ANALYSIS: Brooklyn Nets Cam Thomas Trade May Be IMMINENT | Will Rookie Guards DOMINATE Minutes?

ANALYSIS: Brooklyn Nets Cam Thomas Trade May Be IMMINENT | Will Rookie Guards DOMINATE Minutes?

Coming up, will the Nets trade Cam Thomas to open up minutes for their rookie guard trio? Is the team’s defense destined for disaster? Will more rookies enter the starting lineup? I’ll answer all those fan questions and more right now. [Music] You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked On network. Your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked On Nets podcast right here on the Lockdown 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. This show is 100% free on all those great platforms. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. And on today’s show, it’s Fan Take Friday. I took questions and takes from listeners on a wide range of subjects following Brooklyn’s season opening loss in Charlotte on Wednesday night. So, rolling on through these, got a few Cam Thomas questions. I’m going to lump them together because they’re all of a similar sentiment. First one, will MPJ and Cam Thomas be traded before the new year or closer to the trade deadline so we can get the rookies to play significant minutes warts and all? Next question says the aim is to tank. There’s no point of having Cam Thomas who doesn’t play team ball just catches and shoots. They should trade him and play Demen and Saraf as starters. Sarra is point guard and Deon is forward who can pass and create. And then one more Cam Thomas one. The rookies look good. Let Cam Thomas walk. He is not the guy. So clearly there is some frustration among several fans with how Cam Thomas performed during this regular season opener and nobody on the Nets really played well save for maybe the centers like German had his moments but the majority of the Nets players during that game did not play well. But I will say and I said this on my podcast yesterday that I feel that Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. are you know the heads of the snake of this team. They’re viewed as the top players on this team at least offensively. And then, you know, whether you’re a good offensive player like and that’s your bag, whatever you do on the other end of the floor, that’s still going to permeate to the rest of the team. So, I think that it was pretty clear. I rewatched the film and you know, Cam and MPJ on the defensive end of the floor, it was it was abysmal. Like, it’s particularly in transition. You know, the Nets were outscored 18-0 in transition in the first half. And on those transition buckets for Charlotte, there were just guys on the Nets jogging back it seems like every possession. and Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. were involved in a lot of those plays. They were in the mix there just jogging back on defense. So that obviously does not bode well. But focusing on Cam Thomas, like we obviously had this conversation entering the season after the failed contract negotiation. Are his Brooklyn days numbered? I’ve been on the stance that I think that as soon as the Nets risked Cam taking that QO, refused to sign him to anything close to what he wanted. I thought that that was a signal that his Nets days were numbered because, you know, just historically that’s how this goes. You look at guys who have resigned, you know, resigned with their incumbent team after playing a full year on the Qo. The only one is Spencer Haw back in 2012, and he resigned on like a small two-year deal. It wasn’t the kind of exorbitant deal that Cam Thomas is reportedly looking for. So, so just from that perspective, historically, the odds aren’t in, you know, favor of Cam Thomas returning to the Nets. And then you just have, you know, what the Nets have treated this as historically. They don’t seem like a team that has been enamored with Cam Thomas’ skill set just historically. But even besides that, like just look at the actions and like look at what the market has been around the NBA. Like I’ve said that, you know, there’s been a lot of people who have criticized camp for being a ball hog and all those things and say that he’s just this shoots first guy. He’s empty calories and all that. And like that may be like there’s some credence to that. some of it’s overblown, but for me, I’ve been focusing more on the defensive end of the floor and saying that Cam Thomas’ limitations there are going to preclude the Nets, maybe other teams, I can’t speak for all the other teams, but from the Nets perspectives, I don’t think that they’re going to pay the kind of money that Cam Thomas wants to a player with his defensive limitations. And I said coming into this year, plenty of people have asked me, is there any chance that the Nets and Cam Thomas can bridge this gap in contract negotiations? And I’ve said no. I think that, you know, when it’s done, when something goes down the way that it did this summer with these two sides, I think that it’s just over. But I I did say that if they were to bridge