Cam Thomas is convinced he should’ve been in the Most Improved Player Award conversation this past season. But his biggest improvements — passing and defense — weren’t just unheralded; they were unseen.
“I should definitely be top three [for Most Improved], going from barely playing in the rotation and having little spurts in the season to going all the way up an 11-point jump to 22 points per game,” the Nets guard said. “Any other year, that goes noticed; but this year, it’s gone unnoticed.
“Obviously, I feel like when you have a jump like that in all aspects, if you watch the games you see how I’m guarded and all the other stuff. I should definitely be in the top three of that conversation. … [But] we probably didn’t win enough games.”
Therein lies the rub.
The Nets’ sad 32-50 season saw Thomas relegated to just seventh for the award.
The 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey won the award. Coby White of the Bulls was second and the Rockets’ Alperen Sengun was third.
The young guard emerged with 22.5 points per game, his quantum leap from just 10.6 points the year prior the biggest in the NBA and largest in franchise history.
Thomas’ 8.5 turnover percentage was surprisingly clean considering the offensive burden he carried.
The only guards in league history with lower percentages and a similar 30 percent usage rate: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2023-24), Tracy McGrady (2002-03), George Gervin (1981-82) and Michael Jordan (four times).
Thomas’ offense has never been in doubt.
The steps he’s needed to take — and will have to keep taking next season — were in his defense and playmaking. If a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, then a player is only as good as his flaws — and those have clearly been his.
“Look, Cam had a heck of a year. I’m not saying anything that anybody didn’t see for themselves,” Nets general manager Sean Marks said. “I really was intrigued about the responsibility Cam took in his own development, in terms of we all knew he could go get a bucket, we all knew the confidence that he plays with, which some of that to be quite honest can’t be taught. So it’s innately who he is and how he’s built.
“But it’s him being a facilitator out there, him playing with others, him making other people look good. And we saw that over the course of the year, taking a little bit more emphasis on the defensive side of the ball, too, scrapping for loose balls, getting in there for defensive rebounds. So I’ve got to give Cam a lot of credit, because his game has developed over the course of last year.”
While Thomas is under contract next season for $4 million, the Nets can give him an extension this summer that would kick in for 2025-26.
But just like the 76ers did with Maxey, there are salary-cap advantages to waiting and re-upping Thomas as a restricted free agent in a year when analyst Yossi Gozlan estimated he could get between $20 million and $25 million annually.
For perspective, Thomas allowed a troublesome 1.727 points per possession against the roll man in pick-and-rolls in 2022-23, labeled as ‘poor’ by Synergy.
His improvement to 1.158 last season bumped him up to ‘average.’
Similarly, Thomas’ playmaking has improved.
After averaging less than 1.4 assists through his first two campaigns, Thomas averaged 2.6 assists this season — including 3.6 after the All-Star break when interim coach Kevin Ollie replaced Jacque Vaughn.
The Nets’ production with Thomas in the pick-and-roll improved from ‘poor’ whenever the defense committed (0.676 PPP in 2022-23) to ‘average’ last season (.904).
“Just knowing that I could be doubled a lot more, coming off screens and stuff, or even in one-on-one situations, reading where the double will come from, seeing where teams double me, and the way teams double me,” Thomas said. “It’ll be reading, watching film and seeing where I can make quicker reads.
“This year, I was going on the fly. Me and Jay [Hernandez, assistant coach,] was going over it. At the same time, I never went through that, so everything was new and learning on the fly. I’ll look at that and keep going over it and find quicker solutions to beat the double.”
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