After months of speculation, Cam Thomas and the Brooklyn Nets could not reach an agreement on a new contract so the 23-year-old on Thursday exercised his qualifying offer of $6.0 million making him an unrestricted free agent for the season.
Shams Charania was first with the news…
Shams also noted in his ESPN story that the Nets had not moved significantly from what the team had offered him earlier in he summer, a two year deal worth $30 million with the second year a team option.
Thomas’ representatives, Ron Shade and Alex Saratsis of Octagon, discussed several frameworks of deals with the Nets but ultimately declined Brooklyn’s offers of two years and $30 million with a team option for the second season or one year and $9.5 million with incentives up to $11 million while waiving the no-trade clause, sources said.
Thomas, drafted by the Nets with the 27th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, became a fan favorite with his scoring prowess, famously scoring better than 40 points in three straight games in February 2023.
The move calls into question Thomas’ future with the Nets. He can be traded but he would have to approve the deal. However, Thomas’ market remains uncertain. According to various reports, no NBA club had made him an offer during free agency and no team other than Brooklyn has cap space other than the MLE. However, even that scenario, teams may be reluctant to sign him and jeopardize their own salary cap situation.
Thomas’ position with the Nets was hurt by two issues: 1) he had missed 73 games the past two seasons to hamstring issues and the team repeatedly noted that they were moving to a more “quick decision” mode with less isolation which of course has been Thomas’ forte. Last season, playing 25 games, he averaged 24.0 points on shooting splits of 44/34/88, along with 3.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists. Both his defense and playmaking were seen as weak.
The decision follows an up-and-down summer in which Thomas first blasted Zach Lowe in mid-July after The Ringer reporter spoke this way of Thomas on his his The Dunker Spot podcast that “The consensus on Cam Thomas — if there is one, and he’s got some fans, and he’s got some mega-detractors — but the consensus is kind of like Empty Calories Ball Hog.”
Thomas responded with a series of tweets.
Although an anonymous Nets coach later told Keith Smith of Spotrac that “we love Cam.”
“We think he’s one of the best scoring guards in the league, and an underrated playmaker. We’ll see what happens, but our feelings about Cam as a player and person have never wavered. We love him,” Smith quoted a Nets coach, not further identified told Smith.
But at the same time, Fischer of The Steinline offered increasingly pessimistic analysis of negotiations between the two sides, first saying that the Nets had not “seriously engaged” with Thomas’s representatives, then noted the huge gulf between Sean Marks & co. and Thomas, reporting accurately as it turned out the the Nets didn’t want to give Thomas more than a two-year, MLE-like package while Thomas was looking for more than double and perhaps triple that. As one league source told ND two weeks ago, the sides were “far apart.”
How Thomas will now fit in the Nets future remains uncertain at best. As noted, the two sides can try to arrange a trade or they can revisit his free agency a year from now.
Meanwhile, the decision will add to the Nets salary cap, giving the team better than $20 million.
This story will be updated.