the gap or if there were to be a chance that they could bridge the gap, Cam was going to have to show a lot more effort and engagement on the defensive end of the floor, he was going to have to improve, you know, some things in terms of playmaking and shot and um shot selection. But I was focusing mostly on the defensive end of the floor because that’s an area where Cam has, frankly, just been terrible throughout his career. And obviously there’s physical physical limitations, but some of it was also just his engagement and his lack of effort and his lack of want to and him needing to change that if he was going to convince this Nets team to come off of their stance somewhat. And this first game, it’s one game, I’m not going to label it as everything, but it was a really bad first game in that regard. And it was really more of the same and honestly even worse than what we saw last year from Cam Thomas in terms of the defensive want to the defensive effort jogging back in transition not being engaged not battling on the boards regardless of whether you’re giving up a size advantage. It just it was not a good game in that regard. And obviously the offense was bad. He shot two for 11 or two for nine or whatever it was. I don’t know exactly but that like he’s going to have his offensive explosion nights. Like that’s that’s not even what I’m focused on. the defense, the effort was not there. And I also think just like if you look at the scheme that Jordi Fernandez is playing, I think you saw I mean everybody looked like they were out of place last night, but or on Wednesday night, but you just saw the limitations of Cam Thomas in this scheme because the Nets are playing a scheme that’s very blitzheavy. It’s very trapheavy. You know, show two to the ball and rotate on the back end. The Nets blitzed the most screens in the NBA last season. They blitzed, I think, 14% of ball screens. That was the highest in the NBA since 2021. And when you do that, you need guys who can cover a lot of ground. You need guys who can switch onto different matchups. And you need guys who are lengthy, rangy, versatile. And Cam Thomas does not fit that description from multiple multiple regards in terms of the effort it takes to do that, the engagement, and the focus and the want to and all that. He doesn’t show that. And then also physically, he’s undersized and he’s going to be giving up a lot of size and doesn’t have that kind of range to get to the matchups. And even if he does get there, he’s giving up a lot of size. So, in both of those regards, I think that he’s just not a fit for this defensive scheme. He’s not a fit for many defensive schemes, but particularly what Jordy Fernandez is trying to do. And I think you see that in the way that the Nets drafted. I mean, they drafted three rookie guards who are sizable and have, you know, perceivably would have some versatility based on that size. Jayor Gilman 6’9, 6’10 wingspan. Ben Saraf 6’6, 6’8 wingspan. Uh Nolan Troy 6’4, 6’8 wingspan. Obviously, Drake Pal, we know what he does. But like Shawn Mark said it after the draft, rangy, multi-positional, versatile defenders. That’s where the league is going. And that is what is going to fit this Jordy Fernandez scheme. and Cam Thomas is just the antithesis of that and I’ve said that since those comments from Shawn Marks came about. So I don’t see this as a situation where Cam Thomas is going to be a fit and I feel like I’ve said continuously I feel like it’s going to culminate in a trade at, you know, at or before the deadline because I just don’t see this as a situation where Cam’s going to be looking around and I think he’s going to be saying I’m not a fit here. They don’t want me here long term. the Nets are probably looking and saying we want to open up minutes for our rookies and if we can get any kind of an asset for Cam, we should given he’s destined for restricted unrestricted free agency. So, I think these two sides could work together and I think that they could look to try to get something done. And in that case, I think that Cam might be able to get to a situation where maybe he can actually be on a competitive team and, you know, he’ll have to scale back his role, but he could play a role where he could maybe show something on a winning team in a different environment with a change of scenery that could bolster his market more than anything that he’s going to do with this Nets team that is tanking. So, that’s how I see that. Quick on MPJ because, you know, one of the questions did touch on whether he could be traded. I just I I’m not sure like how realistic that is because MPJ is on a very exorbitant contract. He’s making 37 million this year and I’ve continuously said that if he’s if he’s going to get traded. I think it will be in, you know, the next in next season when he’s an expiring contract and maybe he rehabilitates his value where a team’s willing to take that on and maybe they’ll give up some kind of asset. I don’t know how likely that is. He might just be a guy who’s used to help