On Monday morning, ESPN released a primer<\/a> covering \u201cthe seven biggest names\u201d that are still unsigned and where exactly they stand. Tim Bontemps wrote about Cam Thomas, and in doing so, reiterated Fischer\u2019s belief that Thomas is the \u201cmost likely\u201d restricted free agent to take the one-year, $6 million qualifying offer allowing him to enter unrestricted free agency next season. The noise grows louder.<\/p>\n The 23-year-old scoring guard\u2019s contract value has been difficult to peg since he slipped too late in the first round in 2022. He averaged 24 points last season, but it remains unclear what kinds of offers he is receiving\u2026<\/p>\n If a deal gets done with Brooklyn, expect it to look, at least in structure, like the ones the Nets signed with center Day\u2019Ron Sharpe and forward Ziaire Williams earlier this offseason: one-year deals with team options on the second.<\/p>\n By every indication, Thomas and the Nets remain miles apart, though the team\u2019s side of negotiations is murkier than that of CT and his camp. Amid the stream of Fischer and Bontemps\u2019 reporting, one league source told NetsDaily where Thomas sees his market, using comparable players around the league:<\/p>\n Jalen Green, making $33.3 million per year until 2027-28, when he has a $36 million player optionImmanuel Quickley, making $32.5 million over the next four yearsTyler Herro averaging $32 million over the next two years<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s where he sees his market, if not higher,\u201d said the source.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to understand these reference points for Thomas, the second-youngest player of the four behind Green. A quick snapshot of their career DPM, a nerd-favorite all-in-one metric whose methodology can be explained here<\/a>, suggests these four players are in the same ballpark. The market is not\u2026<\/p>\n This suggests Thomas is searching for an annual salary starting at $30 million, likely closer to $40 million. It\u2019s unclear what Brooklyn has put on the table, but you can be sure it\u2019s not that.<\/p>\n And yet, according to league sources, nothing indicates the Nets are worried about losing Cam Thomas. Armed with plenty of cap space and roster flexibility (of their many training camp invites, only ten are on fully guaranteed contracts), there is no rush to find a deal for CT, just as there wasn\u2019t in July. The deadline to accept a qualifying offer is October 1, though could be extended to March 1. Brooklyn does not seem to believe Thomas would pull that trigger, and almost certainly expects to engage further with Thomas over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n In other words: The Brooklyn Nets don\u2019t appear to be panicking, and though their offers will start at much lower numbers than CT\u2019s, they have all the leverage. Even non-apron teams can only offer Thomas the midlevel exception, which can run for a maximum of four years starting at $14.1 million with 5% annual raises.<\/p>\n Brooklyn, of course, would have the right to match any such offer given Thomas\u2019 status as a restricted free agent, and given Fischer\u2019s previous reporting that they\u2019ve offered the 23-year-old guard a two-year deal around the value of the MLE ($29 million) it seems likely they would do so. But they\u2019re not going to bid against themselves. No team is.<\/p>\n This all feels precarious. The Brooklyn Nets and Cam Thomas, who didn\u2019t exactly have the steadiest partnership over his four-year rookie contract, are worlds apart now that it\u2019s time to determine his value once more. Thomas seems \u2014 for good reason \u2014 frustrated by the situation. He\u2019s fighting just to get half the annual salary some of his counterparts cruised to. (Restricted free agency, if I may editorialize, is truly terrible for the players.)<\/p>\n So, are they headed for the iceberg? Is CAMAGEDDON? Is this becoming an untenable situation, or will the Brooklyn Nets find a contract for CT in the coming weeks, allowing business to continue as usual? The stream of reporting from Fischer and Bontemps, in a typically barren August no less, may suggest an explosive conclusion is coming soon.<\/p>\n But, after talking to various league sources, we must ask if that\u2019s likely, given how much time there is left to negotiate. Whenever Cam Thomas and the Brooklyn Nets return to the negotiating table, they\u2019ll still be far apart. But that doesn\u2019t have to be the end of the story.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/45927318\/nba-free-agents-2025-jonathan-kuminga-russell-westbrook-josh-giddey<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is it time to panic? Is Cam Thomas set to throw in the towel and exercise his qualifying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,49466,49467,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-61262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nets-free-agency","12":"tag-nets-news","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-11-at-3.32.36-PM.png\"\/)
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