BK has allowed 110, 125 and now 136 points in its first three games. Against Indiana, the Nets actually led after the first quarter before giving up 112 points over the final 36 minutes.

Fernandez called the performance “just unacceptable” and pointed to pretty much everything: spacing, execution, pick-and-roll communication, effort and guys dropping their heads after mistakes.

“If Cam Thomas had listened to the subsequent 12 minutes — I don't think he did, but I don't know — he would have heard me deep dive into his game and talk about career-high in assists, certain kind of passes he's gotten meaningfully better at. Nic Claxton lobs, little dump-offs, and stuff like that,” Lowe said. “I have said consistently for two years about Cam Thomas: the guy can straight up get buckets, and there is a place for him in the NBA. To me, that place is most likely a sixth-man, scoring burst guy, which is what I said in that 12-minute segment. Nekias Duncan on that segment went and got numbers about how good the Cam Thomas–Claxton pick-and-roll was. And then I talked about how a lot of Cam’s passes are like, ‘I’m-in-jail, last-resort’ passes.

“And what does he look like as an off-ball player? I’m not sure that anyone really knows that yet, or we've seen a lot of evidence of it. My only rebuttal would be: it was a fair [segment]. No one else in national media is going into 200 Cam Thomas pick-and-rolls before a podcast to really dissect it. And I offered my own opinion. He probably still doesn't like my own opinion that he’s probably best as a sixth- or seventh-man scorer, and I’m not sure he has the vision or the mindset. And, frankly, I do think sometimes he plays like a ball hog, and that's ok. Because he can score and he plays on a terrible team. But I don't think anything I said was unfair.”

Source: https://clutchpoints.com/nba/brooklyn-nets/nets-news-zach-lowe-responds-cam-thomas-rant-fair-criticism-defense

"24. Brooklyn Nets

I like this team more than most sane people should, but my cautious optimism will disappear if Michael Porter Jr. gets moved before the February trade deadline. Brooklyn’s best player is currently eligible for an extension; if Nets general manager Sean Marks doesn’t want to make an offer both sides can agree upon, this team will lose one of the league’s top off-ball scorers for nothing. Porter should’ve been an All-Star last season. He was excellent, propping up an undersized, inexperienced roster that didn’t have any competent ball handlers. The fact that the Nets offense was league average with MPJ on the court was a small miracle. Now, other veterans are in town. Julius Randle, warts and all, will look like Wilt Chamberlain when he’s compared to last season’s frontcourt rotation. Moe Wagner and Keon Ellis aren’t the sexiest names but can execute whatever game plan Jordi Fernández draws up every night. Youngsters Mikel Brown Jr. and Egor Demin have the talent to someday form a foundational backcourt, with the latter already showing genuine potential as a knockdown shooter who can make all the right passes out of the pick-and-roll. The frontcourt seems thin (and is), but lineups that feature MPJ, Randle, and Day’Ron Sharpe shouldn’t have an issue rebounding the ball. "

This is an interesting read that also seems to allude to there being a major disconnect with Cam and his value around the league.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25448029-grading-every-teams-2026-nba-offseason-so-far

Congrats to him, that's a great opportunity.

From the article;

"As Brian Lewis explained Saturday:

The upcoming season’s deadline is expected to be Feb. 11.

Due to the quirks of the CBA, that does make this Tuesday worth watching.

If Porter gets an extension — with a raise of 5 percent or more than two additional seasons — then he can’t be traded for six months.

And if the Nets renegotiate his contract, he also can’t be moved for six months.

That means if Marks plans to do either of those things with Porter, he’d either have to do them by Tuesday, otherwise the forward couldn’t be traded until next summer."

I understand there’s a sect of the fanbase that is anti a Giannis trade due to any combo of 1. Giannis beat us in 2021 2. You want to build organically like OKC 3. PTSD of going all in for stars twice in the past 13 years, but the possibility of landing a player of Giannis’s stature in his prime should encourage and excite the fanbase.

Giannis Antetokounmpo may end up in Miami or elsewhere, I don’t even think the Knicks have a chance of landing him now, but Giannis would make the Nets a contender for years to come if we land him.

He’s the perfect player in Jordi’s system. Surround him with shooting and length and athleticism and we may see a parade down Flatbush Avenue.

What does everyone think of this? Do folks think there is much validity to this article essentially saying there are zero teams calling his camp?

