The Brooklyn Nets have been trying to find their next franchise player since the days of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving playing on the Barclays Center floor. During the 2021 NBA Draft, Brooklyn took a chance on a player in guard Cam Thomas that was one of the best scorers in college basketball during his days at LSU and it seems they got more than they should have.
“Cam Thomas falls squarely into the Jalen Green bucket: a high-volume scorer whose value fluctuates wildly from person to person,” Dan Favale wrote for Bleacher Report when doing a re-draft of the 2021 Draft. The Nets took Thomas with the 27th pick in the draft, but Favale has Thomas going to the Houston Rockets with the 16th overall pick instead of center Alperen Sengun.
“The square-one shot-creation and -making is legitimate. His efficiency isn’t show-stopping, but it’s more than adequate relative to his usage,” Favale continued while speaking on Thomas. “The dearth of rim pressure isn’t ideal, but he draws shooting fouls anyway. Ultimately, this is yet another case of a talented on-ball scorer who doesn’t have the passing chops (improvement and all) to facilitate for others, the size to play at the wing spots, or above all, the type of game you trust can be scaled down to a smaller role.”
Thomas, 24, is in the midst of his fifth season is currently averaging 24.4 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game while shooting 40.8% from the field and 35.6% from three-point land. While Thomas has been one of the better players to come out of the 2021 class, it’s important to know that Thomas’ class is looking elite with players like Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes and the aforementioned Sengun at the top.
Within the 2021 class, Thomas ranks seventh in points per game (15.4), third in free-throw percentage (86.1%), and 18th in assists per game (2.1) while averaging the 15th-most minutes per game (23.4). While Thomas’ situation with the Nets is currently undecided given that he will be an unrestricted free-agent after this season is over, Brooklyn should know that they got more than what they thought they were getting from Thomas based on his draft spot.