Do the Nets want Cam Thomas back?
It’s another day of speculation about Cam Thomas’ future, this one fired by Jake Fischer’s podcast on Bleacher Report.
“Cam Thomas thinks of himself as one of the most elite playmaker scorers in the NBA, and he wants to be compensated as such. But to my understanding, the Brooklyn Nets have not offered Thomas anything more than a two-year deal with a team option on the second year in the $14 [million] AAV range,” Fischer told his listeners. That’s the full MLE, which is available to a half the NBA’s teams.
“At this point, Cam Thomas seems like the most likely to take the qualifying offer of all the notable restricted free agents on the board.”
That appears to be new or is it? Last week, Fischer said the Nets hadn’t really talked yet.
“Sources say that the Nets, in fact, have yet to even significantly engage their own restricted free agent: Scoring guard Cam Thomas,” he wrote, this time for The Steinline, describing the Nets negotiating strategy as “slow roll.”
Still earlier this month, Fischer suggested that Thomas may be looking for up to $30 million a year, much like the three other RFAs Josh Giddey of Chicago, Jonathan Kuminga of Golden State and Quentin Grimes of Philadelphia. Of the three, there only appears to be movement on Kuminga who is, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, being pursued by Sacramento and Phoenix.
So, Brooklyn doesn’t seem to have much urgency at the moment. But that shouldn’t be a surprise. They still have between $22 and $28 million left in cap space and again according to Fischer are “active” in the trade market. In fact, they have not yet officially signed either Day’Ron Sharpe and Ziaire Williams to identical two-year, $12 million contracts. Both players, like Thomas, are RFA’s who have agreed to the deals but Sean Marks & co. are holding off before deciding whether to use either cap space or the $8.8 million room MLE, whichever is more efficient when the time comes. They have a lot of wiggle room. They’re $17.5 million under the salary cap floor.
Is the offer Fischer describes a first foray in negotiations? There seems little doubt the Nets want to keep Thomas. First off, they tendered him a qualifying offer at the deadline for such things at the end of last month — something they didn’t feel they needed to do with Sharpe and Williams. Moreover, in the midst of all this — and Thomas profane Twitter rant against Zach Lowe — a Nets coach told Keith Smith of Spotrac that “We love Cam Thomas … We’ve never wavered.”
The restricted free agent market has been constricted by the CBA and its various aprons and thresholds — and the Nets monopoly on cap space.
“There’s no market for the restricted free agents at all,” said a league decision-maker, adding that is particularly true for Thomas for whom polarizing has become an alternate middle name. “I think that’s the right deal for the Nets.”
So, it’s not personal. It’s business. Plus there’s plenty of time left. No rush. If Thomas wants to play on the qualifying offer, he has until October 1 to make up his mind. It should also be noted that Fischer was expressing his opinion about whether Thomas would simply walk away. Thomas hasn’t suggested he would do that.