Scoring has always been Cam Thomas’ superpower. This season, however, Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez wanted to see the fourth-year guard evolve as a playmaker.
The 23-year-old has embraced Fernandez’s challenge, averaging a career-best 3.4 assists this season, but obviously still has ways to go to maximize his potential in that regard.
For context, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Damian Lillard and Jalen Brunson — three of the best scoring guards in the game — average 6.2, 7.2 and 7.4 assists a night, respectively. All three are All-Stars. All three have mastered the art of manipulating defenses based on the attention their scoring demands. And that’s the level Thomas should aspire to reach.
“CT is a weapon. Everybody has to pay attention,” Fernandez said.
In Thomas’ defense, it’s hard to develop when you can’t stay on the court. He’s been limited to just 22 games this season because of hamstring injuries, but has shown steady improvement as a distributor when healthy. He had at least six assists in four appearances between Nov. 4 and Jan. 2, including a season-high seven-assist performance against Philadelphia on Nov. 22.
“I’ve been [finding my teammates]. They’re just making it,” Thomas said following Thursday’s 121-119 loss to Golden State. “That’s how assists are. If I pass it to them, they have to 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 and playing the same way all year. So, they’re just making shots and they’re going as my assists.”
In his last two appearances against San Antonio and Golden State, Thomas logged six and seven assists, respectively, while averaging 23.5 points on 43.2/31.6/90 splits — while sharing backcourt minutes with D’Angelo Russell. He’s turned the ball over twice over that span.
“What I really liked about his game tonight was the six assists to one turnover,” Fernandez said after Brooklyn’s 127-113 road loss to San Antonio on Tuesday. “He had more potential assists, hockey assists, that’s how we value him, not just the assists, but the potential ones. I’m pretty sure if it gets close to 10 or over 10 is very good, that’s the CT we want to see.”
Nic Claxton seems to be coming into his own as a playmaker, too. The veteran center finished with a career-high 10 assists in Thursday’s loss, five of which came in the first quarter alone.
“Big time,” Thomas said. “Just to be able to have him at the top of the key playmaking, he makes it easier on us to get the cuts going, get us into actions quicker. If he’s making plays like that, he makes us really hard to guard. That makes it easier on him. Most guys, like they were doing, were trying to send two to me, he’s wide open. I think him developing his playmaking, he really helps us as a unit. Definitely need him to do more of it. It was great to see.”