a team clear cap space or a guy who’s used as a salary filler in a star trade. But I think I temper expectations on the likelihood of MPJ getting traded this season because of what his contract is. Next question. Do you think the Nets have ways with the current roster to improve their defense? Yeah, I mean I think they do and they frankly the way is they just have to give some kind of effort. Like the effort on Wednesday was just abysmal. Like I I rewatched the full game tape um today and it was I I don’t think it’s a stretch to say it’s one of the worst defensive films I’ve ever watched from a single game. The Nets I would say the entire game did not know what they were doing defensively. And obviously some of that is a poor reflection of Jordy Fernandez and some of that is on the players. I would say the transition I posted a video on Twitter. You guys check it out on my profile. The transition transition defense was just effort. These guys were jogging back every possession. The communication was abysmal. That’s one thing. And then in the half court, the Nets were doing this, you know, kind of sometimes switching, sometimes blitzing, sometimes just showing two to the ball at half court. And they looked like they had no idea how to rotate on the back end. And they looked like they frankly weren’t just they just weren’t giving that much effort. So I think that, you know, we will see this defense get better because it frankly it can’t be worse than it was during that game. But I think that the effort is going to be a big part of And then I think Jordi Fernandez certainly has some communication things to hash out. And I talked about this with Lucas Kaplan with, you know, some of the limitations the Nets have in in terms of point of attack defense, in terms of the lack of athleticism of some of their wings in terms of having Michael Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas sharing the floor with rookies and those not the most athletic wings a lot of the time. Like it’s going to be really difficult for Jordi Fernandez to play this scheme. But then again, like the Nets are trying to tank. So, you know, how much does he care? How much is he just going to try to drill this down and get the guys who are going to be here for the ne the team’s next iteration com comfortable with this kind of stuff? That remains to be determined, but I think we’ll see better effort and if it continues to look like this, I think we’ll see Jordy maybe go to a little bit of a scheme change. Last question before a break on opening night, Jordy gave 13 different players onc court minutes. Do you expect this to be the strategy throughout the season? I understand five rookies all need minutes, but in my opinion, when you play more than 10 players a game, no one really benefits. I don’t expect that to be the strategy all season. I think Jordy was pretty clear when he said that the Nets are going to go 10 deep or, you know, he was gonna have a 10-man rotation for a lot of the year. And I do think that that was the plan. It seemed like in this game that Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. were giving such abysmal defensive effort that Jordy kind of benched them in the third quarter. Both those guys only played two or three minutes in the third quarter. And the Nets actually went on their best run of the game with both of those guys on the bench. And I think that the plan probably wasn’t for the Nets to go 13 deep in this one. I probably say that Drake Pal and Nolan Troy probably weren’t intended to get into the lineup, but it might have been they were just playing so bad that Jordi Fernandez got frustrated and put those guys in. And then I’d also say that eventually the G-League is going to start up in not that long. And once it does, I would expect several of the rookies, namely, you know, Nolan Troy, Drake Pal, uh Danny Wolf, to probably get minutes in the G-League early in the year. So after that, like as we get closer to the trade deadline, I think that there will be moves involving Cam Thomas, maybe Nick Claxton, maybe somehow MPJ or Terrence Man, but I think that there will be that and there’ll also be inner uh injuries that I think will open up minutes for these rookie guys. So I’d expect the Nets to go 10 deep, but I would also expect the rookies to get minutes as the year progresses. We got a lot more questions, mostly about the rookies, also about some other veteran moves that the Nets could make. So we’ll get into all that when I continue the show after a quick break. But before that, want to tell you about our friends over at Robin Hood. Your ambition just met its match with Robin Hood. You play for the win, not just on game day, every day. Locking in on every opening, beating your PR, beating it again. Channel that drive into your money. Robin Hood puts you in control of your money. Trade stocks and ETFs, options, futures, and crypto all in one platform. You can now build and execute your own trades from a desktop with Robin Hood’s legend advanced tools. Or take advantage of the new Robin Hood strategies with a tailored portfolio managed by a team of experts. You can expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. 