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Brooklyn Nets guard Cam Thomas made headlines earlier this week, dropping an F-bomb on the Ringer's Zach Lowe and the narrative that he is a ball hog. Lowe responded to Thomas' clapback on the latest episode of his podcast.
“If Cam Thomas had listened to the subsequent 12 minutes — I don't think he did, but I don't know — he would have heard me deep dive into his game and talk about career-high in assists, certain kind of passes he's gotten meaningfully better at. Nic Claxton lobs, little dump-offs, and stuff like that,” Lowe said. “I have said consistently for two years about Cam Thomas: the guy can straight up get buckets, and there is a place for him in the NBA. To me, that place is most likely a sixth-man, scoring burst guy, which is what I said in that 12-minute segment. Nekias Duncan on that segment went and got numbers about how good the Cam Thomas–Claxton pick-and-roll was. And then I talked about how a lot of Cam’s passes are like, ‘I’m-in-jail, last-resort’ passes.
“And what does he look like as an off-ball player? I’m not sure that anyone really knows that yet, or we've seen a lot of evidence of it. My only rebuttal would be: it was a fair [segment]. No one else in national media is going into 200 Cam Thomas pick-and-rolls before a podcast to really dissect it. And I offered my own opinion. He probably still doesn't like my own opinion that he’s probably best as a sixth- or seventh-man scorer, and I’m not sure he has the vision or the mindset. And, frankly, I do think sometimes he plays like a ball hog, and that's ok. Because he can score and he plays on a terrible team. But I don't think anything I said was unfair.”
While Thomas emerged as the Brooklyn Nets' leading scorer over the last two seasons, he remains one of the NBA's more polarizing players.
Cam Thomas pushes back on 'empty scorer' narrative amid Nets contract negotiations
The “emphy calories, ball hog” narrative has followed Thomas since his LSU days. His lack of playmaking and defense were the reasons he dropped to the No. 27 pick in the 2021 draft, despite leading the nation's freshmen in scoring during the prior season.
Thomas has pushed back on that narrative at several points during his NBA career. His latest rebuttal exemplified his frustrations with the discourse surrounding his game.
His frustrations may also stem from his lack of a contract in restricted free agency.
Thomas is reportedly seeking a contract approaching $30 million annually. However, with the Nets being the NBA's only team with significant cap space, he is likely going to have to settle for a deal worth a fraction of that.
“Restricted free agency sucks, first of all. It sucks that all these guys are stuck in this purgatory,” Lowe said later about Thomas' situation. “It would be the greatest triumph the players' union could ever have to eliminate restricted free agency. It would take such a give back somewhere else that I don't know if they'll ever be able to do it.”
If Thomas is not keen on accepting Brooklyn's best offer, he can sign his one-year, $6 million qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent next offseason.
