With the season rapidly approaching for the Brooklyn Nets we’re continuing our player profiles with Cam Thomas on the docket this time. We’ve covered before how this season will be a make-or-break year for Thomas, and now we’re going to take a deep dive into what to expect for the fourth-year guard as he’s given the keys to the franchise.
What does Cam Thomas bring to the Nets’ lineup?
Thomas has an elite skill in the NBA and that’s filling up the bucket, fast. The LSU product is a true three-level scorer who can make high degree of difficulty shots look easy. This has led some veteran NBA analysts to predict that Thomas will lead the NBA in scoring this season.
Instead of relying on explosiveness or athleticism to score, Thomas has a tremendous feel for the game and a craftiness to free himself from defenders and get to his spots on the floor to get shots up. Scouts have compared him in these areas to players such as J.J. Reddick and James Harden.
Last season, Thomas showed that he can be a consistent threat from downtown shooting a respectable 36.4% on a healthy 6 attempts per game. That ability, especially in the catch-and-shoot game where he shot 43.6%, makes him one of the NBA’s top scoring threats no matter where he is on the floor.
All said, Thomas averaged 22.5 points per game last season despite a well-documented constant shuffling of his role that led to some frustration. Now as the franchise centerpiece, Thomas will be the team’s offensive engine and it’s logical to expect even more from him in his new role.
Where can Thomas improve?
In many ways, this is the season that will determine exactly who Thomas is as a player. Often on bad teams, young players with potential are thrust into roles bigger than their skillsets would normally allow. For Thomas, while he is an elite scorer, his all-around game is a question mark. On good teams, players who can score but not contribute in other ways are limited to bench roles to provide instant offense. The Nets are banking on Thomas being much more than a microwave scorer and as a result, they’re going to look to him to improve in two key areas.
First and foremost, Thomas must improve his playmaking ability for others. While he’s not and never will be a pass-first facilitator like Nets’ legend Jason Kidd or former Nets’ head coach Steve Nash were in their playing days, he’ll need to do more than average a paltry 2.9 assists per game, especially with the ball in his hands so often.
Per Crafted NBA, Thomas’s passer rating last season was 3.6 which ranked in the 40th percentile in the league. That will need to improve, especially if the Nets look to give him some minutes running the point, as some have speculated. Regardless of which backcourt position he occupies, Thomas will need to do a better job getting others involved in order to unlock his potential.
Secondly, Thomas must improve his defense. Based on his athletic profile, he’ll never be a plus defender, but considering his offensive gifts that is okay. What he can’t be is a complete disaster as he was last season when his defensive rating of 119.3 was the second worst on the team amongst Brooklyn’s regulars, and 16th worst in the entire NBA. Becoming simply below-average will go a long way to solidifying his overall value.
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Cam Thomas’s 2024-2025 projected role with the Brooklyn Nets
Simply put, Thomas’s role for the 2024-2025 season is the face of the franchise. While things might not stay that way in future years, the young guard is Brooklyn’s best hope of developing a homegrown superstar, and he will be given every opportunity to realize his potential and arrive at that role.
While anything other than eventual superstar status may be viewed as a disappointment by the fan base, Thomas’s elite scoring ability ensures that he’ll have some role, even if it’s more as a supporting player, once the team is ready to compete.
Look for Thomas to be the team’s starting shooting guard, but don’t be surprised to see him run point for stretches as the team looks to develop his skills and allow him to prove that he has some versatility in his game to prove that he’s the building block that they’re betting on him to be. Whatever happens this year, Thomas is the team’s most important player for the foreseeable future.