Cam Thomas bets on himself as Nets guard signals final run in Brooklyn

Cam Thomas will spend the 2025-26 season in Brooklyn on a one-year qualifying offer, a move that virtually guarantees unrestricted free agency next summer. The Nets guard rejected longer deals and said he wants to maintain control of his own future rather than sign a contract he doesn’t fully embrace. He accepted the $5.99 million qualifying offer that carries an implicit no-trade clause after reports that the Nets had offered a two-year, $30 million deal with a team option for the second year or a one-year, $9.5 million pact with incentives up to $11 million while waiving the no-trade clause.

“I'd rather control my situation. As a player, that's the type of control you want in your situation; so I just wanted to keep that aspect of it,” Thomas said. “I'm just going to finish the year, and we’ll see what happens.”

Thomas stressed that this year is about play and preparation, not a referendum on his career. Negotiations, he said, have been frustrating and he pushed back on narratives that he said mischaracterize his game. The Ringer’s Zach Lowe described a broad consensus that labeled him an “empty calories ball hog,” a characterization Thomas publicly pushed back against on social media.

“It gets frustrating, whether you want to admit it or not, that people keep trying to spread these narratives and lies about you that just isn’t true without actually looking at the facts and watching our games,” Thomas said. “I'm pretty sure not many people watched the Nets last year that were actually commenting.”

The Nets’ leadership defends Thomas’s approach. General manager Sean Marks said the move is part of the business and that Thomas has handled the process with maturity. “He’s approached this in a very mature manner. It’s part of the business. It’s maybe the ugly part of the business,” Marks said. “Both sides understand what’s at stake. But I also don’t want to jump to conclusions. Just because a common ground couldn’t be met this summer doesn’t mean he’s not a Net in the future or throughout the season.”

Thomas carried a heavy scoring load last season, averaging a team-high 24.0 points across 25 games before hamstring injuries cost him significant time. That injury absence helped limit the Nets’ market for him, even as his production remained a talking point as the season wore on. Nets executives say the goal this season is for him to stay healthy and prove he can be depended on as a central piece when healthy. “Cam coming off an injury-plagued season last season obviously didn’t help him. He wants to come out and prove that he can be [fit], he can stay robust and healthy. And I think the work that we’ve seen so far this summer would allude to just that,” Marks said.

For Thomas, the season ahead is about maximizing his value in real time while preserving flexibility. He reiterated that the year will be about his game first and that the rest will unfold after the season concludes. “I'm just here to play my game and keep doing what I was doing,” he said. “Enjoying my fifth year with the team that drafted me and just enjoying the moment and being where my feet are.”

The question now is whether Brooklyn will be the place he finishes the year or simply a stop on the way to unrestricted free agency. The only precedent for a player serving a full season on a qualifying offer and then re-signing long term is Spencer Hawes in 2012, a reminder that the path Thomas has chosen is atypical but not unprecedented. The risk, of course, is that the Nets and Thomas could part ways after this season, sending him into a market that will determine his next contract.

In the meantime, the Nets will navigate the season with a high-profile decision looming over Thomas and the franchise. The 2025-26 campaign is expected to test not only his durability but also the team’s strategy around a player who has proven he can score at a high level when available, while also making clear that the future remains uncertain.