said how he plays but there could be value for him but I think it would be in a much more minuscule role obviously than what we’ve seen but I just you know me just reading this out and just smelling it and reading the tea leaves I think it’s trending towards a trade you got a good sense of smell yeah and the last thing that we’ll touch on is uh you know I I just do think it’s interesting you know for Cam because I I said you know I thought he made a mistake financially and I think that what I just said, you know, I I think he’s going to get to another place because I just don’t think that the Nets have really any incentive to play him the entire season over these other kids that they just drafted or over anybody really, especially if it’s helping them win more games than uh they would just because they lack so much shot creation other places. And if it’s affecting his role for the entirety of the year, that’s going to affect what he’s going to get obviously in his next contract. So, I think a trade earlier in the season when they’re able to makes the most sense because he gets to a fresh situation where maybe that team has more incentive to play him. He obviously can showcase some more things and, you know, that’ll give him an ability to recoup some of the money that he lost, but it’s going to have to be a mindset shift as you said. You know, like when you look at Cam Thomas this coming season, do you think that, you know, we’ll get to a place where he’s, you know, actually willing to re-evaluate and do some of the things that have been the knocks on him? Because up to this point in his career, it seems like he’s really been in that mindset of what you said, like I’ve been the man. I can be a star level guy. Like I asked him late in the year last year after he was ruled out for the rest of the season about how he feels about what he’s done and he said I feel like I’ve been one of the best guards in the NBA at my position when I’ve been given an opportunity. So I think that clearly shows where the mindset has been and I think there might need to be a little bit of a shift. Cam Thomas is going to do what Cam Thomas does. I mean, it’s it’s just just hasn’t been a shift otherwise yet. Why would it be now? I think he’s going to go into the year have a featured role in the beginning and then it’s going to dwindle down. But when he has the ball, it’s built in his DNA. Like, all right, Eric, I don’t know what hospital Cam Thomas was born in, but like when this guy came out of the womb, I think like before they cut the umbilical cord, this guy made a shot on a Fisher Price hoop. You know what I’m saying? like this guy was born to score. It’s what he does. It’s what he does. You know, I I promise you there’s a need for that in the NBA. I just think the evaluation he has and what the league has. You’re like Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, a little different. We We gota We gota We got to get somewhere in the middle there. Yeah. And I I agree. But I think that that takes a certain amount of self-awareness that, you know, I just don’t think Cam has always shown up to this point in his career. So, is he going to be able to re-evaluate and is he willing to listen to some of these things? Because like we had Zack Low earlier in the off season say that the narrative surrounding Cam has been empty calories. And that wasn’t, you know, Zach, I didn’t read that as Zach saying that. I read that as Zach saying, “This is what I’m hearing from other people throughout the NBA.” Correct. from from front office executives. That is the consensus. That’s what Zach said. And Cam Cam comes back and Cam says, “F you and f the consensus.” So, we’re talking about self-awareness and a willingness to re-evaluate. I’m not sure Cam has shown that up at this point in his career. I’m not Pablo Tory as the uh chief investigator, but I wonder if Cam tweeted that or somebody else that maybe has access to his account. But nonetheless, either way, yeah, he certainly he certainly doesn’t agree with the narrative. I’ll say that. But I I’ll say that he’s changed a little bit of the narrative in the sense that like there was some guy like previously in years everybody’s like no shot. Now, at least some people can kind of talk themselves into like, well, you know, if he’s willing to come off the bench and be an elite scorer on like a good team. Yeah, there would be a role. That’s going to be up to Cam mentally down the line. Uh, you know, for the first 15 games, it’s Michael Porter, Cam Thomas, and then after that, it’s uh time to rock the cradle. We’re going with Jagger Demon. We’re going with uh, you know, probably you’ll see some of Ben Sarra. You’re gonna see some of these younger guys, the Drake Powels, Dan, like these guys are gonna play. They’re gonna play. Yeah. So, Trayori as well, like Yeah, that’s where it’s going. That’s why I think a trade, you know, makes the most sense earliest in the year. But I do think it’s interesting because, as you said, their NBA teams are going to be monitoring everything. They monitor body language. They talk to other teams. They