Nets' Thomas tearing through preseason

Shooting guard Cam Thomas is off to a flying start this preseason, which the Nets will wrap up Friday night in Toronto. AP Photo by Vernon Yuen

With nearly everyone picking Brooklyn to finish at or near the bottom of the NBA standings this coming season, Cam Thomas may just vie for a scoring title.

Or at least a top-10 finish in that category.

The Nets’ shooting guard is already establishing himself as the team’s biggest offensive weapon, something he’s been doing since Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving left our borough in 2023.

And it’s only the preseason.

“I’m still a scorer at heart,” Thomas said during Brooklyn’s two-game China series with the Phoenix Suns last weekend.

No one has thought anything else about Thomas since the Nets took him in the first round of the 2021 NBA Draft.

The 6-foot-3 Louisiana State University alum led the Southeastern Conference in points per game during his only season in Baton Rouge.

He lit up the NBA’s Summer League a couple of times while waiting in the wings to get more run behind Durant and Irving, who were clearly the alpha dogs when Thomas was honing his craft at the professional level.

Now, the 24-year-old Thomas has the extra incentive of knowing he’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer, when any NBA team with salary-cap space can come calling for his services.

Thomas insists that he wanted to sign a long-term deal here in Brooklyn, but he and general manager Sean Marks couldn’t quite agree on a pact.

Instead, Thomas took a reported one-year, $6 million contract with a no-trade clause to help the Nets’ youth movement, one that features the first-ever quintet of first-round picks on an NBA roster.

The “Fab Five” of Egor Dёmin, Drake Powell, Nolan Traore, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf will all be present when Brooklyn opens the season in Charlotte next week.

And so will newly acquired sharp-shooter Michael Porter Jr., and veteran center Nic Claxton. But a healthy share of Brooklyn’s offense will go through Thomas when he’s on the hardwood, both as a scorer and facilitator.

Nets coach Jordi Fernández and high-scoring Cam Thomas are on the same page as Brooklyn prepares to open the 2025-26 campaign in Charlotte next week. AP Photo by Adam Hunger

Thomas scored 38 points on 11-of-24 shooting during the two China games after putting up eight points on a 4-of-7 performance from the field against Hapoel Jerusalem in the exhibition opener at Barclays Center.

He’s never been one to shy away from taking on the offensive load, as evidenced by his three consecutive 40-plus point games as soon as Durant and Irving left town in February 2023.

Thomas has accumulated nine such performances during his career, but is also wary of how teams may try to get the ball out of his hands.

He had a career-best 3.8 assists to go with a team-high 24 points per contest last year, when he was limited to 25 games due to a series of hamstring issues.

Last Friday in China, Thomas had a team-high six assists to go with his game-high 22 points before Brooklyn lost to the Suns in overtime.

Asked if he was putting more emphasis on sharing the ball with teammates, Thomas didn’t bite.

“No, I’m just playing my game,” he said. “Teams are going to double me, so that’s going to lead to assists. When the guys make the shots it’s going to lead to assists. So I’m just going to play my game, and if that requires the assists, then great.”

Potential NBA suitors would no doubt love to see Thomas diversify his game. But his ability to provide instant offense is most attractive, both to the Nets and any other team that may seek his services in 2026-27.

“(Brooklyn coach) Jordi (Fernández) is also very understanding of who I am as a player. He knows I’m a scorer and he knows how I play,” Thomas intimated.

“But it’s also the fine line of being aggressive, get your own shot and then getting guys other shots. We always have that dialogue, and it’s great.”

While Fernández busies himself with teaching five fresh rookies aged 21 and under — three of whom will only be 19 on Opening Night — Thomas can go back to doing what he does best.

He averaged 22.5 points in 61 games, including 51 starts, during his last full campaign in 2023-24.

With the Nets predicted to lose even more games than the 56 they dropped last season en route to missing the postseason for the second straight time, Thomas should have his best scoring season yet, even if the Nets brought in Porter Jr. to complement him on the offensive end.

“So I’m just going to read the game,” he noted. “Some games it might be a lot of assists, and most of the game is going to be a lot of points. It’s just about reading the game and taking what the defense gives me.”

Thomas is just glad that Fernández is on board with how he will approach each possession going forward, whether he’s back in Brooklyn next season or not.

“So this year we have a better understanding,” Thomas revealed.

“He has a better understanding of me, and I have a better understanding of what he wants. So that’s just going to lead to great things for us as a unit. So it’s definitely on the trend up.”

The Nets will wrap up their preseason slate in Toronto on Friday night.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The game will air locally on the YES Network.

The Nets waived Chinese forward Zeng Fanbo following their two-game series in Macao with the Phoenix Suns last weekend. AP Photo by Vernon Yuen

NOTHING BUT NET: The Nets announced Wednesday that they have waived forward Zeng Fanbo, who was signed last month and saw 10 minutes of playing time in his native China last Friday. Brooklyn also inked forward Grant Nelson ahead of this Friday’s exhibition finale in Toronto. The 6-foot-11, 230-pounder is coming off two seasons at the University of Alabama, where he averaged 11.7 points on 50.5 percent shooting, 6.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.4 blocks in 25.5 minutes per contest. The Nets apparently liked what they saw from Nelson during Summer League action in Las Vegas. He put up 6.0 points and pulled down 4.4 boards while appearing in all five games for the Nets.