One pressing question faced the Brooklyn Nets when guard Cam Thomas returned from an nine-game absence early this season: Would he start?
Thomas had averaged 28.7 points per game, the ninth-most in the NBA, on 48.3 percent shooting before being sidelined by an ankle sprain. He came off the bench in his first game back. However, head coach Jacque Vaughn moved the 23-year-old back into the starting unit for Brooklyn's last five games, sliding Dorian Finney-Smith to the bench.
Thomas has struggled to regain his early-season efficiency since the move, averaging 17.4 points on 34.4 percent shooting over his last five appearances. Following Wednesday's win over the Phoenix Suns, the LSU product admitted he has yet to find his groove offensively in Brooklyn's starting unit.
“I'm just still trying to find my rhythm and timing,” Thomas said. “It’s only my fourth game back so I’m really not in a rhythm like how I was before, but I feel like I’m getting there slowly but surely. So just continuing to play, staying true, and believing in my work.”
Thomas led the Nets with 24 points and four assists on 6-of-17 shooting against Phoenix. Despite his early struggles, he scored 10 fourth-quarter points, including a pair of clutch free-throws with three seconds remaining to put the game away.
“That's the name of the game. Sometimes you're hot. Sometimes you're not,” Cam Johnson said of Thomas' shooting slump. “You got to ride the waves and figure out how to turn it around when you kind of fall out of it. But everybody that's played on that court, everybody's playing in the league understands that that's part of it.”
“That's what comes with it, and you just have to continue to work on your game, stay in the gym, stay level-headed, and just believe in yourself.”
Cam Thomas is entrenched as Nets starter
Vaughn reaffirmed his commitment to Thomas in the starting lineup before the Phoenix win. The coach offered praise for the third-year Net's willingness to accept coaching postgame.
“I love this game. It teaches you so many valuable lessons. I looked down at the box score at one point. He was three for ten. And I’m still gonna believe in what he can do and how he can impact the game,” he said. “He continues to learn and accept the coaching and wanna do well for his teammates… He is learning how to start and play both ends of the floor.”
“At some point tonight he’s gotta guard Kevin [Durant] or Devin [Booker] or [Bradley] Beal. So that doesn't happen when you’re coming off the bench. You can hide a little bit and we can scheme a little bit. And so that challenge on both ends of the floor he’s accepting and learning. The offensive piece is learning how to play with Mikal [Bridges], learning how to play with CJ and with Spencer [Dinwiddie], who’s our point guard and initiates our offense. And so how do you get yourself involved with the game without going outside of the flow and then still being productive? And still taking efficient shots?
“That balance right there, that’s what he’s facing,” Vaughn continued. “And then the consistency of a young player doing it every night. It’s a great challenge for him.”
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