How Does Cam Thomas' New Deal Affect Brooklyn Nets

The expected happened this morning for the Brooklyn Nets when Cam Thomas officially signed his qualifying offer sheet worth $6 million. This will make him an unrestricted free agent in 2026.

The agreement came after Thomas and his camp reportedly declined a pair of offers from the Nets: a two-year deal worth $30 million with a team option in the second year or a one-year deal for $9.5 million with up to $11 million in incentives.

Thomas can now leave for another team next offseason and is auditioning for every interested team this season. If he has an All-Star-esque season, then Brooklyn will have little leverage in locking the scoring phenom up.

Playing on the qualifying offer means that Brooklyn has little incentive to make Thomas a central part of the offense unless they plan to re-sign him to a larger contract next offseason. It may be difficult for Thomas to play his way into a big contract for another team, given the Nets' youth movement and signs pointing to Michael Porter Jr. getting the bulk of the offensive workload.

The Signing's Effect on Team Dynamics

Getting this agreement worked out now instead of in a month means that the Nets can have a solid game plan going into training camp. Brooklyn has 19 players on standard contracts, if you include the unofficial signings of Ziaire Williams and Ricky Council IV.

The Nets must reduce their roster to the 15-player limit before the regular season. They will likely do this by waiving players with non-guaranteed contracts, such as Drew Timme, Keon Johnson and Tyrese Martin.

On the court, this now sets up Thomas and Porter Jr. to be a powerful scoring duo, but could also eat into the rookies' development. This is where Brooklyn will have to decide which players to keep around to complement staples of the rebuild and who to sell for more assets.

Williams is the next domino to fall with the Thomas and Day'Ron Sharpe signings. Factoring in the unofficial contract, Brooklyn has just over $17 million in cap space. If the Nets use the room exception to sign Williams and waive those non-guaranteed deals, the room could increase to $25 million.

Brooklyn needs to spend close to $8 million to reach the salary floor, so that likely means more roster shakeups are to come in the weeks leading up to training camp.