My friend lets me use his ESPN+ account so I have access to the whole article. Maybe nobody cares, but thought I’d share some key points. Read as much or little as you want. I highlighted my favorites.

• ”When Philadelphia wouldn't include Mattise Thybulle, Brooklyn insisted on 2 1st-round picks.”

• “From the moment Harden reported to training camp this fall, the Nets knew they could have trouble. Durant arrived in San Diego at a world-class level, fresh off brilliant springtime playoffs and Summer Olympics performances and ready to commit to the Nets and his co-stars with a new extension for the next four years. It was not reciprocal. Harden was heavy and out of shape, and intrigued with the idea of free agency for the first time in his career.”

• “Marks and Tsai spoke to Harden often, but he didn't provide them the counter information he had been feeding to those outside the organization. ”Don't believe any of the rumors," Harden would tell them. "If there's a problem, you'll hear from me directly."

• ”It wasn't lost on teammates that Harden continued his late-night social activities, especially on the Nets' last Western Conference trip this month. His play, often dispassionate and sloppy, culminated with a 4 point performance in a loss to the lowly Sacramento Kings. Maybe Harden could maintain this lifestyle in his 20s, but it wasn't working now.

• “Finally, as Thursday's trade deadline neared, Harden spoke up and told Marks and Tsai that he preferred to play for the Sixers. For weeks, Harden hoped he could avoid the public backlash of asking out of his second franchise in consecutive years, but his passive-aggressiveness hadn't worked in selling the Nets on the idea they had to move him. Over FaceTime calls, Harden told his GM and owner that he wanted a trade to Philadelphia, sources said.”

• “Harden had checked out on the organization, a reality made clearer when Harden informed them that he was returning to Houston on Wednesday to wait out the deadline, sources said.”

SIMMONS QUOTES

• “As the trade was nearing completion just 90 minutes before the deadline Thursday, Simmons spoke to Durant and the Nets' executives who spent the day hunkered in a meeting room to execute the trade. He is not a man of many words, but they could all hear the emotion in his voice as he thanked them for trading for him and believing in him.”

• ”Simmons will take some time to move to Brooklyn and acclimate to his new team. He's planning to continue seeing his therapist and working on his mental health.”

RICH PAUL PITCHED TRADE TO KD?

• “While on business in New York on Jan. 13, Paul met with Durant and Durant's business partner, Rich Kleiman. The conversation transitioned to basketball, and Paul made his case for a Harden-Simmons trade, sources said.

• Durant initially resisted, but within 48 hours, Durant suffered the MCL injury, and his absence became an accelerant to Harden's spiral with the franchise. In the end, no one can influence Durant's decisions on team-building. These Nets are his creation, and the evolution of the roster comes with his input at the forefront. In this case, there was no decision to be made: Harden made it for everyone.”

https://au.sports.yahoo.com/cason-wallace-potential-extension-whether-204159062.html

Would LOVE to get him in a trade down. One of the best young defenders in the league

No NBA team is more desperate for shot creation than the Brooklyn Nets.

The offense’s best chance to fabricate an open look comes possibly from an unpolished 19-year-old, Egor Demin, who Brooklyn selected with the No. 8 pick in last month’s draft. Or maybe it’s from a veteran scorer who feasts on spot-up jumpers but isn’t known for his work off the dribble, Michael Porter Jr. Or it’s potentially from former second-round pick Tyrese Martin, who caught fire in spurts pulling up from long range this past season but was on a two-way contract until February.

As of now, these are the best options to run the Nets’ attack. And yet, the team’s former scoring machine, Cam Thomas, still rests untouched in the wilderness of restricted free agency.

The Athletic recently polled 16 members of NBA front offices (including no one from the Nets), asking what they would consider a “fair” contract for each restricted free agent who remains unsigned: Thomas, the Golden State Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga, the Chicago Bulls’ Josh Giddey and the Philadelphia 76ers’ Quentin Grimes.

The Kuminga, Giddey and Grimes results have already been published. Now, it’s on to Thomas, who inspired the widest range of responses out of anyone in the poll.

On one side are the people who believe that Thomas’ gaudy numbers warrant a payday. The highest average annual value proposed for him was $30 million a year. On the other are those who question if his score-first approach is conducive to winning.