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Like, you know, Jaor is just a completely different level of, you know, court mapper, processor, and all of that stuff. And frankly, like even ball handler, he’s not a good ball handler, but Dariq Whitehead, you know, he did some things in high school, but then at Duke when he was hampered by injuries, he was just a catch andoot guy on the wing. So, like I understand why you would say that because Dariq is a guy who kind of devolved into just being like this catch and shoot guy and he couldn’t do anything off the dribble, but I would say that a lot of that was his athleticism just being shot. I think Jagor has doesn’t have those same kind of limitations because he hasn’t dealt with the same injuries. And I’d also say that Jaor’s 6’9, Dariq was 6’5 or 6’6. You have a glaring size difference there. And you also have, you know, just the difference in the quality they bring to the table in terms of Jaor’s playmaking, his court mapping, some of those things. So, I think they’re just a completely different level of prospect. And I say, you know, I understand why you could be worried about Jaor’s shot diet just being like so three-poin heavy and him not getting into the paint. But I do think there’s ways with better screening with, you know, different sets maybe that they can use Jagor at different positions where they can scheme some openings and get him downhill and let his playmaking gift shine and hopefully some of the self-creation ball handling stuff improves, you know, at a rate that Dariq Whitehead, it seemed like it just couldn’t because that’s his athleticism was so shot. So that’s what I would say for that. Next question. Ben Saraf looks like he could lead all rookies in assisted turnover. Jaor’s a great catch and shoot threat and is long enough to disrupt passing lanes. Can they share the back court together or is it simply one or the other running point? I think that they could definitely share the back court together or maybe even just, you know, Jaor be on the wing. Like I don’t know if Jaor is the three or the two. It’s like kind of positionless at this point, but they could definitely share the floor together. I mean, you see Jagor’s looks like a really high level catch and shoot guy right now. Obviously, extremely small sample size. And Ben looks like a pretty gifted ball handler right now. And obviously like they’re both going to have some turnovers. Like Ben needs to get better as a three-point shooter. Jagor needs to get better as a ball handler, but I definitely think that they can share the floor together. I don’t know how much they are going to early in the season as the year progresses. I think the Nets will want to get looks at Jagor playing that wing spot. And you know, we talked there was like there was obviously the conversation of why would the Nets go with this draft strategy, draft all these guys with these overlapping skill sets. And Shawn Marks and Jordy Fernandez both made it pretty clear that they think that these guys can share the floor together. So, I would expect at some point during the season for them to do that and for the Nets to get a look at how it looks. Next question. When will Danny Wolf get any reps? To be determined. I mean, unfortunately, Danny injured his ankle during shootound on Wednesday. So, he was ruled out uh for that game for that game in Charlotte and he was also ruled out for Friday’s game against the Cavaliers. So, haven’t gotten a chance to talk to Jordy yet or anybody there and see what the significance of this injury is once the team gets back to Brooklyn. I will have more on that and I’ll update it on Clutch Points and on here, but we’ll see. I think it depends on, you know, I think Danny could get some reps early in the year if uh he is healthy. Then once the G-League starts, I would expect the Nets to get him some G-League reps. I think Jordy kind of telegraphed that with some things that he said to me, but he’s going to get NBA reps throughout the season. Have no question about that. Next question. And how many of the rookies will crack the starting lineup by the end of the year? I would say, you know, barring like some major injuries, I’d say max probably two. Like I don’t see the Net starting three rookies. Like I think Jagor Gilman once he’s healthy is going to be the starter. And then I would probably say, you know, Ben Saraf and Drake Pal are candidates that maybe they could get into the starting lineup depending on how some other things go, depending on if there’s some injuries. But I would expect the Nets to have to have some of these veterans in the starting lineup just because you, you know, with the lack of the lack of uh experience of these Nets ball handlers, I’m not sure that you can have multiple of these guys sharing the starting lineup. I’m not sure that that’s going to be a