Brooklyn Nets guard Cam Thomas went into his free-agency this summer with the expectation that he would command somewhere around $30 million per season on the open market given his recent production. Unfortunately for Thomas, negotiations between himself and Brooklyn did not go his way and he took his one-year, $6 million qualifying offer (QO). The crew at Gil’s Arena discussed Thomas’ value at this point in the NBA.
“What else are you around? What do people view you as around this league? Som you’re a ball stopper. You don’t play no defense like these things don’t fare well with a whole lot of other people,” former NBA player Kenyon Martin said during an recent episode of the “Gil’s Arena” podcast. What Martin said is similar to what some have said about Thomas and the value of his super-scoring game within the current context of the league.
The general takeaway from the majority of the cast is that Thomas’ game lends itself to teams believing that his ceiling is as a sixth-man, similar to players like Jamal Crawford and Vinnie Johnson of the past. Understandably so, Thomas has pushed back against those assertions given that players that come off the bench tend to have a cap on what they garner on the open market and Thomas doesn’t seem to be accepting that avenue just yet.
Thomas, 24, is coming off a 2024-25 season in which 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. Based off those numbers alone, Thomas had the best season of his four-season career, but the only caveat was that he played in just 25 games as he dealt with a troublesome left hamstring all season.
Based off the reporting available during the summer, it doesn’t seem like teams shied away from giving Thomas a significant pay raise due to any durability concerns, but it looks like Thomas experienced the downside of being a restricted free-agent. Be that as it may, Thomas bet on himself for this season and if everything goes well, he could potentially get himself the huge payday he’s looking for as an unrestricted free-agent next offseason.