Thomas averaged 24.0 points and improved as both a pick-and-roll ballhandler and facilitator in 2024-25. But he played only 25 games due to a hamstring injury and still has to improve as a passer and defender. His status left even high-ranking front office personnel wondering what his next deal might look like. No matter the response provided, participants in the poll were uncertain if their answer was mainstream or against the grain.

“This is the hardest one,” one executive said.

Another respondent deemed a two-year, $32 million contract for Thomas fair, but provided a caveat.

“I wouldn’t be shocked if this was way lower or higher,” he said. “His scoring is very much ‘eye of the beholder.’”

The one consistency in responses for the 23-year-old Thomas was short-term contracts. For instance, compare his results to those of 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).

Participants mentioned all types of structures for Thomas.

One person suggested a two-year contract but with a team option on the second season. That one was worth $20 million a year. Seven other respondents suggested two-year deals: two contracts were for $20 million total; one was for $28 million; one was for $29.3 million (the exact value of the midlevel exception); one was for $30 million; one was for $32 million; and one was for $50 million.

But that $50 million contract came with an asterisk: not all of it was guaranteed.

The first year pays Thomas $25 million. The second is guaranteed for only $5 million. So Thomas receives either $30 million for one year of service or $50 million for two, handing him a pseudo-expiring contract for the upcoming season or a definite expiring deal for the next one.

A bloated, one-year payment, this executive argued, could be enough to sway Thomas against picking up the qualifying offer, which would pay him $6 million in 2025-26 but allow him to hit unrestricted free agency next summer.

“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.

The Nets have one element going for them in negotiations: Creating leverage is not easy for Thomas. Since he is a restricted free agent, Brooklyn can match any offer sheet he signs with another team to bring him back for the same price. Of course, Thomas would struggle to find a suitor anyway. The only team with enough cap room to make him a meaningful offer is the one he played on last season.

Brooklyn is preparing for another season at the bottom of the standings. The Nets are looking to the future, one reason participants in the poll concentrated on them retaining Thomas for what they would consider a tradeable salary.

The executive who suggested the two-year, $30 million contract focused on keeping the second year, not the first, under the midlevel exception, which projects to be a shade above $15 million in 2026-27. In that case, Thomas could receive $15 million in each season, instead of approximately $14.5 million in Year 1 with a conventional five- or eight-percent raise to follow.

This would allow Brooklyn to trade Thomas into another team’s MLE either next summer or next season without having to match salaries.

Five respondents proposed three-year contracts: one for $48.6 million (with a player option), one for $50 million, one for $51 million and one for $90 million, which was the most total money and the highest average annual value suggested for Thomas.

“I wouldn’t personally give (it to) him … But I justified it as ‘fair’ because if I’m him, I’m saying I’m better than Jalen Green and that’s way less than he got,” said the staffer who suggested the $90 million contract.

Green received a three-year, $105 million extension this past summer after averaging similar scoring numbers on comparable efficiency. Of course, Thomas put up his statistics on a 26-win team. Green has a cleaner health history and was a former No. 2 pick, which arguably should not matter in these negotiations but often does. Thomas was the 27th selection in the same draft.

Three respondents submitted four-year contracts: One for $50 million, one for $60 million and one for $80 million.

In the end, eight of the 16 participants in the poll suggested a three-plus-year contract for Thomas. For perspective, 15 of the 16 proposed deals of at least three years for each of Kuminga, Giddey and Grimes.

“The teams clearly don’t feel like the player or current market dictate longer deals at higher dollars,” one executive who proposed a short-term contract said. “If I am the player (or) agent, then give me the ability to get out a little early, retain my Bird rights, and make an at least respectable salary that I can sell myself on taking.”

There is the issue of archetype, too. Off-guard scoring is not at a premium right now.

The Utah Jazz waived Jordan Clarkson, who then signed a minimum contract, and dumped Collin Sexton without receiving future pieces. Tim Hardaway Jr. signed for the minimum. Gary Trent went for the minimum last summer and barely above it this one. The Miami Heat traded a couple of veterans not on Norman Powell’s level to acquire Powell.

But no team needs a player of this ilk, someone who can get a bucket off the bounce or even occasionally create for a teammate, quite like the Nets do. Thomas is waiting for a contract. Whether he receives a handsome payment will depend on the eye of the beholder.

3 of the Flatbush 5