Can Cam Thomas find some playing time for Nets vs. 76ers in playoff series?
Brooklyn Nets guard Cam Thomas against the Philadelphia 76ers at Barclays Center on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Nets will be underdogs in their first-round playoff series against the 76ers, so naturally they will be looking for contributions wherever they can get them.
So, what about Cam Thomas?
Sure, his 46 points in the regular-season finale on Sunday came against 76ers backups, rendering the meaning of his point total unclear.
But in early February he had three straight games with at least 40 points, so this was not an anomaly.
Since then, Thomas has fallen out of the primary rotation. His last two months before Sunday were a mishmash peppered with “did not play” and barely played games.
In the four games leading up to Sunday, he did not play in one of them, then scored zero, two and zero points in the others.
The 21-year-old guard clearly has scoring skills, but coach Jacque Vaughn made it clear in blunt terms after Sunday’s 134-105 loss to Philadelphia that Thomas has to show more.
Those three 40-point games in February? The Nets lost two of them and were only plus-5 in scoring during his time on the court. On Sunday, Thomas was minus-20 and the Nets lost by 29. He shot 16-for-29 and had one assist.
Asked to name the biggest challenge of getting Thomas more involved, Vaughn said, “I wish the score was 134 Brooklyn Nets, 105 Philadelphia. I think that part helps. The goal is you win as a team.
“So 46 points is great, but we ended up losing by [almost] 30. So you’ve got to attach those together. How do you marry the 29 shots or the 30 shots to being a productive teammate where you might not get that amount of shots in a typical game? That’s the question.
“So can you harness and take that ability and be able to do it in a short amount of time in a more efficient time and in a setting that it benefits the entire team? That’s the challenge.”
When asked earlier if anything Thomas did on Sunday changed the coach’s mind about his role, Vaughn said, “I think he’s done it before with the amount of shots, with the amount of minutes, the ability to create at any time on the shot clock for the amount of possessions.”
Thomas had 46 points with 8:22 left, one short of his career high, but in the final minutes, the 76ers began double-teaming him aggressively in an apparent attempt to keep him under 50.
Thomas said he was more amused than annoyed by the move and pointed at the 76ers’ bench, laughing, when he heard an order for Paul Reed to trap him on defense.
But Sunday’s game was a mostly irrelevant undercard match. The main event starts Saturday in Philadelphia.
Thomas does not appear likely to play a big part in it. Asked Sunday if he thought he might have earned some postseason playing time, he said, “I don’t know. Hopefully, but that’s out of my control. That’s their decision. I don’t know.”
For now, he has tried to stay ready when called upon. What keeps him going?
“Just me loving the game, respecting the game, just me loving to hoop at all times,” he said. “Whenever you’ve got a chance to hoop, everybody tells you you’re going to play a lot, you’re going to play a good amount. You lock in and try to like give your best, because you don’t want to miss any opportunities. [They are] very limited around here. So just my love for the game really keeps me going.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
