Brooklyn Nets guard Cam Thomas is looking for his first big payday in the NBA after spending the past four seasons in the NBA looking to build up his name. Brooklyn and Thomas’ camp have been operating carefully through the various negotiations in Thomas’ restricted free-agency, but it seems that his value in the eyes of the overall market vary wildly at this point in time.

The Athletic’s Fred Katz put together an article in which he tried to determine Thomas’ value in free-agency by surveying 16 members of NBA front-offices (none from the Nets) to get an idea of what contract the former LSU Tiger is most likely to get. NBA insider Jake Fischer recently reported that Brooklyn has offered Thomas no more than two years at the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception ($14.1 million).

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“The one consistency in responses for the 23-year-old Thomas was short-term contracts,” Katz wrote. “For instance, compare his results to those of (Philadelphia 76ers guard Quentin) Grimes. People in this poll were more willing to give Thomas a higher average annual value ($16.7 million for Thomas compared to $14.7 million for Grimes), but they were more comfortable handing Grimes total money ($47.7 million guaranteed for Grimes compared to $42.7 million guaranteed for Thomas).

Thomas, 23, is coming off his best season in the NBA after he averaged 24.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 43.8% from the field and 34.9% from three-point land during the 2024-25 campaign. While Thomas had his most impressive statistical season since coming into the league as the 27th overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, he did so in just 25 games played as he dealt with a troublesome left hamstring for most of the season.

As of this writing, there appears to be a huge gap between what Thomas wants, somewhere around $30 million per season, and what the Nets are willing pay him, around $14 million per year. Fischer did note during his livestream on Bleacher Report that Thomas seems like the most likely restricted free-agent to play next season on the qualifying offer, amounting to $5.99 million for Thomas. However, there’s a good reason for Thomas to decide against that.

One executive suggested, per Katz, that a likely scenario could be that the Nets give Thomas a front-loaded short-term deal that allows Brooklyn to maintain salary-cap flexibility while giving Thomas more options. “It keeps the Nets’ (cap space) alive for next year, gives Cam the money he wants per year in the short term, and he doesn’t lose Bird rights if he’s traded (like he would if he took the qualifying offer),” the executive said, according to Katz.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Report: Nets’ Cam Thomas’ value across the NBA is all over the place