According to Sam Amick from The Athletic, it was announced that the Nets are taking calls on numerous players on the team. Normally, this wouldn’t spark much debate. The Nets are in the first year of a rebuild and have several high-quality veterans acquired from the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving trades made a few years ago. It makes sense that Dorian Finney-Smith, Cam Johnson, and Dennis Schroder are all available for trade. However, despite being 23 years old and the leading scorer of the Brooklyn Nets, Cam Thomas is also considered available for trade, shocking many Nets fans.
In the offseason, Cam Thomas was one of the few notable players from the 2021 NBA Draft class who didn’t receive a contract extension, alongside Jonathan Kuminga and Josh Giddey. Normally, most teams would covet a young three-level scorer. However, for those who have followed Cam Thomas’ career, it is no surprise that he is on the trade block. Since getting drafted, the Nets have operated strangely, to say the least, regarding Cam Thomas’ role and his potential. In his second season, Thomas became the youngest player in NBA history to have three straight 40-point games since Allen Iverson. Despite his historic stretch, Thomas found himself back on the bench a few short weeks later, even though both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were no longer on the team.
Towards the end of the 2022-23 season, we found out the reason why, as former Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn claimed that even though Thomas had 40 points, they lost the majority of those games, essentially calling Cam Thomas an empty-stats player. This set a narrative that follows Cam Thomas to this very day—that he is a losing player, something that many NBA circles have agreed upon, causing Thomas to become a very controversial player amongst fans.
Given the history of how the Nets have treated Cam Thomas, it’s possible that they do not believe in his potential. One of the biggest weaknesses in Thomas’ game is his lack of passing. One would expect it would be a top priority to develop this aspect of his game. This was the expectation in the 2024-25 season. However, coach Jordi Fernandez has chosen to run the offense through Ben Simmons and Dennis Schroder, utilizing Thomas strictly as a scorer coming off pin-downs, utilizing Simmons as the hub for dribble handoffs and running pick-and-rolls with Dennis Schroder. Fernandez has only played Thomas 10 total minutes without any other guard on the floor (no Simmons, Schroder, Keon Johnson, or Shake Milton). Based on these numbers, it doesn’t appear that the Nets trust Thomas as a passer.
Thomas is up for a contract, if the Nets aren’t interested in paying him and try to lowball him, there’s a chance he may take his qualifying offer and become a 2026 free agent to test the market when teams have more cap space. If the Nets do not believe in his upside or are interested in developing him to be a more well-rounded player, then it may be in the best interest of both parties to move on from each other.