Brooklyn Nets: Cam Thomas Addresses Whether He’s Improved as a Passer

Cam Thomas finished with seven assists, tying his season-best, in the Brooklyn Nets’ loss to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night. When asked about his development as a passer after the game, the Nets guard demurred.

He said: “No, I’ve been doing that. They’re just making it. That’s how assists are. Pass it to them, my teammates gotta make it and they’re making it, so it goes on the stat sheet as an assist, but I’ve been doing the same thing, playing the same way all year. They’re just making shots and they’re going [up] as my assists.”

Thomas is averaging 3.4 assists this season, which is a career-best for him. His assists average has steadily increased every season since he was drafted — 1.2, 1.4, 2.9 and now 3.4 — and so has his assist percentage. That has gone from 9.7 AST% as a rookie, which represents an estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while on the floor, to 20.5% in his current season. Thomas also tops the team in potential assists, per the NBA, at 6.0. Cameron Johnson and Trendon Watford lag behind at 5.7 and 4.7, respectively.

Nets head coach Jordi Fernández touched on Thomas’ playmaking following Brooklyn’s recent game against the San Antonio Spurs, saying that the team evaluated him based on potential assists, rather than just the objective ones that end up on the box score.

Nic Claxton also had another noteworthy development for the Nets on Thursday assist-wise. He finished with a career-high 10 assists against Golden State, coming two points and one rebound short of a triple-double. Thomas praised his teammate’s playmaking.

“It was a big time just to be able to have [Claxton] at the top of the key playmaking,” he said. “[It] makes it easier on us to get the cuts going, get[s] us into actions quicker because if he's making plays like that, it makes us really hard to guard.”

The Nets fell to 21-41 for the season, dropping their sixth consecutive game, even after leading the Warriors by 22 points. Golden State’s first lead of the game didn’t come until the third quarter, but it seemed like they had put the contest to rest until a final surge from the Nets in the last minute of the game.

That included a three from Thomas with 10 seconds left to bring the Nets within two points, although sending Stephen Curry to the free throw line afterwards with a need for him to miss was always going to be a tough ask for Brooklyn. Thomas addressed the game’s closing stages.

“Always ready for those moments, always chasing those moments,” Thomas said about the end of the game. “I knew [the three] was going in when I shot it, had a good look, and just let it fly and it went in. Still trying to get my legs back under me a little bit, but I feel great. Ready to play, ready to play more, ready to help.”

Thomas scored 23 points on 8-of-18, while Cam Johnson paced the Nets with 26 points. Tyrese Martin also pitched in with 17. This was Thomas’ third game back since returning on Feb. 28 after a near-two month absence courtesy of a left hamstring strain.

Next, the Nets face the Charlotte Hornets on the road on Saturday evening. Thomas is hoping for better defensive execution from his team.

“They just started turning up the pressure, crashing the glass, getting second chance points, just getting good shots,” he said. “Credit to them for executing. but we just gotta execute better down the stretch, know what we're doing defensively and just execute [...] where they make or miss.”

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