talk to people’s scouts throughout the league. And Cam Thomas, I think, is probably coming into this season not pleased with how this played out. He obviously did not want to take a one-year $6 million uh qualifying offer. You know, while he looks at all these other guards throughout the NBA who have been paid. And he’s coming into the beginning of the season. He’s going to have to sit down in media day with all of us. He’s going to have to talk about all this stuff. And he’s been a guy who I think it’s sort of just his affect, but body language I think hasn’t always been great in the past. So, I’m really interested to see, you know, how the dynamic between him and this Nets team and him and this Nets locker room that features five rookie first round picks, like how does that play out in the beginning of the season? Like, what are your expectations? It’s going to be really interesting to monitor combustible gasoline like where I mean like you you think Cam Thomas is here to like you know give Drake Powell like the baby bottle of Gerber food and be like you know this is how you’re going to take my job. No, he’s here to play. He’s here to score and he’s here to get his next deal. That’s going to be his mentality. This is going to be a fascinating fun locker room. Michael Porter Jr. has been completely like unhinged. Like this guy was in Denver. Yeah, he would have some random colds once in a while. This guy’s on a run for the ages. I mean, like I I I don’t know. They’re not gonna win a lot of games, but like the quotes of the year are coming from that Brooklyn locker room at this point. Like there’s gonna be stuff to write about for sure. And you know, I just think of like the are you not entertained meme because that’s what we’re we’re going for that. Like Michael Porter Jr. is gonna unleash. Every time he gets it, it’s going up. I think he said it the other day, too. He was like the second best shooter other than Steph Curry. Yeah. Okay. Jord’s gonna be like, “Brother, go ahead. Shoot. Go ahead.” I love when you try to do the accents. I think you’re Sean March. Well, because Jordy Jordy I remember the you know with the Russ I’m fighting for my life. You got you got him with that. We’ve gone a long way. You had like Avery Johnson back in the day being like well you know we got Brook Lopez. We don’t need Dwight Howard. I you know we got Darren Williams now our point guard. I’m gonna elevate him to a champion. you know, so you then you went from that I’m trying to think Lionel Hollands was just monotone all the way. We’re just getting into Net’s next uh Nets accent history now. That’s what we’re going through. Scotty, you might have another career, man, as a as an imperson NBA impersonator. That could be a another lane that you could potentially get into. I know. But no, man, look, it’s going to be a fun year. It really is. And especially like getting ready for media day, like I can’t wait to hear what Cam Thomas has to say about this. Especially when a year ago, you know, he was saying like, “Yeah, I feel like I’ve done I’ve shown enough to be a member of the core.” Okay. Yeah. It’s going to be interesting. It’s going to be interesting to say the least. And for a writer and a podcaster like myself and, you know, like you covering a tanking and rebuilding team, you know, there’s there’s some storylines that are attached to it. That’s all you can ask for and it’s going to be interesting to see it play out. And Scott, appreciate you as always. If you guys don’t already, follow Scott on Twitter. His handle’s right there. Go check out his stuff on Hoops Hype. Does a really great job. But we got a lot more to cover with Cam Thomas and a lot of other situations. And uh I’m sure Yeah, we’ll circle back and have you back on, man. So, appreciate you taking the time. Anytime, brother. Glad you’re having a good summer. You got a nice tan. Let’s rock and roll in a couple of weeks. I’ll see you soon, brother. That does it for this episode of Locked on Nets. Hope you guys enjoyed the talk with Scott, hitting on everything involving Cam Thomas’s situation and him taking that QO. If you guys enjoyed the show, make sure to subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple Podcast or Spotify. If you have a second, smash that like button. It really helps with the engagement in the algorithm. I appreciate it. Leave a comment. Let me know what you think about Cam Thomas taking the QO. Let me know if you think it’s the end of his time with Brooklyn. If you think either side made a mistake, I want to hear from you on all of it and I’ll try to respond. But we got a lot more coming up with the Nets. Training camp is rapidly approaching, so I’ll have all that and more when I’m back on Monday talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater and Michael Scotto react to Cam Thomas’ decision to sign his qualifying offer after a failed contract negotiation with the Brooklyn Nets. They analyze whether the two sides made a mistake and if this will mark the end of Thomas’ time with the team.

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