Cam Thomas' 2025-26 Season Start is Going to Make Him Desirable Around the NBA

We are three games into the NBA season, and the Brooklyn Nets remain winless. This is not surprising, and losing is likely to continue to come in bunches.

Brooklyn currently holds a -12.3 average score margin through its first three games, good for bottom five in the league. After the 19-point loss against the Charlotte Hornets in the season opener, however, there have been many positive signs for a handful of Nets' players.

24-year-old Cam Thomas has been at the forefront of noticeable player progression among Brooklyn's abundance of youth.

Numbers at a Glance

After dropping 40 points on the San Antonio Spurs, Thomas is averaging 29.3 points per game. He is currently among the top 15 players in the league for points per game.

His performance against the Spurs was the 10th time in his career that he eclipsed the 40-point mark, joining Vince Carter, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant as the only players in Brooklyn history with as many numbers.

Everyone around the NBA knows that Thomas can score, but he's doing it in a different way this season. Thomas is currently averaging 10.7 free throw attempts per game this season. His highest free-throw attempt per game average of his career was 6.0 in the 2024-25 season.

Players who can consistently get to the free-throw line are coveted. Thomas is in some good company with his free throw numbers –– Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Maxey all average double-digit free throw attempts.

Teams will be making calls about the Nets' star scorer because of his ability to generate simple, uncontested points at the charity stripe.

Outside of scoring, there has been a glimpse of playmaking strides from Thomas. He put up nine assists in a 131-124 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers Oct. 24. This was Thomas's second-highest assist total of his career.

Thomas doesn't need to be a primary playmaker, but if he can consistently dish out four to five assists a night, that makes him more unpredictable on the offensive end.

The notion that Thomas is an "empty calories" player is being shut down, and for good reason. Whether or not Brooklyn decides to keep him long-term will most likely depend on the value that they can get in return for the budding star.

He took the qualifying offer, basically betting on himself because he thought he was worth more than the two-year, $30 million contract offer the Nets gave him in the offseason.

Thomas is on track to earn a contract much greater than that offer from a variety of teams, and he controls his destiny with a no-trade clause.