situation to put them in the best position for success or the guys around them. So, I’d say two max, but I probably like I’d be pretty surprised if there’s more than one rookie in the starting lineup. Last question before a break. We see both Houston and Dallas start these giant lineups where they essentially play point guard by committee. Could the Nets do something like that? Clax and Zire and MPJ and Clowny and Wolf. Point Wolf release the Wolf. Um I don’t see that that lineup. I mean Clax, Zire, MPJ, Clowny and Wolf. That’s just I know like Danny can handle the ball but that is very limited ball handling and shot creation. I mean, in that lineup, you’re talking about really one guy who can handle the ball at a decent level, and that player is 6’11 and Danny Wolf. So, I wouldn’t see that, but I think that the Nets could go bigger in some lineups. Like, maybe not to that extreme, but could they put up put out a lineup where you have, you know, Claxton at center, Wolf at power forward, MPJ at uh the wing, and then like Terrence Man and Jaor or Drake Pal and Jaor. like I could see that and you have a ton of length and versatility and I think that the Nets will want to get looks at how that how those types of lineups look. So I could see that but the lineup that you laid out I think there’s just a little a lot less ball handling than you would need to operate functionally there. We got a few more questions about some potential trades also about the 2026 draft class and a few more on what to expect from the rookies. So we’ll get to all that when I close out Lockdown Nets after a quick break. 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He had a ton of trade value on his two-year $16 million deal. Should the Nets sell high on Dron Sharp and not make the same mistake twice? Also opens up a clear spot for Wolfe to play. Uh, I mean, that’s an interesting question. I think it would ultimately come down to the Nets’s evaluation of if you’re saying that you have Clax and you have Dron and then you have Danny who you think is going to be a center, you probably need to move off of one of those Clax or Dron. So which one of them which one of them do they see more potential in? Because Nick’s on this contract right now, but if Dron keeps playing the way that he’s playing, it’s not, you know, inconceivable that he will get a contract at least maybe approaching what Nick is on right now. So I think it really comes down to the evaluation. I know Dron’s uh cheaper and younger right now, so maybe he would be the guy that they stick with. But you say like Claxton’s contract is not desirable and like it’s not ultra desirable. Like I don’t think any team’s moving a premium asset, but it is a contract that is descending into the final two years. Like after this season, he’s going to be making 13.6% 6% of the salary cap and then in the final year around 11% of the salary cap and that is not a steep price for teams to pay for a starting center in this modern NBA. So, you know, if Claxton plays well this season, he had a pretty good like debut or regular season opener. Like I think he looked pretty decent in that game. Had some good drives to the rim. The whole defense was just a mess. You can’t really pin that on him. But I would say that, you know, if he plays well, I think there are teams that would be open to trading for that contract certainly because it is descending. Like I don’t think it’s unbelievable value or anything, but I also don’t think it’s like a negative value deal. So I think moving off Claxton is definitely a possibility. It’s just going to come down to what kind of evaluation do the Nets have on Nick versus Dron and which one of those guys would they like to move forward with and see more potential in and know as a starting center. and also obviously is going to depend on the price points, but I would say I would lean towards Nick probably being the guy who gets traded just because of age. And that doesn’t mean that Dron’s necessarily going to be a starting center. It just means that the Nets might have confidence that they could either fill that spot with Dron or with another guy that they find somewhere else or with Danny Wolf. We’ll see what all of them become. Next question. Boozer, Deansa, or Peterson? So, this is I guess asking me who I prefer in that 2026 draft class. And honestly, like I haven’t had enough time to dig deep into the tape. I did see a lot of these guys, you know, what they put on tape in high school, not like extensively, just looking at highlights. I saw what uh Demansa and Boozer did in those exhibition games uh with Duke and BYU and they looked unbelievable. I would say that the draft people that I’ve spoken to have Darren Peterson as a pretty clear number one and a player who is just at his size, you know, 6’5 with his fluidity, with his shot making, with kind of the natural skills he has in terms of being able to get downhill, finish in the lane and around the rim, also the shooting potential. I think there’s just a lot there that scouts find