Brooklyn Nets guard Cam Thomas still remains unsigned as the calendar turns to August and this is despite entering the offseason as one of the better free-agents on the market. Brooklyn and Thomas’ camp are reportedly taking their time when it comes to the negotiations between both sides, but it seems like Thomas has one option that could allow him to try free-agency next year.
“Cam Thomas and the Nets are reportedly very far apart in negotiations. This has led to speculation that he may accept his qualifying offer,” NBA cap expert Yossi Gozlan wrote in his “Third Apron” Substack. Thomas is one of four notable restricted free-agents that have yet to be signed due to the lack of teams with cap space to spend at this point in time and Thomas may not accept taking a lower contract value.
“He has until October 1 to accept it or let it expire,” Gozlan continued while explaining some of the basics of what would happen if Thomas chose to go the route of taking his $5.99 million qualifying offer (QO). “The Nets would have the option to extend it if they’d like, but he’d remain a restricted free agent if they don’t.”
Thomas, 23, is coming off the best season of his four-year career as he averaged 24.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 43.8% from the field and 34.9% from three-point land. While Thomas was projected to earn somewhere between $20 million and $30 million per season in free-agency, the lack of teams not having the appropriate cap space to offer him such a deal has given the Nets all of the leverage in negotiations.
At this point, Thomas has two options outside of taking two-year, $14.1 million per season deal that Brooklyn has reportedly offered him: Accept his QO, play out the 2025-26 season and become a free agent next summer or negotiate a sign-and-trade with another team. As of now, there hasn’t been any reporting of a potential sign-and-trade happening for Thomas so it seems like he either takes Brooklyn’s offer or accepts the QO.