Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and Caroline Fenton discuss Cam Thomas signing a qualifying offer to return to the Brooklyn Nets.
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Video Transcript
Some breaking news this morning.
Restricted free agent Cam Thomas is signing a one-year $6 million qualifying offer to return to the Brooklyn Nets.
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Sources tell ESPN the sides were unable to reach a new deal.
So the qualifying offer gives Thomas a full no trade clause and 2026 unrestricted free agency with 10+ cap space teams.
That’s the important part of the news on Yahoo Sports Daily, Caroline Fent and Jason Fitz, that you guys need to know.
Look, at some point, we understand that there’s a group of players that are looking for cash.
Unfortunately, there isn’t the cash out there right now for any of the teams in the NBA because of the midlevel exception.
So what you end up with are players like Cam that are coming off of a really impressive season that in the modern NBA are worth a ton of money, but nobody has the money right there to give them in this moment.
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So, what do you do?
If you’re Cam, you sign this one-year $6 million qualifying offer because even though it’s well below what your market value is today, it gives you opportunity.
Not right now, not this season, but next year.
And when you look at next year, there are going to be over 10 teams with a bunch of money to spend.
This is part of the new NBA and the ever so complicated salary cap structure that we all know is just a pain in the butt to try and figure out and try and trap.
But what we do know is when you’re coming off of a year like Cam came off of.
Where you scored the way he scored, even on a Brooklyn team that’s nowhere near contending for anything, you’ve got to turn around and say, how do I secure my future the most for the long term in this modern age, this is the best way for Cam to do this.
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So the one-year $6 million offer is really just a bridge.
It’s a stopgap.
It’ll be interesting to see what it means for next year because certainly, if Cam continues to perform at the level he’s already performed at.
Man, the value is going to skyrocket and Brooklyn is going to be chasing their tails, trying to figure out what the new valuation for Cam should be.
Most importantly, he gets the opportunity with no trade and unrestricted free agency to make that decision for himself after what he hopes will be an absolute banger of a season.