extremely enticing. Also passing stuff that he can do. But all three of those guys, all three of these guys look like really highle prospects. But Darren Peterson seems like he is the one right now. Next question. Do you think the Nets underestimate the importance of having a veteran, a vocal one like Cam Johnson, Jeff Green, Udonis Hasslam to guide the young players on and off the court? No. Like I I don’t think they do that. I mean, I think they had veterans last year like Cam Johnson and some of these guys and they moved off of him as they should. Like I don’t think that that veteran leadership was enough to prevent you from moving off a guy like Cam Johnson after a career best season like that. You look at this year’s team, I think a lot of people would argue Michael Porter Jr. probably not the best uh vet or vocal guy that you want around rookies, but um they do have guys like Terrence man and even MPJ like I would say that he does seem like a good guy that people like in terms of like his dynamic in the locker room. I think what he put on the court during that game on Wednesday, that was an extremely bad example. So maybe from that perspective, the Nets underestimated it, but I think it’s going to get better. And I also think that they’re probably hoping that guys like Terrence man, guys like Nick Claxton, some of these guys can step up and be a, you know, be a vet. But at the end of the day, like a lot of these rookies, I think, are, you know, have a good head on them, especially like the ones that the Nets drafted seem like they have good heads on their shoulders. And a lot of these guys are probably not going to be here for the long haul. So, I think that the priority right now is that draft pick and developing these rookies. And I think the coaching staff is going to play a big part in that. I hope that some of these vets can step up and do their part as well. Last few questions, how strong could the Nets finish next year? Mainly since we are not looking to tank. So, that being, you know, this guy asking about the Nets having uh owing that 2027 first round pick swap to Houston. They’re obviously going to try to put their foot on the gas and be competitive. I can’t really answer this question right now. There’s so many factors. I think that if the Nets spike a high pick and they get one of those guys, maybe they make a few moves around the margins. I could see them maybe getting to a place where they’re a playin team. I could also see them swinging a trade for a star and being a playoff team. We’re just too far out. We’ll have to see how it plays out. Next question. What is Noah Clowney? Uh Noah Clowney right now, you know, he didn’t play well in this game, but it is one it’s one regular season game. It’s way too early to make a determination. But right now, Noah Clowney is a forward who is a decent three-point shooter it seems like and maybe like an average defender depending on how you use him who is extremely limited in all other assets of the game offensively and even defensively there’s some question marks. So, he’s going to have to answer a lot of that stuff before you can really take, you know, start taking him seriously as a long-term piece. Last question. If we look like this all year and don’t end up with a top five pick, can we storm the NBA league offices? Um, you can go for it. I mean, like, you you can do whatever you want. I I think the Nets are going to look bad for the rest of the year. I think that they are going to probably have top three lottery odds if I had to guess. And I think that, you know, hopefully the ping-pong balls fall their way. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. Like, it hasn’t gone well for a lot of those teams at the top in the recent years. But you still got to play the percentages. And who knows, like Joe Sai helped bring the net bring the NBA back to China. Maybe the Nets got some good juju working in their favor in the league office. But we’ll see how that all plays out. But that’s it. It’s all I have for today’s lockdown nets episode this fan take Friday. Once again, thank you to all of you who who participate, submit questions, submit takes, allow me to keep continuing these mailbag episodes. I really enjoy them. But if you do not already, make sure to subscribe to Lockdown Nets on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple podcast or Spotify. If you have a second right now and you enjoy the content, smash that like button, leave a comment, leave a fivestar review. Anything you can do to engage is much appreciated. But we got the Nets home opener on Friday versus the Cleveland Cavaliers, and they’re going to have a back-toback on Sunday and Monday. So, I’ll have more coverage of all that when I’m back on Monday talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater answers questions from Brooklyn Nets fans about Cam Thomas’ future, how the team will utilize its rookies, whether Jordi Fernandez can fix his group’s defense, and more.

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